Portland Mini Workshops at Mini Prices!

Hey Portland attendees — and those who are contemplating attending our Northwest Art & Soul Retreat — have we got an exciting offering for you!

Several of our instructors have developed short sample classes so they can introduce you to their fabulous projects, tips and techniques.  The classes are less than an hour in length... most include all the supplies you'll need... and these mini workshops are only $25!!  How cool is that?

Here's just a sampling of these special classes...

Beach Shirt Mini Class with Jean VanBrederode

 

Love that Lettering taught by Caitlin Dundon

Create Portal Pages in Your Art Journal with Catherine Anderson

And that's just a few of the amazing mini workshops we have for you. So if you've ever wanted to try out a new technique, or see what one of our amazing instructors had to offer, now's your chance to do it in a short, creatively jam-packed session! Check out our website for a complete listing of all our Portland mini classes and sign up today! Space is limited.

Art & Soul Portland, Oregon

February 29 - March 6, 2016

Sheraton Airport Hotel

So if you haven't signed up yet, come join us for an amazingly inspiring mixed media art retreat. For more information and to register for our Portland 2016 event, visit us at www.ArtAndSoulRetreat.com

Easy & Simple Photo(shop) Linocuts!

Wouldn't it be cool to take a photo that you love and create a linocut from it? "What the heck is a linocut?" you may be asking. Well, it's a printmaking technique — similar to woodcut — in which a sheet of linoleum is carved with a pattern and then used for printing. But to do that you need special tools and laser copies and acetone and lots of patience and printing ink and more! What if you could do it on your computer in a few minutes? Awesome!

Catherine Anderson — Art & Soul instructor extraordinaire and Photoshop Elements expert — explains how in this super easy tutorial. You'll definitely want to print this one out and save it in your art file!

1.  Open your digital photo in Photoshop and make a duplicate layer.

2.  Go to Enhance > Unsharp Mask.  Set the Amount to 500% and the Threshold to 0.  Try a Radius setting of 8 to start, but also adjust it to see if you like any of the other settings better.

3.  Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius at about one quarter of the value of the Radius setting in Step 2. above.

4.  Repeat the Enhance > Unsharp Mask step in 2. above.

5.  Finally, go to Filter > Adjustments > Threshold and adjust the Threshold level until you create an image that you like.

You now have your black and white linocut! I printed my linocut barn owl out on white paper with my laser printer, then used the packing tape transfer method on page 95 of The Creative Photographer to make a transparent image which I pasted on a green background after cutting around the owl. This is a great way to use your photographs in art projects.

In Catherine's book, The Creative Photographer, the chapter on Photography as Meditation in Exploration 8 (page 140) shows you how to make linocuts using leaves from your garden. However, this method can be applied to any of your photographs as well.  This is how she created this black and white linocut of a photo of this Barn Owl using Photoshop Elements.

Catherine's Kansas City classes are all filled up (yes, she's very popular!) but she still has some room in her workshops in Art & Soul Virginia Beach so check them out! Her classes focus on incorporating photography into mixed media projects as she believes that the visual memories you create should be shared in meaningful ways.