Let's Paint a Funky Little Flower with Christie from The Social Easel!!

Okay, it says we're live, so I'm gonna go for it. Um, hi everyone, this is Christie Renee Hawkins with The Social Easel, and I am jumping on live with you guys tonight to talk to you a little bit about my Funky Spring Flowers painting challenge that I have coming up. But we're actually going to paint tonight. I'm going to show you how to paint a super simple um, a super simple little flower just like I have in this painting. So before we get started, I'm gonna make sure everything looks good to you guys and that I'm showing up for you. If you want to, um, let me know in the comments when you hop on and just say hi, and then I'll be able to see your comments here as well. I think we're good. Hey, hey! So I'm going to introduce myself again because, uh, just in case it was a little bit glitchy in the beginning, and I'm on actually multiple pages right now, so I just want to say hi to everyone. If you don't recognize me and you're wondering why I'm on the page that I'm on, because I'm on other pages other than the Social Easel. My name is Christie Hawkins, um, and I'm the owner of the Social Easel, and I teach people how to paint with acrylics. And we are getting ready to do one of my biggest painting challenges yet, and it's the Funky Spring Flowers. I'm going to show this to you guys really quick. Hey Stacy! Hey Elizabeth! Don't mind the back of my hair, by the way, either. So you You can see I have two versions here. This was my original. I did on a 16 by 20, and then when I taught it inside my membership group, I decided I wanted to do something bigger, and I love painting on squares, so I decided to do it on a 20 by 20. So I've got two different versions. So what we're going to do today is you can see I've got several different types of flowers on here, and I'm going to show you how to do the easiest one. Anyone can do this, even if you've never picked up a paintbrush before. We're going to do this big crazy flower right here in the middle on a mini little canvas. I'm going to show you this real quick. Oh, hey Shelly! You said her sister and her were just talking about joining the upcoming class. You totally should. It's only $15. It's the only time you'll ever be able to get it for $15. And here's the best part. The class starts tomorrow, by the way. So I teach live inside a private Facebook group tomorrow and Thursday at 10:30 AM Central Standard Time. But here's the best part. You don't have to be there live. So there's no way we can make it work with everyone's schedule. So we allow replays, and those go to the announcements in that group immediately afterwards. So even if it doesn't work with your schedule, you can still sign up for it, and you can jump in and watch the replays whenever you want to, and you have lifetime access to them. So, um, it's going to be a ton of fun, and this challenge is all about me trying to get you out of your comfort zone, um, and learning how to paint again, even if you've never picked up a paintbrush before. Um, I have been teaching women how to paint For the last 7 and a half years I've taught thousands of women. Most of them were just like you, saying, I don't know how to, I've never done it before, there's no way, I can't draw a stick figure, and now they're painting up a storm. So if that sounds like you, or if you just think this is a fun painting and you want to jump in and do it with us, please join us. It's going to be a ton of fun. But tonight I'm going to paint. This is a little 6 by 6 canvas I got for a dollar. Super cheap, and we're just going to use some craft paints. I have some of my favorite colors in DecoArt picked out and a few other supplies, and I'm going to show you how to make a mini version of this flower right here. And I'm going to show you, I did this on my page yesterday. This is the one I did yesterday. Isn't that cute? So let me know if you guys are excited about that. If you want to learn how to do this tonight, you're going to get a little preview of kind of how I teach and what the challenge is going to be all about. But you're also just going to learn how to paint this cute little guy. And this is for all ages, all experience levels, and I'm going to try to catch as many comments as I can. So just Bear with me. I've got Allison, who's one of my team members, on here with me. She's going to try to help me field some of the comments as well. But we're, we're going to catch as many as we can. I'm getting ready to move the camera over to my studio. You see this little holder right here? This is where I'm going to put you guys, and that way you're going to have an aerial view so you can see exactly what I'm doing on this, and it's going to be so much fun. So this challenge is all about— I call it the Funky Spring Flowers. Because they are, they're funky. But it's all about getting messy and having fun and letting go of that Type A part of you that wants everything to be perfect and clean and, you know, right. We're gonna try to break that mold, and we're just gonna create and have fun. And I just want to get some paint on your paintbrush, and I want you getting creative, and I want to help you find that creative side inside of yourself. So that's what we're gonna do tonight. So I'm just going to move my stuff around really quick here. Allison, do you have anything before we jump in and get started?

No, I think we're good. I think we're good. Okay, the biggest thing that I'm seeing is we can— you guys get lifetime access. You'll be able to go back and watch it anytime if you can't make it to the live events.

