Hey guys, what's up welcome back to my channel today. I have some more DIY last-minute Christmas gift ideas So the other day I was like what am I gonna film for the Sunday? I ended up going on my community tab here on YouTube and posting a couple of different options and the results are as is shown What as shown here? But basically everyone was like can you please do another DIY Christmas gift idea video? And of course I wanted to come through with some more DIY gift ideas for you guys I personally think that this year especially is an amazing year to DIY some more heartfelt gifts Just to kind of brighten up the spirits for the end of 2020 and set the tone right for 2021 So today I have four super cute DIY gift ideas, and if you guys did not already know I actually did one of these this year as well I'll put a card up here in case you want a couple more ideas I have a whole another video sharing DIY gift ideas as well And I honestly do think that the gifts in this video I might like even more than the last one I don't know. They're all just they're all really cute like you can just find something for everyone truly I try to have a nice range of items as well for really anybody in your life And also I didn't want to mention that if you need any last-minute quick gift ideas that are just like you know You can purchase on a whim head over to my shop lone fox comm We are shipping every single day to make sure that you guys get your Christmas orders on time before Christmas time And I'm actually gonna give you guys a 15% off code So use code candy cane on the screen It'll get you 15% off at checkout and just make sure to place your order right away that way we can ship it out So you hopefully will get it in time for Christmas. I can't 100% say that you will However, we're gonna try to get it to you as quick as possible So I just wanted to give you guys that little code as well But of course we are going to jump on into some DIY gift ideas and let's go ahead and get started So the first project I'm going to share with you guys is something that you can easily gift alongside a candle because I do Think a candle is just one of those gifts that are very like a no-brainer gift idea Like you can get anybody a candle and everyone kind of likes a candle, you know So I decided why not go ahead and make like a really cute little match holder slash match Striker to go along with it and I made it out of some clay and it just looks like a very kind of modernized Match holder and it's really cute to pair alongside a candle just to kind of add that little handmade element So let me share with you guys how I made this Alrighty guys so jumping into our first project all you're gonna need is a little bit of clay here I buy my clay in bulk by the way because I use it so often on the channel But you're just gonna need a nice large amount of clay I'm warming that up in my hands and I'm gonna place down some parchment paper just to go ahead and protect my surface And as you can see here I kind of have a log of clay and I'm actually going to be using this log to kind of roll out into about a half inch Wide long log of clay basically so as you can see here, I'm rolling it out and when it's thicker I tend to use my palms more that's a little tip I would give you guys is to use your palms when it's a thicker amount of clay But then as it gets thinner I suggest using your fingertips It's a bit more delicate and it makes the clay kind of stretch a bit more without warping at all So that's exactly what I'm doing here And in the end you're actually going to want this to be about a little over 30 inches in length because we're going to need Five six inch sections of this clay so I'm rolling it out into my half inch log Once you have your desired thickness I grabbed an exacto knife and a ruler So I'm gonna do a little cut on the end here And then I'm going to measure out six inches in length and I'm going to do a cut as well on that end And these are basically going to be rolled up into little coils here or I guess into little rings And we're gonna be making five of these that will then stack on top of each other So you're gonna want to cut a total of five six inch sections which we're gonna be forming into rings and To create said ring it is very simple You're just gonna take your little six inch log there wrap it into a loop shape and then just kind of press the clay together There is no rhyme or reason for this at all and I am not a clay expert So there might be an easier way or a quicker way to do this But I literally wrapped it up as you guys can see here and just use my fingers just to kind of mesh the clay together and just like mold It into a circular shape Once those are all created we can go ahead and start stacking these rings up to kind of create the Section that the matches are going to stick out of so I just stacked up all five of my rings Just carefully placing them on top of each other and tapping them down into each other with enough pressure so that they stick together But not enough pressure to where you're gonna be smashing the actual ring shape because you want that nice kind of rounded ring Edge to kind of pull off this vibe and aesthetic that we're going for for this particular match holder I Rolled out another piece of clay which will be the bottom of our little match holder And I'm going to be placing our section that we created with the rings on top cutting away any excess with my exacto knife Removing that excess clay and then you're just gonna want to go all the way around Once again using your finger and the warmth of your finger just to mend that bottom section to the bottom ring And just make it look nice and clean and even and once you're done with this Which it takes a couple of minutes and feel free to kind of roll it on your desktop use an acrylic roller Like I am to kind of just mend it together But overall you're just gonna want that to have a more smooth finish on the bottom bake it for 30 minutes And this is what you're gonna have Now here comes the fun part I love painting little clay projects like this so I grabbed some tan paint Which I'm gonna mix with some white paint to create a very similar color to the clay I actually got it very very spot-on. I wanted a very clay look But I knew I wanted to add a top coat just to kind of finish it off So this paint color worked out perfectly and I went around and as you could see this paint just really finishes it off It makes the definition like a little bit better as well on the sides there and fills in any cracks or crevices or fingerprints really nicely And then I knew I needed to just add a little bit more detail So I put some water in a cup with a little bit of black paint and we're gonna almost be creating like a water color here So I'm mixing up the black paint into the water and I'm going to be splattering it with my finger as shown I'm just kind of tapping the top of the paintbrush and I'm going to be splattering some dots onto the outside of our ring holder I really feel like this gives it a more ceramic vibe as opposed to a clay vibe and I just love this kind of quirky addition I think the dots add a nice little touch and you can also totally customize the paint color or the splatter color Whatever you want to do for a more personalized look, but of course we do need a striker on this piece here So I got this piece of sandpaper. It's a very high grit.  I've already used quite a bit So cutting off the corner there using a bit of quick hold adhesive to glue that right on the bottom and do keep in mind There is some sandpaper on the bottom So maybe place it on top of some books as opposed to a scratchable surface if that's a concern for you Next up I have a really cute throw blanket DIY for you guys and something I feel like when you go to purchase a throw Blanket they always have the very cute throw blankets But the cute ones I feel like are always not the comfy is and then the comfy ones are always not the cutest You know so I kind of wanted to mix those two elements together of a comfy and cute and create just the perfect throw Blanket and that is exactly what I think I created for you guys today You were going to love this and I think anyone would love receiving this gift. So let me share with you guys I made this one. I Just love this blanket DIY. How adorable is this plaid fabric on top? I also got this really pretty faux sherpa that is so super soft and I got both of these in one and a half yards I'm also using a little bit of this thick yarn or well I thought I was gonna be using the thick yarn and you guys are going to see what happens in a second here So I ended up stringing on this wool roving yarn that I got at Joanne And I wanted to go ahead and stitch the edge of this with a nice blanket stitch all the way around and just Connect the two pieces of fabric. But as you can see here, I could not pull this yarn through it would not go Through at all which I was so sad about I even used pliers to try to pull it through and I got a couple of stitches Down the line and I was like, you know what I cannot recommend this to you guys at all It was not easy So I ended up switching over to a lighter or not lighter But like a thinner yarn and it worked so much better you guys This thinner yarn was also in an orange color similar to the plaid which I loved So all I'm doing is I'm going to be connecting our two pieces of fabric Really all you need is a nice little top