3 Painting Tips for Beginners at Paint and Sip Classes

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Paint and sip classes are all the rage these days and for good reason. Even if someone has never attempted to do a painting since grade school, they can leave the party with a piece of art that they have created themselves, and that looks great.

Quite often, you will find that you have students of all levels attending these classes. A class could include beginners, intermediate painters, and those who have a fair amount of painting experience.

But, what if the entire class is made up of beginners who have never painted, at least not outside of art class when they went to school? This is when I need to be prepared to start at the start and teach the most basic painting principles.

If you are thinking about teaching a beginner sip and paint class, here are some of the things I have learned about this. Hopefully, you can use this information to make your beginner class run smoothly.

Let’s get started on my top painting tips you can follow.

#1. Choose the Best Medium

I offer a variety of mediums for my paint and sip classes.

The three main mediums I use are acrylic paints, oil paints, and watercolors.

I tend to not use oil paints for these classes unless I am teaching advanced painters. Oil paints take up to 24 hours (or longer in some cases), so they are not ideal for beginner paint parties.

Acrylics are My Go-To for Beginner Sip Classes

Acrylic paints are the best choice for beginners. They are quite easy to work with, inexpensive, and you don’t need to use any additional supplies unless, of course, you want to. They dry quickly, and the colors will darken to create beautiful shading, contrast, etc.

Acrylics can be used with other media, and they are relatively easy to clean up at the end of the party (unless they get on your clothes, in which case you may have to relegate those clothing items to strictly painting clothes).

Supplies You’ll Need for a Beginner-Friendly Paint Party

There are a couple of choices when it comes to choosing beginner-friendly supplies for a sip and paint event. 

You can choose to purchase pre-packaged paint and sip kits which will include everything needed for a paint night, but it can be less costly to just go to a discount store or a dollar store for beginner-friendly painting supplies.

If you are teaching a beginner sip and paint class, you will need to have the following supplies for each student (all of these materials are available at dollar stores and discount stores):

• Easel
• Canvas
• Palette
• Palette knife for mixing colors
• Paint brushes in a variety of sizes
• Paints
• Water cups for cleaning brushes
• Paper towels for cleaning up spills

#2. Painting Fundamentals for Beginners

While these classes are meant to be fun, it is still important that you teach the students some of the basic painting fundamentals. I don’t go too deeply into this, as I don’t want to overwhelm my students.

Here are the two most important painting fundamentals that I always discuss with beginners.

Color Theory

I always have a color wheel with me when I teach at painting parties. This lets me demonstrate how colors work with each other. I talk about color value, as well as hue and saturation.

I don’t get too technical with the students. I tell them how different shades of the same color are saturation levels.

I also tell them about how colors such as red and yellow are different hues of the same color. And, I talk about the lightness and darkness of colors.

Color Value

Color value is all about the relationship between various colors. While I always encourage students at paint and sip classes to choose their own color palettes, I often recommend certain colors that will work together, and explain why they work together and why others do not work together.

At the end of the event, they will have a better idea of color value, and this will show in the paintings that they do.

One Last Fundamental

While I don’t go too deeply into composition and focus point, I do like to touch on them. I find that many instructors use paintings where the focus point is in the center of the painting. I show my students that a painting can be much more interesting if things are not centered.

I don’t usually spend much time talking about things like the rule of thirds, leading lines, etc. I save these fundamentals for more advanced classes.

#3. Choosing the Right Subject

For beginner paint and sip classes, I choose painting subjects that are easy to paint. In most cases, the subject will be a simple landscape.

I recommend not having people in the painting, because they can be difficult to draw and paint. The old term KISS (keep it simple sweetie) is something to keep in mind for beginner painting classes.

I like to spend a few minutes getting students to visualize what they are going to paint before they get started. While the result may be completely different, at least they have an idea of what they want to create.

Final Thoughts

These classes are all about having fun. A paint and sip party is a way for friends to get together and enjoy each other’s company while creating a fun and simple painting.

A lot of mistakes are going to be made in a beginner paint class. Remind your students that there is no such thing as a mistake. It is a learning opportunity.

I always like to remind students that the only way to learn is to make mistakes. Also, the more they practice, the fewer mistakes they will make.

Some students decide that they aren’t into painting. This is okay. They still had a fun time, and they got to learn some new skills even if they choose not to use them in the future.

Also check my guide on painting ideas for seniors and pastel drawing ideas for beginners if you choose to use pastels.

*image by Krakenimages/depositphotos