Paint your Pet Success!
Wow! Three sessions of Paint your Pet have been completed already this year!
While most paint night classes at places like Pinot's Palette attract groups of 30 or so, I'm kind of relieved that ours only averaged about six participants per class. Clearly, we'd have loved to have more people attend, but this type of event is pretty labor-intensive for me.
Sketching out the pets ahead of time is really necessary for the paintings to turn out great, as most people do great at painting but openly claim they can't draw for a darn. Unfortunately, it takes anywhere between 20-30 minutes per canvas for me to grid and sketch the canvases, which really adds up!
Our first two classes were back-to-back; first Tuesday night in Green Bay, then Wednesday night in Two Rivers. This was slightly stressful, because I had 14 canvases total to sketch the weekend before, including my own samples. I did learn after the first night, however, that it's best for me to walk around and demonstrate on others' canvases instead of attempting to paint my own, as I tend to get absorbed into my work (i.e. become not a good teacher). That alleviates the need for example canvases I guess!
We also learned on the first night that the Green Bay chapel leaves a bit to be desired in the lighting department when it's dark outside. It got pretty difficult to see what we were doing, and the lights couldn't go any higher. Good thing the Christmas trees were still up and lit, or we'd have been out of luck! The paintings still turned out fantastic though...
Our second class in Two Rivers was a lot of fun. We really had some artsy-fartsy painters in our midst! We painted in the lounge/bar area this time, and the lighting was great. Check out all these adorable pets!
The third and most recent class was held in Green Bay on a Sunday afternoon, and we chose the bar area here as well this time (it used to be Gina and family's condo before they bought a house), where the lighting is much better again. Granted, it was a beautiful, sunny day, that would have filled the main area with light through the huge windows, but this felt more intimate despite losing some of the appeal of painting in the gorgeous chapel. On the other hand, it was closer to the beverages, so... yeah.
We offered two different canvas sizes this time, the 12x12 we previously offered, as well as a 20x20 based on suggestions on Facebook. Surprisingly, we were split about 50/50 between large and small! And I think these turned out to be my favorites so far!
Two ladies from Happily Ever After animal sanctuary even stopped by to check it out, as Gina had been communicating back and forth with them about a potential fundraiser event. Wouldn't that be fun?
To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how many more of these we'll do at the chapels. We LOVE doing them, but we've crunched the numbers over and over, and the space is just too big to be economical when we're talking groups of only six or eight. Not to mention the time that goes into preparing for it. We are working on some other things, however, that will be just as awesome!
I think we've started something though. I noticed a couple weeks ago that Pinot's Palette in Green Bay is now offering pretty much the exact same class as a fundraiser for Green Bay Animal Rescue... and if they have a way to do it better, all the more power to them!
While most paint night classes at places like Pinot's Palette attract groups of 30 or so, I'm kind of relieved that ours only averaged about six participants per class. Clearly, we'd have loved to have more people attend, but this type of event is pretty labor-intensive for me.
Sketching out the pets ahead of time is really necessary for the paintings to turn out great, as most people do great at painting but openly claim they can't draw for a darn. Unfortunately, it takes anywhere between 20-30 minutes per canvas for me to grid and sketch the canvases, which really adds up!
Our first two classes were back-to-back; first Tuesday night in Green Bay, then Wednesday night in Two Rivers. This was slightly stressful, because I had 14 canvases total to sketch the weekend before, including my own samples. I did learn after the first night, however, that it's best for me to walk around and demonstrate on others' canvases instead of attempting to paint my own, as I tend to get absorbed into my work (i.e. become not a good teacher). That alleviates the need for example canvases I guess!
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| Howie's tongue and eyes remain unfinished... |
We also learned on the first night that the Green Bay chapel leaves a bit to be desired in the lighting department when it's dark outside. It got pretty difficult to see what we were doing, and the lights couldn't go any higher. Good thing the Christmas trees were still up and lit, or we'd have been out of luck! The paintings still turned out fantastic though...
Our second class in Two Rivers was a lot of fun. We really had some artsy-fartsy painters in our midst! We painted in the lounge/bar area this time, and the lighting was great. Check out all these adorable pets!
The third and most recent class was held in Green Bay on a Sunday afternoon, and we chose the bar area here as well this time (it used to be Gina and family's condo before they bought a house), where the lighting is much better again. Granted, it was a beautiful, sunny day, that would have filled the main area with light through the huge windows, but this felt more intimate despite losing some of the appeal of painting in the gorgeous chapel. On the other hand, it was closer to the beverages, so... yeah.
We offered two different canvas sizes this time, the 12x12 we previously offered, as well as a 20x20 based on suggestions on Facebook. Surprisingly, we were split about 50/50 between large and small! And I think these turned out to be my favorites so far!
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| You may recognize her from our first night... she completed her second and third paintings this time! |
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| Sweet Titus looks so comfy! |
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| This couple (he's from Italy, she's from Brazil) painted her Persian cat, Beyonce! |
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| I helped with this one... quite a bit. ;) |
Two ladies from Happily Ever After animal sanctuary even stopped by to check it out, as Gina had been communicating back and forth with them about a potential fundraiser event. Wouldn't that be fun?
To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how many more of these we'll do at the chapels. We LOVE doing them, but we've crunched the numbers over and over, and the space is just too big to be economical when we're talking groups of only six or eight. Not to mention the time that goes into preparing for it. We are working on some other things, however, that will be just as awesome!
I think we've started something though. I noticed a couple weeks ago that Pinot's Palette in Green Bay is now offering pretty much the exact same class as a fundraiser for Green Bay Animal Rescue... and if they have a way to do it better, all the more power to them!
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| Pinot's Palette's ad... |
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