Yes, yeah. So don't worry, like, if you can't make it live, you're going to be able to go back to that Facebook group and view them in the announcements. And then after a few weeks, we're actually going to put it on the website. So you'll just have your own login, and you can just log in, and it's like painting on demand. You can go to it whenever you want to and, and paint it whenever it's convenient for you. And here's the best part, and this is actually what I recommend to people who paint with me. Um, and not even just for the first time. This is what I tell women inside of my group too. I really want you to come in if you're thinking, oh my gosh, this starts tomorrow. Well, I don't have anything. That's okay. I actually prefer and encourage my students to come and watch first, and then go back and watch the replay to where you can stop it, you can rewind it, you can go back and rewatch a certain section as many times as you want to to see me do that painting technique. So you can truly take it at your own pace. And the reason I encourage that is because I've been teaching for 7 years, and one thing that I've learned is when people are painting along with me, they're not able to fully focus on the instructions that I'm giving. So they're busy trying to keep up and like, do the next step, do the next step, and then they're missing what I'm saying, or they're missing the, you know, the brushstrokes that I'm showing. So it's really, really good for you, and there's going to be some women in the comments agreeing with me here on this. That they have learned that they absorb so much more information if they watch first and then go back, and it alleviates stress. So the last thing I want is for anyone to be stressed out painting, and you're gonna get stressed if you're trying to keep up with the steps live. This way you're gonna be able to go back and watch it on replay, just like tonight's video. As soon as this video is done airing live, you guys are gonna be able to go back to it and you can take it at your own pace, and it'll be the same way inside of the group. So I'm going to carry you guys over here really quick. Bear with me, ignore the mess. How's that view look? You guys can see my desk and everything. And yes, this is just a one-time payment. So this is not a membership. You're not locked into anything. This is just a one-time fee of $15 for you to get to learn how to paint. I'm going to move some things out of the way. So what I want to do, I want to leave this little mini one over here so you guys can kind of see that as reference. I'm not going to paint it exactly the same as that. We're going to do some different different colors and maybe a little bit of a different layout as well. And I'm gonna put the original on here too, which is a little bit brave of me, and hopefully I don't get paint on my original, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna brave it. Maybe put a paper towel underneath it. Just in case. But I kind of want you to see this flower so that you can kind of see what we're going after. And they are putting the links in the comments if you want to sign up. Welcome, Jeanette! So glad you signed up. If you want to sign up, the links are in your description at the top of this Facebook Live. If you click on that, you'll see that description. And then they are also being posted in the comments for you. Jackie just signed up. Welcome. And so also, I just want to let you guys know, so we have lots of women joining this challenge. All right. We have a full team behind the scenes adding people in to the Facebook group. So you are going to get a thank you page when you sign up that has the link to the Facebook group that you need to join. And then you're also going to get an email with that link. You're going to go to the Facebook group, follow that link, request to join. Be sure you answer the questions, provide them with your email address that you signed up with, and just answer all 3 questions that are there, and they will approve you. These are manually done, so it's not going to be automatic. You're not going to miss anything. We will have everyone who has clicked to join the group by the time— like, if you click to join tonight, even if it's not approved until the morning, you will be approved before I actually start teaching live tomorrow. But just know that that is a manual process. So the very first thing I'm doing, which is going to seem a little strange, but we're, we're going to paint the entire background black, and I'm going to kind of show you why I do this. Allison, feel free to interrupt me if I'm missing an important question or something. So remember when I talked about this is all about letting loose and having fun, being messy? We are literally going to scribble on our painting, and in order for these scribbles to show up and look fun and funky the way that they do, we need to have a dark background first. So on this one that I did yesterday, I did kind of like a really dark navy background, and then I put this purple over top of it. Today I'm just going to do a black background, and I'm just going to paint the whole thing, whole thing black, and then we're going to dry it before we move on to the next step. If you've never painted before with acrylics, you just get really cheap, affordable, like DecoArt, Apple Barrel. From Walmart. I use all different brands of craft paint. It doesn't really matter. And they're super affordable, like the Apple Barrel ones are like 50 cents a bottle.

Hey Christie, can you zoom in a little bit?

Zoom in? Yes, I can. Let me move this big old canvas out of the way. I can scoot this up. Is that better for everyone? I'll kind of set that over there. Let me know if that looks better, or if you want me to scoot down just a little bit more. Yes, FolkArt is another brand you can use. Literally any craft paint is fine. Get you a little closer there.

Are we going to have access to this later? Well, we can— we find it on replay on the Social Easel page.

