How to Paint a Single Funky Spring Flower

Hey everybody, it is Christie with The Social Easel, and I am hopping on with you to do a fun little project today. We are getting ready to do my funky spring flowers painting in a private Facebook group. So this is what is coming up, and today I thought I would show you how to do one style of these flowers that is in this painting. So I want to show you how crazy and messy and fun this painting is. And today I'm going to show you on just this little canvas that I got on sale. It was on clearance at Target, so you guys always be checking all the places for cheap little things that you can paint on. I got this for $1 at Target. It is a 6x6 canvas. And I love painting on small little squares. So that is what we're gonna paint on today, and I'm just gonna show you a super simple, fun, easy, messy little flower that anyone can do. So as you are hopping on, I'm just trying to get the comments here. Facebook's changed things up. Hey, Dana! I'm not seeing the comments the way that I used to. If I can change anything here. No. Okay, I'll try to catch them as fast as I can. Um, but so I'm just going to take the wrapping off that. Just a 6x6 little canvas. No need to prep this or anything. I don't prep any of my canvases, okay? They are pre-primed when you buy them. Um, so there's really no need to do that. And this is going to take just very simple supplies. I've just got some of my favorite colors in DecoArt. I'll show you these later, um, some black and white. And then I've got just a pencil, any pencil will do. And I've got some little paint pens. So I'm going to talk to you all about these different supplies and some of the supplies that I'm going to use inside this Funky Spring Flowers Challenge. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about that before we start painting because I'm really excited about it and it is the only chance that you're going to get to paint this for only $15. I'm going to teach this class live in a private group over the span of 2 days. Okay. So I did 2 versions of this. I have already taught this inside my tribe. For those of you that don't know what that is, that's my VIP membership. So these tribe sisters have already painted this. This was, my original, which I love, love, love. And then when I taught it to them, I love painting on squares, as I just mentioned, and I wanted to do a really big one. So this is a 20 by 20, and it just left some more negative space over here. So I've got two versions, and the reason I'm telling you that is because you can paint it on whatever size you want to. You can do 11 by 14, you can do 16 by 20, you can do any size square that you want. So this is super versatile. This is so easy for all levels. I don't care if you have never picked up a paintbrush before and you don't even know what supplies to get, you are going to be able to do this painting, um, because I break it down into super easy steps. And this challenge— and I call it a challenge because I'm challenging you guys to get out of your comfort zone get out of the fear in your head and jump in and do something that maybe you've never done before. Maybe you've never painted, or maybe you have. Maybe you've been painting for a while, but you paint a certain style and you would love to kind of loosen up and try some new things out. This painting is all about letting loose, getting messy, playing, having fun, and scribbling. Yes, we're going to scribble on this painting, and I'm going to show you a little bit about that, um, today. So we're gonna do a little mini flower. I'm going to show you how I scribble in my paintings and just have fun. And then I'm going to talk to you about some of my favorite supplies that I'm going to use in this challenge as well. But it's only $15 to sign up. We're going to put the link here in the comments because I totally blanked and didn't put it in the description. So I'm going to come in and put that in the comments here for you to sign up in just a second, but it's only $15. Class starts on Wednesday, so I'm teaching this live in a Facebook group Wednesday and Thursday at 10:30 AM Central Standard Time. But before you ask, you do not have to be there live with me at all because these are going to be recorded and you can go watch the replays whenever you want to. So you will have lifetime access once you buy this. I've had a— I want to kind of just cover some questions that I've had, um, since starting signups for this. Um, you don't have to be there live. You have lifetime access. And what that means is literally lifetime access. You can go back to it whenever you want to, as many times as you want to, and watch it at your own pace. So even if it doesn't fit into your schedule this week, that is 100% okay. You do not need to be there. Um, you can come into the group and watch it whenever it works for you. Because here's the thing, we have people all over the world. We have people in Australia and Canada, the UK, America, um, everywhere watching this. So there's no magical time that works for everyone, which is why we offer the replays. So, um, very easy for you to just go back and watch whenever. Um, what else was I going to tell you about it? Okay, so it's also about overcoming your fears. So in addition to just teaching