layer which will be the top of your blanket in my case It's the plaid and then your underlayer for the cozy element Which is this nice little faux kind of shearling Sherpa material And I'm just going around and doing a simple blanket stitch Which is basically where you go through the back up through the front And I just hold my finger as you can see on the left side here to catch the loop And then I'm going to put my needle right through the loop pull it Not tightly pretty loosely actually just to kind of have that Yarn nestle on the edge there and that finishes off your blanket stitch and for this project you guys I repeated this process around the entire exterior of the blanket Just attaching my two pieces of fabric and it creates a nice kind of detail along the edge But also in the end you have a really pretty top layer with the plaid And then you have a really soft cozy underlayer with that kind of shearling material Project number three is one that's a little bit different And we are actually going to be making some DIY potpourri And this is really fun and you can create large batches of this That way you can kind of gift it out to a lot of people at once I'm going to be drying down some oranges, some rosemary We're going to mix it up with some cloves and some cinnamon sticks Just to create a really nice kind of homemade fresh potpourri And then package it in a cute little jar But let me share with you guys how I did this Creating your very own potpourri is actually extremely simple But it is a little bit time consuming and I'll tell you guys why So I'm starting off by grabbing a couple of these naval oranges I got at the grocery store I'm going to be cutting them into a quarter inch wide rings You could totally do whatever with you want But the thinner the ring, the quicker it's going to dehydrate in our oven So I cut all of these oranges down into these ring shapes And then I placed them on a piece of parchment paper and a baking sheet And I'm going to be popping this into the lowest degree on your oven Because this is going to be baking in here for about five to six hours And this is what it looked like after about two and a half hours And then we reached this point at about five hours We have these nice oranges I'm also using some cinnamon sticks, some cloves A little bit of pine and then also some dried out rosemary that I also put in the oven And these are the bottles that I'm going to be using to package my potpourri They are so cute just from Target They look like little vintage milk bottles I'm popping in some pine and then we're going to add in a couple of our orange slices Now the orange slices are more so for looks They don't give off the like any form of aroma really But the cinnamon sticks, the clove, the pine And the rosemary is where it is at So I'm adding of course all of those sections as well And just kind of filling it in with oranges Because the oranges really do add a very pretty look to the overall potpourri And I'm just popping those in So this is what the inside of our little container is going to look like And you could have totally adjust this to whatever like amount you want to give somebody And these are some really cute labels that I created I'm going to link them below for you guys I made this on Photoshop and I want you guys to have it as well So they're little potpourri labels They basically say Merry Christmas with a little instruction underneath On how to make your potpourri smell the best that it possibly can So I cut mine into these little banner shapes by kind of cutting a little triangle out of the end And turning it into a little banner And then of course I also have to poke a hole or I guess punch a hole onto one side I'm using my nice large hole punch But you can use a needle or whatever you have to do so Grabbing a little bit of cotton twine I'm going to wrap around a couple times under the top rim You could also use hemp or whatever you have on hand And then I'm going to string on my little label that I created And just tie in a single I guess not here But before I tie the bow I'm actually going to just add a little sprig of greenery Just because I think it adds a nice little touch to the outside of this And that finishes off your little potpourri jar How cute are these? I think they would be so much fun in a stocking or alongside of another gift And I could totally picture this at Anthropology for like $22 And we made it for a couple And saving my favorite project for last We're going to be creating some clay earrings Now I have seen so many people on TikTok creating these clay earrings They're all over Etsy They're all over the internet However they're pretty simple to create And I wanted to share with you guys how to create these earrings Because I truly do think like a simple pair of earrings like this Which you can also totally mass produce these as well If you had a lot of people to give to Like a solid substantial pair of earrings is a nice present in my opinion So I'm going to share with you guys how to make these kind of like Geometric clay funky retro style earrings So let's go ahead and jump on into this project And I'm sure you guys know that I had to save my favorite project for last And it is another clay project So I'm starting off with some white clay I'm going to be rolling it out with my acrylic roller Which by the way guys I picked this up specifically for this video And it is a lifesaver for clay I got this at Joann's Fabric as well I also picked up these really cute little cookie cutters Which are little small oval shapes And then some other small shapes as well And this embossing folder from Joann's Fabrics too And basically an embossing folder has a kind of embossed and debossed section It's normally meant for card baking or paper But I figured why don't I imprint this pattern Into the actual clay itself and create a textured clay earring So that's exactly what I did I just rolled out a nice thin sheet of clay Placed my embossing folder over Rolled over the top of it and used my cookie cutters To cut out some simple shapes And you can get quite a few earrings out of Just like one little rolled out piece of clay section So I'm just going to go ahead and cut out some shapes that I want I also like to pick up all the little pieces that I do Cut out and kind of round off the edges with my finger a little bit And just tap them along the edge Just to make sure all of the clay is nice and smooth But don't press too hard because you don't want your fingerprints of course To be imprinted on there I also went in with a needle to poke a little hole at the top Which I did figure out later I could totally have just used my hole punch as well You're going to see me kind of bringing that in in a little bit But if you don't have a hole punch You could totally use a needle or a small straw And then I had a really fun idea To kind of mix in a couple of colored clays So I have this light pink one I'm kind of taking off a couple pieces And sprinkling it over the top of a rolled out sheet of white clay I'm just going to go across and add a little bit of pink Also a little bit of dark brown And then also a little bit of this kind of like caramely brown color And once you add all of your pieces You can roll over the top of it with an acrylic roller And it turns it into like a terrazzo sheet Which I thought looked so cute And I was like this is going to be perfect for some earrings So I went ahead I cut out some earring shapes with the oval here And I just love the way that these ones turned out You can totally customize the colors as well And for the cutouts of this clay I actually used two of the oval hole punches And the top left you could see how I created like two little discs With a larger punch And then a smaller punch on the inside And then I used my industrial hole punch To actually create the holes Which will allow us to turn them into earrings Now for this part I rolled out three little pieces of clay And attached them on top of each other And sadly my camera turned off while I was filming Which I had no idea But I'm just turning these into little rainbow shapes Which I thought would be really cute also for an earring I have no idea who I'm going to gift these to This holiday season But I definitely think I could find some friends to give to these too So I ended up making these little rainbow shapes for the clay And I'm making a little eye pin as well With some extra wire Which is essentially just a loop And then you have some wire kind of off as an excess Which is then going to push on into the inside of the clay Just so that it more so turns into a charm Because this piece in particular I couldn't really punch a hole in the top of the rainbow I more so had to add a loop to the top of it So creating an eye shape A little circle with a round nose plier And then putting it into your rainbow is perfect And for our last style I just went ahead and grabbed my last piece of white clay Mixed in some random bits of colored clay And I'm just turning this into a little marbled slab By kind of pulling the clay and stretching it And then also twisting it But not overworking it to where the color changes It's more so that the color is just marbled inside of it And I'm going to go ahead Use my little punches here To punch out a couple of shapes within this marbled clay You're going to want to go ahead and place all of these On top of some parchment paper And then on top of a