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It's a secret ambition of many people to learn to paint but most people never follow through this dream because they believe it is too difficult, that painting requires some secret skill that only a few people possess. This is rubbish. Anyone can learn to paint. Painting is just a skill that can easily be mastered with patience and practice.

The perfect way to learn to paint is to get instruction from a master. This was the way that the old masters learned. They did long apprenticeships with known experts. Today this isn't possible for most of us. The good news is there's plenty of other ways to learn to paint.

Classes are a good way to learn the basics of painting but not everyone thrives in a class environment and many of us just don't have the time to enrol in and attend classes a number of days a week. Classes usually suit retired people who can use them as a social part of their lives as well as for learning to paint.

Classes can also be expensive. Personally I don't enjoy classes. Because I'm busy with work commitments when I attend classes I tend to be impatient, wanting to get to the points straight away, to get the knowledge and go. This is not a good attitude for a class as many people want to socialize as well as learn.

The good news today is that there are plenty of other ways to learn to paint or learn to draw without leaving your home. I have learned a lot by watching painting instructional dvds. I find these a great source of information and I love being able to practice the techniques at home.

When using dvds it's important that you structure your learning methods. For example if you are learning to paint in watercolours then the first thing to learn is how to do a watercolour wash. So you would get a dvd that teaches watercolour washes. From there you would move onto the next skill to learn.

A good way to ensure you structure your home study is to look at the syllabus of a home study course and follow it.

If you don't want to buy individual dvds then you can enrol in a home study painting course. These are excellent value and are usually taught by respected artists. Using the internet you can send your work to the teacher who will critique it for you giving you some good feedback.

There's no reason why you can't learn to paint today, the resources are available for anyone. Online courses are not too expensive when you compare them with classes and dvds are cheap to buy and full of great information for the budding artist.