5 Ways to Improve Your Painting Skills This Summer

The point isn’t to make great art. It’s to shake your creative spine loose.

When the sun shows off and the days grow long, something in the air says: create. Summer isn’t just for vacations and lemonade. It’s also the perfect time to throw open the windows, roll up your sleeves, and push your painting skills to a new place. Whether you choose to experiment on your own or seek the guidance of private art lessons, it’s an ideal season to let your creativity flow and grow.

Paint Fast and Messy on Purpose

You know the phrase “think outside the box”? Forget the box even existed.

Set a timer for ten minutes. Choose a subject. Now, paint it. No sketching, no overthinking. Just pure, rapid-fire chaos. Let the brush fly, the colors crash, the lines wobble. This isn’t about beauty, it’s about energy, movement, and breaking through the crusty layer of hesitation.

Do it daily. Like brushing your teeth, but with more color and fewer consequences.

Why it works:

1. You stop aiming for perfection.

2. Your instincts sharpen.

3. Mistakes become discoveries.

Copy the Old Masters... Then Wreck It

Pick a painting from a master, Vermeer, Hokusai, O’Keeffe, doesn’t matter.

Recreate it faithfully, brushstroke by brushstroke. Then, once it’s “done,” go wild. Smudge it. Splash neon pink across it. Cut it up and rearrange it. Add monsters or graffiti or clouds shaped like spoons.

Copying teaches control. Wrecking teaches freedom. The combo is strangely electric.

Paint with Things That Aren’t Brushes

Seriously. Ditch the brush. Try:

● Feathers

● Credit cards

● Twigs

●  Forks

●  Your fingers (or toes... no one’s judging)

The weird tools unlock textures and moods that conventional tools just can’t. You’ll start to understand paint as a material, not just a medium. It becomes less about control, more about curiosity.

Go Outside, But Not to Paint Landscapes

Sure, nature’s great. Trees. Clouds. Sunsets that scream orange. But don’t just paint what you see, paint because you’re outside. The light hits your canvas differently. The smells, the sounds, even the bugs, all of it gets into the work somehow.

Try this:

1. Paint on sidewalks with water (it evaporates, beautiful and tragic)

2. Set up a small canvas in a busy park and paint people who move too fast to pose

3. Use natural materials to mix with your paint: dirt, leaves, flower petals

Give Yourself a Ridiculous Challenge

Create a painting using only one color. Make a portrait with a toothbrush. Paint upside-down. Use your non-dominant hand for a whole week.

Challenges push you past habits. They’re uncomfortable. But discomfort is the birthplace of growth, and often, delightfully strange art.

Conclusion

Some days you’ll feel like a genius. Others, you’ll want to throw your paints into the sun. Do it anyway.

Summer gives you longer days, louder colors, and a little extra heat—use all of it. Not every canvas has to be a masterpiece. Some are just stepping stones made of pigment and good intentions.

Sometimes, all you need is a fresh space or a new perspective to reignite your creativity — places like Moda Studio can offer that shift. Pick up the brush. Make a mess. Let the season soak into your work.