Hi everyone,
I hope you are well.
Welcome to February's content schedule! Here's a sneak peek of what you can look forward to this month:
- Main tutorial - Full Snow Leopard Portrait for Beginners: Acrylic Paint - Available February 1 (today)
In this 2-hour-30-minute beginner-level acrylic painting tutorial, I will show you how to paint a realistic snow leopard portrait using my simple seven-layer process.
We’ll work step by step through toning the canvas, setting up a warm and cool palette, blocking in the background and portrait, and gradually building thick, soft fur with controlled opacity layers and shadow glazes. I’ll guide you through balancing warm and cool white tones, creating a soft-focus background, and bringing life and emotion into the eyes and expression.
This tutorial is ideal for beginners who want a clear, structured approach to completing a realistic wildlife portrait in acrylics from start to finish.
2. Fundamental Tutorial - Bold Clouds - Acrylic Paint - February 13
Our next element of nature focuses on bright, vibrant sunset clouds. In this tutorial, I was intentionally ambitious with colour, pushing rich sunlit hues alongside complementary cool shadow clouds to create contrast, depth, and atmosphere.
At nearly 1.5 hours long, this is a substantial micro tutorial. I put into practice the dry brushing technique demonstrated in last month’s live demonstration on soft focus with acrylic paint. In this lesson, I show another application of layering techniques to build cloud forms, using edge control, colour temperature, and soft transitions to create luminous, believable skies.
3. Live Demo: What Makes a "Good" Painting - Thursday, February 19, 10 am (ACDT)
This month's live class will focus on discussing through the use of examples and a structured 'checklist' approach to why some paintings are "good" while others fall short. This is such a subjective topic, but there are certain underlying characteristics that elevate an artist's painting from amateur to professional. I look forward to the discussion and also hearing your insights on this topic.
If you are not able to make it to the session, you are welcome to send your questions to me by email ahead of time: carla@carlagraceart.com
I look forward to seeing your creations this month. Thank you so much for being here.
If you have any questions or requests, please feel free to send me an email at carla@carlagraceart.com
Kind regards
Carla Grace
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