you this painting over that span of 2 days, at the beginning of each lesson, I'm going to do like a mini devotional with you. And this is going to be to help you overcome your fears in painting, help you get past whatever that block may be that's stopping you from being creative. We're going to address that, and hopefully it will motivate you and help push you past that. Um, and you're also going to get to be in this amazing private community of women who are just like you, who have the same feelings that you do. I made a post in there the other day and we talked about fears, and I asked like, what is your, what is your biggest fear about doing this challenge with me? And a lot of people were fear of not doing it right, fear of not doing it enough, I don't have enough experience. And the great thing is, is I can tell you that's okay, because I've been teaching women how to paint for the last 7 and a half years And I have literally taught thousands of women just like you how to do this who have never painted before. And when you go into that group and you meet these women, you're going to see some tribe sisters who are in my membership, women who have done past challenges with me, who thought the exact same things that you thought and then have proved themselves wrong. And now, now they know they can paint. Now they know that they have this creative person inside of them that they didn't know they had before. So it's all about me helping you uncover that person that I know that you have inside of you. So it's going to be a ton of fun. There is no template needed for this because I'm actually going to show you how to draw that, which I know that in itself sounds scary, right? Because how many of you— raise your hand at home if you've said, I can't draw a stick figure. That's what I hear all the time. And again, you don't need to. I, I'm gonna break this down into simple shapes that make it easy for you to understand. And the main thing I want you to do is just kind of, you know, roll your shoulders back, get loose, get ready to have fun. Don't come in stressed out. We're going to calm all those stresses, all that anxiety, and you're just going to be surrounded. Gala just said it— come in and let us love on you. You're going to be surrounded with love and support from not only me, but all these other amazing women inside this group. And that is what I love about getting to teach you guys online, is that it's all about the community. Um, and it's so much more fun to learn with a group of ladies than it is to try to go at it alone. And it's so much easier when you have a support system behind you to help you when you're struggling or to celebrate your successes. So I'm super excited about it. It's only $15 to sign up. I wonder, let me see if I can jump over here and post the link in here really quick. Actually, you know what, I'll do that. I'll do that when we switch the camera around because I'm gonna move the camera to give you an overhead view. I'm gonna go ahead and do that and I'm gonna continue to answer your questions because of the way Facebook is doing this. I'm having a super hard time keeping up with comments as they're scrolling by, and I want to be able— as I knock my earring out— I want to be able to answer your questions. So what we're going to do, let me kind of get this stuff situated over here. We're gonna, um, switch you over here, and then I'm going to answer any questions that you have about the challenge, or maybe even the supplies that I'm using. The supplies that I'm going to tell you about, like these are some black and white paint pens that I use. These are Arteza. This is a set of 40. I just started using these and I'm absolutely in love with them. All of these are in my Amazon store, so we'll get that link on there for you. And then this really awesome set of brushes, it comes in all different sizes. You've got filberts and flats and rounds. and it's just a good basic set to get you going if you haven't started with acrylic painting before. So, um, all that stuff's in my Amazon store under my favorite things, under getting started supplies, and I'm going to share all of that with you. So I'm going to grab the camera, gonna be a little crazy for a second, and then we're going to get you positioned over here. Give me just a second, and then I'm gonna flip you around. I know you're upside down right now. Hang on. All right, now we'll just reposition this so I can fit everything in here that I want to show you guys. And one of the main things I wanted to say when I was talking about not having to be there live. Um, whether you watch it live or whether you watch the replays, I can't say this enough, but my advice to you is to watch with me first before you start painting. And the reason I say that is because if you try to paint with me the same time I'm teaching, you're going to get stressed out and you're going to be trying to keep up and you're going to be hurrying through your steps and you're going to miss a lot of what I'm teaching. So this is the same thing that I teach in my— when I do live classes like locally, which I did for 6 years, I would do the same thing then. When I was teaching a step, I would have everyone put their paintbrushes down and watch me. And I want you guys to do the same thing. I