DIY Painting Party

As you have probably seen on Facebook or Groupon, painting parties are very popular right now. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the gist. Painting parties are typically held at a studio, pub, or restaurant. An instructor helps explain the process and shows you how to mix your colors. Otherwise, they are pretty hands off. Everyone paints the same picture, but of course, everyone’s looks a bit different in the end.

My sister-in-law, Abbie, had a great idea to host one of these herself. She attended a couple painting parties and was tired of paying $40 or $50 each time. She figured it had to be cheaper to hold the party in the comfort of her home—it turns out she was right.

Here is what you will need:

Supplies

• Paints
• Black, white, red, yellow, and blue
• You can get liquid acrylic paint in the bottle at Walmart for $0.50 each or Michael’s for $1.00 each. These are good for starting out if you do not want to make a big investment. For higher quality paint, buy BASIC acrylics—these are much thicker than the paint in the bottle, so it can give defining texture to your painting.
• TOTAL COST: $2.50 - $5.00
• Paint Brushes
• A variety pack of 5 – 10 brushes is best. Make sure there is a wide enough range of big brushes for painting the background and fine brushes for detail work.
• TOTAL COST: $5.00
• Canvas
• 16” x 20” is the standard size that they use at the painting events but since this is your party, you can use whatever size you’d like.
• To save on the cost of canvas, consider buying a larger pack of canvases and splitting it with a friend.
• TOTAL COST: $13.00 for 5 canvases (on sale) = $2.60 each
• Easel
• Here is a link for the easel that I bought. It looks sharp and folds up into a convenient carrying bag.
• TOTAL COST: $20.00 ($12.00 when purchased with a 40% off coupon)
• Pencil
• Paper Plates (to mix paint on)
• Paper Towels
• Table Cloth
• A picture you want to paint
• Water (for the brushes)
• Snacks and drinks
• Friends

TOTAL COST: $22.10 (plus tax, of course) per person

Now that you have all of your supplies, here is how this works:

Steps

1. Draw a grid on the paper-copy of the picture you want to paint. Split the horizontal and vertical sides into quarters, leaving you with 16 equal sections.
2. Lightly draw the same grid on the canvas.
3. Gently draw the basic design of the picture on the canvas with the pencil. Don’t worry about any detail but rather just the larger elements of the image.
4. Begin painting the background and light colors first.
5. Continue painting until your masterpiece is complete.
6. Don’t forget to snack and chat along the way!

Ok, now I know this may seem quite daunting. I am NOT a painter—I’m actually quite terrible. That is why I chose a non-realistic picture to paint and took some artistic liberties and deviated from the original design. Just have fun with it! Ask others to help you mix colors if you are having trouble getting the right color. Chances are, no one is going to be a very good painter. For me, I cared more about the time I spent with the girls than how my painting turned out. We had a wonderful time. Plus, you get to leave with a one-of-a-kind painting!

One of the beauties of buying all of the supplies is if you attend another painting party, you already have most everything you need. You will need a new canvas and possibly some more paint. The price would drop from $22.10 to $2.60. That is a lot of savings when you consider going to a painting event will set you back $45.

I hope you will give this a try and have as much fun as we did!