What is the best type of paints for a beginner?  

is there any way that you can get to the library? or get someone to go for you? i think that is your best bet...they have books that will help a beginning artist such as yourself...

My advice would be to simply experiment with the one that looks like it is the most fun. Of course the sketching is the least messy.

We had a woman in a drawing class that had very shaky hands. (Her hands could not even stay still in her lap) Ironically enough, she had one of the best drawings in the class. She was very patient with herself and when she was shading she used her shaky hands to her advantage and it was amazing. She left a huge impression on me. I will never forget her, though I never knew her name.

Two websites to help you get going are:
http://www.wetcanvas.com
http://www.conceptart.org

There is tons of information that should keep you busy for a very long time.

That sounds great! I'd just look and drool for awhile! I used to paint with oils, but they take so long to dry and are very hard to clean up after--especially as you are on bed rest. I'd put the oils aside for later. Watercolor is fun to do, but can also be messy in bed. I'd opt for the colored pencils first, or the watercolor pencils. I have several fancy coloring books of angels, period costumes and geometric designs that I like to color with pencils and markers. For painting, I really like acrylics. You can use a lot of water and make washed strokes like watercolor, or you can pile the paint on like you're doing oil. It dries fast and cleans up easy, so it's the best of the paints as far as I'm concerned. I never used pastels, so can't help you there. They always reminded me of chalk--which I am alergic to!
Go to Google and type in "how to" watercolor, draw, paint, etc. and you should come up with all kinds of sites. Good luck and have fun! P.S. be sure and post some pics for us when you do them!

perhaps you should try to sketch with pencil and paper or colored pencils and paper before using paint?
:)


the easiest paint to work with for beginners is acrylic paints.

I started painting by doing one stroke. It taught me brush strokes, loading the brush and good control. I have since went into oils and do landscapes and portraits. Which of course led me to drawing, so I could get my portraits on the canvas with out tracing.
You just have to start. You will find as you dabble around which you enjoy.

I still teach one stroke classes 3X a week. I love it all.

Check your PBS stations for the one stroke tv series by Donna Dewberry.

When I started, I used pastels a lot. They were easy to shade with and I did not have to make a mess of them. I also used colored pencils. What you need is something that is easy to clean up, nothing that needs washing, or anything that causes stains, but something when you are finished that you can close in a case or with the papers, you can roll up.

you know what if you are real bad at shading, as you are a beginner than you should first start with just copying some drawn image, to draw exactly like that, and then when ya become real good on that then begin with your own imagination and as far as colouring, painting is advised the first step id to parctice shading so you could get motivated in your imagination and create a master work!