want you to watch first and then paint later. That way you can go watch the replay and pause it and stop it and rewind it and do all the things and not worry about trying to keep up with me. Thank you, Miss Megan posted it for me. Megan is my community manager, so you'll see her in there a lot. But that is— and she also posted my Amazon store link. And thank you, Megan, because I didn't even tell you I was getting on live. But That is, that is my advice to you guys because it's gonna really, really help take that stress away if you're not trying to keep up. Um, let me see if I can flip you around here because I'm not left-handed. There we go, that looks right. So again, I'm just going to show you a really basic flower. I'm gonna see if I can lay this flat so you can see the example. I'm going to show you one flower from the piece that we're doing, and if you guys have questions, please just post them in the comments and I will go back and try to catch them. And we do have some Tribe Sisters on here. Megan's on here. They can answer your questions in the comments. As well. Look at me making a mess. Can you guys see all this? This is me actually being somewhat organized too, knocking, knocking all this over. All right, so the example I'm going to show you today is going to be something similar to this big flower in the middle. And the first thing I'm gonna do— and I like to do this in a lot of my paintings— we're going to do something a little bit different today, and I'm going to paint the canvas a dark color first. Sometimes I do black, sometimes I do navy. Today we're going to do just like a dark blue, and I may add a little black to it. This is Ultra Blue Deep by DecoArt. And while I'm speaking about colors, you will have a full color list of all the exact supplies that I used in this challenge. But what I want to tell you is, because of COVID because things are crazy, you may not be able— sorry, let me get this dry paint off there— you may not be able to find those exact colors that are on my color list because a lot of places are just out of stock, out of things, um, and you just can't find them. But again, it's okay. I have a whole post in the Facebook group all about this. And when you get our color list, we actually included color swatches on that list. So you can take that to the store with you or pull it up on your phone and you can see, like, if you can't find— let's just use this for an example— if you can't find Peony Pink you're going to have a swatch on that color list that is this color, and you can hold it up to the different pinks. Now, I only do that for you guys, um, because I don't want you to get so caught up in having the exact colors. I want you to pick your favorite pink, your favorite purple, your favorite teal. But I know a lot of you really want to know exactly what it is that I use, and so we have made it even easier for you by, um, giving you the color list and also now the color swatches. Marjorie's asking, how long will the class be tomorrow and Wednesday? The classes are Wednesday and Thursday, and I don't have an exact time because I teach them live, but I would say around an hour to an hour and a half. See if I missed any more questions here. Lynn, um, being a Tribe Sister, I open doors to the public, um, on April 18th, so it is just around the corner. I can tell you, if you decide to join the Funky Spring Flowers with us, you may get a surprise opportunity. I'm just saying, that might, might happen. And you can use any craft paints. So again, these are just craft paints. I'm going to use a filbert brush today. I like filbert brushes, and I'm going to show you what they are. This one's a little fat. I think I might get another one that I already have wet here. This one, this came out of this set. A filbert brush has the rounded bristles at the end, okay? And I like using the filbert brushes when we're doing flowers because it makes it really easy to do the petals. So I'm just going to use that for our flower today. And then I'm just going to use just a large flat. And a flat is exactly what it sounds like, it's just a basically square brush here. So you'll need like a filbert, a flat, and then like maybe a couple rounds, round brushes. So I'm just going to mix This is how I make navies that I really, really love. I'm gonna teach you guys— that's the other thing about the colors, talking about the colors— you don't have to have the exact colors because a lot of what I do is a mixture of colors. And I'm going to show you guys how to color mix in this challenge. So if you haven't done any color mixing before, one, it's super fun, um, And two, I'm going to show you how to, because it takes this pressure off of trying to find exact colors and gives you the freedom of creating your own. And that makes your piece of art absolutely one of a kind, because no one can create the exact color and the exact shade that you have. So what I'm doing right now, just painting on a little 6x6 canvas Got it on sale at Target for a dollar. Always be keeping your eyes peeled for those little sales. I stocked up on these little guys because I love little canvases like this, and then also some wood panels they had for super cheap. Now it was not in the dollar Target section, it was actually over like in the crafts, like