Try your hand at drawing some rabbits for Easter (or Spring). For reference you can print out my rabbits drawing inspired by Beatrix Potter. Rabbits Drawing Page or Coloring Page.

Besides writing and illustrating the Peter Rabbit books, Beatrix Potter was a sheep farmer, watercolorist, naturalist and conservationist. You can see some of her watercolors at Beatrix Potter Society.   

Find more rabbits and Spring coloring pages at Catinka's Maine and Animal Coloring Pages 

brush painting after Beatrix Potter	brush painting after Takahiko Mikami
brush painting after Ken Hultgren	This week the kids did rabbits for Easter. We used my follow-along-method. These are my demonstration paintings, imperfections and all. I paint a few strokes on a large sheet of newsprint tacked up and they match stroke-by-stroke as best they can. You can see the kids' work at my new Flickr site. Once there, click the 'kids art' set or use the keywords "kids art - rabbits" to see their rabbit paintings. View my Flickr site. Flickr is a photography site. Since these are not photos (photos of art though) they may not let them be seen by the public. We'll have to see. Please let me know if you have trouble. And feel free to use the comment feature here, or there!

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 7:33 PM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 1 April 2007 10:10 PM EDT

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I sent out this press release the other day, since I'm involved with this committee (I organize the craft tent):

THOMASTON (April 4): The Thomaston Fourth of July Committee is busy planning the 2006 celebration. This year's parade theme is "Stars and Stripes Forever". Several new categories of float categories will inspire group participation.

There will be awards in the categories of family, merchant, neighborhood, and business/organization floats. The committee wants people to use this opportunity to express their creativity, display group spirit, entertain others, and celebrate the holiday.

The committee encourages people to start planning now for this exuberant tradition. Committee chair, Doug Erickson, says, "Show your community spirit, your patriotic spirit! Get involved and make a float this year." Contact Erickson at 596-7478 for parade guidelines and applications, or visit online at www.thomaston4thofjuly.com

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 9 April 2006 3:01 PM EDT

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This week in both the adult class and the kids class the subject was egrets/herons combined with perspective. I had no intention of giving the kids perspective but then I couldn't resist. I'm not sure the kids got it but for some reason they seemed to be in such rapt attention as I demonstrated and explained this, that I wondered what I was missing that they were seeing! Also see my notecards of bird watercolor paintings.  Update: Lesson on bird sumi-e painting
birds at same eye level as viewer	above viewer's eye level	below viewer's eye level
These are some of my demonstration drawings showing the birds from a couple different viewpoints. In one the viewer is seeing the birds from their line of vision. Each head is on the line of vision, the horizon. In the next, the viewer is a little below the the birds' heads. The viewer's line of vision is the horizon line but the birds' heads are a bit above that. And finally, the birds heads are below the horizon, the viewer's line of vision. To figure out how big the birds in the distance would appear in relation to the closest bird, draw vanishing lines from the head and feet of the closest (largest appearing) bird to a vanishing point on the horizon. I put it roughly in the center, but in this case it doesn't really matter where it is. Can you imagine now if that were a fence stretching to the horizon? Or, a line of birds? You then can see how big each one should look depending how far back along the fence they stand. From there, any bird that sits in the same plane (parallel to the horizon) as an imaginary bird on the fence, would appear the same size as its match on the fence. In the kids' work below some tracing was allowed as a way of practicing. Most of them were done freehand though. They were to write "tracing" on their paper if they'd traced.
The kids paintings from left to right: by T.R. age 14, by M.S. age 8, by J.M(u) age 7, by I.F. age 9, by I.F. age 9, by S.C. age 10, by J.F. age 6, by S.F. age 14, by J.F. age 6.

Try your hand drawing some egrets using my drawing model or have fun coloring it! Egrets Coloring Page

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 12:01 AM EST

Updated: Sunday, 25 February 2007 12:31 PM EST

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