baking sheet And just place this into the oven For the minimum amount of time Which is typically around 15 minutes And once they are out They're going to be nice and hardened And ready to be turned into earrings And all we have to do to connect our pieces Is actually just use a jump ring Which is essentially a wire ring Which can easily be opened Especially when it's large like this With your fingers But if you cannot open it You can also use two pairs of pliers To simply open up the rings Slip on your little clay charms And just kind of put them together as well And I also knew that I wanted to paint our embossed one Because the embossing actually really shows up so much more When it's painted As opposed to that kind of like white clay feature So I painted it pink I also connected together our marble earrings And our little rainbow earrings They're all kind of constructed the same exact way So I didn't find a need to share with you How I constructed every single earring But all you really need to attach the clay Is some jump rings And then to finish off the earrings We also had to add the actual post And these are some glue on posts I got these at Joanne's as well Just glue them on with some jewelry adhesive Let them cure and you're good to go And that guys finishes off today's last minute DIY Christmas gift video I hope that you enjoyed today's projects And of course these do not have to be Christmas presents These can also be things you make for yourself Or as maybe birthday gifts in the upcoming year Whatever it might be I think they're just cute projects all in all So thank you guys so much for watching And of course do not forget to take advantage Of that 15% off coupon code Candy Kane over on the website And get your order in ASAP So we can hopefully ship it to you by Christmas time And of course we still have our giveaway for today So before jumping into that I do have to mention that we hit 900,000 on the channel today 900k you guys We just hit that absolutely crazy Thank you guys so much who have subscribed to my channel If you're not already Make sure to subscribe to my channel To become part of the Lone Fox family Just thank you guys so much for everyone who comments Or even thumbs up Just the smallest things Like a quick little thumbs up Honestly makes my day Like it is just incredible to see you guys To support all my content Thank you thank you so so much But of course because of you guys I'm doing an incredible giveaway today I'm actually going to be giving away Three $500 gift cards to wherever you want So you can choose anywhere And I will get you a gift card from there I didn't want to set it to a specific thing Because I know not everyone has the same places to shop Or likes the same places So I figured why not give away Three gift cards to three lucky winners All you have to do to enter today's giveaway Is leave a comment in the comment section below And you also must be subscribed to my channel So if you are not already Make sure to click that subscribe button Also make sure to hit that bell icon That way you stay notified on my videos And leave a comment below Making sure to also include your Instagram handle Or your email or your Twitter Whatever you have that I'm able to contact you through Since I'm not able to actually message you here on YouTube And you'll be entered into the giveaway It is 100% open worldwide And the winner will be chosen a week from today So yeah super super simple and easy Thank you guys again so much for supporting and following And just commenting and everything I can't believe we're at 900,000 That is absolutely just insane It's almost Christmas time too Which is so exciting So this is a great gift for me honestly I will catch you all in my next video Have an amazing rest of your day And I'll see you next time Bye guys


Like Sean, my empirical starting point will be with the recent major transformations in migration dynamics across and around the Mediterranean that has affected very, you know, importantly the whole region and beyond. But while my primary focus, so to speak, is European responses, my main focus is indeed on what these responses are producing in terms of impact on African politics as one of the main, you know, targets of these poor partners, if you want to put it differently, of this new policy approach to some extent new policy approach. Just briefly, the ground I will try to cover in these 20 minutes, first some background quickly on recent African migration to Europe and how it shapes our perceptions and policies. Then I will say something on what I consider the key developments, namely a dramatic change in policy priorities of European Union and member states with a growing prioritization of Sub-Saharan Africa in European policies on migration, but also the other way around a growing prioritization of migration in other policies of European actors in Africa. Then I'll come to my fundamental interest, which is in this paper of the impact of such changing priorities on African countries and on African politics, which is I think a crucial but still quite neglected issue, both in the policy domain, but also in the scholarly domain. And I will say a few words if I have time on the kind of theoretical tools that I try to apply to the study of this topic and introduce briefly this concept that I try to propose of negative extroversion. And then finally, if I have time again, some brief remarks on implications for future research and particularly for Afro-European cooperation in the field of migration policy studies for the future. Now briefly on perceptions of what has been happening in the last few years across the Mediterranean and around it. If one Googles African migrants just like this, what comes out as a first image is this kind of image. So a very peculiar and very partial representation of a destitute, disorderly, chaotic, and miserable, and potentially threatening phenomenon, which is something which is clearly not representative. Professor Tarp reminded us how South-South migration is still largely predominant, but this is what comes out in a global arena if you try to give these two keywords. African migrants. And the official narrative, at least in Europe, reflects this kind of distorted perception. Frontex, which is the European border agency, talks in its last strategy report of a steady increase in migration pressure from the African continent and in particular West Africa. Now is this correct? It depends on where you look and what you look for. If you look at irregular crossings of the Mediterranean to South Europe, the nationality of those arriving in particularly in Italy, which is currently the main point of disembarkation of arrival, indeed Western African countries are prominently represented, but this is certainly just one of the modes of the types of the channels of migration from Africa to Europe, although by far the most visible and the most influential one in shaping perceptions and policies, at least in the global North and certainly in Europe. This is the first two quarters of 2017. You see, Nigeria is the largest-sending country, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea and others, much smaller than what currently is the Middle East that has been until the closure of a so-called Balkan route, the largest-sending Basie. And then you have Bangladesh as an important sending, but crossing through Libya as well. Now, all this situation is tightly and strongly associated with a contingent situation in Libya. These are irregular arrivals in Italy over the last few years, and you see that the peaks in 2018 and 2014, then with a stabilizing on very high numbers, are both connected with key developments in Libya. So all this situation is almost inextricably associated with the specific policy developments in a given country, which is Libya, which has turned into the main gate of access for this type of African migration to the European continent. 2016 has been an old-time peak with substantial, like always, seasonal variations when you talk about maritime migration. Total arrivals were, as I said, as I showed in the previous picture, over 180,000. What happens in 2017, the trend has been reversed recently. I give this just as a brief background. Arrivals in 2017 and in the 15th of September have gone down, considering the seasonal effects to 100,000, which is still sizable. But there is a very clear decrease after August, which are normally months of very important arrivals, volumes. The reason why there was this, if not closure, major reduction of arrivals through the Libyan route is a long-standing diplomatic effort, mainly by Italian authorities, which has brought results in the final few weeks and months. We have a meeting between the Prime Minister of Italy and Faisal Sarraj, the Prime Minister of Government in Tripoli in February, a meeting with leaders of southern tribes, and the Ministry of Interior of Italy, a very unusual kind of diplomatic configuration, and again, Minister of Interior of Italy with his counterparts in Niger, Chad, and Libya. This has produced results and basically is, so far, creating a major reduction of arrivals across Libya. But beside Libya, and here I shift to Africa, to sub-Saharan Africa, which is the main sending basin for these kind of flows, sub-Saharan Africa has emerged over the last couple of years as a key priority for European migration policies. I try to very quickly reconstruct the