Painting A Whimsical Tree! My first very painting ever for The Social Easel 10 years ago!

Okay, I don't know if that made a difference or not. I think when I started this I was muted, so let me know in the comments now if you can, um, if you guys can hear me okay, and we will, we will start over again. Which should be perfect timing for most of you popping on, because it takes a second for the text to come through. Thank you, Wanda. Wanda can hear me. Okay, good. Um, so we'll go back to the beginning. Um, I just wanted to share what we are going to do today. So I'm going to do, um, a whimsical tree with you today, which is the very first painting that I ever did for the Social Easel. For my first paint night. So I thought this was a kind of special one to do with you guys today, because we're kind of talking about my journey a little bit, and my last 10 years of teaching art both locally and online, and where that has brought me to today, and what is going to be happening with the Social Easel this year. So I've got lots of of fun ideas in store for 2023. Um, but I am also doing something that I swore I never would. Um, I am starting my own mastermind. And for those of you that don't know what a mastermind is, this is a group of like-minded individuals that come together in a business setting, um, to inspire each other, to share ideas, to help each other grow their businesses And so basically I'm going to have my own little coaching group. What a mastermind is not is another course. This is not an extensive long course. You're not going to have homework every month. The only thing you would have to invest in is back into your business. So I am going to be talking about that while we're painting today and kind of share with you what brought me to want to do this, what brought me to the point where I decided this was the next step for the Social Easel. I am very, very excited about it. Applications are open right now. The link is in the description of this video if you want to check that out. But this is not for everyone, so this is only going to be for a small amount of you. But I am going to go ahead and share about it because even though It may not be for you right now. It may be something that you're interested in in the future. So, um, the name of my mastermind is called Thrive, um, and I picked that because I feel like God means for all of us to thrive. And that's what a mastermind is, is taking your business to the next level and thriving and doing all the things that you can to flourish, one, in yourself, and also in your business. So we're going to be talking a little bit more about what that means, and I'm going to be answering any questions for you about that. So, um, the mastermind is meant for those of you who already have a substantial creative business. And what I mean by that is you already have a business name, you have your social media account set up, you are actively pursuing this as a career and a job and not just as a hobby. And I've met so many people over the last few years who have— I've never done one-on-one calls or anything like that— who wanted guidance, like how to get from where they are to the next step. And God has blessed me with a very successful business, and I feel like it is part of my job and my duty to pay that forward, to help those of you kind of following behind who have dreams and aspirations of having a great art business too, because we live in a new world now where we're no longer the starving artists, and you can be successful as an artist, and that looks different for everyone. So that may mean you teach paint parties, that may mean you sell on Etsy, or that you teach online paint classes. So there's a variety of things that you could be doing in your business, but you're ready, you're ready for that next step. And you're just not sure what it is that you need to get there. So that is what I have created this mastermind for. And this will become— it's a small, very inclusive group that will become kind of like your family and your sounding board that will help hold you accountable, that will help give you ideas and inspirations. I will be leading it, of course, to help guide you on what the next step is for your business and giving you the insights of how I have built my business specifically over the last 5 years online, because it's grown exponentially, um, from shifting to an online space. So that is a little bit about what the Mastermind is about. Feel free to drop your comments or questions in the comment section, and I'll be checking those. I am going to go ahead and pull up my other camera here. Let's see, is it not going to let me? I'd like to make this one bigger. Hang on just a second. I think I'm going to remove myself from the screen. Okay. Everyone's still good, right? So we are going to start with the Whimsical Tree. And again, this was the very first painting that I ever did for the Social Easel. In my old house at the kitchen counter, I painted this, and I just wanted something fun to do for a group of ladies while they're hanging out and having drinks and snacks and just having a good time painting and finding their artistic side. So I'm gonna grab a couple colors here. We're gonna make a really pretty sunset. So if you struggle a little bit with blending, you will like this lesson because we're going to talk a little bit about blending. So I think I want my sky to go from like a purple, um, to a pink, to an orange or coral in my case, and then to a yellow. So I think these are going to be the colors that I use. Um, yeah, someone's saying they lost sound. Let me know if anyone else did. You shouldn't have because my phone is what's carrying the sound. So, um, let me know in the comments if you will, if something did happen. Um, so we're gonna do a little whimsical tree today. Um, I'm using primary yellow. This is a bright Salmon, Fuchsia Pop, and Purple Cow. You don't need these specific colors. You can use whatever your heart desires to do your painting with. So I am going to start with the background, and I'm going from purple, pink, orange, and yellow. Okay, you can hear. So the first part of this is super easy. I'm just going to go ahead and get these colors on my palette here. Maybe raise you guys up just a tad so you can see more of my space here. And I'm just going to start with a small amount. We may need more. How many of you out