scared to start painting  

I don't paint too much, but my suggestion to you is to just start. It might be difficult to get your ideas onto paper, but if you don't start you will not be able to improve.

I think you should start with some basic still life painting and try to work on getting shading and demensions right.

You could also try to copy a work that someone else has painted. This way, you are trying to mirror what they have done and you can get some practice with all the new paints and deciding which paint brush is best for your paintings.

Best of luck with your artwork. Maybe you could post some pics of your work on here when you are finished.

Hi no need to scare and all for this...first just start draw your vision in your mind and try many times which you feel came better select that and start your imagination painting on it your requirement of color and product you feel better because starting you will make mistakes latter you will learn from your faults yar...keep ging..:)

Oh wow, I feel the exact same way as an artist sometimes. I'm going to tell you to follow the advice of the person above and start painting. You can't keep being afraid to fail, and someone once told me you can't ruin art (that's debatable though).

Hi tuckerbabies! I think the best thing to do is just do it. Here's my second painting and I done right after a trip to the beach..keep in mind it's my second and I was still learning. It's definately a trial and error thing.

Actually I had some of the same thoughts before I started painting. Some years ago my ex-boyfriend bought me some canvasses, some paintbrushes and some acrylics, but I didn't start painting till half year later. I couldn't get started, and I was afraid that it wouldn't turn out the way I wanted. Then one day I just started, and my paintings weren't very good, but I kept on trying and I kept on experimenting in order to find my own style.

I haven't kept the first painting that I made, I threw it away, because I thought that it was horrible. I kind of wish that I had kept it, because it could have been interesting to see the difference between my first paintings and the my current paintings (5 years later).

My first paintings were abstract paintings and today some of my paintings are also abstract, but now I combine the abstracts paintings with other kinds of paintings. I think that one of the best thing to do as a beginner is to experiment. Experiment with the colours, with the shapes etc. Simply try and see what happens. I have learned a lot about colours simply by trying and experimenting.