What's on in May 2026
Hi everyone,
I hope you are well.
Welcome to April's content schedule! Here's a sneak peek of what you can look forward to this month:
- Main tutorial - Full Flamingo Portrait for Beginners: Oil Paint - Available Now (today)
In this tutorial, Iāll show you how I paint a realistic flamingo portrait using my three-phase oil painting approach. Iāll walk you through how I choose and layer my colours so the paint builds depth and glow naturally, without becoming muddy. Iāll cover both the finer feather detail and the larger, more decorative shapes, and show you how I use controlled layering to build a lifelike bird portrait in a clear, easy-to-follow way.
2. Fundamental Tutorial - Simplification to Detail - Friday, May 15
This month is a essentail tutorial and painting demonstration for both acrylic and oils. Simplification before detail is something I have always struggled with and as a result, end up speinding too much time on detail before even establishing the bones of the painting. This tutorial shows you a rather dramatic example of an exercise you can do to visually simplify the image for the purpose of blocking in, and the early layers of the painting process. Once the painting has been established in this way, we then begin refinind the brush work and then adding more and more detail.
I hope this tutoiral is helpful even though a little exaggerated in the process. It demonstrates an essential shift in approaching the layering system to create stunning realistic wildlife paintings.

3. Live Demo: How to Paint a Great White Shark - Join me while I paint a shark: Thursday, May 22, 10 am (ACDT)
Join me in completing my current paitning of a Great White Shark. Last Month we added the frist and second layers of oils to the shark, now we need to add the final layers:
- Glaze of muted cool greens
- Vibrant highlights of reflected light
- Swirling bubbles
- Final defining marks
Sometimes the final layers are the most powerful, and seeing this piece come to completion is very exciting. I will ensure the final stage of painting the head remains available for this live class.

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 email me.
Kind regards
Carla Grace

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