Loose and Lively Animals in Watercolour, Inks, Mixed Media by Jo Allsopp

AA0415

Loose and Lively Animals in Watercolour, Inks & Mixed Media by Jo Allsopp

Animals are a perennial favourite amongst artists, but many struggle with capturing their form and character in a way that reflects the true spirit of the animal. In this bright, breezy and accessible book, Jo Allsopp’s genuine passion for wildlife is clear. That love is reflected in her art, and her loose, lively and dynamic style is one that many wish to emulate.

Including a broad range of animals from around the world everything from red squirrels to peacocks, lions and housecats this book will inspire and instruct beginner artists, appeal to animal-loving hobby artists, and provide new ideas for more advanced artists who wish to loosen up their style and take a more experimental approach to their watercolour painting. It includes:

A section exploring inspiration and motivation

Short practical exercises to help you loosen up and try things out

A close look at Jo's way of painting, which demystifies the process and includes drawing techniques

3 pure watercolour projects and 9 incorporating mixed media

Fully illustrated projects that are explained step-by-step, showing you how to personalise your pictures.

Jo's technique is very wet into wet, with lots of blooms, vivid colours, and striking contrasts and texture achieved by the addition of wax resist, salt, spatter and scratching out.

Jo uses an exciting range of art media and techniques in her work. The main medium is watercolour, but to this she adds ink, water-soluble and permanent pens; bleach; isopropyl alcohol; bronzing powders; metallic leaf and acrylic inks. All are explored and explained to show the effects that can be achieved and when and how to use them.

Table of Contents

Introduction 6

Inspiration and motivation 8

Let us loose! 14

Big is bold 22

Getting started 28

Composition 38

Pure watercolour animals 44

Border Terrier 48

Fox 62

Squirrel 76

Animals in mixed media 88

Sand Cat 92

Peacock 104

Hyena 116

Zebra Foal 130

Afterword 142

Index 144

About Jo Allsopp

Jo Allsopp set up Sable Studio Gallery in the grounds of Moira Furnace Museum. From her gallery space she sells her watercolour paintings, mosaics, cards, jewellery and giftware. Her spacious studio enables her to teach regularpainting and drawing classes plusweekend workshops in a variety of media. She also does illustration work.

Jo is an active member of the SAA. Her live workshops are extremely popular. Joalso regularly featuresin the SAA’s magazine Paint & Create. She lives near Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire.