Pallet Knife!! || The Social Easel

Hey everybody, we are gonna do a really quick little live here, and I had some people ask for more instruction on palette knives, so we're gonna work with some palette knives tonight. And something that I have been wanting to work on was doing like a palette knife Ocean scene. So we're gonna kind of combine the two, and hopefully you guys will learn a little something tonight. So I'm just getting a couple different shades of blues and turquoises right now. So hop on, um, or you're already on, let me know when you hop on and say hi. Let me know where you're watching from, and I'm gonna pull you up on my iPad really quick so I can see your comments. So give me just a second here. All right, we got you pulled up. Hey, Miss Cindy. Hey, Teresa and Kay and Donna and Cheryl and Mildred. All right, so I am gonna do one of these per day this week with you, Monday through Friday. We're just gonna do some quick little 20-minute lessons. So these are not going to be, you know, full start-to-finish paintings, but hopefully you guys will learn a little bit in each one of the videos. So if you have more ideas for me, you can post them in the comments below, and I'm kind of going through and taking everyone's um, you know, opinions and thoughts. And if it's something— now, a lot of them, uh, the ideas that you guys have are like full-on, like, you know, like a 2-hour painting, so obviously can't be done in 20 minutes. Um, but we'll just kind of play with it and see. So I'm gonna use 2 different, um, palette knife sizes tonight. So I'm going to use a big one to do my sky with, and then I'm going to use my smaller one to kind of play with my waves a little bit more. And so my thought— well, I'm trying to see if I have one of those canvas— oh, I do. So what I want to do is I have this, um, 10 by 20 that I want to do like an ocean scene on with some really thick texture on it. So when you're working with a palette knife you're just gonna— you kind of load up the back side. Okay, so I'm gonna get some white on there, and you can pre-mix these colors. I kind of like doing it on the actual, um, surface. So whatever you're painting on— I'm using a mixed media pad tonight, but I just like the look that it gives. So you kind of see how I'm just kind of pulling that along, and you can change your strokes. So if you make some short little ones, obviously you get short little designs there. So it's all about what kind of texture you want in your sky, and you could just keep going with this. When paint gets on the other side, I just kind of flip it over and drag it. But the thing I love about a palette knife is it's just very freeing because there's kind of no rules with it. You're just kind of seeing what happens and you let the art kind of come to life on its own. So you guys, in the comments, let me know how many of you have used a palette knife before, or if you've never picked one up. It's not something that— unless you have painted with me locally maybe, or, you know, done some lessons on your own— it's not something most people have experimented with, and whenever there is something new, we automatically fear it. But I've really been working a lot with the palette knife over the last year or so and have just really fallen in love with it, and I love the look that it gives. And this is just a really simple landscape that you could practice with. Because you can get really abstract with an ocean scene and it's still gonna look really cool when it's hanging on the wall. We just kind of have to allow ourselves to accept that not everything has to look like a photograph, to just enjoy the process of art with it. Tried to use one a couple times. Teresa has not. Becky has. Teresa has. And this, like I said, is a longer one. I have several different sizes. This is my favorite one. It's a number 1, and it's little itty-bitty, and you can do some, you know, fun flower work with this one and all kinds of stuff. So as we're going along here, how many of you have seen what opened today? So the Spring Floral Boot Camp opened, and if you haven't seen it yet and don't know what I'm talking about, go ahead and comment "Boot Camp." It's not gonna be an automatic bot message from me because I'm not that organized today, but I will go back and and reply to your comment and get you the information on the boot camp and send you the link because it opened today. And basically what the boot camp is, is kind of like an in-depth study of florals with me, and we are gonna do 4 full paintings over the span of 4 weeks. And every Monday you're going to get a technique video, and every Thursday you'll get the full painting. So, and then we have our own private Facebook group. And if you can't catch me when I'm teaching, which won't necessarily always be live, there will be some times where I pre-record them and post them, but you have access, um, forever after that. So you can go back and watch those videos whenever you want. So let me know if you have any questions, or if you know what I'm talking about, or you've already signed up for it. But I am super stoked about it because I love flowers and they're super fun to do. And we're gonna do all different kinds inside that group, and you do not have to have any experience whatsoever. So I get that question a lot. Cheryl said she did it with the bunnies, not sure if she liked using it. Yeah, the more you practice, and maybe trying something different other than the bunnies— do it with the flowers, You can go back and do those. So, um, those of you that are in my tribe that are commenting boot camp, you have a special link because you're tribe members, and I've already posted it and added it to the announcements at the top of our tribe Facebook group. So that is going to be where you want to go in to sign up because as tribe members, my tribe members get 50% off. So If you are a Triberr, your link is different than to the public, so that is posted in our group. And actually, you also got an email today that has that as well. So I'm just kind of going along. See how I switched to the smaller one here? Just kind of make these rough waves, maybe drag a couple up here. So see how I just have the paint on the back? And when you're working with a palette knife, you're not putting down a ton of pressure. I'm just kind of lightly dragging it across. And this is what I mean by letting the art just kind of come together the way that it does. I don't know exactly what that's going to look like when I put it down, so it's kind of like a surprise. And I think that's what I like about doing it, is these little, these little marks happen, and I love them, and it just happens. So it's not something, you know, like I really planned out ahead of time, but it just gives it that really cool texture. And you notice how quickly I'm moving on from one section to the other. So the difference between using, you know, like a brush versus using a palette knife, you don't keep working on that area. If you keep messing with it, you're going to overwork the area and it's