there have painted a sunset or would like to learn how to paint a sunset? That's going to be step 1 of this painting. Let me know in the comments— I'm gonna grab my apron real quick so I don't get paint all over my sweatshirt. Let me know in the comments if you've been painting a while, maybe this is your first time. Mary says she's painted a sunset, but it's been a while. They're always fun. It's always fun and relaxing to do. Awesome. Andy says she paints every day. I'm going to go ahead and get some water on my brush just to get it dampened. I'm not getting a ton of water in there. And I'm going to start with my lavender color. And I'm just doing these big brushstrokes, plenty of paint on there. Okay. And we're just making horizontal brushstrokes back and forth. A little bit of water in the brush just helps it glide a little easier. So I'm going to show you my trick for blending. So we don't want it to look like just stripes on our canvas. We want them to blend. So when we go to the next color, I'm not rinsing, I'm just going straight into pink. And where they meet I just kind of keep going back and forth, overlapping until they blend into a nice pretty color. And it doesn't need to be a straight line. Think of like a sunset. It's not always just straight horizontal lines back and forth. You could have some pink higher up in the sky and then obviously lower. But see how you can't see where the purple stops and the pink begins? We've got a nice transition there. So what I am painting in today is called a mixed media pad. You can use this for acrylic or watercolor, pen and ink, anything. Almost all mediums you can use in a mixed media pad. And I love this. This is kind of what I call my sketchbook for painting, because this is your practice pad. So sometimes we have the fear of a blank canvas and we feel pressure, like it has to, you know, be great and it has to hang on the wall. It doesn't. This is for you to practice. The only way to get better at art is to practice. So that is what we're doing today. So I highly encourage you to get a mixed media pad if you don't have one, because it just takes that burden off of you of thinking you don't want to waste a canvas, or where am I going to hang it? What if I don't like it? Guess what? If you don't like what you do in your mixed media pad, you can flip the page, or you can tear it out and toss it if you don't want to look at it anymore. So I love painting in this, and it's also just a good way to start learning brushstrokes and learning how much paint to put in your brush, how much pressure to put on your paintbrush, all those good things. And if you guys are having fun with this lesson, be sure to hit your share button and pass it on to your friends. Okay, so before I move any further in this— get on my edges here a little bit— I don't have much paint left in there, right? But you can see a little bit of that lavender color still left in the brush. So if I went into my orange right now with that purple and orange mixed together is going to make like a neutral color. So we don't want that. So I want to rinse that purple out really good. Um, someone is— it's not watercolor paper, Pam, it's mixed media paper. Let me see if it says the pound. 98-pound. For acrylic, watercolor, pen, pencil, crayon, all the things. All right, so I'm rinsing really good, right? So here is just a tip for those of you if you're new to painting: always wipe off your excess water on the side of your cup before you go to your paper towel. I used to see this at paint nights all the time. People would wonder why they went through 35 paper towels at a paint night, because they take their dripping wet paintbrush right to their paper towel and soak the whole thing up. You should be able to use the same paper towel for a long time. So, and then the next thing I'm going to do is just squeeze and make sure all that excess water is out of there so that I don't have to worry about any of those previous colors that I have painted going into my next color. Alright, so I am going to pick up pink again because pink and orange can blend together and I want this wet. One of the keys to blending is that both your colors are wet. If one's dry and one's wet, it's not going to work. So I'm going to get some pink back on here, and then I'm going to go right into my coral, and we're going to do the same thing. Look how pretty those colors are together. This is one of my favorite color combinations, is the pink and the coral together. And now I can go back and forth between these. I could even mix these together a little bit and make another color if I wanted to. But don't— again, don't feel like your sunset has to be all just blocks of transition. Maybe we have orange all the way down here and some yellow mixed in. Maybe we even have some pink down here, but pink and yellow. Can blend together without making a terrible color. How many of you are unsure what colors can mix together without making mud? You know, we hear that a lot, and people are scared of color mixing because they're worried they're just going to get yucky colors. So one of my tips for you is to get a color wheel and become comfortable with where colors are on that color wheel, and if they're next to each other on the color wheel and they're analogous, then that means that you can blend them together without getting the yucky color. If they're opposites on a color wheel, like purple and yellow, not so much. Opposites are going to kind of neutralize each other, desaturate, and give you a neutral tone, which is like a brown or gray. So I'm going to grab a little bit more water here, some more of my coral. I feel like the yellow is a bit too much. I may even tone down my yellow. I think I'll put a little white, a little white with my yellow, perhaps, if I could find a white in front of me. They're all tucked away. So like I said, this was my very first painting that I ever taught with the Social Easel. For those of you that are new to the Social Easel and new to me, my name is Christie Hawkins, in case you missed me at the beginning. And I have been teaching women how to paint for over the past 10 years, and it actually started with this painting. This was my first public paint night where I probably had— I think I had about 16 women at that first one. And I was so nervous and so scared and worried I wouldn't be able to teach them. And