the arts and crafts area at Target, so go check that out. So I'm just going to paint that base just like that. And then we're going to let that dry. And I'm going to grab a drink of water really quick. Does anyone have any questions for me? While we're letting that dry. I'm gonna see if I missed anything. I'm trying to think back to some of the most common questions I asked. The link to sign up for this challenge is pinned in the announce— or not in the— I'm sorry, I'm used to saying that for Facebook groups. It is pinned in the comments. Yes, Alice, you can still sign up. You have until Wednesday. We're going to close doors Wednesday. You have until Wednesday to get signed up, and classes start on Wednesday. So you do not need to see this entire painting. This is what I'm teaching inside the group. I'm just showing you this example. I just wanted to put it on here so you guys could see kind of what I'm gonna show you today. We're just gonna do one big messy flower. I'm going to go ahead and blow dry this a little bit just to speed up our process so we're not having to wait quite as long for this to dry. And if you do not have a blow dryer around your craft station, I would recommend grabbing one, I guess, like a dollar store or whatever, just a cheap little blow dryer. If you're impatient like me, it really helps to speed the process up, and you don't have to wait for the paint to dry. You can dry it yourself. Um, Sarah is saying, are we supposed to paint the canvas before we start? No, you're actually not supposed to do anything before we start. If you are already in, um, I forgot to mention this, if you are already in the challenge, I'm actually going to do a separate Facebook Live when I'm done here on the public page, and I'm going to go into the group and talk to you guys a little bit about getting ready for Wednesday. So, um, again, I want this to be as easy as possible and as stress-free as possible, so I don't want you to have to worry about having anything prepped and ready and like you have to sit down, like class has started at 10:30 on Wednesday and you got to have all your stuff together. We're not that serious and strict inside the group, so I really just want you to show up ready to learn and ready to watch. That would be my, my advice. I do not use any Floetrol or water to thin my paint. These are craft paints, so they are naturally thin anyways. Amy said, for your creative process, how often do you paint? How often do you sketch to create a painting? Amy, I paint as much as I possibly can, which honestly doesn't happen as much as I'd like. I'm always sketching, I'm always drawing. I have multiple sketchbooks all over my house. I sketch on my iPad. I'm always coming up with new ideas, and that's how I come up with my compositions too. I sketch first. Laura's saying, should you paint the sides of the canvas? Yes, for time's sake, and just because I'm showing you guys this today, I'm not painting. I normally do paint the sides of my canvas as well. Hey, Brenda. Diana, it starts on Wednesday if you signed up for the challenge. If you guys are signing up, make sure you are checking your email. You got a welcome email as soon as you completed your registration. If you're not seeing that email, be sure to check your spam and your promotions folders and search. You have a search bar in your email. Search the Social Easel and you should be able to find it. That will give you the link to the Facebook group, which is where everything happens. Okay, you have to be in the Facebook group to watch the Facebook Lives. Um, Glenda, I use Procreate to do my sketches in. Okay, so I'm gonna grab some paints here. Just gonna get some of the Peony Pink. This is just a hot pink, so I can just give you kind of general terms of what these colors are. This is kind of like a lilac. And I'm gonna grab a— we're gonna change this up a little. I love this color. This is Periwinkle, and it looks and sounds exactly like— I mean, it looks It's exactly like what it sounds like. It is just a periwinkle color. And then I'm gonna grab— let me see if I have a red over here. I like to use some reds with my hot pinks too, just to give some variation. Brenda said she also bought the acrylic markers, excited to learn the ways to use them. They are so fun. And then let's grab a little bit of white. Remember, you can add white to pretty much anything and you're going to get a different color. So again, we talk a lot about color mixing, not feeling like you have to use whatever paint is available. You can make your own colors, so don't be afraid to play. That's the main thing I want to tell you guys. Don't let fear stop you from creating, finding out that you have that inner artist that you don't know you have. No one's judging you. There's no critique. If you don't like what you did, you can throw it away. I don't recommend that, but you can paint over. This is why I love acrylic. If you haven't painted with acrylic, once something is dry, you can paint over top of it. So if you do something you don't like on your painting, let it dry, blow dry it if necessary, and then paint over top of it, and it's fine. So there, there really are not any mistakes that you cannot fix. In acrylic art, and we're going to talk about that inside the group. Daphne, there