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"It looks bad" "I don't like it" "It doesn't look

"It looks bad"
"I don't like it"
"It doesn't look right"

All of the above are valid thoughts to have... We guess. But they're not very helpful are they?
They don't give us anywhere to go, and provide zero information about what might be wrong.

Those sorts of thoughts are akin to a bully walking into a room, telling you your painting is shit and walking out again.
That's criticism.

Enter CRITIQUE!

Critique is smart.
Critique is curious.
Critique slows down and gives us a path, an instruction and a direction forward.
Critique is our best friend who protects us from the bully!

How do we critique? We get curious about our painting and we go back to our painting theory rule-book.

Line- Do we have drawing or composition errors?
Tone- Do we have some errors in our values?
Colour- How's our colour palette looking? Is colour helping or
hindering our perspective?
Edge- Are there some hard and some soft edges or is too much one way or the other?

Criticism = I'm a bad painter and my painting is bad
Critique = I need to increase the lighter value in the top left corner to draw the eye up, and glaze the background a bit cooler to push it back.

Notice the difference?

Would you like to hear more about how to critique????

Let us know what you struggle with in the comments!

#learntocritique #artcritique #getcurious #askanartist #learntopaint #artclassbrisbane

A round up of some current works in progress and r

A round up of some current works in progress and recently finished pieces!!

It's easy to get lost in the haze of life... But when we look back through our pics and see the beautiful chaos that comes out our classroom we can't help but slow down to breathe it all in!

Painting is tough gang!
There's soooooo much that goes into the creation of a single piece and the lessons just keep on lining up one after the other to be learnt.
And we are very, very thankful that our students choose us to help them learn... Because we get to jump on that train too!

One of the things about us: We don't work in terms, and everyone is doing their own thing. So each class we run is a wild mix of different hopes and dreams coming together... Which means it's an absolute treasure trove of learnings!

Swipe on through and see some of the glory.. and while we are wrapping up for 2024, we'll be back in 2025, don't you worry!

xxx

#brisbaneartclasses #brisbaneartschool #artstree #aligillett #degillettcox #arttheory #bravearts #brisbaneartists #weeklyartclasses #artlessonsbrisbane #acrylicpaintingclasses #learnacrylicpainting

What to do with leftover paint >>>> Put it on you

What to do with leftover paint >>>>

Put it on your canvas haphazardly in a last minute dash to not waste paint?
No.

Scrape it into miniature containers that you carry around with you forever but never, ever use?
No.

Wash it down the sink?
No. Wipe it off with a paper towel first, then the sink.

OR you could do what our student does and use that leftover paint to create excellent backgrounds in your sketchbook!

These can be used for cute little handmade cards, as sketching backgrounds, or simply give you an excuse to play around with different colour combos... It's a win/ win/ win baby!!!

These sketch book papers are perfect for play dates with your creativity, an instant grounding, a fun background, a way to connect to your creativity like magic!

Is this something that you've tried before? How did it go?

#brisbaneartclasses #brisbaneartschool #artstree #aligillett #degillettcox #arttheory #bravearts #brisbaneartists #weeklyartclasses #artlessonsbrisbane #acrylicpaintingclasses #learnacrylicpainting

Limiting your palette..... Still???? Yes friends!

Limiting your palette.....
Still????

Yes friends! When we say that there is a WEALTH of information to be found with just a little bit of colour theory we aren't kidding!

@mitchellalbala (a very awesome and colour-wise landscape painter) says something along the lines of, "The world exists in perfect harmony. And it is our job as artists to try and capture that harmony".
THAT's what colour theory does, it assists us to capture the perfect, effortless harmony that the natural world exists in.

Harmony doesn't always mean pretty mind you... It just means it works.

SO... Limited colour palettes; Split complementary version!
(Also, yes, I did spell 'complementary' wrong on the slides,
Whatchu gonna do bout it?😄🤌)

Slide 2 and 5 have two different possible split comp. versions. Of which there are many.

Slides 3 and 6 show just a few of the colours available from those original colours. Remember, we get A LOT from each hue... + Black + White + Grey + any colour combo (also with +black, white, grey).
Which means there's a lot of colours available!!!

Slides 4 and 7 show an idea of the images that you might churn out from such palettes/ what you might base your palettes on.

The world is full of perfect harmony just waiting for you to get curious about, and have a play with, and like most things, it is that active action of play that will teach you the most!

Learn your theories, try them out, create some magic... why not?!

#limitedpalettes #getcoloursmart #colourharmony #playwithpaint #alwayslearning #brisbaneartschool #artschoolforadults

#studentwork Finding moments of joy in our painti

#studentwork

Finding moments of joy in our painting process, we think, is probably one of the more overlooked skillsets that you could look toward adding to your tool kit.

These moments can be quite small... so little and inconsequential that you might be tempted to look over it, but not our student Beatrice!

This rather complicated piece is a copy of an AI, digitally rendered view of some illustrative lily pads.
Very tight.
Very detailed.
Very layered.

And whilst our student initially was wanting the piece to look very much the same as the original, overtime the journey turned into something quite different.
It became about the little parts that Beatrice was enjoying, and how to include as much of those little parts as possible.

What were those little enjoyable parts?
Blending, using a little smudging technique.
So small! So simple! But so much joy!

If you zoom into this first image you'll see how each one of those turquoise and green shapes is simply endless smudged brush marks creating a smooth blend of one colour into another.

And isn't that delightful!? That our paintings can become these small moments of joy endlessly joining together as we find more and more little tricks and techniques that just FEEL GOOD???

Whilst the end zone is always there as a goal, it is a fleeting moment, a pause before the next painting is begun. It is not the end that teaches us things, but the journey it takes to get there.

Enjoy the journey! Find those moments and repeat them until you simply can't anymore!