Here we are 10 years later, and I'm still teaching and loving it, and blessed to, uh, get to do this as my job. But my painting started out like this, very simple, um, and easy to follow. The longer I have been painting online, um, the more doors it has opened in expanding, um, not only my art but the art that I teach you, because in an in-person setting there are limitations to time, especially the way that I did my business, which was like paint parties. So I was always in restaurants and different places doing them on a limited time. So I had to keep the paintings simple and easy to follow, and also fun and lighthearted, where you can enjoy a few drinks if you want to, and just have a fun girls' night out. Now I mix in some of these fun, simple ones, but I'm also able to take my teaching with you to the next level. And there are a couple different opportunities of how you can continue to paint with me. You can, of course, hang out with me here on Facebook and go back to previous videos to check all of those out. Same with YouTube. If you're not following me on YouTube, we have tons of free videos for you to learn from me. And then when you are ready to take it a step further, I have 2 different memberships that you can be a part of. We have Painting of the Month Club that is open right now to new members, and Painting of the Month Club is only $20 a month, and you get 1 prerecorded lesson that is delivered to your membership library that you can go back and watch anytime that you want to. So there's no schedule, there's nothing to keep up with, no Facebook group. It's all on our website. We even have a little app that you can watch from your phone or your device. And I will show you— look how pretty this is becoming! I love this sunset. I'll show you what we're doing this month if you want to do Painting of the Month Club. How many of you love Van Gogh? He is one of my favorite artists. This is my true— not one of, he is my favorite artist. This is my tribute to Van Gogh. I taught this in my other membership, my VIP membership, in 2022, and for the first time I'm offering it to Painting of the Month Club. So you can learn to paint this for only $20. You have until January 31st. To sign up. And believe it or not, even if you have never painted before, I can show you how to do this. We break it down into simple step-by-step videos that you can go back and, like I said, watch 24/7. You have lifetime access to it, and you can take it at your own pace. So you can pause, stop, rewind, and watch a section as many times as you need to while you're practicing. So that is one way you can continue learning to paint with me, and The other way is by being a part of my inner tribe. Um, and this is my VIP membership, where the ladies learn, um, to paint with me live each month in our private Facebook community. Um, and we call ourselves Tribe Sisters. It's an amazing community of like-minded women, um, who all love painting and love being creative. Um, this month we started off with art journaling, and tomorrow I'm teaching them how to do a floral door hanger. So you get live lessons in there. Um, you You get monthly devotionals with me. I just did one this morning in the group, and you have access— listen to this— you have access to over 150 painting tutorials from the 5 years that we have been online when you go to your library on our website. So it is limitless on what you can learn inside of Tribe. So that just tells you a little bit more. Of how you can paint with me now, and we paint all kinds of things. So subject matter— it— I don't even know how to say it's across the board. Almost any style and subject matter you can think of. I like to do a variety of things. I don't like to stick with one thing for very long, and I'm always pushing myself as an artist to learn new techniques, and then obviously sharing those with you as well. Hey, Pam said, if you're in the VIP, can we watch it, or is it— yes, Pam, if you're, um, already in Tribe, it's in your membership library. You just go to the vault on the website, which is tribesister.com, and log in, and then your whole library is there, and it's inside the vault. So the next thing that we're going to do is draw— not draw, we're going to paint our whimsical tree on here. Um, but I want to kind of show you before I paint it. Um, I didn't have these back in the day when I taught paint nights, and I'm sure my ladies would have loved it if I did, because it would have made things so much easier. Um, but I use paint pens a lot now. So if this next thing that I do makes you nervous and you're like, I don't want to do that with a paintbrush, um, it's not going to look like that. You can cheat and use a paint pen. Too. I do recommend a paint pen over a Sharpie because a Sharpie leaves a different finish and it doesn't look like paint. So when this dries, it's going to look like paint like the rest of your painting. So I want this background to dry a little bit first, but I'm going to give you— I'm just going to flip this up and let it rest. I can prop that up there, and I'm just going to give you an idea of what this tree is going to look like. So again, I just wanted something fun and whimsical. So it's going to kind of be this crazy, like, flowing tree. Like, picture a tree blowing in the wind. So this is obviously the left side of the trunk. Then we're going to pull this up. I like my trunk to be a little skinny like that. And then we'll have another branch come down here. And then we're going to start making branches that get skinnier as they go out. And each branch that pulls off is going to create a shape in between here. Can you guys tell me what this shape is? It's a letter, right? And it kind of makes everything kind of tie together. Where it doesn't look like you just have things sticking out all random out of your tree. Yes, Cheryl, it's a V-shape. So whenever you're doing trees, think of just making each intersection when you're adding a branch in as being another V-shape in between those 2 branches. Okay. So what again, you know, I'm just referencing like when I used to teach and people would hear me say one thing, but then do another. So that's why I started mentioning the V shape, because that's something they can say, okay, I can see that on my paper, because they would watch me do this, and then they would go to try to add their branches, and they'd all