Um, this actual live, is that what you're talking about? Yes. Yeah, whatever page you are watching this on, you guys can go back and watch that replay later. So if you came in a little bit later— I'm on multiple pages, so if you hear me say that and you're confused and wondering why I'm saying that, um, we're streaming to multiple locations at the same time right now. But yes, replays will be available Now I'm not really going to paint the sides right now for the sake of tonight's class, but one fun thing that I do— let me see if my Funky Fall Flowers— so I did this in the fall too. One fun thing you can do on the edges of your canvas is these fun little black and white like checks all along the edge. That just kind of adds to to the fun and the funkiness. So that is something you can do when you are finished with your painting. You can add this cute little edging on, and then it looks super cute sitting on a shelf or hanging on the wall, and you don't have to worry about having a frame for it. But tonight I'm not going to do that. I missed this comment, but I love this. Someone said, I did it, self high five. I love that. I promise you, you're going to have a lot of fun, and, um, this is a great group of women. So if you are nervous, which I'm sure some of you are, you're going to be so encouraged inside of this group. And it's just such a fun thing to be a part of when everyone's posting their progress and showing what they're working on, and you get to see everybody else's work, you get to show off your work. And it's just a super encouraging environment to be in. Okay, I'm gonna hold this a little bit away from the camera right now, and I'm going to do a quick blow dry on this to let it dry. So if you guys have any questions while I'm doing that, go ahead and post them. By the way, I love having a blow dryer at my station. Just grab yourself a cheap blow dryer from somewhere. They're super handy to have if you tend to be a little impatient like I am when you're waiting for things to dry. You can speed that process up. All right, let's get some opinions here. Which color do you think should be my main color of my flower? We've got like a hot pink, we've got kind of a deep red, and we've got a coral. So let me know in the comments. What you guys think. While you're doing that, I'm gonna grab my palette to get some paint. Oh, that's awesome! Anna said the Fall Funky Flower Challenge was my first attempt at painting on canvas. I was amazed how Christie broke it down and made it easier to learn. She's been a tribe member ever since. I love this group. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, I see a lot of corals coming through. Coral, hot pink. Oh, we're getting all kinds of colors now. I'm trying to see which one's coming through the most. Well, you know what, I'm gonna let those comments keep on coming through. And while you guys are deciding, I'm gonna probably use all the colors, but we're gonna have one that's going to be dominant. These comments are coming in so fast I have to keep hitting the button to scroll down, see them. So if this ever happens to you guys— see how that's a little runny? That just means your craft paint needs to be shaken up some. Hey Tamara! Hey Brooke and Damon! I think you guys are on here. So we're actually not going to leave this background black, Shawna, we're going to add some fun color to it, and I'm going to show you how we're going to scribble in our painting, and it's super fun. If you need to let out some tension and some stress, this painting is going to do that for you. It's a good stress reliever. Okay, I think I'm going to go Welcome, Marlene, just signed up. I think coral was the color that I saw the most. Allison, what do you think?

I think you've got coral, hot pink, and a deep red. So I think coral's probably your top pick.

Okay, that's what I'm thinking. And this is what's fun, you guys, is when you start painting your own, if you're not digging my crazy bright colors And this one in my example, you can make this whatever you want to. So I really encourage people to go to the store and pick out what you love. I do give you a complete supply list, but I can't promise that all those colors are going to be in the store. So we even put the color swatches on there for you so that you can print off or bring on your phone with you to the store to look at the colors. That I use if you want to do something similar. Alright, so we're just going to start with, you know, I think maybe I'll do 2. Maybe we'll do 2 flowers. So I'm just loading up. I'm using a filbert brush. A filbert has a rounded edge on it, and I'm really— you see how much paint I have on there, so I'm really loading that up.

Christie Renee Hawkins: To paint the canvas black before attending tomorrow.