evolution of European policy responses to this crisis. There was first an attempt to manage it, to fix it internally by redistributing arrivals among member states. You know, there was the adoption of a sort of relocation program in order to distribute those arriving amongst all the 28 member states, and not only the countries of first arrival and final destination, namely Germany and Sweden mainly, this failed dramatically. Under this failure of internal responses, there was a very dramatic shift to external responses. If we cannot welcome them in a homogeneous and balanced way, we'll try to stop them from coming, you know, to prevent arrival. And this shift to an external response had a very crucial turning point in March 2016, with the agreement with Turkey that, as you know, brought to an end of transit across the Balkans to Eastern and Central and Northern Europe, mainly. In all this, Africa emerges as a key priority in the fall of 2015 with a big summit of EU African Union leaders in Valetta, in Malta, followed by the adoption of an EU emergency trust for addressing root causes of irregular migration as the official language of the European Union goes, and an injection, a substantial injection of development fund aimed at preventing migration through this fund and other financial facility. June 17, the European Union launched its partnership framework with third countries for purposes of mitigation of a migratory pressure. So a partnership framework with third countries, but it is essentially about African countries, Sub-Saharan African countries, and particularly about a handful of African countries that have been singled out as absolute priorities for this new wave in European policies on migration. And the official priorities of a new partnership framework are these five countries, Senegal, Malini, Jair, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. In the policy of the European Union, however, there are also other priorities, well, two are obvious, and we get back to the Sean's presentation, Lebanon and Jordan has two major receivers who are in need of help in order not to release these big numbers that they were able to retain. This is in the perspective of many decision-makers in Brussels and elsewhere. There are some unofficial priorities that cannot be directly and explicitly addressed in a policy because there are some somehow critical situations that you cannot easily address in an explicit and formal way, so Sudan, Eritrea, and Somalia are certainly at the core of the diplomatic and policy and security effort in this case. And then you have this constant semi-official super priority, which is Libya, which is the main channel for these flows in this highly-securitized Belt and Chown that is emerging in European capitals associated with African migration. This, I argue, it's a deep transformation of European strategic approach to Africa and it is not just a prioritization of sub-Saharan Africa in European migration policies, which is clear, but it is also, as I said, the other way around, a prioritization of migration in other policy areas. So migration becomes prominent in particularly in the field of development policies with these ideas, these ideas of addressing root causes of migration as a priority for development policies, but it also becomes crucial in the area of trade, for instance, think of the great centrality that migration is assuming in the debate on the future of the EU-ACP partnership under the post-Cotonou framework. So what is emerging, I argue, is a sort of pan-migratory approach where the migratory variable becomes key in driving policy choices, strategic policy choices by European actors in the African context. This has, I think, attracted insufficient public attention, but particularly scholarly attention, certainly in Europe. This approach, this pan-migratory approach, I'm really running through maybe too many contents that I put in this presentation, but is relying upon, is based upon some fundamental conceptual ambiguities and practical dysfunctionalities. Conceptually, it is heavily based on a very questionable assumption, namely that development can be a way to prevent migration. We know that most economic and social sciences literature points in the opposite direction, in this phase, more or less the opposite, although it's much more complex than this, and here I'm in a temple of development economics, but the idea that root causes can be addressed and therefore migration can be stamped is very much at the core, at least of the official policy agenda of the European Union in this phase. Practically, in the short term, the money doesn't even go to development because it goes primarily to security objectives, so to border control strategies rather than to development priorities and development actors, and I'm getting back to this and to the implications of such distribution of aid in a second. The risk, just to characterize this very, very, maybe in a simplistic and quick way, but is that this approach, this unbalanced approach, brings to a temporary reduction of migration pressure, of course, but maybe to a constant, if not augmented, propensity to emigrate plus other perverse effects. I'm trying to explain this, well, just briefly, my theoretic, maybe I'll drop this because I'll have an attempt at finding some, at forging some theoretical tools to explain this in the paper, and I think I should rather send you there for this, but getting back to the negative side effects of an unbalanced migration control externalization. The first phenomenon, these are not research findings, I must say, but rather research hypothesis for a research agenda that I think we should probably think of developing together. The relationship between donors in this phase, this type of donors, is mainly with security apparatuses in what are singled out as key sending and transit countries for this kind of irregular migration, which is the core concern for Europeans, and channeling money on security apparatuses, of course, creates unbalances, further unbalances in policies which are sometimes already quite unbalanced from that point of view, and some possible examples of unintended, indirect negative effects of this kind have been pointed out by advocates, but by policy advocates, but also by researchers in countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Turkey, Sudan, it is very hard to substantiate this kind of general assessment on the policy impact at such a strategic level, but it is something that should closely monitor, but also research in a systematic and consistent way. Another problem with this, you know, what can be roughly maybe a bit brutally called outsourcing of migration repression is that it can undermine consensus to local governing elite, because basically it is a delegation of migration control on their own people to local governance. In certain contexts, this is very clear, and for instance, there are scholars of the so-called Arab Spring who argue that the restrictions to emigration for Arab youth was one of the components in creating the explosive potential that generated the Arab Springs in 2011. A third possible, you know, strength of unintended effects, yes, thank you, is on enhanced pressure to beef up, to reinforce border controls also in sending and transit regions may have a disrupting effect on attempts at regional economic integration, and this is something that has been witnessed in the past in the western Balkans, for instance, with the introduction of hard borders in areas which used to be areas of relatively free exchange of persons and goods, and this is something that, you know, has been seen emerging also in the ECOWAS region, and again, this is not a hard research finding, but rather suggestions and hypotheses for future research. Finally, increased controls is demonstrated to be also a boost to irregular migration and particularly to those who are able to capitalize on demand for irregular migration. Effects of this kind, professionalization of smugglers and incentive to corruption have been clearly observed along the frontera in North America, between Mexico and the US, similar effects are being witnessed of displacement and reinforcement of irregular trends and smuggling trends are witnessed, this is mainly, you know, kind of journalistic accounts and some research accounts in places such as Niger and other Saharan localities. Perhaps even more fundamentally, and I will conclude with this slide, what is at stake is international standards and values, I'll read, yes, just let me read these few lines, if I may, governments in Africa are watching what Europe is doing. They see how Europe wants to prevent migration because Europeans think of migration as a problem. As a consequence, some of our government, it is of course an African person who speaks, are changing their approach and copying the European template. They have started to make deals with other countries to make sure that people stay there. Some African governments are now using Europe as an excuse for not taking responsibility. They say, if Europe doesn't do it, why should we with fewer resources do it? This was, I think, a very effective discourse by a person who is an executive director for South Africa of Oxfam during the European development days in Brussels just a few months ago, and I think I would like to conclude with these, I think, very thoughtful and powerful words. Thank you.