is a supply list when you sign up. This is a 6x6 little canvas. Holly's asking what colors you'd mix to get periwinkle. Holly, there is a color mixing chart that you can buy in my Amazon store that's really going to help you learn how to mix colors. But it's kind of like a blue and purple, so blue and purple and white. But I would really recommend getting a color mixing guide if you don't have one. Okay, so we're going to use the filbert brush, and I'm going to scoot this over just a little bit. Can you still see? I want to make sure you guys can still see the big flower that we're doing. Scoot that up just a little. So I'm just going to kind of show you this messy little round flower today, and I'm going to start just really loading up my brush and just start going around in a circular shape, but I want this freeform. I don't want this to be just a perfect circle. And when you're working with acrylic, you want to work in bases. So this is going to be our base coat. Obviously you can still see through this, right? It's not really thick. So what I want to tell you not to do is, if you're painting at home and you're doing this and it's your first time, don't keep loading up and putting more paint on here because you can still see through it. You need to let this dry before you put your second coat on. So this is just a base coat. Now we can come in and add some red in there if we want. So these are just quick little brush strokes. Okay, again, messy is our theme here. Let's add some maybe little ones out to the side, maybe a little cluster of them. So these, just like little blobs— I like to paint a lot of blobs in my paintings. So we're going to let this dry. For a little bit. Okay, so while I'm letting that dry, because I don't want to just load it up with a bunch of wet paint on wet paint— Ruth says if I'm a member already. No, Ruth, we've already taught this in the Tribe group, so you actually already have this lesson in there. And then you guys can join the, um, the other group for free. There's a link inside our Facebook group. Always go to the announcements in our Facebook group for any of that kind of stuff. And the link for our store is posted in the comments. I'll try to go back and repost that again. Yes, this is a Filbert. I think you guys are helping, helping me answer some of these questions too, so thank you. So for my background, I'm just going to grab a round here. I want to do this Periwinkle. And maybe some of this like violet color. And again, the whole theme of this is all about being messy, right? So this is what I'm going to do, and this is similar to how we will do the painting inside the group. Just kind of go around There's no right or wrong as far as color or anything like that. You can pick the colors that I did, or you can get creative and do your own. But I just like to leave a little edging of that black around there. Just come in here, and you can use a smaller brush if you need to. And remember, I told you we're gonna scribble. Scribbling is so fun. And it's so stress relieving. Now it's much more— it's much more fun on a big canvas like we're going to do inside the challenge. Yes, Pamela, you— if you have already bought a black canvas, that will work great. Otherwise, we're just going to paint it. Well, I didn't mean for that to happen. The whole lining of this pencil came off here, but it doesn't matter. This pencil is dull and needs to be sharpened, but that doesn't matter because here's what we're going to do while this background paint is wet. Yes, Nikki, I'm putting my used brushes in my water cup. I always have it sitting here with me. You don't ever want to leave your brushes laying out with paint drying on them, so whenever you're not using them, put them in your water cup. We are going to— can you guys see this okay? I'm going to just start scribbling all in that wet paint, so it just creates that fun messy texture on there. Similar to what we did here, but on a much bigger scale. And if you guys are new to the Social Easel, let me know in the comments if you're new, or if you want to send up a heart to let me know that you're new and this is the first time watching. Um, we obviously have this challenge that I would love for you to be a part of so you can really get to know what it's like to learn from me and what it's like to be a part of our community, because we are opening the doors to my tribe on April 18th. So I want you to save that date. Love for you to be a part of this. But if you're new and you're nervous and you just have a lot of questions about painting, I really want you to be sure to visit my blog. Just go to thesocial easel.com and there's a dropdown and a little column where you're just going to hit blog. All your questions about supplies and paint and how— like brush cleaner, all that kind of stuff. I have just a wealth of knowledge there for you to visit on my blog that is just free information for you to just kind of go through and figure some things out. Um, so welcome to all— I saw tons of hearts flying up, so welcome to all of you that are new, and I'm glad to have you here painting with me. Um, hopefully you're having fun just kind of seeing what my style is all about and how messy and fun it's going to be. This is what I want for everyone, is just to