They don't have to. You actually don't have to come to class with anything done, because I actually encourage you to not paint with me while I'm teaching live. I know that sounds crazy, but, um, I prefer them to watch first. If you want to paint it black ahead of time, you can. Um, and I have some women who say, I don't want to paint it black, and I want to leave it white. That's fine. The only thing I want to tell you about that is it's not going to look the same as this. So if you do want it to look the same and have this fun, crazy texture as mine does, you will want to paint it black. But I'm actually going to do that live tomorrow. So it's one of those things you can do it ahead of time, or you can just kind of wait and, and see what I do. And so for this shape that I'm putting down right now, it's circular, but I don't want it a perfect circle. Okay, I want it kind of irregular, and I think I'm just going to add Maybe another one coming off the canvas here. And this is just going to be— I'm not even going to let that bother me. Okay, this is how I teach. Little things like this happen. Don't stress about it. It pulled a little bit of black in there, but here's what I want to tell you with acrylic painting. If you've never painted with acrylics before, if something like this happens, don't let it stress you out and do not try to fix it while it's wet. So this is my number one tip if you're new to painting with acrylic. If you do something you don't like, let it dry. As soon as this is dry, you can paint over top of it and you will never know that that was there. So I'm not going to worry that that pulled in a little bit of that, that black right now, because when I put my other coats on there, it's going to be completely covered up. Okay. Well, that is drying. I'm going to grab some green. And we're going to add a couple little leaves on here. And I told you, I want to make it a little different than this mini one I did yesterday. Hey, Teresa, thank you. Hey, Shawna. And I'm going to switch to— if I can find it in my randomness of brushes. I have too many brushes in my water right now. I'm going to switch to a round, and you may have seen me dry this off. Some people ask that, do you need to add water to your paint or anything like that? The answer is no, you don't want to add water to them. So you want to make sure your brushes are dry. And one of my tips for that, you kind of see me squeeze it. Don't just wipe it. Like this, because the water is still going to seep down out of that barrel. What you want to do is kind of squeeze it like that, and it's nice and dry. Okay, so that's the best way to get it dry before you go into a new color. And that's the same thing you want to do if you're using the same brush and switching colors. That way you don't have to worry about that previous color going in there. So let's add a couple leaves on. I'm just going to do kind of like a little bit of a curve that way and another one this way, and they kind of meet. And maybe one going off the canvas here. Um, maybe we'll have Let's do one over here. Then I thought it might be fun— I'm just going to show you guys a different kind of style of leaves you can do that I think are really fun. Just kind of pull in from this way. I'm just going to do a little line, and then I'm going to use my brush, load it up with green, and just do a few little leaves like that. What do you guys think? Not too hard. And just remember, everything that we're doing right now, this is what I call my base coat. I'm gonna keep adding to these. Let me know what you guys think so far. Is it looking fun? I like these colors together. And Deb is asking, is it best to work on a dry background? Yes. So I blew— blow-dried— that always sounds weird when you say it— this earlier so that this was dry before I painted on it. So now we're going to do what I think is the funnest part of the background. Again, I'm changing the colors up on this one. Teals and corals look really good together, by the way, um, because they are opposite each other on the color wheel, like blue and orange. So like teal and coral, they're kind of like right next to blue and orange on the opposite sides, so they complement each other a lot. So we're going to grab some of this. This is Bluegrass Green, one of my absolute favorite colors, and we're going to grab a little white. Um, Carrie's asking if you can sign up later. You cannot, Carrie. Tomorrow is the last day you can sign up and get this class for $15. Um, but you don't have to be there, like, if the timing— if timing's why you can't do it, you don't have to be there live to watch them. You can go ahead and sign up, and then you can go back to the videos whenever it's convenient for you. I'm going to go to that same round. Again, I'm just wiping excess off. This is the same one I used for that green, and I got all that green out of there. And now we're going to go with some background color, and I want to get a little bit of the dark and the light, so there's going to be a mixture. Look how much paint I have on there. Don't be afraid of your paint. And we're going to start just kind of smearing this around. The background. Now I'm not going all the way up to the edge. I am going to leave a little bit of black around there, and that's what kind of gives it that cool look. And I'm going to move fairly quickly here because I got to add my scribbles in. And you can always go back with a smaller brush if that makes you more comfortable. I recommend having, you know, several different size round brushes, some that are thicker and fatter like the one I'm using, and then some that are skinny that you can use for detailing.

Christie, what kind of paintbrushes do you use?