just stick out all crazy, right? Like it looks like just some kind of crazy animal on the page or something. So by doing this, it all kind of flows together and the curves go into the next curve. And then when we're adding branches further on, it's kind of the same thing. You're just continuing making smaller little V's. So that's a little explanation into the shape of the tree that we're adding. But I just wanted this to dry just a bit so my, um, black was not dragging through my sunset color. So I'm just going to use a small round for this. Did I already grab it? We can use this one. And I'm going to do black. And while I'm doing this, I'm going to share a little bit about where we are now with the Social Easel. I kind of talked about the different ways that you can paint with me. Um, we will be having some fun little online paint parties coming up that you can sign up for. But the other thing that is new this year that we are taking applications for right now is if you are a creative business owner. So if you're watching me right now and you have your own art business and you would love to grow it and get to the next level, um, that is what I'm talking about. So we are opening my first mastermind. It's called the Thrive Mastermind. And I am here to answer any questions that you guys have about that. So you can see if it's maybe the right fit for you at this time in your business. So see how I'm starting off. I like it to go wide at the bottom. Again, this nice loose shape when I'm doing this. I know that was probably scary for some of you to paint black across your background. So I will tell you, I know it seems scary, but the faster that you do it, the more fluid it's going to look. Just kind of pull your arm across. Don't be afraid to move your whole arm while you're doing this. Then I want to come in here. See, there's that V shape that I'm talking about, and we'll do another little branch here. And then I kind of just pick and choose where do I want another one to come out. There's no right or wrong. This is just a fun, simple, flowy tree. Just picture it kind of blowing in the wind. I like to stick with odd numbers, so we're going to add 5 branches on here. Yes, Andy, that's a great idea. If you're nervous about that, you can definitely draw it with chalk first. I'm gonna pull that one down a little bit back into our trunk. So I've got 4 here. I think I actually want my 5th branch. Let's have that just come out here, and then maybe I'll just have a few others kind of shooting off. Now you can switch to a smaller brush now if you want to, if you're worried your lines are going to get too thick. I'm not too worried about this. If you do something you don't like right here in this next step, these fun little dots I'm going to show you, you can easily cover any little mistakes up that you make. So that's going to be the base of the tree. Um, Lisa, no, I'm not using a paint pen. I was just showing that as an option for you if painting with a brush is a little scary to you, because I know it can be a little intimidating. So if I wanted to, I could come in here and add, you know, some skinny little branches to it. And you can use a combination. You don't have to choose one or the other. You just don't want to drag your paint pen through wet paint because it will ruin the tip of your paint pen. I don't know why, but I'm so thirsty right now. My throat is so dry. So again, I'm going to let this black paint dry because the next thing that we're going to do is add some fun colored circles all over this, and I may use some paint pens on this one tonight just because I have them now, and it's so fun to do these different things. So I don't have a reference photo to show you, but I'm going to get a couple new colors now that are going to contrast well with this. So, um, I love teal, so I'm gonna grab a little bit of teal. And you don't need a lot of these. I think I want to grab more of a blue. Let me see if I can find one I like. Maybe we'll do this one. No, I don't like that one. Maybe this one. This is Perfect Perry. It's really more of like a bluish purple. I might want one in between. Um, I still have white, so that's a good contrasting color. And then let me pick like an in-between here. We'll try this one. This one's Desert Turquoise. All right, can you guys see those colors? All right, so I'm just going to let that dry a little bit, get my paintbrush rinsed, and I'm just going to share a little bit more about what a mastermind is because, um, I know there was some confusion when I sent out the email. Um, so again, just let me know if you have any questions, but I'm gonna just talk very briefly about the top 5 benefits of joining a creative mastermind. Um, and some examples of how that has benefited me, um, in my past and why I want to pay it forward to those of you who are wanting to have a successful business in art too. So number one is the network opportunities that you get when you're a part of a mastermind. I have been part of Damon Oates' mastermind. I am part of Stu McLaren's right now. Each one of those has been filled with a variety of different business people from different spectrums. They're not all artists, but you still have this great group of business minds that all come together with ideas. And we're all growing our businesses online. So there's great networking opportunities to work with people who are like you, to collaborate together with other artists, just like I have with Heidi Easley and Tamara Bennett of Southern Adornments and Texas Art and Soul. It gives you access to expertise and resources. And what I mean by that is we have built our businesses up to this point, and you're gonna get an inside look at how I built the Social Easel. to a 7-figure business so that I can show you those expertise, and those give you those resources to help you grow your business as well without you trying to do it on your own. I say this all the time, but there's no way I would be where I was without being a part of a mastermind. So it 100% elevated my business to the next level because one, it put me in a room with like-minded people who cared about my business and truly wanted me become successful and get better and share ideas and knowledge with me, but also for the accountability and support. It is very hard to do your business alone, and I was a lone businesswoman for many, many years. The