Warblers, direct watercolor painting, 5/31/18

Had made a list of ideas on exercises to practice painting faster, in my recent blog post. To try one of these ideas, I tried setting up a brief slide show to work from. Hah! Much too dizzying and frustrating for painting I found immediately. In fact I started feeling queasy right away. Weird.

Ok, so I picked 4 reference photos from CCNAB, (Classic Collection of North American Birds). My paper already had some frames or large thumbnail boxes drawn out. Each one also had a couple paint marks where I'd made my first attempts. From there I just painted directly in watercolor without under drawing.

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018

30 + ideas for painting exercises to practice working faster, 5/31/18

Ideas for exercises to practice doing faster art, as a counter action to the impulse to get hung up in overworking art. Tues, 5/29/18 Catinka Knoth ...continued through 5/31/18

One page of notes is transcribed to text here. The other pages are photos of notes. Maybe I'll transcribe at some point. I write in pencil but at least had them converted for cleanup. Still hard to read....

1.  set timer at one minute, two minutes, five minute, etc.

Work from references: 

art examples 

subject pics

2. make slideshows with preset timed changes

3. work from Videos, TV shows

4. take pics from the book and make into a slideshow

5. Print ref pics onto cards to turn over with timer

6. work with others – change refs with neighbors at timer signal

7. do memory sketches from a walk, a days experiences

 8. Sketch on a boat ride, harbor tour

9. Sketch on a walk

10. Create a scavenger hunt with others, that is a timed return. Sketches of the finds are the validation

11. Work/sketch at various activities, events, locations:

Farms

Market

Cafés

Classes

Musical performances

Festivals

Fairs

Zoo

Sports events

Parks

Landmarks

1. Limited parameters for ones exercises:
2. Make a list of limited parameters for art exercises
3. Choose one of the exercises by desire or choose by lottery/chance

Made version #1 list earlier. Should be lots of overlap between the list!

More notes on the subject, need transcribing to text.

Flamenco dancers and music, direct watercolor, 5/30/18

Listening and watching some flamenco music and dancer videos. Have loved those rhythms and sounds and dancing since youngest age. It dawned on me now that it is that horse culture one hears in those rhythms. The hooves beating and thundering.

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Memorial Day wishes, 2018

We remember and honor, but let us keep a vision that no one should sacrifice.

Breakfast remains, direct watercolor, Memorial Day, 5/28/18

Normally I would not try such a subject in 'direct watercolor'. This was a matter of 'well let's see if I can...'. Not three strokes in before I said, "ugh, now I remember why I never really enjoyed having to convey a scene w accuracy. I have to put this to a lot of contemplation. At least I got through the whole thing. Don't know where, if anywhere, I'm going with this.

Direct watercolor, as I understand it, means that you don't get to map it out with underdrawing before you paint. It means therefor that you hold a lot of shapes in your mind while you paint so that you can leave spaces for them. I also leave lots of white channels to keep paint/color areas from running together - because I don't want to wait for things to dry. People often notice that and say how much they like that style. It is merely a matter of convenience though - not something I do for how it 'looks' - thank you for that appreciation regardless though!

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Cat, (or Lynx?), in red flowers, 5/26/18

Not sure how far I'll go with this 30 x30 practice. Needs to stay playful as a game or it becomes a burden that ultimately causes inner rebellion. Keep making the goal smaller and smaller until one is willing enough to keep at it.

I can find myself happy and thrilled to have done a thing on one day, determined to turn around to do it again the next day, only to find all the desire has fizzed out, and especially feeling, 'oh no, not again!'

Perhaps it is the posting that makes it a bigger deal and more like 'work' or a burden. ...So then, collect a few before doing a post. ... we'll see how it goes.

#30x30directwatercolor2018

Cat, dandelion, hummingbird, azaleas, black crayon drawing coloring page, 5/25/18

...and a quickie figure invention in direct painting watercolor

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Obviously not watercolor! Found an art challenge that is based around doing 30 art works in 30 days. The point being to get in the practice of doing something on a daily basis. Direct painting in watercolor means getting right into the painting without underdrawing. But only because it is a new direction for some artists who recently tried this method as an experiment. In the light of trying it and sharing their experience with it, they set up this whole event, (for June), to join in doing it that month. The theory being that if others are doing it together one might find it easier to stay with the challenge, thereby growing one's self! 

I came across the FB group because of 'direct painting', a technique I often use at my kitchen table but not for scene and on location painting. All depends on the subject too. 

But I like very much the idea of making anything on a daily or almost daily basis. I have not been doing that at all. Checking into the group and suddenly finding feedback I could give on various questions, got me thinking/wanting to play too. The structure is informal enough. That suits my purposes. 

I did a quickie direct painting yesterday,(oh so quick, also shown here)...But today, I did not have water on hand for painting where I was sitting. I'd have to work in crayon. So for now it is just a bw crayon drawing. Help yourself to print it out for coloring. I can put up a PDF of it somewhere. The PDF I just printed out is full sheet, same as the drawing. 

I may try this later as 'direct painting' watercolor. We'll see! That actual challenge starts in June. 