And these are— you want nylon synthetic brushes. This is a set that I have in my Amazon store. Amazon store as well as this one. Allison, can you put that link in the comments? Allison can put a link to my Amazon store. But the main thing you want to look for is synthetic bristles. They're going to work better for the type of painting that we're doing. I love this brush set because it has a little bit of everything. It's got your filberts, your angles, your rounds. So it's just a great starter brush set if you're just beginning to paint. And it even— you know, I told you you need different size rounds. Look at this little guy, super skinny. So this is great for detailing. Okay, so I'm going to make sure this is still pretty wet. You could even use your fingers if you wanted to. If you want get really crazy and use— do a little finger painting, go for it. What I'm doing is just making sure that my paint is wet in all these areas because I'm about to scribble through it and it won't have the same effect if it's starting to dry. So don't be afraid of getting messy. All right, so now we're going to scribble. This is just a dull pencil. You can use a pencil, pen, whatever you have handy that is going to make some marks in this, and we're just going to start scribbling all over the place. All different directions. And see how that black kind of shows through? That's not necessarily pencil mark doing that, that's that black showing through underneath there. So that's how you kind of get that fun, crazy background. If you guys want to sign up, the last day to sign up is tomorrow. The link is in the description at the top of this video, and it's only $15. And you have lifetime access to it, so you can go back to it anytime you want to. All right, what do you guys think of the scribbles? Do you like them? Denise said, so are you cutting lines into the wet paint? Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing. So that has a little bit of texture to it. That's why I wanted to make sure that paint is wet so that it kind of digs in through the paint. How many of you have ever scribbled in your painting before? This is something new that I started doing, and I'm kind of obsessed with it now. So it's just really fun and it's super relaxing. I was talking about when I painted this original painting that I'm going to teach you guys, that was a really stressful day. And just, you know, lots of life stuff happened, and I just needed to paint to get in a happy mood. And when I got to the part where I was doing the background, and the scribbles I got done, and I was like, oh my gosh, that felt so good. So when we get to do this inside the group, I think you guys are gonna love that part, um, especially on a bigger canvas. Like, look on my 20 by 20 that I did. This is a bigger version. Look at all that room I had to scribble. So much fun.

Hey Christie, how long is each lesson for this painting challenge?

So I don't have a set time. I would say usually between an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how many questions there are. I've already taught this inside my tribe, and based on how long it took me to teach them, that's kind of where I'm getting that. So each lesson, the lesson itself should be about an hour each day, and then just some extra time for questions. I do want to say also at the beginning, of each lesson inside the group, we will be doing a mini devotional. So, um, I really like to help people overcome their fear and their anxiety, um, when it comes to painting, and try to help you guys break through those fears. So there will be a mini devotional at the beginning of each day where we're going to cover things like fear and trust and grace and joy. Um, so that's just an added little part. If that's not your thing and you don't want to listen to that part, you can kind of just skip past that first 10 minutes and jump to the painting. But it is something that I love to share with you guys, because I've seen it help so many people overcome their fears in painting, and I just think it's really important for us to kind of just face them head on and give you some encouragement to overcome those fears that are stopping, stopping you from being creative. Sorry, Debbie's asking, what does it mean to be in your tribe? My tribe is, um, it's called Christie's Inner Tribe, and that is my VIP level painting membership. Um, so if you hear me mention the word tribe or tribe sisters, um, that is what I'm talking about. And we open doors to new members on Sunday, so if you have fun doing this or want to have more fun painting, the opportunity to be a part of that will, will be coming this Sunday, and we only open a couple times a year. Okay, so I'm going to jump back to the painting unless, Alison, were there any more questions that I needed to answer?

No, I think that's it.

Perfect. Um, so coral is going to be our main color, but I want to add some little accents in here. So see how messy and crazy this one is? Lots of swirls. We're going to kind of just repeat that. Here. I'm just going to wipe off some excess. I'm going to grab some of my coral, maybe even a little bit of light, um, white to lighten that up. I think I need a little bit more. But see how messy and quick I'm doing this. For those of you that have a hard time kind of letting go and this all feels really fast and crazy to you, I really encourage you to try to do that when you're creating this piece, because it really does change the way that the finished product looks. You can tell If you're like, you know, painstakingly making a decision where each brushstroke is going to be, and you're just slowly thinking about it, and just think, I want one right here, maybe one right here. It gives a completely different look than if you're just kind of wild and crazy. What do you guys think about that pink and coral together? I think that's so pretty. I'm going to grab some of that lighter in there too. Maybe grab a little bit of this red and pink. Can you guys see I'm just kind of mixing my colors? I do a lot of color mixing. I'm going to show you guys how to do that. And then we can do some scribbles inside of our flowers too. And then I like to make the centers black. I just think it makes it a little bit more fun. So I'm going to grab just a little bit of black paint. Hey, Tina, just signed up today. Fun to catch another. Awesome. Susan, I am not switching colors for— or I mean, I'm sorry, I'm not switching paintbrushes for each color. When you're working with colors that are on the same side of the color wheel, you can interchange these because they all are going to look pretty mixed together. Now, if you wanted them to each stay pure, you could wipe off on your paper towels in between. Um, I don't think there's any need to rinse and, and get water in your brush and then go through that whole thing. So I did not rinse or wipe off with either one of those. All right, so we're going to grab a little black and I'm going to come in the middle and I just kind of plop it down and just move it around. And again, I want it to be messy and not perfect. Just checking these. Leaves here. So now we're gonna let the inside of the flowers dry a little bit. You guys like how it's coming together?