first 8 years of my business, I did it all on my own. I was a one-woman show and did everything, and so That can be— and you know, when you don't have somebody else in your life who is also trying to build a business, that can be a very lonely place to be. So it is nice to have those like-minded women around you, or men, to build your business with. Okay, while I'm talking about that, I'm going to tell you what I'm doing here really quick. I'm going to start with my teal, and we are simply just going to start making some circles. Okay. I am just going to start twirling some little circles on here wherever you want. There's a black speck, so I'll cover that up. Maybe you have an area where your branch is thicker than you wanted it. We'll just put a circle right on top of that. And we want these kind of floating off into the wind. So as you're painting this, I just want you to think about things kind of floating away. And these can be different sizes. They don't all have to be the same size. But see, that's a nice contrasting color on here. And then I will start rotating through my colors. I like to do one color at a time, and then you'll see what I'm going to do next. We're going to add some layers to these. So I'm just going to pop over to another color. And do the same thing. So like for this one, it's kind of a purpley blue. I'm going to keep this— the majority of these further down so they don't blend into my background. If I put one right here, it's going to be almost the same color as my sky, so we want a little bit more contrast than that. So let's move it on down. Now we are going to be adding some accent colors to these that you'll see here in a second. But you kind of get the idea of what I'm doing. Yeah, Andy, you definitely have to start somewhere. I would say, you know, start taking some classes and getting comfortable with it, and then yeah, start practicing. That's a great idea to video yourself just to get comfortable. You should have seen how uncomfortable I was when I first started Facebook Lives. And I'll tell you one thing I have learned is it's okay, and sometimes you're going to mess up live, and we're just real people and stuff happens, and that's okay. So you learn to just kind of let those things, um, start rolling off your back. When they do happen. But I'm going back to the group. You have accountability and support, you have professional development. So like what I plan on doing each month, like I said, there's not going to be homework inside of this. It's not a course. You're not learning anything new other than skills to help you in your own business. It's where I'm going to share, you know, my tips and resources of what has helped me, easier ways to do things, how to grow your email list. You know, we're gonna, as a group, focus on what our, um, what our mastermind needs and what they need help on, and then that's what I will give training on. We're also going to have a 2-day virtual meetup in March, and then we're going to have an in-person live meetup um, at the end of May. So I'm very excited about the opportunity. I'm excited, um, about the women that I have been talking to, um, who have already applied to be a part of this. And just wanted to take an opportunity to share it with you guys too, in case you're watching and you're thinking, that's what I need. Um, I've got my business started, you know, I've grown it, it's in a spot, but I'd love to grow it further and I just don't know how. I can still remember when I was in that spot and I applied for Damon's Mastermind and I was so nervous, but, and thrilled when I got the acceptance letter. And then it was over 2 years with an amazing group of people, new friends that I would have never met that I'm still friends with today because of that group. And now I'm in another mastermind with another group of amazing business professionals too. And when you surround yourself with these people, it increases your confidence, it increases your visibility because now you have other people that you can collaborate with and continue to work together to grow your business. So that is hopefully kind of gives you a better idea of what being a part of a mastermind is all about. And what it's not all about. Okay, back to the painting. So we've got our fun little circles on here, right? Andy, the application is up above in the description. But again, this is for already established businesses. So if you are not an established business and you don't already have, you know, everything ready, like, meaning like you've been in business for a year. It's not for people who are just at a hobby level. It is for people who are already at the business level and they've built an established business and they're ready to grow it and expand it. And if that is you, then feel free to jump over to the website. My team has just posted it in the comments for you, and it is going to give you a breakdown of everything that the mastermind is all about, and then the application is there for you as well. Thank you, Sharon. Awesome, Pam. Pam said she's got a business. So yeah, we are looking for— and I, I kind of, I forgot the part where I talked about specifically that this is for creative business women. So the masterminds that I'm a part of are kind of for everyone, right? It doesn't matter what your business is. Um, I wanted to create one that was specific for female entrepreneurs with creative businesses. Um, I wanted to create that tight-knit sisterhood. I wanted to— I don't offer any kind of personal lessons, so the most in-depth teaching that you'll have with me is inside my tribe. That is where I give the majority of my teaching skills, but part of being in the mastermind is also going to be where we have group art critiques. So for women in their business, you could be teaching paint parties, selling your work, but you may still be using somebody else's designs, you like myself or Heidi Easley with Texas Art and Soul, and you really want to figure out how to start making your own art. We're going to offer critiques so that you can come and learn And I really want to push you guys to kind of find your voice in your art, so you stand apart in your art business as well. So that is going to be kind of— it's twofold. It's for artists and it's for businesswomen, and we're going to combine the two, and it'll be your chance to submit your pieces to me and