Vintage Painting Ideas For Beginners

When it comes to decorating your home, they say that the classics will never get old, and we think vintage painting represents classic décor the best in these modern times. In this article, we give you some vintage painting ideas for beginners.

When it comes to home décor, you’re going to hear a lot of people say that you can’t beat the classics. However, decorations can be expensive, which is why we think homemade crafts also make for great décor. One of the best decorations we enjoy is vintage paintings.

While you can find vintage decorations in thrift stores and garage sales, we think a lot of people would enjoy being able to create their versions of vintage paintings. When we see vintage paintings, the first thing that comes to mind is nautical paintings. 

However, we understand that not a lot of people would enjoy the nautical-themed décor, so we want to give you a list of vintage painting ideas for beginners.  With that, we hope you find the best inspiration from our list because we want you to find the right décor for your space.

Aside from that, painting your décor is great if you want to tell your friends how you get nifty decorations for your home. We have also enjoyed being able to give our finished paintings to friends and family. 

Let us know what you think of these painting ideas and if you try them out.

How To Give Your Artwork A More Vintage Vibe

Before we get into vintage painting ideas for beginners, here are some tips that you can use to create vintage-looking pictures. Let us know what you think of these tips and if you’re going to use them to come up with some vintage painting ideas. Here are the best tips to create retro-looking paintings:

1. Do your research: Different themes call for different color schemes which are why research is important if you’re going for a specific period or even a general feeling with the image. 
    
2. Use accurate colors: When it comes to depicting a period, it’s always good to research the prominent colors used in that season because it would help you have a more accurate representation of your inspiration piece. 
    
3. Focus on the details: While this may seem tedious, sometimes the best way to make a painting look antique is to add details to your painting. This is best done with a small detail brush. 
   
   
4. Dry your paintings in the sun: One of the best ways we can make a painting look antique is by making it look aged and the surest way to age a painting is by drying it in the sun to make the colors look a little more faded. 
    
5. Add texture to your painting: Last but not least, we think that the best way to make your painting look vintage is by adding texture. If it means having to use thicker layers of paint, then you may want to do so to add texture to the canvas.

Now that we’ve covered how to make your paintings look more vintage, we hope that it helps you with executing this list of vintage painting ideas for beginners. 

1. Nautical-themed paintings: There’s something about paintings of cliff sides by the sea that remind us of old times; maybe it’s the wildness in the sea, or maybe it’s the idea of Poe and Annabelle by the sea that makes us think of olden times. Either way, we think that nautical paintings would be great antique paintings. 
    
2. Map art: Since the use of physical maps isn’t as common now with smartphones and GPS devices, there are a lot of vintage maps available that you can incorporate in your painting. You can find a lot of them in flea markets. 
   
   
3. Vintage botany paintings: Another great vintage painting idea is painting plants. You should focus more on thin lines and less on color because when people illustrated botany subjects, it was often done with minimal shading. 
   
   
4. Antique portraits: If you’re on social media, you know that some platforms have provided a filter that will show you what you look like as an oil painting. We think this is a great opportunity for you to paint a self-portrait of yourself as an antique painting. 
    
5. 70’s style paintings: The ’70s were known for their groovy patterns and distinct colors, and we think it makes for great decorations in your living room because they are a statement piece to display. 
   
   

Key Takeaways

When it comes to making your decorations, we know that you can’t go wrong with the classics. We love antique pieces because they provide you with conversation starters, and you can even brag that you made them. Aside from that, we think that painting your décor can give you something to do when you need to take your mind off work.

We hope that you like our list of vintage painting ideas for beginners because we think there’s a lot of potential in these paintings. Let us know what you think of these ideas and if you’re going to try them.