What's up everybody James here for jazby's cage place calm we sold out our little all-spot soul promo for tonight guys This was a little giveaway here that we got from hip parade. So thank you for sponsoring this giveaway guys So basically if you bought into any one of these three mini fillers slash fillers for the Super Bowl hip parade mixer You got entries Basically top two would get a box number one gets the Brady goat seven rings edition box number two gets the hip ray soft more soft more signal callers box So again, all of these breaks here were entered it was breaks and mini fillers So of course XR was its own break Ruggies and stars mini filler number 25 contenders break itself Ruggies and stars mini filler number 26, and of course the main break was just team all prism So we're gonna gather up all of these names and put them in a randomizer guys and top two win something extra just for buying into these It's a hundred and thirty eight entries All right boom Got that let's click dice roll Five and a one six times. Good luck. Here we go one two three four five six Boom six times five and a one six Here we go guys Going up pretty fast because we got a lot and now we're gonna slow it down Top ten baby here we go Just missing out was Nico unfortunately But top two Tristan and Jason K congratulations. Oh both of you guys getting something a little extra just for buying into those mini fillers So there you go. Congratulations to the both of you. I Will ship those boxes to you sealed Boom Tristan you're gonna get the sophomore signal callers and Jason K with a hip rate Brady goats seven rings So appreciate you guys to look out for some more little promos like this again, and again guys We are really close to selling out our hip parade Super ball mixer. We've got to sell Six more full spots and a couple of these fillers again And we can break this by Saturday next week guys before the big game So appreciate it folks. Jasper's case breaks calm


Just to watch in the news brief on PLOS TV Africa, the Independent National Electoral Commission has commenced nationwide verification exercise for centres proposed to be converted to polling units across the country. INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this at the INEC's office in Karoloko Government Area, Nassarowa State, while visiting some of the proposed centres and existing polling units at the FCT and Nassarowa State. The Chairman said that the purpose of the verification exercise was to ensure that the right thing was done in the conversion of the voting points to polling units. The INEC Chairman said he had been informed that 395 voting points were being converted to polling units in Karoloko Government Area. Yakubu said that with the conversion of voting points to polling units, there would be expanded access to polling units for voters, while congestion of polling units would be eliminated in future elections.


It's time for the Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, brought to you every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A presentation of the Laun Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Laun Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope? Mr. William Bradford Huey, editor of the American Mercury, and Mr. James H.R. Cromwell, former United States minister to Canada. Our distinguished guest for this evening is the honorable William F. Benton, United States senator from Connecticut. The opinions expressed are necessarily those of the speakers. Senator Benton, it's a pleasure to have you with us tonight, sir, on the Chronoscope. Thank you. And for our viewers, will you identify yourself politically? Are you a new dealer, a supporter of the president, sir? In general, I'm a very consistent supporter of the president, though I differ with him and his advisors in certain major ways. I, with Senator Paul Douglas, fight a good deal harder than most administration men do to get our budget into balance to cut back on expenditures. I have fought subsidies to agriculture, beet sugar subsidies, and other subsidies. But roughly speaking, and certainly on the foreign policy, I would describe myself as a supporter of the president.  Is that correct? I like to think of myself that way. There are those who won't use that definition applied to me. You believe in having a balanced budget, in other words, senator. Is that right? Paul Douglas and I have joined together in recommending not only a cut of seven and a half billion dollars out of the budget, Mr. Cromwell, but in trying to close up a tax loopholes, maybe to catch some rich fellows like the Cromwells, to pick up another two and a half billion dollars to bring the cash budget into balance. And about ten billion dollars would do it. I'm sure that our viewers would like a prediction from you, sir, as to whether you think the budget is likely to be balanced this year. Mr. Huey, there's not a chance in the world it's going to be out of balance by billions. In a presidential election year, you'll never get the Congress to pass the tax bill, which the president recommended, which I would before. And you're never going to get the Congress to make these cuts in appropriations bills because the pressures of too many people are involved to spend the money. You remember that cynical advice, don't you, of old Uncle Joe Cannon to a young congressman, my son, never vote a for-a-tax bill or against an appropriations bill. Well, that applies, that particularly applies in an election year. I say, sir, now, sir, I believe that you have taken a rather strong position on the civil rights program. And our viewers are very much interested in that tonight because General Eisenhower, this week, took a very firm stand against a federal civil rights program. Yes. Now, what is your position on civil rights, sir? Well, I'm a great admirer of General Eisenhower and I have respect for his judgment, but I differ with him and I differ with him sharply on this particular question. Civil rights, Mr. Huey, is a problem for all the people, not a problem state by state. And the reason it's a problem for all the people is that our failure in the field of civil rights, in our failure in the field of our racial relations, our doing justice to our Negro group and other racial minorities is picked up by the communists all over the world and thrown back at us. And indeed, it's the most damaging of all the communist propaganda. We forget the two-thirds of the peoples of the world have colored skins. And day after day, the communist propaganda hammers into the minds of these people that we discriminate. We're injust. We don't live up to our democratic preachments. And that's too important to let Mississippi and Alabama decide. That's a problem for all the American people. But do you think, Senator, that it's possible to do away with these personal feelings by legislation? Not a bit of it. It's a long, slow educational process, Mr. Cromwell.  