We did that painting with a twist where you paint a canvas with your partner with a "teacher" leading the class. We hated it LOL. One woman ended up in tears. I was close. Most couples were not having the best time. If you aren't artistic I do not recommend. If you are then no worries, enjoy it. I feel like they could have done a comedy skit on our experience.
I'm gonna assume you missed the part where DH is a gifted artist and I need coloring books
It really depends on the teacher and the studio. Most use an outlined pattern of the subject pre-traced onto the canvas for people to fill in with paint, just like coloring books. So all you have to do is follow along with the teacher and fill in the with paint instead of crayons. This way, EVERY student gets a painting at the end that looks like the subject being painted. (The tracings are covered up by the paint, so there is no heavy black outline at the end.)
Most students are really proud of themselves. And it's about having fun for an evening rather than knowing how to draw.
One does NOT need to be able to draw in order to paint. Painting is painting -
filling in shapes with colors. Drawing is drawing -
drawing outlines, knowing size and perspective, being accurate to making outlines of shapes.
Of course, a more experienced or creative painter can always add more, dabble, blend the paints better, or add flourishes.
Lazy teachers don't pre-trace on the patterns onto the many canvases, but expect the students to be able to draw somewhat. They often aren't paid for all that prep time to trace on the patterns, so at some studios they don't do it.
One way to see if the studio you possibly want to paint at pre-traces patterns on is to check their Facebook page or their Yelp review photos. They often show photos of their students finished paintings to get people to sign up for classes. Good studios post LOTS of photos of finished paintings, not just an edited few of the best ones.
Take a good look at the photos, if a lot of them look like the students had to guess and fill in and draw the subjects in themselves, it will be really obvious as the paintings are all over the place. The ones that look similar, like each other, and like what the subjects are supposed to be, are the ones that used pre-traced on patterns.