Warblers and songbirds, student drawings and exercises display, adult art class, 5/21/18

We worked from six different reference photos. Each student got one of the bird photos to work from. Four exercises first.
#1 continuous line - draw from the photo without lifting your tool from the paper
#2 stencil style - color in shapes as if you are coloring in a stencil
#3 outline stencil style - outline as if you were tracing a stencil
#4 outline/coloring page - draw the image as if you are making a coloring page

Final drawing - do it any way you want. Do it in wacky colors if you want!

June children's art programs demo drawings for 2018 press release

June adult art programs with Catinka Knoth at Rockland Library, 2018

Press Release:

May 18, 2018

"Birds, Blooms, & Berries" -  June Adult Art Classes with Catinka Knoth, at Rockland Public

Library, 2018

Rockland - Local artist Catinka Knoth will lead a series of free drawing

classes for adults on creating birds and floral or berry motif art and

cards, at Rockland Public Library. Classes meet at 11am, Mondays in

June, 80 Union St, in the Friends Community Room. Participants will

create art using pencils, colored pencils, crayons, and sometimes scissors, with

an emphasis on drawing in color. Students do  warm-up  practices before

working on final drawings. Each week is a different bird and plant

combination -  birds such as hummingbirds, cedar waxwings,

and cardinals. Knoth will give instruction and guidance.

She invites students of all levels to come make art in this communal and diverse environment.

Each week is a different subject:

06/04   Hummingbirds  & Rhododendron

06/11   Cardinals and lilacs

06/18   Cedar Waxwings & cherries

06/25   Red, White, and Blues!

Knoth provides the classes free of charge, with materials supplied.

Friends of Rockland Library host the workshops, which are open to the

public. FMI Knoth at info@catinkacards.com or Rockland Library at 594-0310.

Knoth paints watercolors of Maine, and whimsical animal scenes, which

she offers as cards and prints. She also teaches a free weekly

children's drawing class at Rockland Public Library, sponsored by Wendy

and Keith Wellin. For more information about Knoth's work visit

www.catinkacards.com.

Attachment: Artwork (and photos) by Catinka Knoth - demonstrations, and studies

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

Press Release:  

5/18/2018

"Let's Draw Jubilant June!" -  Children's Drawing Workshops at Rockland

Public Library, 2018

Rockland - Children will  explore 'early summer' themes for this

month's children's drawing classes led by Catinka Knoth at Rockland

Public Library. June provides subjects such as  summer

activities and seashore scenes; Father's Day cards; floral scenes with

poppies, roses, lilacs, and lupine; and 4th of July celebrations.

Students follow along with Knoth as she demonstrates drawing a variety

of motifs. Knoth gears the classes for age 6 and up, including the

young at heart. She expects participants to be able to work

independently for the most part. Children age 10 and under need adult

accompaniment, according to Library policy.

"Let's Draw Jubilant June!" - each week is a different subject:

06/05    Summer activities and visits to the seashore

06/12    Father's Day cards

06/19    Floral scenes and summer gardens

06/29    4th of July Celebrations

Wendy and Keith Wellin sponsor the workshops, which are free and open

to the public, with all materials provided. The ongoing classes meet

every Tuesday, 4-5 pm, Community Room, Rockland Public Library, 80

Union St., hosted by the Friends of Rockland Library. FMI - Jean Young,

children's librarian, 594-0310.

Attachments:  Demonstration drawings by Catinka Knoth

Catinka Knoth

241 Broadway, Apt. B

Rockland, Maine 04841

207-691-5544

Website:

http://www.catinkacards.com

Lily ponds, herons, egrets, and a touch of perspective, adult art class student display, 5/14/18

Perspective work was to try something like a tile floor, into which we laid ellipses, (as circle shapes in perspective), for the lily pads. This was our schematic framework for putting in large wading birds at different distances. We also did some practice drawings of herons and egrets using examples by the artist Frank Benson. Then we made up our scenes, in color.

Mother'Day flower basket drawings and papercut tree sculptures, children's drawing class, 5/8/18

The full sheet drawings were joined together to make a large accordion fold card and backdrop. We used the broken crayon flat against paper to draw these flower baskets. The papercut trees are free standing sculptures but we hope to experiment how to make them as a popup card.

May baskets, drawing with broken crayons - adult art class student art display, 5/7/18

We use broken crayons for the thick and thin marks they allow. We did practice rows of circular marks, leaf shapes, stems, and anything else we could think of. We did a basket of blooms with a ribbon or banner as well. For a broad mark use a piece of crayon flat against the sheet. Twist it around for a disk shape. See how you can get a thin line from the crayon flat against the page.

Frogs - broken crayon style and line drawings, adult art class, 4/30/18

We did some follow-along drawings from my demo. Use the side of a piece of dark crayon to draw frogs in as few strokes as possible. The stroke patterns mimic the stroke pattern of sumie painting.

We also did line drawings of frogs.

For references we used the art of Arthur Rackham, from an Aesop's fable, The Log King, and a sumie painting containing lots of frogs.