In this YouTube video, Christie Renee Hawkins of The Social Easel walks viewers through her favorite painting supplies and demonstrates how she uses them in her online community, Tribe. She begins by introducing her signature 15‑piece synthetic acrylic brush set and explains the different brush shapes. She then covers palette knives, describing how they encourage a looser, more abstract style, and shows examples of pumpkin and flower paintings created with knives. Christie discusses additives such as gel medium and modeling paste for achieving impasto and 3D texture, and shows an impasto sunflower piece. She moves on to watercolor supplies, including a basic watercolor palette and waterproof pens, illustrating mixed media watercolor works. Mixed media pads are presented as versatile sketchbooks for practicing brushwork, experimenting with techniques, and creating finished pieces that can be framed. Paint pens are highlighted for fine detail work. Christie outlines her two main paint choices—heavy‑bodied acrylic tubes and craft‑paint bottles—and notes how gel medium can modify consistency. She advises on painting surfaces, ranging from mixed media pads, canvas, wood panels, to pallet boards, emphasizing flexibility. Throughout, she encourages beginners not to feel they need every item, recommending a minimal starter kit of a surface, synthetic brushes, and acrylic paint. The video also promotes the Tribe membership, celebrating ten years of The Social Easel, detailing bonuses, access to 175+ past videos, monthly live lessons, and a limited enrollment window closing October 10, 2023.
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Hey guys, it's Christie Renee Hawkins with The Social Easel, and we are here today to go over my favorite painting supplies. So this is a question I get all of the time, and I thought it would be fun to just do a quick video with you and show you what some of my favorite painting supplies are and what I'll be using inside of Tribe. So this just gives you a sampling of what I love and how I teach. So don't feel like you have to have all of these to join us. These are just some of the different options that you have available to you. If you join us today, you will also get a chance to take part in our biggest bonus ever. We are celebrating 10 years with The Social Easel, 10 years of me teaching women just like you how to paint, and we're giving away big bonuses in addition to that. The paintings behind me that you see on the wall are just a few of the bonuses that you're going to get when you become a Tribe Sister today. But before we get to that, I want to go over some of my favorite painting supplies with you, um, and what again I'll be using when I teach inside of Tribe. So of course, number one is going to be the brushes, right? So what you are looking for, um, when you're painting with acrylic is synthetic brushes. Now I have designed my own set. This is my signature set. It's a 15-piece set that you can get in the store, and these are the brushes that I use when I teach inside of my tribe. So there are again 15, all different styles. We have a flat, filbert, angled, round, liner brushes, and even a fan brush. So later this week, be sure to check back for the future videos because I'm going to be doing Brushes 101, and I'm going to show you all the behind the scenes of how to use these different types of brushes. So number 1, synthetic acrylic paintbrushes. Number 2 is going to be palette knives. And if you haven't ever used these before, they can be a little intimidating at first, but I think you will quickly fall in love with them. Most of the ladies who have started with palette knife were intimidated just like you were, but when they started seeing how they could create these loose, more abstract style paintings, they fell in love with it. Because what painting with a palette knife does is forces that little perfectionist part of you, pushes her away, so that you can focus on just having fun and creating with a palette knife. So I use these in several of my pieces of artwork. Um, we can do it for flowers. We can do it for pumpkins. Let me grab one really quick. So this is just one example. This pretty texture that you see on these pumpkins, the texture in this background, all of that is created with a palette knife. So this painting is included when you become a Tribe Sister, and you are going to do this one with the brushes and palette knife. A lot of times I use both of them um, in conjunction together. Another one that I've used palette knife in is our Funky Fall Flowers, and, um, that again is a combination of both palette knife and brushes. So it's just a way to create that fun texture and get a completely different look with your artwork. Going down my list so I don't forget everything. Um, Next up is gel medium. If you haven't heard of this yet, this is an additive that you can add to your paint, whether you use craft acrylic or heavy-bodied acrylic, which I'm going to show you in just a second. Adding gel medium to your paint makes it thicker and gives you more of an impasto style painting, which means it kind of comes off the