We have full civil rights legislation up in the state of Connecticut. It doesn't mean that there isn't stumped discrimination. We can't get rid of it merely by passing laws. But when the people of the state say together, we stand against this. It's against the policy of the state. We are going to set up courts and commissions. We have a case in the state right now against the labor union for refusing to permit Negroes to join. And it's the first case of its kind in the country. And it's a fine thing for the people of our state to get the education that's involved in that case. Well, now let's see the views that the American people now have before them on this. General Eisenhower, I believe, has taken a rather firm stand against federal action in the civil rights matter. That's the way I read his statement yesterday. There are no qualifying clauses. He's simply against it. Senator Taft has certain qualifying clauses. Senator Keith Fauver, who's been on this program. Now, you, I believe, sir, are almost completely on the other side from General Eisenhower. You believe in federal action. I'm not trying to win any Southern delegates. I'm not a candidate for the presidency. But out of my long experience in foreign policy, Mr. Huey, I've represented the United States at eight international conferences as a delegate of this country. I've talked to the people of other countries who sent delegates there. And this is thrown at us all the time. And not only by the Russians, but naturally by the Indians, by others. I told on the floor of the Senate last month in fighting the McCarran immigration bill, the story of Mrs. Benton and me being in Japan in 1937. We saw the black flags break out all over Japan. It was the anniversary of our Exclusion Act when we said that the proud, sensitive people of Japan, not one of you is fit to come into the United States. Japan went into mourning. All historians agree that our Exclusion Act against the Japanese can be one of the major factors that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. I give that as a quick illustration to show how important action in this field is from the standpoint of all our people. You're a member of the Senate next year. You mean when I'm a member of the Senate? Yes, when you're a member of the Senate next year. Why, your constituents can depend on you to try to overcome the traditional Southern opposition to federal legislation in this field. Mr. Huey, Connecticut's a pretty literate state, and if they didn't know that, I agree with you. I wouldn't have a chance to go back to the Senate. Senator, we'd like a few words from you, sir, on your activities in the Mutual Security Program, and I believe that we are sending to Europe. Now, I believe that you have been responsible for an amendment to that program. Now, just what are you trying to do with that amendment, sir? Well, I'm trying to combat communism in Europe and to strengthen the hands of our administrative officers who are fighting communism. Of course, the basic purpose of the Mutual Security Act is to fight communism and to prepare ourselves to fight communism if we come to an open outbreak of hostility. Specifically, how will your program help in combating communism in Europe? Well, my benton amendment tells Mr. Harriman and his associates, the administrators of this act, to spend these vast sums of money, the 6,400 million now under discussion, in such ways as to discourage the great European monopolies and cartels which hold back production and hamstring productivity, which is the very thing we're trying to encourage. And in the second place, to discourage the communist labor unions and to encourage the development of the kind of free labor unions really fighting for the welfare of the workers of the kind we have here in the United States. Senator, I think that great many people don't realize the difference between the way business is conducted here in the United States and the way it's conducted in Europe. I wonder if you would give us a little discussion about the difference between competitive business in the United States and monopoly business or cartel business as they term it in Europe. Well, you put your finger, Mr. Cromwell, right on the basic difference. The basic difference in attitudes of the American people goes right back to 1890 when we passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. There isn't any antitrust legislation in Europe at all. Our laws, Mr. Jeffrey Crowther of the London Economist put the thing wonderfully when he once said, we put a man into the House of Lords in England for the very thing in the United States for which you put him into sing-sing penitentiary. Our laws say you can't combine and merge and monopolize fixed markets, fixed prices, control production, fail to put in new machinery, and eliminate competition. All over Europe, the European businessman is trained to exactly the opposite viewpoint and every European country is run in a business sense by the cartels and the monopolies. What do you think the chances are of changing the European point of view on that, of changing the European businessman's mind? This is an entrenched viewpoint that makes the gap between the European and the business communities psychologically in American business communities much greater than the Atlantic Ocean. It will take years. Oddly enough, the best chance right now, I think, is in Germany. Senator Bennett, you're... And we can break it up in Germany. There's hope for breaking it up throughout much of the rest of Europe. That's very interesting. Our audience, of course, understands that you are up for re-election in Connecticut and quite frankly, I believe the Republicans think that they have a chance to win your seat this year. It is rumored. It is rumored. Now, you expect a very vigorous campaign, I assume, in Connecticut. It's sure to be a vigorous campaign, Mr. Huey, because the state is small and compact, highly literate politically, and there will be much money spent in Connecticut by the Republicans in the expectation that I may be one of the vulnerable senators who can be successfully dislodged. I don't like to tell them now that they'd better save their money, but perhaps you'll assure them of that for me. And what positions, sir, do you take nationally in the race between the Democrats and the Republicans? Have you endorsed any candidate for the presidency? We in Connecticut have endorsed my senior colleague, Brian McMahon. I believe that the Democrats have too much sense to nominate a candidate with whom we can't win. You know, I therefore predict a Democratic victory, though I agree with you, there are some Democratic candidates now in the field with whom we can't win. So there is a tie-up between the candidate and the anticipated victory, and that I'm the first to admit. I'm sure that our viewers very much appreciate your views tonight, sir, and thank you for being with us. I congratulate you on the quality of this program, Mr. Huey. The editorial board for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope was Mr. William Bradford Huey and Mr. James H.R. Cromwell. Our distinguished guest was the Honorable William F. Benton, United States Senator from Connecticut. You know, the problem confronting the manufacture of an article of extreme precision, such as a Laun Jean, is to deliver it to its eventual owner in the same perfect condition in which it leaves the factory. Now, for that reason, Laun Jean watches have always been distributed directly from the factory through a limited number of jewelers qualified by knowledge and experience to handle watches of Laun Jean quality. These jewelers are authorized Laun Jean with nor-jeweler agencies. And in this way, you're assured that the Laun Jean watch which you buy is a worthy representative of the only watch in history to win ten World's Fair Grand Prizes, twenty-eight gold medals, and highest honors for accuracy from the leading government observatories of the world. So when next you buy a watch for yourself or for an important gift occasion, see Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch. It's sold under our factory guarantee only at your authorized Laun Jean with nor-jeweler agency. Throughout the world, no other name on a watch means so much as Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch. Premier product of the Laun Jean with nor-watch company since 1866, maker of watches of the highest character. We invite you to join us every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening at this same time at Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, broadcast on behalf of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and with nor distinguished companion for the world honored Laun Jean. This is prank night, reminding you that Laun Jean and with nor-watches are sold and serviced from coast to coast by more than 4,000 leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem, agency for Laun Jean with nor-watches. See the Sunday news special on the CBS television network.