say, what do you think? What should I change? Submit them to a group. Group critiques were one of my favorite things about going to art school, because it's all about bettering yourself and bettering your art. And sometimes we can't see things in our own art. So being a part of something like that is very eye-opening, and your peers can give you fantastic ideas of how to make your art even better. So I wanted to include that as part of the mastermind as well. And if you are listening to me right now and you're like, dang it, I want to have that inside track. I want to know how to create my own art, and I want that level of teaching with Christie. Just hang tight because in the spring we will be doing a masterclass, and this is going to be a dive deep with me, going to art school with Christie Renee Hawkins, where I am going to go past just showing you step by step how to do a painting, and I'm actually going to teach you how to create your own art. So if you're listening to that and you're wanting something like that, there is that coming as well. So like I said, I've got lots of fun ideas for this year, and they're all geared at helping you guys get to the next level. And I've listened to, you know, what people want, and I'm now able to offer all those different things to you, no matter what level you are, whether you're a beginner or whether you're further in your art journey and now you're ready to push yourself even more. I'm very excited about the master class that we're creating that will come in late spring. Um, Diana said, would this be good for a nonprofit? Um, Diana, I personally don't know anything about running a nonprofit business, so I'm probably not your best coach for that. Um, and then it would also need to be a creative business, so I'm not, I'm not sure. Um, I don't know if that helps answer your question or not. Um, Christina said, I'm definitely going to keep an eye on your business courses, but not ready yet. Hopefully in the next year. Yeah, and this is going to be, you know, like I said, if the timing's not right now, you know, in 2024 the timing may be. Um, so just, um, you know, keep it, keep it in the back burner of your brain there and just keep pushing yourself and, um, growing in your art skills, and it may be something for you down the road. Yeah, I'm very excited about the masterclass. I think you guys are going to love that. Okay, so I know I'm talking a little bit, but purpose— purposefully also, because I wanted these to dry. So this is where I was talking about, you could use a paint pen. I'm still a little bit wet. But these kind of look boring right now, right? I feel like they need a little bit more. So what I'm going to do is inside each one of these, I'm going to start putting some different colors. Now it doesn't have to be the same. I don't have to only put this blue inside the white, but I do want it to contrast. And where I do put it, maybe we'll put some— we didn't put any of this color on here. Maybe I'll just put a couple of these circles on here too. Um, Pam's asking, will the masterclass be available to Inner Tribe? Yes. So if you are a Tribe Sister, you will get a discount, um, on the masterclass. So this will be, um, a larger course, a one-time thing. And then, um, Tribe Sisters, if you're not familiar with that, Tribe Sisters get special discounts and offers on the things I offer outside of Tribe. So, um, any of that information will be posted in our Tribe Sister Facebook group when registration opens for that, and you guys will have a discounted rate for that masterclass. Maria said, I'm definitely interested in taking the Starry Night. How will I be able to do so? Okay, yeah, Maria, our team has just put that link in for you for Painting of the Month Club. If you're ever not sure where to go, you guys can just go to thesocialeasel.com and, um, the links will be on that page as well. I'm out of pink. I need a little bit more pink here. Anyone else getting snow? I am in Missouri and we're supposed to get a whole bunch. And we usually don't get a whole bunch, so I hope it's actually true. My kids are counting on not having to go to school tomorrow. Originally it said anywhere from 3 to 8 inches. We'll see. I'm always shocked if we get anything more than 3 inches. I feel like it's a miracle. So it's already starting to look a little more interesting, don't you think? Awesome, Diana, that sounds like an amazing nonprofit that you have. Oklahoma is supposed to hit Indiana. Hey Amy, I sent you a message by the way. Um, Mary said they are getting some tomorrow. It's all over, isn't it? Okay, so I'm putting the inner circle colors in right now. And then I think what I want to do with my paint pen— what other colors do I want? I feel like I want some different colors than what I have here. Oh, I haven't done purple. Um, then I thought I might do a quick blow dry on this and come back with my paint pen to go around the outside of these. So in my original, they all had 3 different colors on them. It's almost inevitable that I'm going to end up missing a dot somewhere, so you guys will just have to tell me if you see one that I've missed. How many of you think this is a fun one? Nice and easy, right? Oh, I don't have any yellow on the insides. I knew there was one I was missing. Do a second coat on that. Yellow tends to be transparent. Did I get them all? Well, I can't put yellow inside of yellow, so let's do— no, I don't want that color. This would be really cute. Someone just said— yes, Mary said it would be fun with hearts. It would be so adorable with hearts. I have actually done a similar tree. Allison, are you in the comments? Have I ever painted that live? Um, uh, back when, um, school was fun in elementary and moms got to go in and do fun things with their kids, it Um, holiday parties. I got to go teach a Valentine's painting to Kylie's class way back in the day, back when she was like 9. Um, and I did a Valentine's tree with them similar to this, but I made it hearts, like the tree branches were hearts. Um, but you could do little floating hearts around it. Um, so very good idea. No heart tree yet. She's adding it to the list. There you go. Something fun for you guys coming up. Um, I also still have to paint. How many of you— I know not everyone loves snow or gets snow where they are, but I love it, and I love painting evergreens with snow. So I am