surface, more of a 3D texture. It won't change the color of your paint. All it's going to do is thicken it up, which makes it really fun to use with a palette knife. Let me show you a version of this. So this is one of the newest lessons that I just taught inside of Tribe, um, my impasto style sunflowers. They're crazy and whimsical. And super 3D. So we did this with a combination of the palette knife with gel medium, and my next thing that I'm going to share with you is modeling paste. So I used both of these to create that impasto style painting. Now I have a gigantic tub of this because I do a lot of painting. You can get this in several different sizes. But modeling paste is going to give you again that 3D effect to your paint. I used a combination of both gel medium and modeling paste to create the impasto style piece of work that I did here. And then taking a completely different approach to painting, something else that I love playing with that we do inside of TRIBE is watercolor. So this is just a basic watercolor palette. You can get these on Amazon, not expensive at all. I love watercolor for the simplicity of it, for the ease of using it. It's something fast, you can travel with it. So I love doing watercolor. This is just a quick example of one of my watercolor wreaths, and then I've got a few more examples here. A new pumpkin. That I just did in watercolor. This is from the Vault. You get access to this when you become a Tribe Sister, our Christmas barn. So all of these are done in watercolor and then used with my next item, which is waterproof pens. And there are lots of different brands you can get of these. This is just a new one I got off of Amazon. Um, I can't even read the brand, it's in another language. Or you can get the Faber-Castell, you can get Pentelic. As long as they say waterproof, then you're good to go. And if you look back at the painting again, you can see that not only did I do watercolor, but there's some pen work in there as well. So a lot of times I like to mix my watercolor with waterproof pens to create that look as well. And then, um, speaking of inside, wondering what this is, um, if you are worried about not having enough wall space, what are you going to do with all these paintings that you create? A lot of people use a mixed media pad, so that's what I did this painting in. and I recommend this to every student that paints with me, whether you're in Tribe, whether you're in Painting of the Month Club, or you're just painting along with me on YouTube or Facebook. Think of a mixed media pad. This is one of my favorite things. I have so many filled with them, they become like art journals. But think of it like a sketchbook for painting. So you can do watercolor in here, you can do acrylic, you can do mixed media, um, you can even do palette knife painting in here. So I'm just going to flip through here to show you mine, because inside of here you can just see some different— that was me doing some palette knife, one of my kids' paintings that I did practicing brush strokes, another painting inside of the vault. Um, what else was I going to show you in here? I wanted to show you some of my practice work. So even if you're just practicing brushwork, this is what a mixed media pad is for. So it is not for just for completed paintings, it's for you to practice your brush strokes in, practice paintings in before you go to a canvas. It kind of takes the intimidation level away from it. I also use it to sketch out future designs and come up with composition ideas. Um, there was one more I was gonna show here. These are just several paintings that I've done. So the fall birch trees that we did inside of here. And then the great thing about mixed media pads is after you are done with them if you love it, you don't have to leave it in your mixed media pad. You can take it and frame it. So I framed a lot of mine. Here's another example of me just playing around with brush strokes. So this is really where you learn how to do the brush strokes, you learn how to paint. This is what I recommend, um, women having with me while they're painting along with me. So instead of keeping up with the painting, I recommend you don't try to paint step-by-step with me live. I actually recommend that if you want to practice, practice brush strokes while I'm showing those, but don't try to complete the painting because it'll add stress to you. But this is a great thing to have while you're watching me live so you can start playing with brush strokes, getting comfortable with the paint, how much to have on your brush, all of those things. That is what a mixed media pad is for, and I absolutely Love them and highly recommend them. And then the last thing on my list of things that I love are paint pens. This is something I discovered just a few years ago, and before that I didn't have it ever incorporated into my artwork. But once I was introduced to it, I was like, where have these been my whole life? It's literally paint in a pen. So if you struggle with small lines or details, you can use a paint pen to add that into your artwork. Now I incorporate paint pens