Hello my friends in Monet cafe. This is artist Susan Jenkins and I am so glad to be sitting here back at my tabletop easel my other easel is up here and I have not been able to paint for a little while because of just some Things going on in my life company coming in town.  He's much better praise the Lord and I am now Sneaking in a moment to just do a little painting kind of getting warmed up again And I just wanted to kind of share with you what I do to get warmed up again when you've been away from your easel a While it's good not to get too serious too quickly So what I'm going to do today is I've taken some of my watercolor. It's a pad a watercolor I think it's called a block of watercolor paper. I have it here To show you this is a an older one that I have but this is an example of it It's basically a block of watercolor paper that's all glued together now Why would they do that the reason is because if you've worked with watercolor paper and I'm using this for pastels like I've done in the past watercolor paper buckles and When you add the water It will warp and a lot of times you have to tape it down. Well, when you have it on this block You're able to paint on it And the block is already adhered each page is already almost like taped down on the sides So you're able to use it without it buckling and then when you're finished You've got a nice little corner or right in here where you basically can get just like a little Exacto blade or the edge of a palette knife and just kind of start peeling back that one sheet To peel it off and that way you don't have any buckling So that's what I've done here and what I'm going to do to warm up is I've just blocked out a Few shapes.  I had made A five by seven. I believe this is a six by four. This is another five by seven landscape Size and this is just a random little square piece I had so I just filled up the watercolor paper with some some sizes that I typically work in and I thought I'm just going to get some inspiration from paint my photo It is the PMP dash art comm website You guys if you've been on my channel before you've seen how I use the this website to get reference images and this is just my My photo Album that I've already pre-saved photos to this is a I think this one is fields And so I have a bunch of photos already pre-saved So I don't have to sit down and go through all the photos and waste my time You know, usually I get so into looking at the photos. I never end up painting So this is a great way for me just to get to work really quickly so I'm just going to quickly pick some of these images and start painting and the great thing about doing it this way is Like I said again, the purpose is just to warm up to get back into things is that you don't take it So seriously this is going to be fun and a lot of times when you have that attitude and that approach It comes out better than when you do take things seriously So my technique that I'm going to be using for this is some of you guys have seen my videos where I actually use the Clear gesso to paint on the watercolor paper to give it the grit the surface so I can apply Pastels to it. It will hold to it right now if I just took pastels and started painting on this It would hold a little but it would fall right off and I wouldn't get any layering So that's why we use the clear gesso But what I often do first, which is what I'm going to do today is I'm going to do an underpainting I'm going to keep it free and loose. I love using these neocolor water soluble. They're actually called wax pastels I really don't know why they're called wax pastels, but they work great for getting an underpainting down they look literally like coloring crayons like Crayola crayons and I break mine up a lot just to use them in different shading and things So what I do is you'll see is I'll do a quick little sketch underpainting I'll wet it with water again. This won't buckle as bad because it's on a block And then after that dries I will paint on this clear gesso to give it the grit and then I can use the pastels on top So I'm giving too much explanation. I need to just get to it right now and we're gonna have fun I've missed you guys and I'm very happy to see the Facebook Monet cafe art group growing and wow what amazing comments I'm getting from you guys and I love it as much as y'all do so anyway if you want to Ask to join that group. That would be great You do have to ask to join but just mention that you there's three questions It'll ask you but one of the questions is how did you find out about this group? Just say you saw it on, you know, Susan's Monet cafe channel or Monet cafe on YouTube and Someone will very likely Accept you into the group. Okay, so let's get started on this and I'm ready to have fun I've got a hurry because I got an art student coming later. Okay. Here we go. I Apologize that my camera ran out of Space and so I have a couple of spots at the beginning of this that did not get all Of my footage. So in this particular spot, I have already sketched in with the wax pastels the Underpainting and now here flash Like magic if this is where I had applied the water now I'm going to go over to the other one and the same thing happens But don't worry you have two more sections to watch me actually apply the wax pastels and The water while this one was drying. That's probably already dry I've sketched in this one reference image of these beautiful flowers and Again using the wax pastels and now I'm just going to work on Getting the water in I'm going to be a little bit more particular with the petals with this one Not all of them. I Might go ahead and get those in with the smaller brush right now. So right now. I'm going to work on these petals Again, I've got a decent amount of water on here. I don't care if it drips It's okay because it makes it look more impressionistic as you can see like I said the brightness of these Really shows up When you apply the water Look how gorgeous that is and again I don't want to get too fussy with this because then it's going to lose that spontaneity. That's the trick keeping things somewhat accurate with The way flowers really grow, but at the same time Getting that looseness That's why I think this watercolor approach works because when you load up your Brush with whoops, I'm getting into that one.  That's a trick. I had to learn how much is too much and how much is not enough But when you get just the right amount, it does create those loose edges. That's another video I want to do it sometime talking about Lost edges. It's called where there's really no lines in nature These are just a little short ones here things Just have a an edge more than a line and the edge is created by whatever value is next to it I'll save that for another lesson, but it's a really important lesson in art. All right I'll probably need to move this tape now over to this side To protect this guy here And again this one you need to recognize or I do too that Flowers aren't always going to have even though. They're the same flower and they're probably the same color They're not the same color in nature depending on where they are in the shadows or in the light and Um, if you paint them all the exact same color pink or the centers all the same It's going to look very amateurish So you need to constantly be checking those values. I know I talk about value all the time But it is so so very important. All right So we've got a general idea of these and I probably have these even too fixed right now, but Um It's okay because again, this is just for a warm up now I'm going to go ahead and get in behind some of these and then this one will get a little more blurry As I add the water which is okay I'm using the smaller brush here Because I need to kind of get in between those petals at least a little bit And I kind of like this getting uh four paintings going at once. It's uh again. It's going to Um help me to stay very loose and again, I want to show you here what I'm doing when I dip this in the water I'm just dabbing it just a little so I get most of that water off but not too much of it. Whoops. I really got on that flower That's okay Some of the flowers you want just as hints Um, it's just a hint that it's there. It doesn't have to be Um the one that's popping out as the star Okay, so We're getting This one just about ready to have some fun with it And I do have some white still showing Which is okay. I'm not going to worry about that too much. All right, and I'll re-establish my darks Um, whether there's some pastels or acrylic inks or something. Okay, so there's number two Time to work on number three All right with this one. I really don't have a lot of time because I've got an appointment. I've got to get to Um, but what I'm going to do here is just to sort of get this Building accurate sometimes um, I like to sketch holding my pencil like this Sometimes if things are uh intricate and have to get to some sometimes I have to hold it, you know like this But um, I like to hold it like this because it helps keep me um things to look more sketchy