 I am easily distracted by art supplies. Are you like that? If so, then welcome to my world, Okindred Spirit. Have you barely used the stuff that you purchased last month only to find a new paper you wanted to try out? Or maybe you get sidetracked by things like fountain pens or alcohol I don't know wax seals all different kinds of creative ventures. Well we are not alone my friend because a lot of the old masters were the same. If you look at a guy like Leonardo da Vinci, a small painting like the Mona Lisa which is only this big actually took him 14 years to finish because he just kept getting distracted by other projects. Well I'm kind of like that and it's good to know that other artists have suffered with the same kind of melody as me. When I was a little girl I was obsessed with different kinds of art and craft projects as well and one of the most transformative moments for me was when one of my teachers actually called me an artist for the first time. She was somebody who didn't have to say that. She wasn't family. She didn't have to pump me up. She just recognized the creative spark inside of me and decided to speak it out loud and that made a huge difference in my life because I could now see myself as an artist. If you get nothing out of all the videos that I post on this channel please know this. You are an artist. Whether you make crafty projects, you make finished paintings, you create things out of beads or yarn or whatever it is. You're making something out of nothing and therefore you are an artist and I want you to remember that. I'd like to suggest that you and I make a creative pact right here and right now. Let's make this a two-way relationship. They say that the one way to really learn something and to find out if you really know it is to teach it to someone else. So you just by watching my videos make me a better artist and instructor and hopefully through the things that I share with you I can make you a better artist and give you more technical skills to be able to express yourself better. As my part in this pact I make some promises to you that I will create the best content I can on art, craft, design, color theory, shading, and so much more in the best technical ways that I possibly can. Now if you've seen my early videos especially that very first Snoopy coloring tutorial that I did you'll probably see that there's been some growth in my technical abilities and hopefully you'll see there's some growth in my artistic abilities as well as I grow through this process too. And I promise to continue sharing different difficulty levels in each of the mediums and putting together playlists so you can join in wherever you're at in your artistic journey. I use Copic markers, water-based markers, watercolor, watercolor pencils, color pencils is with a few crazy rabbit trails thrown in to alcohol inks, fountain pen art, yeah you'll just find some random things along the way as well because as I get inspired by trying new and different things hopefully those experiments can inspire you to try something new as well. Your part in this creative pact is to spend just 30 minutes a week with me. Three days a week Monday Wednesday and Friday I put out a video around 10 minutes or so so that's not much time to commit to this creative journey but what I'd like you to do is look in each one of those videos for one takeaway, one aha moment for something that you can apply right away in whatever project you're working on whether you're drawing in a sketchbook working on a finished painting making a card or a scrapbook project find one takeaway and go use it right away because if you don't use it you're going to forget it. Remember we've talked about having this easily distracted mentality you need to harness that knowledge right when you learn it so find that one takeaway and I recommend writing it in the comments down below the video writing it out also helps to cement that in your brain and you can also read the comments others make and you can see what inspired them in a particular video need some extra help in whatever the medium is at whatever level you're at well there's playlists here on youtube but I've also created something called inspiration posts on my blog every saturday I gather a bunch of them together so that if you're interested in coloring a particular type of thing or using a particular type of medium you can find all of that in one place and if you would like some more in-depth lessons with more step-by-step techniques that build on each other then by all means take a class I have a teaching site where I offer classes in a lot of different mediums at a lot of different levels just whatever it is that you decide I want you to commit that you're going to stay on this artistic journey as best you can one other thing I would have mentioned before I go and that's another old master who I find I resonate with artistically very much and that is Caravaggio he was an Italian painter born in 1571 and not only did he do incredible studies of light and shadow but he was also a bit of an artistic maniac Caravaggio was prolific he was always creating something new always on another painting he was known for spending two weeks straight on a painting and that means no sleep painting straight through for two weeks I'm a little bit like that I may not take two weeks to get a piece of art done but I have that same kind of excited mania about creating so if you find that there is not enough of me here on youtube you can certainly follow me on either of my instagram accounts where I share what I'm working on each day and a lot of short little videos that you may learn something from as well I invite you to join me on this creative journey start by subscribing and click the little bell so that you can get notified every monday wednesday and friday when my videos go live and I promise to meet you here with new excitement new passion for art new ideas to inspire you and just possibly a little bit of permission to enjoy your art and your supplies as much as you would like because you're an artist and you deserve good art supplies create something every single day it's going to help to keep you sane in this crazy world of ours i'll see you again soon