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The Sims 4 Painting

Skill Level Unlocks, Best Traits/Rewards, & Making Good Money

A Sim Artist Painting in The Sims 4

Painting in The Sims 4 is a very good way to make money, but to be great at it you won't be holing your Sim up in a room and painting all day as you would in previous incarnations of The Sims. Mastering the skill requires you to take up a job in the Painter Career and choose between two branches at level 5. Both of them unlock the ability to buy an Easel with a higher Painting Quality rating which will boost the Sim's success at painting Masterpieces regardless of skill. A master Painter can make serious dough using one of these two Easels, and you'll earn enough to support the initial investment to make your own Paintings every day at work. More importantly, the career unlocks some special abilities, allowing you to earn more from Painting.

Painting Skill Video Guide & Masterpieces

The Painter Extraordinaire's Expressionistic Trait lets you make Paintings from extreme Emotions

Good Traits & Aspirations for Painters

• Creative This Trait helps Sims get Inspired, which is helpful to Painting skill gains. However, its main role here is to let Artists fill the Fun need while Painting. Other Sims do not get these Fun gains.
• Art Lover will let you get Inspired Moodlets from your own works of Art. Admire Art will help your Sim get Inspired - being able to get Inspired at any time is handy and is in your control.
• Perfectionist was chosen as my third trait so that my Sim would produce higher quality paintings, even if they took a bit more time. He'll be unhappy about bad work, but his work should improve quickly given he's a perfectionist.
• Painter Extraordinaire Aspiration this is a natural choice and will net your Sim lots of Satisfaction if they will focus on Painting heavily. Know that for requirements that you view paintings, admiring, gathering inspiration, or critiquing them all count as 'view'. Better Easels that come with the Painter Career will help you meet requirements for high-quality works. The Expressionistic Trait is the reward for this Aspiration, enabling your Sim to paint regardless of their mood - sad, angry, and other emotional Paintings. The best thing about this is, all those paintings can be used to give off auras to inspire emotion in Sims.

Buy the Cheap Easel. If you want quality-boosting Easels, you'll have to join the Painter Career with your Phone

Getting Started Painting
Buy an E.A.S.L Easel for $350 from Buy Mode > Objects by Function > Activities and Skills > Creative or just search for Easel. With this, you can begin painting. There is a Painter Career that will get its own separate guide page, but this article will focus on the skill.

Painting Skill Level Advice and Unlocks
The following are the types of Paintings you unlock as you level the skill. There are also a couple of Social Interactions. You'll get 5x the amount of stuff if you also pursue the Painter Career. To make things easy, you could consider leveling Painting first to give your Sim more free time. Juggling the job and your skill is a bit difficult, especially with a family.

• Level 2 - Discuss Color Theory with Other Sims, which can make your Sim Inspired.
• Level 3 - Can create low skill Pop Art at the Easel. Sims are also able to 'Paint from Reference' at the easel, allowing them to paint pictures of their surroundings.
• Level 4 - Can create low skill Realism and Abstract Paintings, medium skill Classic Paintings
• Level 5 - Can create low skill Surrealism and Impressionistic Paintings, medium skill Pop Art Paintings
• Level 6 - Can create high skill Classic Paintings and medium skill Abstract and Realism Paintings
• Level 7 - Can create high skill Pop Art and medium skill Surrealism and Impressionistic Paintings
• Level 8 - Can create high skill Realism and Abstract Paintings, and also Describe Aesthetics with other Sims.
• Level 9 - Can create high skill Surrealism and Impressionistic Paintings.
• Level 10 - Allows you to Mentor other Sims in Painting, and of course your odds of making a Masterpiece are higher because your Painting level is max.

Unfortunately, you are almost required to join the Painter Career else you are stuck with the bad Easel, forever! It has a low Painting Quality, so makes it harder for your Sim to make great Paintings. Joining the Career will unlock better Paintings, so I suggest you do so. Another excellent reason is that it unlocks the ability to sell your artwork to the Art Gallery instead of the mysterious Art Collector - the Gallery gives 20% more than the face value of your non-Masterpiece paintings, so it's worth it! You will get more out of your painting, as there are lots of special rewards for joining the Painting Career and its two branches.

