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 paintings can sell for a pretty penny.

• Acquire by: Take Painting Class, Practice at Easel
• Development tools: Easel

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 Practice 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, put it in personal inventory, or drag it right onto the wall. You can also give the painting a name.

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.

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.

Skill Challenges

• Brushmaster: Brushmasters have painted at least 30 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.