And I often will use my other hand just as a prop, you know to keep my hand steady but I'm going to get in the basics of this building here in this one and um Even though I don't like the fact that this roof line is kind of right here in the center See here's a situation where I can't hold my hand up because I don't have enough room down here Even though I don't like it right in the center um, it is Okay, because um I have this horizon line back here Down in a actually it's a much lower third like this, which I like And then I've got a grouping of trees in here Which is comes down kind of low and The trees are kind of in here And this roof line. See now I can correct this a little bit Comes up Comes down Looking at big shapes again No, I actually love painting Flowers and trees for the fact that if you get something a little off It's not that big a deal But you want to get if you're doing anything that is uh structural Then you definitely want to get your Angles right and your perspective and everything right So um, but at the same time if you get it too perfect, then you've lost that sketch Sketch early painterly look again. All right, these trees actually come in front of that building So this is just a hint a little hint to this building. You almost don't even see this edge But um, this value is going to be darker in here on this side And then we've got little shimmery things in the roof line Okay, now time to sketch Actually think I'm gonna do this building Let's see here. It's really dark And so are these trees Get my darkest dark for the trees And we've got these trees in the distance back here. I'm just gonna kind of Give an idea of that The sky is really what's gorgeous in here. And I actually I wish I had a longer format here Let me get this building I'm just going to go a little crazy with this Just to get the General idea of this The side is even darker Alrighty, so now I have my fourth one. I will be working on and I think I'm going to do for this one It's just got this brilliant beautiful sky. It's a darker reference photo more of a moody late evening or a late afternoon feel and I think I'm going to combine some of the Neo color wax pastels also with a little bit of watercolor these watercolors I think come out sometimes a little more brilliant And so I'm going to play around with this one now and see what I get again. These are just for Having fun. Sometimes you have to do that. Don't get so serious about all of your artwork. All right. Here we go Actually going to add some Watercolor to this one too. I feel like it wasn't bold enough So I'm just going to enhance it a bit right with all of these dry now I think I'm going to just go ahead and start working on this one because I have the reference photo pulled up But what I did is I just quickly picked out some pastels that look Accurate to a degree for the reference image Again, I'm doing this really quickly. So I might grab another color or two But this is again just for the point of getting Warmed up and loose Oh, I didn't do the gesso I can tell right away. I need to put the gesso down. Let me do that All right. Now I'm going to be applying the clear gesso to all of these so that I have Some tooth to the paper to be able to apply the pastels and this again is just going to be loose and sloppy and free kind of like the Under paintings that I did And you'll notice that they do smear a little bit But I actually kind of like that You get a nice Just a impressionistic type of a background All right, there's one I'll wipe this off a little to get some of the color off And here's two And again the purpose of an under painting Even though they can be just really loose and free is to Cover up that white stark paper. It gives more of a loose I'm going to keep this going sideways interesting feel to it and to get those big shapes in kind of as a Guide, it's a general guide I'm just putting it on the little foam brush And typically I'm going top to bottom again because sometimes I have some lighter colors at the top And I don't want them to get Muddied up by the darker colors. I am wiping this brush off I have a little piece of noobs print here and I'm just sort of wiping it off To get um Some of the darker color off of it. All right last one All right, so I'll just let this dry and get started All right, I've given myself a timer. I just sat in my kitchen of 15 minutes to work on each one of these Um again just to keep it quick and loose and I have picked out um some pastels here I may have to grab a couple more. I don't think I have enough uh light values for the sky But um anyway 15 minutes. I better get going All right now I'm going to start working on the next one and again I have set my timer at 15 minutes. So I better get going I actually did this one more in like I think it was more like 12 minutes 11 or 12 minutes Um, and I think I'm working even faster, which is probably a good thing because I'm not really happy with the The real bumpy texture of this. I'm not it's not working as as good as it did when I applied the gesso to A different watercolor paper. This one is a lot more textured So the point of this is really like I said just to get loosened up and to have some fun So I actually already set the timer to do them even more quickly. I'm going to do this one Um in I set the timer for 10 minutes, but I probably already run out of that time So anyway, here I go again more fun And I'm just going to work with the pastels I have already here because I'm Don't really want to get up and and fuss about getting other ones. So all right Time to get started again. All right, I'm going to do this last one now and I'm probably going to do this one really fast because I don't really love my image that I cropped and um So I'll just get play around with it now I didn't set my timer, but I'm probably going to do this one faster than the other ones And my crop changed so I've got to change some things real quickly I don't normally blend with my finger But this because of the texture is not blending well at all With uh, even if I take a hard pastel, which is my typical approach to blending It's just not blending and I want the sky to look further I want to push it back But what I am doing if in the rare Time you have to use your finger I'm cleaning it off each time so it doesn't muddy up the colors quite as you see It's already muddy to mop a little bit, but Anyway, again, this is just a study Not an important serious piece Like a little bit of that Tealish green in there. It's kind of what's in the underpainting anyway And I don't know. It's just kind of interesting to me. I wish I had it a tad darker. Oh, I do Here's a little more It's a little darker here, and it's usually a good idea If you have a color that you're using that's not anywhere else in the painting It's usually a good idea to introduce it at least A couple of other spots on this dark maybe here These are those little foreground. They look almost like cat tails or What's that called? Sawgrass And um I don't want to overdo it actually already. This is the heavier side I probably should have gone lighter on this side and heavier on this side, but again Getting a little too serious For a study. I can use this and tone these down over here Okay, and I don't like to have a total border across my painting. So I typically try to introduce A little openings here and there So that it's not like a barrier to the painting. All right now. I'm just going to get Some of those cat tails and all I have is this For the darkest darker these chunky Terry Ludwig so I can't get probably as small as I need but Just a couple of little indications is all you need Sometimes you want one higher than another one and you don't want them Lining up in a straight line. So all right. So here we go with our final little warm-up paintings Just to get loose and and work quickly As you can see when I started working this one I took the most time on and it probably looks the most fussy And I gradually decreased my time as I went around Um, I'm not sure this one might have been the least amount of time or maybe this one And again, these are just to work quickly and to kind of Get back into the swing of things when you haven't been painting for a while And what would I do differently? I think from here on out I will probably work on a less coarse piece of watercolor paper as you can see I really got the texture in there But you know, if you like texture then, you know, you might want to use this technique But anyway, you can see how quickly you can pop these out and uh and just get kind of warmed up and have some fun We don't need to always be so so serious about our artwork. This is about just exploring and having fun And uh, just learning more as we go. So anyway guys, thanks for joining me And if you haven't joined our facebook group yet, uh, you can find it at monay cafe art group on facebook You will have to ask to join but just say that you saw Or you learned about it from the youtube channel monay cafe. So anyway guys, thanks so much And I hope you learned something. Happy painting