Psst- the teacher isn’t looking. 🤡 🌅 Get your phone and post your favorite pic. Drop it in the comments below. __________________________________ 👆🏻Cliff Notes Version 👇🏻 A little more detail. The why 👉🏻 In LESSON 1, _________________________ The amount of detail we put into realism paintings simply isn’t stored in your brain. Not yet… and honestly, maybe not ever. That is NORMAL! The first lesson is in classroom HERE After you read the lesson, find 1 or 2 or even 3 images that mean something special to you. They do NOT have to be images you plan to paint. Think of it as building your inspiration library for this entire community. Later, we will VOTE on the one to paint in class. Drop it. What makes that image so special to you?

There’s no right or wrong answer here. I’m curious what your instinct says. 🖌️🎨 After teaching many brand-new painters, I’ve noticed one struggle comes up more than any other. I’ll share the answer later today.

If you’re new to SKOOL, from the bottom of my heart, thank you and Welcome. SKOOL ORIENTATION 🪄 Participation is the magic here. Post. Comment. Ask questions. Pass notes. That’s how the community thrives. Learning thru discussion. 💛🗝️💛🗝️💛🗝️💛🗝️💛🗝️ You will notice several tabs at the very top. COMMUNITY - this is where the daily activity happens. Check in here daily. It has subcategories. ALL - all posts, all categories can be seen here. HOME ROOM - anyone can make posts here. This is kind of a generic space to talk. New lessons will be announced here. You are encouraged to create a new post about whatever you like. SHOW AND TELL - You are encouraged to create a new post about your previous or current work, paintings or drawings in progress or reference images you would like to paint. TIPS AND TRICKS - You are encouraged to create a new post about a cool thing you learned. I’ll be posting here too. I NEED EXTRA HELP - post here if you are stuck on something. Seek help from your friends in the community while you are working on something. SUPPLIES AND SETUP - Post your space or studio here. We learn from seeing what others do. I will be posting about some products that I love. What do you love? Post it here. CLASSROOM - I will be building lessons in here. Some will be free, some will be affordable. SKOOL makes it easy for you to purchase a course or a subscription. Soon, you will see both here. MEMBERS - learn about others in the community here. This part is great! Meet people that don’t stink. MAP - see if anyone is close to you geographically. LEADERBOARDS - this shows who the teacher’s pets are. HINT - the more points you have, the more free stuff you get. ⭐⭐⭐ Points are earned by: • posting • commenting • helping other members ABOUT - this tells you what this community is AND has a little video. No art snobs. No ego competitions. Encouragement and curiosity win here. Teachers pets may receive gold stars. ⭐ @Thomas Richards @Shari Walker Kearney @Gretchen Cyr @Betty Cowin @Kay Savage @Gerry Moore @Julie Flaskamp @Gail Whittet

🧑🏻‍🎨 Yes YOU! I know you probably want to argue with me here and I get it. I didn’t call myself an artist until I was 50 yr old! Miriam Webster says: ARTIST: a person who creates art (such as painting, sculpture, music, or writing) using conscious skill and creative imagination. 🎯 CONSCIOUS SKILL No mystical powers. No divine talent that you were born with. Not a right brain, left handed dominant mind. A SKILL 🌁 CREATIVE IMAGINATION We all have this! Remember being a kid? Your brain was a wild playground. Then you trained it: school, career, parenting, making money. We ALL have the ability to call ourselves an artist. The only thing holding you back is You. Together, we will build your skill. Please consider inviting someone here that says “I can’t even draw a Stick Figure”. I would appreciate it.

The one on the left is oil paint. The painting on the right was done in acrylic paint. They were painted one year apart. ONE. YEAR. No angels descended from heaven and anointed my paintbrush. No sudden burst of divine talent. What changed? SKILL. I Stopped GUESSING. I found help. Then, I developed and tested a system to teach others to paint realism. You CAN learn this too. The painting on the left sold for $2,500. Prints and cards of it have brought in over $7,000. This is PROOF. Painting isn’t magic. It isn’t a gift only handed out to mysterious left-handed children. (Literally I used to believe that.) It’s a learned skill. And if a former Stick Figure Drawing Dropout like me can figure it out… You can too. Are you drawing anything now? Even a digital drawing is ok @Kamal Webb. Even an adult one if you are willing to share.