into a ton of things that I do. Um, let's see, one example is here, one of our floral lessons inside. This one has some gold paint pens, white paint pens, black. So you can see all the fun details and layers that that gives to the painting, but they just make it so much fun. So I highly recommend getting some paint pens as well. So again, I know that's a lot of information, but I did want to share with you some of the different things that we do inside of Tribe, because it's not all just basic step-by-step painting. You're going to learn a lot in there. You're going to get to try new things out that are going to help you figure out what your specific painting style is. What do you prefer? You really can't know until you try it all, right? And as an artist, I love trying new things. I love experimenting with new things. And as I do that— that's kind of how this guy came about— as I do that, I share, um, with you guys, and we learn and play together. And that's what makes the community so much fun. Um, so the one thing I forgot, right? Paint, probably the most important. Um, you can use a variety of things. These are my two most used. So either heavy-bodied acrylic that comes in tubes like this— you'll find that in the art section of the store— or you can just use craft paint like the DecoArt, um, Apple Barrel, um, Michaels Craft Smart, these little 2-ounce paint bottles. You can get them in different sizes. These are going to be thinner and this is going to be thicker. But with both of these, remember the gel medium I talked about? You can always add gel medium to it if you do want them thicker for a certain style of painting. So there's lots of different options out there for you, and I hope you have fun kind of playing around and getting your art supplies together. If you're like me, it's It's kind of dorky, but I get so excited about art supplies, and I love finding new and fun things that I can incorporate into my artwork. Um, the one last thing I wanted to share with you guys— we talked about how you can paint in your mixed media pad, but a lot of times people ask me, well, what kind of surfaces do I need to paint on? And the answer is you can really choose whatever you want to. But again, I paint on a variety of things, so we can do mixed media pad. I may do wood panels. So this is just like plywood, and these come in different thicknesses on the side. Or we may just do canvas, and I do a bunch of different sizes of canvas. I love squares, I love rectangles. Some of these behind me were done on pallet boards that my husband made for me out of pieces of wood put together, and I decided I was going to put a painting on them, and it turned into a huge craze here in my local area when I started doing that. For local paint nights. So, um, don't feel limited. Basically anything that you can paint on, um, works, whatever that may be. Use what you have available. And I want to end with this: don't feel like you have to have all the things to get started. I think that is one of the biggest mistakes that people make is kind of like that Type A personality that comes out in us sometimes, and we think we have to gather all the things before we can get started. And if I have all this and I have the right lighting and I have the right space— you see what I'm saying? But really, that just prevents you from just getting going. All you need to get going is a painting surface, whatever you want that to be, some synthetic paintbrushes and some bottles of craft acrylic paint. Bare minimum basics, that's all you need to get started, but you are going to learn so much. I hope you enjoyed seeing what some of my favorite things are and how you can incorporate those into your artwork, and I hope it gives you a better idea of what you can expect inside of Tribe. So doors are closing October 10th. At midnight. Um, we're closing on the 10th to celebrate 10 years, and we will not be opening doors again to the public until fall '24. So this is your last chance to join us, to come and be a part of our seasonal holiday, um, uh, paintings. These are just a few that you're going to get as bonuses. I'm going to show you later this week a preview of all the seasonal paintings that we have. When you become a member, you you get immediate access to over 175 videos immediately, instant access to all of those, which is the past 5 years worth of content inside of my tribe. But that's not all, because you're also going to get live lessons with me each month. And I've got new fun paintings that we're going to be doing in October, November, and December to finish off 2023, and big plans for the beginning of 2024. So I can't wait to have you join us. Join before Wednesday at midnight and you're going to get all of the bonuses that you see below when you click the link. So all the information about TRIBE, FAQs, any of that kind of stuff that you're still wondering about, just click the link below or above depending on how you're watching this, and all those questions are going to be answered for you on that page. So we cannot wait to have you become a part of our tribe with us. I will see you tomorrow. Bye.
