Simonetta de Vespucci - portrait by Piero do Cosimo, Renaissance portrait..

First painting I ever copied - when I was 8-9 years old. Loved this painting. Can never remember the artist, so I'm posting this now. Hopefully next time I can find it.

This painting was a cover, (I believe) for one of the first Horizon magazines. Our family had a subscription. I think our dad gave me a drawing lesson about it - maybe because I was already trying it. So I know the painting but always have a hard time w the title n artist! ...Dad explained how they shaved their foreheads back then, hence a bigger forehead than normal!

I still want to find that Horizon magazine - maybe it was only an article and I imagine it as the cover?

It is in the

Musée Condé in Chantilly, France. Painted c. 1480-1490

Some Info here:

http://www.dailyartmagazine.com/simonetta-vespucci-top-model-renaissance/

May Themes Art Workshops for Adults at Rockland Public Library, with Catinka Knoth, 2018

Press Release:

4/23/18

May Themes Art Workshops for Adults at Rockland Public Library, with Catinka Knoth, 2018

Rockland - Local artist Catinka Knoth will lead  workshops on creating
art for May themes such as American Wetlands Month and International
Migratory Birds Day, at Rockland Public Library. Classes meet 11 a.m.  Mondays, in the Community Room, Rockland Public Library, 80 Union St. Led by Knoth, participants create their own art. Knoth provides the classes free of charge, with materials supplied. Friends of Rockland Library host the workshops. FMI Knoth at 691-5544 or Rockland Library at 594-0310.

Each week is a different subject.
5/07    May flowers and baskets

5/14    Frogs, lily ponds, herons, & egrets
5/21   Migratory birds and warblers
5/28   Library closed for Memorial Day

Knoth provides instruction and guidance in drawing and creating the
May themes. Each week class explores a different subject. Participants
work with pencil, colored pencil, crayon, and sometimes with scissors and collage, with a focus on drawing in color.

Knoth paints watercolors of Maine and whimsical animal scenes, which
she offers as cards and prints. Knoth also teaches a free weekly children's drawing class, sponsored by Wendy and Keith Wellin, at Rockland Public Library. For more information about Knoth's work visit www.catinkacards.com.

Attachments: art by Catinka Knoth, (photos by Knoth)

Children's Drawing Workshops at Rockland Library with Catinka Knoth, 2018

Press Release: 
4/23/18

"Let's Draw Marvelous May!" - Children's
Drawing Workshops at Rockland Public Library, with Catinka Knoth, 2018

Rockland - Children will draw May flowers and May baskets, Mother's Day cards, marsh life, Memorial Day themes, and migratory birds  at this month's children's drawing classes led by Catinka Knoth at Rockland Public Library.

Wendy and Keith Wellin sponsor the ongoing free workshops, geared for age 6
and up, (including the young at heart).  Children age 10 and under need adult accompaniment. Knoth expects participants to work independently for the most part. The workshops provide all materials. Classes meet every
Tuesday, 4-5 pm., Community Room, Rockland Public Library, 80 Union
St. Friends of Rockland Library host. FMI - Jean Young,
children's librarian, 594-0310.

May is also American Wetlands Month. Children will explore marsh and
wetland habitats by drawing such animals as egrets, frogs, and beavers.
International Migratory Birds Day, another May celebration, gives the opportunity to draw Spring warblers and other migratory birds. Knoth leads
attendees in step-by-step drawing instruction for the day's theme. Class also works with papercutting. She encourages adults to participate and discover that drawing is for everyone.

"Let's Draw Marvelous May!"
5/01 May flowers, May baskets
5/08 Mother's day cards
5/15 Marsh & wetlands life
5/22 Memorial Day
5/29 Migratory birds

Attachments:
Demonstration drawings by Catinka Knoth

....I don't know who they are... A lovely couple and a swan...

I learned recently, (today), that Michelangelo had made a painting of Leda and the Swan. The painting I saw looked to me like a Pontormo or a Bronzino - very Mannerist. I had no idea Michelangelo had done the subject.

...but I had painted this miniature painting using watercolor as if it were egg tempera. It is  quite small - perhaps 6"x7". i did this c. 1974-1976?

Daffodils - structural, schematic, and stylized, adult art class student display, 4/23/18

Spring Peepers & baby animals, kids' drawing class, 4/17/18

Baby animals - bunnies, squirrels, otters, kittens, raccoons, and a fawn somewhere. Thank goodness one of the students knew what an otter looks like and was able to draw up a sample for us!

We did not get to hedgehogs, dragon related animals like salamanders and snakes, or pandas!

See more about peepers here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBUXYrUA2pw

And something about otters? ....

Koi kite pics - made in the video demo

Paper koi kite watercolor demonstration

Make a paper koi (carp) kite with me! Just a sheet of  8 1/2 x 11" copy paper, some scissors, some crayons or watercolors, and go to town with it! You'll see most of it in this video where I make the kite and decorate it with watercolor. But you can use crayons just as easily, as I did in the example that I copied from.

Cherry blossoms and trees for the Japanese spring festival in Washington DC. Student art display, adult drawing class, 4/9/18

We used photo references for some warm-up practices, then did a full sheet final drawing as desired.
Practice exercises:
Blind contour drawing
Continuous line drawing of the same pic
Continuous line drawing of another image
Continuous line drawing of a blossom close up
Blue shape negative spaces of the sky areas behind the puffs of cherry blossoms

Red riding hood and wolf, Fairy tale papercuts in honor of Hans Christian Anderson, adult art display, 4/2/18

We did these paper cuts in honor of Hans Christian Andersen. His birthday was April 2nd. He wrote lots of fairy tales but also made papercuts - just using scissors and paper. 

Take a piece of copy paper folded into quarters. Snip up into the paper   In the long fold, cut up around the figure, whether it be the wolf or Ridinghood. Return to a frame that you will now cut around.  You can see that some people cut around the frame and some people simply cut their figure out. You can also pierce into the paper rather than cutting up into it, and cut around the frame.  You will return to your starting point. If you wanted your figure to stay as one big sheet, then you have to make sure that there is a connection rather than cutting the figure off. I did a demo of   the red Ridinghood figure but I was so confused as to what I was doing that it really didn't look like anything other than like a tree. Someone was able to follow along with me and that image came out looking much like the tree that I did . Then I made a drawing of what it should look like very roughly and someone else did their cutting from that. It is placed against a green background so there is a green Ridinghood rather than red Ridinghood. 

Red riding hood and wolf, Fairy tale papercuts in honor of Hans Christian Anderson, adult art display, 4/2/18

Red riding hood and wolf, Fairy tale papercuts in honor of Hans Christian Anderson, adult art display, 4/2/18

Fairytale papercuts, (Red riding hood and wolf), in honor of Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, adult art class display, 4/2/18

The Wolf is quite clear here. We cut a piece of copy paper that had been folded into quarters.
You can either pierce into it or just cut through the paper at some point and cut up around the figure. Return to the border and cut around the border and from there get back to where you first entered the paper with your scissors. Your figure should stay attached to the sheet as a whole. Here you have white wolves, dark wolves, and a green Ridinghood figure. I had done a follow-along cutting, but I didn't know what I was doing so my figure ended up looking like a tree. Whoever was able to follow along with the cutting came out like a tree as well in their cutting! There is a demonstration of the freehand paper cut on my YouTube but it really doesn't look like anything! Except the tree!

Happy Easter Tune You! 2018.