Let your passing be our lesson by Karen Arribas

Todays lesson was based on the recent passing of the last male northern white Rhino. It saddened me so much I wanted to do a painting as a remembrance to this amazing animal.

The techniques for todays lesson can be used a number of ways such as a painting, jewellery (using the rhino head) or even a t-shirt which is what I've decided to do.

 1. Firstly I drew a rough picture of a rhino head onto tracing paper.

2. I then traced more rhino heads and cut them out to make a pile.

3.With the pile of rhino heads I then stuck them all together to make a 3D image. I then used Jane Davenport watercolours Neutral palette to paint the Rhino head. 

4. I then used darker colours for the contrast and coloured pencils for definition. I drew a circle in the background as I wanted to frame the head in some way.

5. Next step was to create some flowers I decided to use FW acrylic ink in turquoise and deep blue for the background to give it contrast.

6. I then used my fingers rather than brushes for the flowers because I like the natural results it produces. I used mainly KAISERcolour paints in a number of different shades of pinks, yellow and orange with dashes of white. 

7. I used the FW Acrylic artist ink to paint a background. 

8. I then added the flowers around the rim of the circle.

This is the final image and I wanted to see what it would look like on a t-shirt so I used a t-shirt mock up and used photoshop for the placement. 

(this is a free stock t-shirt from https://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/15-free-psd-templates-mockup-t-shirt-designs)

Materials used:

Watercolour paper

Jane Davenport Watercolours - Neutral set

FW Acrylic Artist ink - Turquoise and Prussian Blue

KAISERcolour Acrylic paint - Candy, Pretty Pink, Hot pink, Magenta, Blossom and orange. 

Golden fluid Acrylic - Hansa yellow light

All materials can be purchased from the Art and Soul studio online shop at: https://artandsoulstudio.com.au/

Thank you to every one who has enjoyed my lessons. I hope you enjoyed this one too and I'll see you all in the soul sisters FB group. 

xx

Vocal Beauties: Mixed Media tutorial - By Karen Arribas

Hello hello.....I have a video this time Yay!

I was inspired to do this piece when I saw the word Vocal Beauties on the Art-C ephemera page and decided to go with it and vocal beauties evolved. I was wanting to capture an air of confidence of the woman and the inner knowing that your voice matters....I've captured it all on video which you can view on the link below.....Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/hBSx6ZiV_zc

Supplies list:

Kaiser Color - Tropical water
Jane Davenport - White paint over pen
Liquitex - white Gesso
Liquitex - Matt gel Medium
Golden High flow Acrylic - Transparent Red Iron Oxide and Raw Umber
Art C - Ephemera Pack
Tombow's - Brights, Portrait and Muted you can also purchase the pens seperately rather than the packets.
Stabilo all marks pencil - Black

All the above can be purchased from the Art and Soul Studio online shop: https://artandsoulstudio.com.au/index.php?route=product/search&search=faber%20castell&description=true

Faber Castell coloured pencils can be purchased at K-mart etc.

I hope you enjoyed and are inspired by this painting. Let me know if you'd like to see similar lessons. Thanks for looking.

xx

Soulful Project by Karen Arribas

Happy New Year and welcome to my first lesson for this year. I am thrilled to be asked back for a second term with Art and Soul.

Before I start this lesson I thought I'd put a list of what was used during the lesson:

Gel Press Impressables 7"x7" Embossed Gel Plate: REPEAT CIRCLES
Liquitex Matt medium
indian ink
black pencil
Jane davenport acrylic paint
Kaiser Craft acrylic Paint
Stamperia Rice Paper - White Roses & Gear Wheels 50cm x 50cm

7 Dots Studio - Dreamscapes - Triangles Stencil

All the materials can be purchased from the Art and Soul Studio online shop: https://artandsoulstudio.com.au/

Be careful though because there is a lot of wonderful stuff on there!

Now for this weeks lesson...........

Firstly I used a brayer to on Gel Press Impressables 7"x7" Embossed Gel Plate: REPEAT CIRCLES. I used a variety of acrylic paints from the Kaiser craft and JD range. 

I made a number of prints, the beauty of the Gelli prints is you can get a number of prints out of a little amount of paint.

I decided to use a small portion of what I printed and used Matte Gel to stick to some watercolour A4 paper.

I then decided to add various bit of collage paper such as Stamperia Rice Paper - White Roses & Gear Wheels 50cm x 50cm etc in the end most of it got covered but its the process I like and the bits of colour that come through the layers.

Next I used some Golden crackle paste through the middle of the design. 

To be honest this was the first time i'd used crackle paste. This particular one has very fine cracks that are great for a more subtle crackle look but they tended to get lost if I used too much acrylic paint on it, so using a little paint on a dry brush is probably better. I actually used a black ink pad here.

I used black gesso on the rest of the painting and then used the other end of the paint brush to add some marks to add extra texture.

Next I added blocks of various colours of acrylic paint and then used a black pencil to start outlining the flowers.

I then used white gesso and 7 Dots Studio - Dreamscapes - Triangles Stencil to add some interest. 

I wasn't happy with the black pencil so I used black indian ink to make the outline of the flowers more prominent.

The Jane Davenport white paint over pen is great for mark making such as dashes and dots.

Finally I used the Jane Davenport INKredible pen to write the quote.

I hope you like this lesson and it gives you some ideas for creating textures etc. 

xx

December Soulful Project by Karen Arribas

Hi and welcome to my lesson for this months soulful project. I have based it on this months quote:

To Begin with I used the Jane Davenport pink acrylic and spread it sporadically over the page. I kept the brush quite dry as I didn't want to cover the whole page. 

I then used FW artist acrylic ink red and yellow. They are really vibrant and permanent when they dry. I spread it from the bottom and fanned it out over the page to give the impression of fire.

I then drew black around the flames with a stabilo all black pencil and a black coloured pencil. I then used the JD pink acrylic and white Gesso to put splatters over the flames to add more texture.

You can use a cut out from a magazine like I have here or you can simply draw onto the page. I liked this picture and it went well with what I was wanting to achieve. I covered her dress with black gesso. 

Once the picture is stuck down to the background ( I used Liquitex Matte gel medium) I covered her hair and body with gesso (Liquitex gesso) I would recommend a watered down thin layer and then build as you need a bit of transparency for the face.

I then covered her hair with Jane davenport acrylic paint - light orange from the portrait set. I didn't cover it completely just parts of the hair. I collaged some butterflies and leaf onto her dress, I also used a white sharpie to draw some vines. 

Finally I shaded some of her face, legs and arms. Coloured pencil red, yellow and orange was used on the hair and pencil for the shading. I added a feather from graphic 45 seasons collection to her hair also. 

And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the lesson feel free to ask any questions and I look forward to seeing your work in the facebook group. 

All the materials can be purchased from the Art and Soul Studio online store: https://artandsoulstudio.com.au/

Karen xx