learn how to embrace embrace the messiness and the looseness and the craziness of painting and just have fun with it. That's what this is all about. So excited! Look at all you newbies! Thank you, Brenda, for sending some stars, and Stacy. Thank you, Holly. Nancy's a first-timer. Hey, Linda! So good to have all of you here, and be sure to share with your friends if you have some other ladies who you know would love to get in on this, be sure to share, share this Facebook Live with them. And inside the group, again, if you're feeling fearful or nervous, we're going to talk about that. I'm going to do some devotionals with you because I believe that God put a creative person inside every one of us because he designed us in his image. And he is the original creator, therefore he made us creative. Some of you just haven't found it yet. So I feel like that is where he brought me to meet you, is to help you find that creative side, pull that out of you, um, because I know you have it in there. And it's all about just letting go and trusting God. So we're going to talk about fear, we're going to talk about trust, and we're going to talk about trusting the process. Because this may be freaking you out right now, how messy and crazy I'm being, but I promise you it all comes together. It all comes together in the end to make a beautiful painting. And that's what we're going to talk about inside the group too. So again, I will be leading each session. We have 2 live sessions, and each one, um, will start with a mini devotional where we're going to talk about fear and trust and anxiety, but then the good stuff too. We're going to talk about joy, and we're going to talk about grace. And, um, all of that is, um, going to happen within the challenge. Okay, so I think this is pretty dry, dry enough for me to start putting a second coat on. So you can tell it's dry where it's kind of a matte finish, and if it's still shiny, it's wet. But for the purpose of what I'm doing, I know I can go ahead and move forward with this and start putting a second coat of paint on here. So I'm going to go back into the pink, and you'll see it start kind of standing out a little bit more. Let's grab a little red. Notice how quickly I'm doing this. I'm not overthinking it, just here and there and everywhere. Let's do the same thing on our little blobs. You'll notice I'm real technical with my painting terms. I don't want this to be intimidating. I don't want this to be— this isn't like high level where I'm gonna get all serious with you on techniques and stuff. I'm going to show you how I paint and how I love to paint, and it's free and loose. And messy and all about you finding your own style. All right, so starting to look more flowery, right? Yes, Diane, I love that. She said, I believe God loves colors, just look at the world. Absolutely. Okay, so I'm going to grab a little bit of white, just kind of smear that around in some areas. So I want you to see how much paint I have on my brush too. That's a lot of paint, right? Don't be afraid of your paint. And you can do some really light brush strokes and get like bold brush strokes, or you can push in a little bit more and it's going to mix a little bit more with the pinks and the reds. Again, no right or wrong, really, kind of whatever you want. Let's throw in just a little bit of this color, see if I like that. You can always change your mind, always, always, always. I think I want to make a little bit of purple, so I'm going to pull some of this red over here, some of my blue that I had. Let's put a little of that periwinkle in there. Oh, look at that pretty color! This is what I mean about color mixing— just have fun, experiment. It's just a palette. If you don't like the color, ignore it, move on. You can keep changing it. So now I've got this really pretty purple. Let's add some of that in there. I want to do a black center, so I'm just going to come down in the middle, put my little black center in there. I'm just wiping off the extra on my table. Maybe add a little purple and some of these extra flowers out here. Now you could do a couple different things here. While the paint is still wet, we could even scribble inside of here Create some crazy little lines. Do the same thing on these. See, it's mixing my paint, it's moving the paint around, it's creating some texture and movement in there. Maybe grab some of this black. Just swirl that around a little bit. I think the messier the better. Can you guys see this okay? Is it glaring? What do you guys think so far? I love these colors in this one. I love that periwinkle background. Do you guys think you can be loose and messy? Awesome. Margaret said she sold a painting last week. I framed it and one of the others on my wall. I'm really having fun. That is awesome. Congratulations. Yeah, if you guys came in late for this, you can go back once I'm done here and you'll just be able to jump back on and watch the replay immediately afterwards. So who would have thought scribbling on a painting would be so fun, right? Any kind of pencil, Linda. You could even use a pen. You could use the back end of a paintbrush if you needed to. Anything that's basically going to scratch into that wet paint. Sherry said, maybe can. I'm a Type A, so it's hard to be loose and