Painter Career Choices
The 'Patron of the Arts' Branch of the Painter Career lets you get the Pre-Owned Painter's Easel that boosts Environment, has an Inspiring Aura, and has a Painting Quality level of 7. The 'Master of the Real' Branch unlocks the Deluxe All-Season Easel that has a Painting Quality of 9 without boosting Environment. There are other choices between the two to be made, so you should see the Painter Career Guide.

What to Paint First
I started with small paintings, as they took less time and would give a return on investment quickly. Even if the painting isn't great, it is likely to at least get your money back. You can do large paintings on days off (if you're in the Painting Career) and sometimes put them on hold to take care of your needs and go off to work. Try to fulfill the requirements of the Painter Extraordinaire Aspiration as you go along. You can look ahead to see the requirements by pressing 'G', clicking change Aspiration, and looking at the 4 categories of unlocks you need to complete to get the Expressionistic Trait.

Click to Enlarge. Collecting Paintings will let you later use them for Career/Aspiration Requirements

Selling Paintings vs Collecting Art
Once a Painting is complete, you can click 'Sell to Collector' to instantly sell it. When in the Painter Career, you'll unlock the ability to sell all paintings to the Art Gallery, which gives 20% more than the painting's face value. Masterpieces are the exception to the rule, as you can see below. Hover over the Painting on the Easel to see its name, quality level, and sell value. Putting the Painting in your inventory also allows you to sell it and see the price. You may like one of your Sim's paintings and find it's worth little money, so it can help you decide whether selling is worth it to you. Paintings made while under the influence of an emotion may also help to inspire that emotion in the room, so you may want to hold on to some of those.

Masterpieces' Sell Value
Whether you are in the Painter Career or not, Masterpieces are sold to the Art Gallery because they are exceptional pieces of work. This is the exception to the +20% rule - they will not sell for more than their face value, as they come with the extra value already calculated into the price you see because they are destined for the Art Gallery! Thanks to HelenP for pointing this out.

Admiring Works of Art can Inspire your Painter

Getting Inspired
Being Inspired will help your Sim make better-quality Paintings. Taking a thoughtful shower, reading a book, and doing other creative things will help your Sim become inspired. Use a Computer to go to Web > Browse Art will (almost always) make your Sim Inspired. Sometimes, after a Sim completes a Painting, they'll get another Inspired Moodlet which will make them Very Inspired. This is a good time to jump right into another Painting, and preferably a large one. The Painter Career will also give you the ability to Research Art References, Critique Paintings, and Gather Inspiration from them, so it will help you get inspired faster.

Talking to other Sims may trigger Emotions

Triggering Other Emotions for Different Painting Types and by Painting Auras!
Clean up in the Mirror and Try on Outfits to get Flirty, and take a Steamy Shower. So long as your Sim is happy, you'll get to paint a Flirty painting for $100. Once you have the Painting, you can use it to boost emotions. Hang it on the wall and click enable emotional aura (or disable) so that your Sim will be easier to put in that mood again - this works with all Mood paintings. Playful can easily be acquired by digging up deposits around the Neighborhood, getting time capsules, and collecting MySims Trophies from them. You can do Confident and Focused Paintings as well as other Emotions you can trigger. Hover over interactions to see what emotions are triggered, and stack those effects in your favor! If you get to VERY confident or VERY focused, your end-results will likely be better.

A painting that takes ~2 hours, yet is worth $1400 without Marketable! It would have sold for nearly $3,000

Getting Rich from Painting
Getting Very Inspired is key to making Masterpieces that are worth a lot of money, along with the Creative Visionary Reward, which raises success rate for Masterpieces. Take also the Marketable Reward to increase the base price of your Masterpiece Paintings. This will sell them at over double their pre-Marketable base value! All this combined makes the Sims 4's Painting Skill super profitable, and one of the easiest ways to make money in the game.

Full List (Pictuers) of all Paintings
A 'list' of the different paintings can be found on our Forum here. Officialghosts has painstakingly arranged them and taken screenshots. Addons may change this to incomeplete.

Paintings By Type

Reekyteek on our Sims 4 Forum took the time to share the following pictures to help players who would like to collect every painting of a certain type.

Classical Paintings

Pop Art Paintings

Impressionism Paintings

Logo-Style Paintings

Sims 4 Skill Guides

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