Painting

One of the hardest skills to develop, painting is also one of the most rewarding. Watch in wonder as Sims create works of art before your very eyes, working from inspiration they gathered from themselves or your own input. Like writing, this is a personalized skill that requires a lot of direction from you. But once this skill is mastered, it’s not only satisfying, but very lucrative. Great painting can sell for a pretty penny.

Acquire by: Take Painting Class, Practice at Easel

Development tools: Easel

Available Ages: Children, Teen, Young Adult, Adult, Elder

Development Benefits

The painting skill is actually fairly easy to acquire, but it is not exactly cheap. You must either pay for a painting class at the community school or spring for an easel. With an easel, use the Dabble interaction on the easel to pick up a brush and just mess around. After a considerable amount of time, the skill is acquired. Once level 1 of the painting skill has been acquired, though, the development path is pretty clear: practice, practice, practice.

The Dabble interaction is replaced by Practice and you can choose the size of the canvas you want the Sim to practice on. The smaller the canvas, the faster the painting is completed. The size of the canvas also factors into the price a painting fetches, but more on that in a moment. The Practice interaction disappears when there is a canvas on the easel—then you can only continue practicing unless you chose to Scrap the Painting and start all over with a new one.

Once a Painting is completed, a Sim can either Sell it and earn a few Simoleons or Take it, and then pull it out of personal inventory to hang on a wall.

At level 5 of the skill, Paint replaces Practice as the interaction with the easel. Now the Sim can start earning money with this skill. As soon as the Sim unlocks skill level 6, they can paint a Brilliant painting, which is worth a decent number of Simoleons and can add environmental bonuses to rooms and inspire the Decorated moodlet. At level 9, the Sim has the chance to create a Masterpiece painting, which is even more valuable than a Brilliant painting.

Value

The value of a painting is determined by several factors. The canvas size partially determines the value, as does the number of paintings a Sim has produced. Brilliant or Masterpiece paintings get massive value boosts, too. There is a degree of randomness in a painting’s value. One somewhat morbid factor greatly enhances a painting’s value: death. If the painter is deceased, the painting’s appreciation accelerates.

Painting from Inspirations

In addition to the chances of painting Brilliant paintings or Masterpieces during the development of the skill, painters also unlock a handful of interactions that deal directly with the inspiration of a painting. Here are the interactions and their corresponding skill levels:

Paint Still Life (Level 5): When this interaction is chosen, you can direct what you want the Sim to paint from the immediate area around the Sim. Use a small frame to select the subject of the painting and then left-click to direct the Sim to start painting away.

Paint Portrait (Level 7): This interaction directs the painter to create the portrait of a Sim on the lot. The painting frame zeroes in on the Sim subject and you can manipulate it to decide the angle. Portraits take longer to finish than Still Life paintings.

Paint Memorized Scene (Level 8): Use the cellphone to take a photo of a scene somewhere in Sunset Valley. This then becomes the Memorized Scene. The Sims will start painting the scene.

Here are some examples of different paintings and different painting styles:

Skill Challenges

Brushmaster: Brushmasters have painted at least 35 paintings, and as a result paint much faster than normal painters.

Proficient Painter: Proficient Painters have proven their worth by painting at least six Brilliant paintings. They then paint far more Brilliant paintings and Masterpieces than less proficient painters.

Master Painter: Master Painters have painted at least five masterpieces. Every painting they sell is worth much more than normal paintings.