messy. And you know what I've realized is most of us are Type A's and have a hard time letting go. And that's why I love these kind of challenges, because I'm gonna push you to try something different. Kelly is asking, what's the difference in white and black canvas? And so it really just depends on the look you're going for. So like in the Funky Spring Flowers, I did a black canvas first, so when I did my colored coat, you know, like my background, and I scratched into it with the scribbles, that that darkness comes through. I also like that it leaves some of the black edging around my shapes. It just kind of— it's just a fun different way to paint. I do it both ways. I paint on white canvases and I paint on dark canvases. Um, there is no right or wrong. It comes down to preference and what you like. If you do the scribbles on a white canvas, it's not going to show up as much because there's not dark underneath there. So hopefully that makes sense. But I teach all kinds of styles. This happens, you know, you kind of get— as an artist, you kind of get fixated on a style for a little bit, and, um, this is one that I'm fixated on for the time being. Um, but I have some other fun things that I'm working on too. I'm just going to give you guys a little bit of a sneak peek of what is coming, um, in Tribe. I'm going to let this dry a little bit while I show you guys some stuff. Yes, absolutely, that's a good idea. Um, Susan said, can we add a green leaf to the small painting? I think we should, Susan. I'm going to do that really quick. I like your idea. Before I show you some of my other art, um, I am going to add a green leaf, and I actually meant to. I just forgot to pull the paint out, so thank you for the reminder. Um, Jessica's saying, is that how artists write in paintings? Like, if you want to— yes, yes, that is one way to do it. There's multiple ways, but yes, for sure, that's one way. Paint markers, my black and white ones are fine tip. And, um, my colored ones are just like a medium tip, like the Arteza ones. Like, I use this hot pink one and it's just like, um, just a medium-sized round tip. And those come— you can get the Arteza markers in a set of 20 or 40. Both of them are in my Amazon store. Um, Janelle, the link to sign up for this is in the comments, and then I'll be sure to post it again and you can sign up for that. You do not have to prep your canvas. Kristen's saying, can you use oil-based paint markers or do they have to be water-based? I actually use both. Again, I don't know what the technical right answer to that is. In my art, I use both of them, so I don't think it matters. Okay, I promise you I'm staying focused. I'm gonna do— I got two different greens here. I really like this idea of like a bright teal green. Let's do a little leaf here. Maybe some kind of coming out on the side. You just kind of play with it and see what you like. Maybe one more. I don't want to cover up too much of the background, but here's what I want you guys to realize. Like, me making these choices right now, just quickly live with you, changing something up— if I get done with this and I'm not happy with that, I can just wipe the green off if I wanted to, let it dry, and paint that periwinkle again and scratch right back into it. So that's what I mean, like you can always go back and change things in your painting. You're not stuck with something just because you put a brush stroke down. Okay, so save the date, April 18th. For those of you asking about Tribe, for this painting, for the Funky Spring Flowers, sign up is open now. You can sign up now. The link is in the comments and we start class on Wednesday. Trish said she did the Jar Full of Sunshine and really enjoyed the class. Lots of fun, learned so much. I'm so glad. Lauren, I do not buy black canvases just because they're more expensive, so I just buy white canvases and paint them black. And I just— I do— I also do not buy expensive canvases. Like, go buy the bulk, like Hobby Lobby or Michaels. You're gonna get your best deal and buy their, their 5-pack or 6-pack depending on what size that you get. Okay, so you guys know this is like, this is my personality in a painting is what I feel like. I'm gonna put the big one down here so you guys can see the whole thing while I'm talking, but I love these bright colors. If you followed me for a while, you'll see this in a lot of my stuff. Stuff. Like, these are my abstract birds, also all the bright colors. But right now I'm working on some things to go in my house, which— my house— my office is all these bright colors, but my house itself is very neutral and calm, kind of, you know, like modern farmhouse style. Um, so I'm changing up what I'm working on. This is gonna be in May. I'm gonna show you some of the upcoming paintings that we're doing in May. This is a new windmill. So, you know, same messy crazy style, but we've got some more muted tones now. And then let me know if you guys like that. Shoot me up a thumbs up if you like the windmill. One of my good friends, Bobby, has been begging me for a windmill painting forever. This is actually for her. She gets my duplicate after I teach it. And then I'm a little nervous about showing you guys this next one because it is not done, but I am gonna show you my progress and you