How are you getting the texture with your paint, Christie Renee Hawkins?

So that is just the amount of paint I'm using. So I'm not being stingy with it. Sorry, I'm going the wrong way with my canvas here. Here we go. So I'm not being stingy with it. I'm really loading up my paintbrush, and you can see just that's kind of like glopped on there. And I was really thick with the other colors that I did as well, and then that allows me to kind of scratch into them with the pencil. So I'm going to show you another fun thing. You can do. We've got our, um, our little leaves on here, and we're going to use a white paint pen, and I'm just going to kind of do some little lines inside of there for accents. You want to make sure— this is still a little bit wet, so I'm going to wait on that one. You never want to drag your paint pens through wet paint. Because then it'll just mess your pens up. I'm going to go back to my black in areas where maybe my teal got a little close to my colors. I'm just going to pull some of that black back out on those edges.

Did you wait for the flowers to dry before you added the black centers?

I did not. I kind of pushed them down in there, so you can see there's a little bit of a mixture. Of the color inside of there so it's not perfectly black. And you don't have to do this. Like, if you look at this, I don't have black around every single shape on my vase, but I like the way it stands out and kind of separates it from the background too.

If you don't have paint pens—

um, if you don't have paint pens, you can just use a skinny, um, liner brush like I showed you earlier in the video, and you can just do, um, little quick marks on there with paint too. It's not going to have the exact same scribble effect, um, but you can also get paint pens for like super cheap at Walmart. So you can— I mean, just black and white paint pens. If you want to add those to your paintings to, you know, do some different texture, you can do that. Connie's asking, do I prefer to paint flat or on an easel? You know, Connie, I go back and forth. I teach flat, so I'm used to doing that a lot. But when I am coming up with a brand new creation, I feel like I have a standing easel here in my studio. and I feel like I like to do my new ones on that, because I like to step back and look at my paintings from different vantage points and decide what I like about it. Yes, Vicki, that is another option. She said wait until it dries, and you can outline in black Sharpie as well. So the last thing I was going to show you guys— I'm going to have to blow dry a little bit, but I may not be able to show you because this is— because I was so thick with my paint. What we would do to finish this look off— you can kind of see the difference between the two. So this, this looked like this before I did the scribbles on there. So the only other thing I added to kind of change this up was going through after it's completely dry, going through with markers and scribbling some of the paint pens into the flowers to kind of give it that fun look. But you may even like it like this, and you could even, you know, go back with your pencil while your paint is wet if you want to do some more little lines in there like that to get texture, you can do that too. I'm going to blow dry it a little bit, see how dry I can get it, and see if I can add those lines for you guys tonight. But hopefully that gives you a sneak peek of what it's going to be like inside the challenge and kind of the style of what we're, we're doing. So I'm going to do a quick blow dry, and you guys let me know if you have any questions for me.

Christie, do you have any other $15 classes?

I do not right now. These are specials, kind of. We do them every few months. Um, so I don't have any other $15 ones. If you go to, um, shopsoceaseal.com, you can see all the other single tutorials that I have for sale. Um, our pick of the week, um, I pick a different painting every single week that we put on sale. Is the Abstract Birds, and this one is 25% off this week. So if you want to look at some individual tutorials that are different, um, from this challenge, you can check those out, but they are not, um, the $15 price. I only do those when I do the challenges, and then they go to regular retail price. Okay, we got it a little drier. Any other questions, Allison?

Why not add the black lines with black paint instead of using marker?

Um, you can if you have a really fine brush. Again, you can do that. I can even show you. See which one's more wet. I'll show you on the one that has more wet paint on it where I think I can't get away with They're both pretty thick, so I'll show you. So like, you can use a liner brush like this and get some black. Now this will be the only time you hear me say you can add a little water to it. Add a little bit of water to your black to make it even thinner, and then you can take this and you're just not going to push down very hard at all. It might help even if I hold it so you guys can kind of see the angle, and then you can do these little crazy lines around there like that. So if you don't want to go out and buy paint pens, you can still do this. And I've done several paintings like this where I don't have paint pens and I just use a skinny little brush. It's just a little bit different look. So you can see it looks a little different from the scribbles.

Is the challenge a competition? And tell us about the tribe again.

