The 10 best painting classes in NYC

For $50, you can get schooled on how to paint and take your creation home with you for DIY home decor. The fee covers everything you’ll need—except booze. Yes, you can BYOB to classes, and yes, you probably should.

If you want to host a worthwhile party or office gathering, this is the place to do it. You can book a private session and celebrate in style—whether that style is impressionism or Dadaism is up to you.

This Long Island school serves up lots of great classes, but the painting classes are particularly worth a look. It’s a school that celebrates Japanese art and culture, and its painting classes follow suit. The Japanese ink painting class is incredibly popular–and with good reason–but we also really like the Manga drawing and animation class. You’ll learn how to mimic famous Japanese characters, as well as create your very own manga masterpieces. 

If you're looking for a no-bullshit painting class to take, Lower East Side art studio Dirty Hands offers the real deal: Pro artists teach the workshops, the materials are high-quality, and cool, contemporary techniques are emphasized. As its site states: “All levels are welcome, and the only thing you’re not going to do is paint a fucking sunset.” Be sure to try the Tape Shit course, in which you’ll learn to make perfect straight lines using tape and matte medium gel, just like bona fide art-school students. Then, you can proudly hang your final product on the wall.

This art workshop/studio with locations on the Upper West Side and in Astoria, Queens offers “art that rock the soul,” and certainly provides a wide variety of avenues for both adults and kids to test that proposition. Want to learn how to paint a portrait of your beloved pet? There’s a class for that. Create a masterpiece from a selfie? Ditto. There are also course in creating abstract art with poured paint, painting wood signs as mementos and sipping wine while working at the easel. Kids can be signed up for after school sessions or painting parties. Dirty Hands is also available for corporates events, including mural team building.

The Paint Place in Astoria, Queens is located at 31-21 31st St, between Broadway and 31st Ave

The focus at the well-respected Dumbo art school is on beginner classes, with quite the range on offer. We’re talking cartooning for kids, oil painting, digital art classes, abstract painting, wearable art... basically if you can think it, they’ll probably offer a class. But it’s not just for beginners; intermediates and beyond are well-catered for. Think of this school as your one-stop-paint-class-shop for learning the art in NYC.

If you want to get serious about watercolors, then the guys here can help. Michiyo offers weeklong courses at the New York Academy of Art for $425 if you’re ready to really commit to being a starving artist.

This location offers both private and group lessons, so you can get into painting one-on-one or get down with some friends on a double date. From charcoal to oil paint, the artists here are experts in it all.

Located in the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Art Lab offers four semesters of classes and workshops throughout the year—for every age and skill level.

This space offers many classes, including Brushless Watercolor so you can familiarize yourself with that medium without the constrictions of hand-to-brush dexterity. Remember how liberating finger painting was? That kid-style fun is exactly what you’ll rediscover here.