can tell me if you like where it's going. I love rustic, all things all things rustic, farmhouse style, farm animals. I have a whole farm animal series that is included in Tribe, but I'm working on a new one. So this is my new sheep. She is not done yet, so be kind, but let me know if you guys like the idea of where this one is going. Now, I don't want her to have a face. She's going to be a faceless sheep because I want it to be more of the primitive style. So let me know, what do you guys think so far? Do we like her? You think she's cute? This is what I am working on for May. We're gonna switch modes. We've done a lot of florals lately, and now we're going to go into some farmhouse designs. Thank you, Lorena and Rhonda and Linda. Oh, I'm glad you guys like her. I was struggling with her the other day, and then I had to quit painting because we had to leave for Kansas City, and I just wanted to stay home. I just wanted to stay home and finish painting her. Um, so thank you guys so much. I'm glad you like her. And I'm working on some more farmhouse animals. But I'm also going to be doing a new barn. I've wanted a new barn, like landscape barn, the whole thing, painting to hang in my home for a while now. So that is coming in May also. So that's just a sneak peek of what I'm working on in the background and some new ideas that I'm coming up with for my Tribe. So for those of you asking about Tribe, you get 3 new paintings every single month with me. So I'm always working on new designs. I have a whole list of ideas, but a lot of it depends on my mood and what, you know, what is coming to me, what's flowing to me, whether it turns out good or not. You know, sometimes paintings are struggles and you move on to something else. So that's where we're going. Sherry said, like the windmill, love barns, love lighthouses. Yeah, see, I see I have to do a whole nautical theme. Like, I love the ocean, I love the sea, I want to do sailboats. Like, I have so many ideas. So that's where all that stuff happens, is inside my Tribe. That's where I teach all those new paintings. And then I just do these challenges every once in a while, but I only open Tribe twice a year. So we only accept new members in the spring and the fall. So April 18th is the day you want to mark down on your calendars if you are interested in being a part of the Tribe. April 18th is a completely different painting. That is not this. So this, this is the fall flowers— fall flowers, I did fall flowers too. This is the spring flowers. And this one's only $15. This is a one-time-only class, $15, one payment, not related to Tribe. This is just a fun class for you to learn this specific painting. But anyways, so I do the bright and the bold and the crazy, and then we're switching modes and doing some farmhouse stuff too. You guys will find out all the details about Tribe over the next few weeks, so stay tuned and I'm going to fill you in on all of that. So let's check this out and see where we're at here. It's still pretty wet, but what I want to show you that I'm going to do before we add anything else to it is going to come in— because we added these green leaves on, now they don't have the black around them. Can you see that? So it doesn't quite tie in with the painting. Linda said, do you get past paintings? Yes, Linda, that is a good question. When you join Tribe, you get access to 3 years worth of content. We are celebrating our 3rd birthday, so I'm super excited about that, which means there's going to be all kinds of specials for you guys. But yes, you get access to everything I've ever taught inside of Tribe. For the past 3 years. There's a full library of over 85 paintings that you can go back and watch whenever you want. It's like on-demand classes. They're there for you, and you can watch them whenever you want to. I'm going to go back with some black anywhere I feel like I need a little extra black around some of these edges and just lightly drag it. And again, this is not trying to be perfect or anything. We want this to be messy. The messier the better. But it's going to tie these leaves in a little bit more with the painting. See how that kind of separates them a little bit more. Oh, Cindy's asking, is the messy the only tech— no, absolutely not. I teach all kinds of styles. Lots of different things. If you want to see what I, um, what like my catalog or my portfolio looks like, if you just go to thesocialeasel.com, you'll be able to browse through some of past paintings that I've done. Or you can go to the link to get on the waitlist for Tribe, and you'll be able to see paintings there as well. I'm gonna go ahead and blow dry this again. Try to do it away from the video a little bit so it's not blasting your eardrums. Thank you, Lauren and Allison. So I have some pretty thick paint in some areas. I'm only going to be able to show you the paint pen marks in a few areas right now. Let me get this one primed. So, um, just a couple notes about paint pen. And by the way, I have these in all sizes. This is just the skinny ones are, um, what I use in some of my finer— like this example, these are some birdhouses I did. I use these skinny black ones, so they make these skinny little scribble marks. In there. You can use the, the bigger ones from the Arteza set and