(Hint: it’s available in full online, and you can take it now, or anytime you’d like!)

So, I’ve done a lot of painting kits/classes for my Etsy shop, but I had some extra time on my hands the other week (that’s a first, let’s be honest), and I thought… hey, why don’t I make a free painting class for you all to follow along with over on YouTube?

And that’s just what I did!

For this class, I obviously couldn’t provide any painting materials like I do for my full Etsy classes since those have to be shipped to all of my students… and, sorry, we just can’t do all of that for free. However, I got creative with it, and I came up with a way to teach everyone how to draw and paint a butterfly… using a spoon!

Because everyone has a spoon on-hand at all times, right?

Of course, you’ll also need some other materials to complete this class, including:

• A ruler
• Pencils and paint brushes
• Mixing sticks (such as paint spatulas, popsicle sticks, etc.)
• Paints (acrylic preferred, tempera also works well)
• Construction paper, painting paper, or a canvas surface
• A water cup and towel or napkin

Mainly, we just use the spoon to sketch out our butterflies, and any “standard” size of spoon works well. I used a plastic spoon in the video, which I’m assuming came from an old box of store-bought disposable spoons (I kind of just found it laying in a random drawer, and, well, you know how that goes!).

If you follow along with the class video, you can actually paint your butterfly any color you’d like–even with glow paint, if you have some! If you want to create the end result I showed you above though, you’ll need the following paint colors:

• Red
• Yellow
• Blue
• White
• Black

This is, basically, all the ingredients we need to make that ombre rainbow effect. Which, now that I think about it, kind of reminds me of pride… so, maybe we could call this a “pride butterfly”, too, if you’d like!

Lastly, I want to let everyone know that this video is permitted to be used in class settings–so long as those are free class settings (I’m thinking of use in public schools and libraries). Please do not use this video in whole or in part in a paid art class setting–it’s strictly prohibited.

Now, if you’re ready to paint with me… let’s go!

As always, let me know what you guys thought/think of this free art class idea, either here or over on YouTube! I also highly encourage everyone to leave a like on the YouTube video if you have a YouTube account so that we can reach more people with free content like this.

I’m also open to hearing any ideas for future free painting classes, too! I already have one idea for a holiday-themed painting… but, of course, we’ve got a while until it’s winter again.

Until our next free art class, homedogs…

–Kari 🎨

(Pst… you can get 15% off ANY of the painting kits on my Etsy shop anytime by using coupon code BLOG15, too!)