Tinning was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, on February 25, 1910. He studied art in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Regina, Saskachetwan. Some of the Tinning family photographs are in the McCord Museum collection. In 1938, he attended the Eliot O'Hara School of watercolour in Maine and the Art Students League of New York. He moved to Montreal and in 1940 became a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. He exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1940, he was employed as a graphic designer at The Robert Simpson Company (Simpson's department store) at its St. Catherine Street location in downtown Montreal. In 1942 and 1948, he was awarded the Jessie Dow Prize for watercolour at the Art Association of Montreal.