Nobody's really a beginner when it comes to enjoying messing around with paint... we all have kindergarten memories of brandishing a long paintbrush over a huge blank sheet! Nothing held us back at that age, we were simply caught up in the joys of imagining our design and mixing and smearing the paint on!

You don't need much equipment to get started in painting, and, who knows, perhaps embark on a lifelong love affair with paint. It doesn't matter if initially, the designs you paint aren't used in your craft projects, what matters is to start to play with colors and materials and to enjoying doing so. Painting can also start off with a practical purpose in mind: restoring old objects, items of furniture, trying out patina-effect techniques and attempting your own experiments, exploring the more unusual techniques (finger painting, feather painting or even painting with a champagne cork...). Before you get started on landscape painting, beginning with painting with a stencil will enable you to create beautiful designs that require little technical skill.

Start painting canvas backgrounds and 3D objects and the whole world of home decoration opens up before you, with its canvases, deep canvas frames and warm colors that you'll be able to adorn your walls with to create a unique interior look.

For beginners, what's ideal is acrylic paint as you can clean it off your paintbrushes with water and it dries very quickly, which allows you to complete one stage of a craft project and then go quickly onto the next. You will need 5 main colors to be able to create the entire color spectrum. As for paintbrushes, a wider brush for large surface areas, a soft brush for delicate painting jobs and a very fine-tipped paintbrush (n°1) will be very useful. The best material on which to paint is still wood: because it absorbs the paint and thus really plays a part in the design! However, painting on glass or metal is a little harder... Painting ceramic bisque pottery is another delightful technique to discover! On the les-creatifs.com you'll find several stores supplying unfinished wood objects for painting: each craftsperson has their own style and their favorite wood, so you'll have a wide choice of very distinct objects to paint.