Um, challenge is not a competition. So the only reason I call it a challenge is because it's me challenging you to trust me and to let go of your fear and let me help you learn how to paint. So that's why I call it a challenge. Um, and then, um, for tribe, you will find out more about that. I don't want the law of the beans yet. But, um, inside my tribe you get 3 paintings per month with me, um, inside our private Facebook group with an amazing community of women. Um, and I do 3 new paintings each month, and we open doors to that on Sunday night at 7 PM. I'll be live on my page doing another fun painting with you. I'll go ahead and show you if you guys want a sneak peek of what we're going to do Sunday night, if you want to come back and join me. And that's what I'm really going to share with you all about what Tribe is. But this is something fun that we're going to do Sunday night at 7. And, um, we'll— this week we'll be sending out an option for you to sign up if you want this script, if you want yours to say Be the Light and you want it to look just like mine. We'll have a way for you to sign up and get that. But this is what we're going to do Sunday night at 7 PM over on the Social Easel page. So be sure to mark your calendars for that. That's when Tribe is open to new members. We only open twice a year. And now that won't stick back up there, so I'm going to move it over here. And I think that's it.

What if we can't find the colors you're recommending?

So on the color list, there's going to be swatches, and you can take that— those color swatches to the store with you and find something as similar as possible. But I really, really encourage you to all, like, kind of have your own creative voice and pick what colors you want. Like, this is Royal Fuchsia. You don't have to go to the store and find this exact color. Find a hot pink that you love. Find a teal that you love. Like, they don't have to be the same color, the same brand, or anything. I want it to be your painting and your inspiration. So since we did— I'm just going to leave this one a little bit different. Do you guys like the black little squiggly lines in there? We're going to do the same thing with white now, and that's going to be the last finishing touches that we add to the painting. For this evening. And then if you guys have any more questions— excuse me— I will answer them.

If we attend your classes, can we use them in lessons we teach?

That is a really good question. Okay, so my policy, my, um, what you get when you join my tribe or like a class with me, you can teach them at local paint nights. Okay, so things are opening back up again, depending on where you live, but they're able to be taught locally. You can also sell your work. So if you create— I have several women in Tribe, because I've already taught this to them, who have already sold 3 commissioned pieces because people loved it so much, and they're selling them. You can sell them on Etsy, you can sell them on Facebook, whatever you want. They're your original pieces of actual art, so you can sell your physical items. What you can't do, and what you don't have the rights for, is to teach the class online, because I teach online. So it wouldn't make sense for me to allow you rights to teach the same thing that I'm already teaching online. So that is the only stipulation as far as rights are concerned and what you can and can't do with it. So I'm really lightly going to start dragging a little bit of white around here, and I'm just making little squiggly lines.

Leslie, again, no, you can't teach virtually if you're copying Christie's lessons.

Correct, you cannot teach this online. You cannot sell it in art kits. There can be no virtual recording of you teaching the exact same lesson that I'm teaching in any way.

If we're already members and have the app, will the Funky Spring Flowers be available in the app eventually?

Yes, once we get— you'll actually, if you're a Tribe Sister, you'll actually have two versions. The version that I've already taught in Tribe is in our private Facebook group right now. That will go in your membership library, um, in the Tribe Sister Vault. And then this version that I'm going to be teaching tomorrow and Thursday will be, um, under a separate area inside the vault that you can go back to and access whenever you want to. That just doesn't happen immediately, right? Initially it stays in the Facebook group and then we add it to the website.

Have you ever painted with chalk paint? And then also, if someone's using like Liquitex Basics and craft paints, if they use those both on the same piece of art, would that look okay?

Okay, um, chalk paints for painting this way, uh, I probably have if I liked the color. Um, the— it doesn't, it doesn't change too much because these craft paints dry to a matte finish, so a chalky finish is not much different, and they will work together. And then as far as like Liquitex and this, um, like I have several I'm just going to grab a few. So any acrylic can be mixed with any acrylic, so it doesn't matter whether you have a heavy-bodied one like Artist Loft, this academic level grade, the Liquitex craft paint. You can interchange any of these and mix them together and use them in your paintings.

What's a mixed media pad?