gonna jump back on later this week because I'm not traveling this week, thank goodness, and do a, a little lesson with you on how to do evergreen trees covered in snow. It's part of my Winter Chapel painting, which is a freebie that you can grab, but we're just going to do a quick lesson on the trees because they're fun and easy, and I want you guys to learn how to do them. Maybe I'll even show you how to add a little snow text to them. Um, so we'll add that to the list of fun things we're going to do as well. Okay, so let me show you guys my little paint pen collection here. It's all stacked up. I know it sounds like the whole thing is falling apart. It's not. Everything's fine. These are my Posca pens. If you missed my organizational video and blog, be sure to go to thesocial easel.com and look at the newest blog. I show you all my tips and tricks for storing all your supplies. These are my Posca pens. They're my favorite paint pens in all different colors. So I thought I would just pull them out because it's going to be really fun to make some accent marks on these with the Posca pens. My favorite color Posca pen. What is this one called? Just pea green, but it's just a really pretty aqua color. So if you are new to paint pens, lid on, always lid on when you're shaking, otherwise you will splatter paint everywhere. Shake them up really good. I heard someone say— not heard, I read someone say the other day that why did my white Posca pen show up so much better than theirs, that theirs was like real translucent and see-through, it's probably because you didn't shake it up enough. If you don't shake them up enough, then that paint doesn't flow through the tip all the way. So make sure you're really shaking them, and then you want to prep them before going to painting. So on a scrap piece of paper, your canvas— or not your canvas, your palette, whatever— you're going to depress the tip, make sure it's flowing really good. You don't ever want to press down on your painting. It will leak paint everywhere. So there's actual paint inside these pens, so you don't ever want to press down on your art. But the outside of this is now dry, so I can just go around any of these and add these fun little outline shapes. This is so much easier and faster than doing it with a skinny paintbrush. I'm gonna get you a little closer if I can. Is that a little better? So we'll do some in this color, and then I will switch pens. And again, just make sure wherever you're adding the paint pen that your paint is dry. I have these in my Amazon store, so if you're wanting this specific ones that I'm using. Um, you can text the word Amazon to my text number and it will send it to you. Let me see if I have that on here. Um, anyways, it sends you the link. Yep, here we go. If you text the word Amazon to this phone number on the screen, it will send you a link to my Amazon store, and that is where I have all my favorite things. So my favorite art supplies and my storage, um, units that I use for organizing my devotionals. We've got different sections in the store depending on what you're looking for, but that's where you can find all of my favorite things. And there's a great Posca pen set that is— I'm just going to grab a handful of the colors to kind of show you. It's this. I think it's these colors. These are my favorite, my most used ones. What do you guys think of the circles? Pretty easy to add that extra little flourish on here. And you could just really keep going with this. So again, if it's dry like this one, what if we just wanted to put some little yellow marks on the inside of that? You could do that. So you could make it as detailed or as simple as you want. See, like these, not much color. I need to shake them up. There we go. Big difference. Let's do a little bit of the coral up top. All right, does anyone have any other questions for me? It can be about art, it can be about the mastermind, it can be about how you can paint with me. You just let me know and I will answer them for you. We're just going to do a bunch of just fun little, fun little things in here. I'm trying to get my girls and my tribe a little loosened up. We're starting with some art journaling. Which they don't even know it, but that means they're starting to create their own work on their own. But it takes the pressure off when you're just kind of journaling and not telling yourself you're making a piece of art, right? You're just having fun. And when you take that pressure off, it allows your brain to relax and you're able to create. White, white is what we're missing. I'm going to show you in just a second what I art journaled today after I did my devotional in my group. Oh, that's so cute. Amy said, I did this tree but did with buttons instead for kids. That'd be so cute. Sherry, we just posted the link to my Amazon store, or you can text the word Amazon to my texting phone number and it will give you the link to where I get my Posca pens. Now I'm not doing like perfect circles here. You definitely could if you don't like the wobbly look of some of mine, but I kind of am Liking just the randomness of all of them and all the different designs that we can put in each one. Joanne, you can go back to YouTube or Facebook anytime you want and you can, uh, rewatch this video. You guys want to see what I worked on today? Let me show Okay, I'm gonna put my Posca pens back away. Look at me being organized and putting away my supplies when I'm done with them. Never before seen on the Socialism. See, I'm usually more like this, just stacking things on top of one another, but we're gonna clean as we go. So this is, um, my new art journal. I'm gonna do one page a week for the entire year. Um, I'll show you what I did while I was in Arizona too. So this is something I wanted to challenge myself on and then also share, um, with my tribe and really kind of push them to explore this side of themselves as well. But this is similar to a mixed media pad, except it's just to be kept more like a journal. You could, um, decorate the COVID and make it all pretty, um, but it's really, um, art journaling is just about, um, taking some time to create just for the sake of creating, not for the outcome. Turn your favorite music on, take something that you're inspired by. Um, for my first page that I did here This was inspired by some new wallpaper that I'm going to hang in my