While you're here, take a step back through time as we reverse the process and see the steps we went through to end up with this beautiful flowing, kaleidoscopic piece!

Find your joy, we dare you xxx

#brisbaneartclasses #brisbaneartschool #artstree #aligillett #degillettcox #arttheory #bravearts #brisbaneartists #weeklyartclasses #artlessonsbrisbane #acrylicpaintingclasses #learnacrylicpainting

Feeling lost with your image and not sure of a way

Feeling lost with your image and not sure of a way in???

Take a picture of your source image and turn it into a black and white image.

BOOM!

Instantly the world becomes easier to understand!

Use a grid to help with your placement.

Instantly you can see where things need to shift!

Critique your work constantly so that you get closer to your initial intentions a whole lot quicker.

Stay present!

Or not, you do you.
But here's an image we've been working on with a student the last few weeks, what do you think?
Does it have that aeroplane window feel??

#brisbaneartclasses #brisbaneartschool #artstree #aligillett #degillettcox #arttheory #bravearts #brisbaneartists #weeklyartclasses #artlessonsbrisbane #acrylicpaintingclasses #learnacrylicpainting #weekendworkshop #brisbaneartworkshop #artmakingbrisbane

Probably the biggest lesson we could teach is the

Probably the biggest lesson we could teach is the power of getting intentional with your art-making process.

So let's break that down for a minute, what do we mean???

An intention means that we've got an aim, a goal, a plan to achieve.
An intention is the opposite of "I don't know".
It's the opposite of just 'slapping stuff on a canvas', and it's definitely not unconscious, brain switched off, 'seeing what happens'.

Whilst there is definitely room for that sort of playing around within the art making process, it likely won't get your pieces finished, and could be why you've got a selection of half finished pieces in the garage (???).

Getting intentional means getting conscious about what you hope to achieve right now, in this particular area of your canvas with the next brushstroke.
It's VERY specific.
We're not talking about a 5 year plan here!
It's about tuning into that very next step, and committing to the path...

Why?
Because that's how you get better, test your skills and level up!
It's also how you critique your image and stop making the same mistake over and over and over and over and over...

Getting intentional sounds like:
- I want to increase the shadow on the bottom with a bit of blue, and it's going to start quite thick but get thinner at the top.
- I need to get the travel of light to touch the edge of that tree in a warm yellow.
- Those flowers look too close, I need to push them back a bit... but I'm not sure how, (Because it's OK to not have all the answers straight away).

The important thing about intentions of course is that we then have a measure to see if we have achieved our goal! Did the shadow increase? Does the light travel, are the flowers pushed back????

These small, achievable and specific goals are what brings a painting home! Take your time, get specific and get intentional!!!

#brisbaneartclasses #brisbaneartschool #artstree #aligillett #degillettcox #arttheory #bravearts #brisbaneartists #weeklyartclasses #artlessonsbrisbane #acrylicpaintingclasses #learnacrylicpainting #setintentions #floralpainting #setgoals #makeaplan

We start at the beginning because we've come to an

We start at the beginning because we've come to an end...
Not of Arts Tree of course, but one of our workshops that has seen us through the last few years...

AUSTRALIAN BOTANICALS by @degillettcox have been a roaring success since their beginnings in the world pre-covid. Ever since, artists from across Australia have flown, driven and visited us in order to learn from the wild and wonderous mind of De.

But, all good things must come to an end and a few weekends ago marked the very LAST botanicals workshop that we'll be hosting, woohooooooooooo!!!!!!!

So come for a swipe with us and enjoy our participants and the journey of this bright canvas as it gets to know the first few layers of work.

Did you come to a botanicals workshop over the last 4 years???
We'd love to hear from you in the comments, what did you learn, how did it help and what did you take away?!

#brisbaneartclasses #brisbaneartschool #artstree #aligillett #degillettcox #arttheory #bravearts #brisbaneartists #weeklyartclasses #artlessonsbrisbane #acrylicpaintingclasses #learnacrylicpainting #australianbotanicals #degillett #flora #nomorefuckingbotanicals

Yep, we're still going on about limiting your pale

Yep, we're still going on about limiting your palette, but the reason why is because there is SOOOO much information to be found in just a small sliver of #colourtheory you really do need to go over this information A LOT!

Recap:
Limiting your palette #1 introduced Anders Zorn's portrait palette. An excellent palette to play around with that will push your ability to play with colour relativity.
Limiting your palette #2 shared a few other limited palettes to try, including the one we're talking about today...

Which brings us to,,,:
Limiting your palette #3: Experimenting with the wealth your palette provides!

You see, the point of limiting your palette is not to restrict us from creating beautiful colours, it's to help us become more knowledgeable about what is SAFE to use, and how to make it possible.
Choosing between 1 000, 000 colours is not our idea of a fun time, in fact, that many options will probably have us running for the hills instead of running into the studio!

When utilising the traditional primary palette that we're all taught in school (pic 2) whilst not EVERY colour is available to us, you'll see throughout the rest of the slides that a pretty damn impressive array of colours are still very available and very safe to use.

When choosing a colour palette you're choosing the hue, tint, tone, and shade of every colour, AS WELL as the colours that come by mixing them all together. And if you look at pic 6, this is just a small look at what's available!

Limiting your palette and forcing yourself to mix, see, and utilise all that is available will never be a bad exercise to play around with!

What about you, have you been playing with your limited palettes?
What have you learnt so far?

#brisbaneartclasses #brisbaneartschool #artstree #aligillett #degillettcox #arttheory #bravearts #brisbaneartists #weeklyartclasses #artlessonsbrisbane #acrylicpaintingclasses #learnacrylicpainting #limityourpalette #learnyourcolours #easycolourtheory

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