Another good question. You guys are coming up with good questions. Let me find mine. This is a mixed media pad, and you can get them in all different sizes. I have— this is my favorite size because it's an 11 by 14, and then if you like what you do in there, you can take it out and frame it in an 11 by 14 frame. I'm going to zoom out for a little bit. Hang on. So I can show you this. So I want you to think of a mixed media pad like a sketchbook for painting. This is where I've just done some color mixing in here, practice some flowers, um, some different brush strokes where I'm kind of showing you guys techniques. I've done full paintings in here, so like I could take this out and frame it if I like it. But here's why I recommend you guys getting a mixed media pad is because you can use this. And while I'm teaching, you know, I recommend that you watch first and not try to paint the actual painting with me while I'm teaching it. But if you want to practice brushstrokes and say, okay, well, Christie's doing blobs right now, let me practice my blob flower. Practice a whole bunch of flowers in your mixed media pad while you're listening and painting along with me, but it's not distracting you so much that you're missing the steps. It's great to practice like your leaves in before you go straight to your canvas. So it's really just a practice pad, and it also takes the pressure off of you. This comes with 60 pages in it, so that's 60 pages for you to practice on and learn from. And the most important thing I want you to remember is that you have to make mistakes to move forward, and painting is just like anything else. You have to put in the time, and you have to keep working at it. So you may be one of those very fortunate people that just has, you know, artistic talent just right at your fingertips and ready to go. But for a lot of people it's a learned thing. I believe we all have a creative side inside of us. Some of you just need help pulling it out, and that is what I hope I get to do for you inside the challenge.

Do you seal your paintings, and how would we make them glossy?

Um, I don't seal them just because they're in my house and they're not really exposed to anything. You can— there's several different ways you can seal them and add gloss to them. This is one way. This is a high gloss varnish. So once your painting is completely dry, literally you just paint this over the entire thing, lay it flat to dry, and then it will have a pretty glossy finish to it.

What are you painting on today? Is that a tile? It's a small canvas, right?

These are— I got these on sale for a dollar at Target, but I heard that Dollar General And maybe even Dollar Tree just has these for a dollar now. So these are just 6 by 6 little canvases, but aren't they cute? And then this is what we're painting inside the challenge.

And what size will you be painting on tomorrow?

That's a good question. I don't think I've even decided yet. Um, I will probably do— I may have an 18 by 8. I'm looking at what canvases I have. I may do an 18 by 18. Tomorrow. I really like painting on squares. I don't know why, I just do. But this is the square version. I'm going to lay this down. Can you guys see that whole thing? I like this one because I like the negative space over here. I like the extra space in the background. So I may do another square, but you can paint on any size square, any size rectangle, and I'm going to show you step by step how to do it in the challenge. Okay, I want some votes now. Which one do you guys like the most? They're kind of getting mixed into the painting here. Do you guys like the little purple and pink one, or do you like the coral and teal the most? What are your favorite flowers?

Why, like, until you—

what? I like the coral, and I think I do too. I like it way better than I even thought I was going to, and I also just like the composition of it better. I kind of like that I have a bigger flower and then one kind of coming off the edge. But can you imagine how fun these would be? You could just do a whole series of these and even hang them on the wall next to each other. How cute would that be?

When you paint in your mix pads, paint on both sides of the paper.

Um, it depends if I'm painting something that I think— I actually did this by mistake one time. When I was doing my lovebirds, I painted on the back side of something else that I wanted to keep, and then I cut that out to frame it, and then I was really sad. If you're just doing brush strokes and you're practicing, I would paint on both sides. If you're doing something that you think you might want to frame someday, I would not paint on the other side of it. So I think that's all I have for you guys tonight. I'm gonna jump off. And, um, Allison, thank you for helping me field the questions tonight. I hope you guys had a ton of fun, and tomorrow is the last day to sign up and get it for $15. So this is your last chance. The link is in the description of this, um, this Facebook Live. And, um, and yes, save the date— Sunday night, 7 PM, April 18th. This Sunday night, 7 PM Central Standard Time. Look up a time zone chart if you're not sure what that means for you. We're going to be live on the Social Easel page. We're going to be painting this little guy for free for everyone. You can join free to watch this one, and then I'm going to be answering all your questions about my tribe membership and opening doors to new members. So were there any last-minute questions I missed?

When are you opening tribe?

Yeah, yeah, Sunday night. Sunday night, 7 PM. Thank you guys. All right, I'm gonna jump off here. I hope you guys had a ton of fun. And if you— oh, I do want to say one more thing, Allison. If you want to, um, put this in there, I might be able to myself. If you paint these cute little flowers with me, I would love for you to text me a photo of it. So I'm gonna put my phone number in here and you can text me a picture of your flowers. I'm just going to put text Christie next to this, and this will also put you on my text list. So anytime I do a Facebook Live, when I go live on Sunday night, if you want a Facebook, uh, or a text alert for that, by signing up for that, you can just say, hey Christie, or Facebook alert if you want an alert. Or if you paint, I would love to your paintings. So you can send those to me via text. Okie dokie, I'm gonna jump off here, guys. I hope you had a ton of fun, and just let us know if you have any questions. We'll go back and check the comments later. Have a good night. Bye.