In this blog post we will go through how to choose the right image to use for a paint party and how to conduct one successfully. 

My three markers to know if you have chosen a successful image are:

• It has a creative part. It’s not all about copying every step you do, you are allowing them to be creative and that let’s them take pride in their own work and feel like they have created their own unique artwork. 
• It isn’t a flat, boring image but something that will excite the participants to complete. 
• You are including methods and techniques that will help them in future paintings. 

When choosing an image here are the things to keep in mind: 

You don't’ want to choose an image that has too many colors to mix. Keep it simple. Remember that for most participants, they haven’t ever painted at all or not nearly enough to feel confident. Plus, you don’t want to overwhelm them and have them getting frustrated as they feel the picture is too hard. 

That being said, I am a big believer in making sure you are stimulating people. Just completing an easy step by step painting that they follow blindly without thinking is not what I want them to accomplish. I want to challenge them enough that they don’t feel frustrated, yet can see that they can create a beautiful painting that they wouldn’t have ever thought possible. 

That’s why I like to choose paintings that allow for a bit of freedom and creativity so that the participants can push themselves to the level they feel can without getting too frustrated. 

For instance, you can have a part of the painting where they can decide on the actual composition-where they are going to place the items in the painting and show them how to draw it. This makes the painting their own and unique and they are forced to think about how they want their painting to look like instead of blindly following your instructions. 

I can then show  how I would paint my composition and give them the method to do so. 

This is how it would play out: 

For instance: If you are doing a painting of flowers and a background. I would provide reference pictures of a certain type of flower. Then I would show them how you draw by following the lines you see in front of you-drawing what you see and not what you think and then I would show them how I would place my flowers and branches on my canvas. I would explain how to draw each petal of the flower simply and explain that they can add as many or little flowers as they want. 

To demonstrate how to paint, I would explain that we don’t want the background to be just one color. We want our painting to be alive. So I would explain that to do so, we want to mix a variety of hues and break down how to mix colors into this. For instance, a green background would start with mixing blue and yellow to create green, adding yellow would create a lighter hue of green and adding blue would make it darker. Then I would explain how adding the complementary of green, red would make the green less bright and start making it more brown. 

I would then explain how to add white only at the end and add another color to make it back alive as white flattens colors. I would also show how to use your paintbrush and what strokes one should be creating. 

As you can see, you are offering them more value then just showing them how to paint just a one or two tone background and it let’s them be creative in their color mixing. 

Other ideas of paintings you can do, are colorful trees with leaves, a beach scene, a pomegranate or lemon tree, a sunset (without too much blending around the sun), any landscape painting that doesn’t have too much detail is good as there isn’t too much drawing. Flowers too, although be careful that they aren’t too detailed. 

Each time you prepare a painting, think of what you can teach them-color mixing, blending colors, how to use their paintbrush to create texture to add value to the paint party. Instead of just showing them step by step what to do, you are explaining methods and concepts that they can use again and again. 

As well, the better you are at painting yourself, the more confident you will feel teaching a paint party event. It’s the truth, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start at the level you are currently at. But do bear in mind, to keep on working on your own skills, so that you have what to give over. 

As you can see, I believe paint party events can be valuable teaching time and you can really show participants what they are capable of with the right approach on your part. 

In next week blogs post, we will go more in depth into how to teach different paintings and how to troubleshoot and answer questions that participants may ask you when completing their painting.