all just going to become kind of a mess. And one big blob of color, and that's not what we want. We want that cool texture in there. Awesome, Robbie! That is how Robbie first found me, and now Robbie's in our inner tribe too. She did the winter boot camp with me, and she's just rocking it. She's so good. Let me grab— so I'm just grabbing— this is tan, any, you know, just some sand color, and this is Nutmeg. I'm just grabbing a little bit of both to see what I like down here. Sonya, boot camp starts next Monday, Monday, May 13th, so right after Mother's Day. It makes an awesome Mother's Day present for someone. If you want it, send the link to your loved ones and have them sign up for you, and they'll enter your email address and your name but their credit card number. So if that's something you want for your— for Mother's Day, be sure to let them know. It's super simple to sign up and they'll be done. And especially if you have boys, boys always have a hard time trying to figure out what to get their moms, right? So this is a super fun gift that your loved ones can give you for Mother's Day too. I'm coming in with a little white. I want to add— I think I want to add some clouds. Back here at my horizon line. Maybe a few up here in the sky a little bit. That's kind of cool. What do you guys think so far? Maybe come in a A little shadow underneath here. A little bit darker blue in a few areas just to kind of break it up. Jane said, so the paint should stand up off the canvas and the page. I mean, it does somewhat. It will more if you use gel medium with, with it, which this is just regular craft paint. But if I added gel medium to it, it would be thicker. But yes, I am not blending it into the surface, if that's— I think that's kind of what you're asking there. You know, I think I'm gonna pull this other color in here. Thank you, guys. So yeah, obviously it's, uh, it's very messy, but that's kind of the style that I'm going for. Ivana, this is an online camp, so it is all taught in online in a private Facebook group. Thank you, Annette. I'm gonna pull in— check out this color, that's pretty, right? Let's make it a little darker back towards that horizon. So you guys see how I'm just kind of dragging it back and forth? Can you kind of get how freeing this is to do and just kind of play with and not have expectations for yourself? I know it's hard for us to do that, but it's healthy for us to do that too. I'm gonna grab a little bit more of my— if I can find it— here it is. Does everyone else have sound? Nothing's changed on my end, so let me know. Sonya, you may have to jump out and get back in sometimes if that happens. I'm getting a little bit more of my ocean breeze here. Okay, you guys do have sound, right? Okay. So you can see this is a little bit thin right here, so I'm just going to go back and add some more in there. And I'm mixing a little bit of white with my Ocean Breeze again just to kind of give that texture, that, that difference in color there. This is obviously more of like the Caribbean water. I'm so ready to go back to Mexico, but this is really, really fun. I would highly recommend you pulling out your supplies and doing this tonight because it's very relaxing. So now I'm gonna grab in a couple of my browns here. I think I might go back to my bigger one for that. All right, so I'm just gonna grab a little bit. And those of you asking questions about the boot camp, and if you're, if you're new to the Social Easel, I didn't introduce myself earlier, but My name is Christie Hawkins, and I'm the owner of The Social Easel, but this is how I teach in my online classes. So you get this nice aerial view where you can see exactly what's going on. Yeah, Becky, it does for sure. Can definitely be a Florida beach. Another one people had asked me, like, they wanted to see was a sunset again. So maybe we'll do another, another beach scene later, but with a sunset without palette knife, but with brushes, just to give you guys something different. And she said, it's easy until I try to do it. Hey, practice makes perfect. So this thing I am working in is a mixed media pad. So this, I tell all my students to get this. It is my like number one must-have thing to buy. I'll put the link below so you guys can get the right one, but it's just an 11 by 14 mixed media pad. And here's what I love about it. It's just like a sketchbook except for your paint. It can handle this heaviness. And then when I let this dry completely, if I wanted to and I really, really loved this I could frame it and then it looks super nice in a frame. Or if I hate it and I don't like what I did, I just flip the page and I start over again. So it's really, really good for you to just get used to playing and not expecting what you're working on to be perfect or turn out exactly the way that you thought it was going to every time. So people assume that every time I touch a canvas, it just turns out exactly like what I want. Well, that is not true. At all. And sometimes I get upset with my canvases and things are not working the way that I want, and I just put them down and I move on to something else. And you just got to get yourself out of that mindset and into just enjoying the process of creating. So this is my first ever, um, palette knife ocean scene, and I'm thinking I quite love it. It is very, very fun. Let's have some waves crashing in here, maybe even pull in just a little bit of that turquoise water over the brown where it kind of blends. So fun. All right, what'd you guys think? Was that fun? Super quick lesson, but look what you can do in 20 minutes. So, and if you don't have to paint as fast as me, but look at what you could do if you did it in twice the amount of time. Look what you can do in 40 minutes, but you got to allow yourself the freedom, right? I could totally tweak this and come back and work areas all over again, but I'm just gonna leave it. I'm gonna let it dry, and I'm thinking I dig it, and it'll probably end up going in a frame. So I hope you guys had fun with that tonight, and I'll be back on tomorrow. I cannot tell you a specific time yet. It will probably be around the lunchtime hour. Tomorrow I am going— if any of you follow Stu McLaren, or if any of you are business owners and want to know more about Stu McLaren and Tribe, he is actually interviewing myself and Tamara Bennett and Casey Hope and Sarah Williams, who are all my creative friends, and we all have memberships. And he is interviewing us at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow on his page. So Stu McLaren, I'll post the link if you guys want to know more about that. So I'm gonna be live on his page for an hour. And then I'll probably grab something to eat and then jump on here and paint with you guys again tomorrow. So I'll post the link for boot camp below, and I'll shoot you a message if, if you typed boot camp and make sure that you get signed up for that. But you have all week to get signed up, and we start classes on Monday. So everyone have a good night, and I will talk to you soon. Bye!