new studio. And I just played, I just played with a bunch of colors and mediums and added some paint pens on top and just spent an hour creating colors and designs without a game plan. Again, just for the sake of creating. And then when I was in Arizona this last week for my mastermind. I was inspired by, um, our agenda sheet had these really pretty flowers on them, and it was on a black background, and I love teal, so I decided to make my own version. And these are done with, um, a special kind of crayon. They're like fancy art crayons. Um, I don't remember the name off the top of my head, but they're in my Amazon store, um, that my friend Nicholas with Art2Life thankfully brought. And so we were doodling and coloring while learning, and this is the first page of my notebook from that. But I'm actually going to recreate this inside my art journal for that week, because at the end of the year I want to look back at my journal and it kind of just be traveling through the year and sparking memories and stuff for me. So this is what I did last week. And then today I did a devotional in my group, and part of that devotional was, um, talking about letting go and trusting God, um, and to stop hanging on so tight to the things that we think that we are in control of in our life. And it reminded me of something a speaker said at my mastermind in Arizona, and he talked about when we're holding on to something so tight you're holding on to these things that you think you control, because if you control them, you control the outcome. And we all know that's a lie, right? But when you're holding on so tight, no light can get in here. But it's when you open up and you let go that God can shine his light on that and take it away from you and give you peace and shine his light on you. And so it was just a very, um, For me, it just really stuck with me. And so that was what I decided to journal about. And so my words say— I've got them in gold, so let's hold it so it doesn't shine on you— but it says, let go of your tight grip. And then the verse that I put with it is Proverbs 16:9. Um, let me read the beginning of it because I forgot the beginning, but I just wrote the end of it. The end of the verse is, the Lord establishes her steps. Um, the entire verse— see, my inspiration is this journal. Um, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. And I just love that. And I was talking about how, you know, when we're making our plans for this year, to make sure that we're making them— if you are a believer, make sure you're making them with God, um, and not making your plans and then asking him to bless them. So, you know, there's a difference of asking for his guidance and for him to show you the way that you should go and talk to him about your heart, your heart and your desires. But I just love that the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. And I just wanted to share that with you guys and share, you know, my third page of art journaling with you so you could see each page is completely different. I've used different mediums on all of them. There's no right or wrong to art journaling. It's just about relaxing and being creative and just kind of seeing what happens. So it's been lots of fun. I'm sure throughout the year I'll be popping on and doing some art journaling with you on the Social Easel page as well, just to kind of give you some insight into that. And we are working on a PDF document that you will be able to sign up for for free that's gonna give you 52 art prompts. Prompts. So you'll have an art prompt for every week of the year to kind of inspire you and give you an idea of where to start, because we know that it's hard when you are looking at a blank piece of paper. It's hard to just come up with an idea. So I talk a little bit about where I get my inspiration from all the time, but we're hoping these art prompts will also help you. So that will be coming soon. Megan and I are finishing that up right now. Um, the title of that devotional— this one is Beholding and Becoming: The Art of Everyday Worship. Um, Amy, I cannot remember. I was saying that this morning. I don't remember if this is in my Amazon store, so we may have to grab a link and, um, post it here in the comments. Because I can't remember if it's under my devotional tab or not. It's a newer one that I started reading, but I really like it, and it's just super pretty. And you know, we like pretty things because we're artists. So I mean, how beautiful is this book? Um, plus it's got scripture and devotionals in it, so win-win. Um, yes, the art prompts are coming. Um, Let me make sure I didn't miss any questions. Any other questions before I jump off here? I hope you guys had fun hanging out with me today. I hope I answered any questions that you did have. Pull myself back up and say hi again. And I hope when I get off here, I'm gonna go look out that window and see a bunch of snow on the ground. I hope so. They canceled everything tonight, even with no snow, so the girls don't have volleyball. Um, or dance, which means that's why I'm able to be on a Facebook Live with you guys right now, because normally I am driving here and there and everywhere. Terry said, is that a Ranger journal? I don't know, Terry. Let me look and see. I can't remember. I took the label off. So I don't remember the brand of it now. I really like it. It sold out, I think, after I posted it in my group. There is no brand on here. I do— the Ranger sounds familiar though. I feel like that may be the brand of it. Um, they may be back in stock now, I'm not sure, but we did find another one to post in my store, um, that is another good option that is the same size and has this hardcover that you could decorate as well. Thank you. Maggie said, uh, it is. Yes. Okay, I think you're answering that. Okay. Yes. Okay, you were, Maggie. Thank you. Thank you. All right, you guys have a good night. If you have any questions, just email Christie at thesocialeasel.com, and myself or my team will get back to you and provide any links that you need. Um, you can get those in the comments as well. And if you want to find out more about the Thrive Mastermind that I'm doing, just go up to the description up above and you can click on that link and find out more there. So you guys have a good night, and I'll be back later this week to do some winter evergreens with you. Bye!