How to draw

Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers, markers, styluses, and various metals (such as silverpoint). An artist who practices or works in drawing may be called a draftsman or draughtsman. A small amount of material is released onto the two dimensional medium, leaving a visible mark. The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas. The relatively easy availability of basic drawing instruments makes drawing more universal than most other media.

Drawing is a form of visual expression and is one of the major forms within the visual arts. There are several categories of drawing, including cartooning. Certain drawing methods or approaches, such as "doodling," other informal kinds of drawing, and the surrealist method of "entopic graphomania", in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots, may or may not be considered part of "drawing" as a "fine art". Likewise, tracing—drawing on a thin piece of paper, sometimes designed for that purpose (tracing paper), around the outline of preexisting shapes that show through the paper—is also not considered fine art, although it may be part of the draftsman's preparation. The word drawing is both (1) a noun and (2) the present-participle and gerund forms of the verb draw.

 To draw is to produce a drawing. A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a sketch. Drawing is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper. Traditional drawings were monochrome, or at least had little colour, while modern colored-pencil drawings may approach or cross a boundary between drawing and painting. In Western terminology, however, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar media often are employed in both tasks. Dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in pastel paintings. Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Similar supports likewise can serve both: painting generally involves the application of liquid paint onto prepared canvas or panels, but sometimes an underdrawing is drawn first on that same support. Drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem-solving, and composition. Drawing is also regularly used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. In fields outside art, technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called "drawings" even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing. wikipedia.org

You can start with the basics here

I Could Make That - Hand-sewn dice bags

The main difference, apart from this bag being stitched by hand, is that this bag is not lined. You could follow the same tutorial as for the lined bags and simply do the sewing by hand – possible, but a pain, and most people just don’t do that kind of hand sewing anymore, just like most folks (even craftsy ones) don’t hem sheets by hand or sit around doing embroidery to pass the time and fill a hope chest.

The simplest way to do a hand-stitched dice bag is to make it from felt, which doesn’t fray. A double layer of felt on something this small size would make it too bulky to work well, hence, this bag is unlined.

What you’ll need:

felt (The easiest thing is to buy a sheet of it from the dollar store, or a craft store like Michael’s. It comes in all different colours, and in 12″ by 9″. Around here sheets are 25 to 50 cents each. You’ll need two 12 x 9 inch sheets for this project.)
fabric scissors
thread to match your felt
needle
pen
ruler
a circular object with a diameter of 3.8 inches OR this hand sewn dice bag base template
ribbon or cord - about 20 to 24 inches
fray check or clear nail polish Check more

I Could Make That - Sad panda mask in appliqued fleece

You can use this technique for so many different things, really. My mom has decorated bags and blankets and hats, made Mardi Gras masks and even created a sort of fabric mural for her church’s Advent services with it. It will even feature on her contribution to this year’s Desert Bus Craft-Along. I’m planning to make use of the method in future doll making projects, and who knows where else. Remember that blank living room wall I keep complaining about? Maybe I need to go have a chat with the boyfriend…

What you’ll need:

fleece - black, white and a tiny bit of blue for the sad panda mask, or any other colours you desire for any other masks you want to make
thread to match all your fleece colours
sewable HeatNBond – it must be the sewable kind. You can get it from craft stores like Michael’s, and from fabric stores, for about $5 a package. It goes a fair way – mine has done 4 masks so far and there’s still half a package left.
fabric scissors
embroidery scissors or other small scissors with a very fine, sharp point
iron & ironing board
pressing cloth (to protect the fleece from the heat of the iron – an old teatowel or largish scrap of fabric will work fine. Just make sure the cloth doesn’t have dark colours whose dye might bleed)
sewing machine
pencil
permanent marker (if you are designing your own mask or mask template)
coloured markers or crayons (if you are designing your own mask or mask template)
ribbon (2 -3 feet)
[optional] beads, sequins, feathers or other decorations to add to your mask
sad panda mask template OR follow the instructions in Part 1 below to design your own. I’ve also posted my phoenix mask template. Read more

18 Health Tricks to Teach Your Body

Eating 10 hot dogs in 6 minutes and belching the national anthem may impress your friends, but neither of those feats will do much for your body—at least not much good.
Instead, why not train yourself to do something that may actually pay off?
We're not talking bench presses and interval training (though those do help). You can teach your body to cure itself from everyday health ailments—side stitches, first-date jitters, even hands that have fallen asleep.
Just study this list, and the next time your friends challenge you to an ice cream eating contest, chow down: You know how to thaw a brain freeze—and 17 other tricks that'll make everyone think you're the next David Blaine. But without all that "hold your breath for 17 minutes" mess.

Cure a Tickling Throat
When you were 9, playing your armpit was a cool trick. Now, as an adult, you can still appreciate a good body-based feat, especially if it serves as a health remedy. Take that tickle in your throat: It's not worth gagging over. Here's a better way to scratch your itch: Scratch your ear. "When the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm," says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose, and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. "This spasm relieves the tickle."

Experience Supersonic Hearing
If you're stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. It's better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. If, on the other hand, you're trying to identify that song playing softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is better at picking up music tones. menshealth.com

I Could Make That - Lined dice bags

There’s tons of advice out there about how to survive a convention, the most common salient points being things like: shower daily, wear comfortable shoes, carry hand sanitizer at all times and for the love of your everlasting karma, be kind to the poor harried event organizers and your fellow convention goers.
What I’m going to offer by way of fresh new convention advice is to always carry a dice bag. Because inevitably you will find yourself at that booth that sells dice by the cupful, drooling gently and murmuring, “Ooooh, preeeeeetty.” And you’ll remember that you don’t have a set of blue dice yet, and the d4 from your favourite set went missing last month, and they’re so well priced if you buy them by the scoopful…
And then you’ll want somewhere pretty to put all the polyhedral jewels you’ve just bought.
Or to store your MtG counters, or to keep that little bottle of hand sanitizer, or your change (why do wallets never have coin pockets large enough to hold more than four quarters at once?), or the rub-on Optimus Prime tattoo you plan to paste on your buddy’s forehead when he passes out later.
Or buttons! I’ve decided to join in the buttoneering at PAX this year, and give out buttons with my little imaginary Tally’s Bestiary critters on them. Check more on nheilke.com

How to add +1 button on your site/blog

+1 helps people discover relevant content—a website, a Google search result, or an ad—from the people they already know and trust. Adding the +1 button to your pages lets users recommend your content, knowing that their friends and contacts will see their recommendation when it’s most relevant—in the context of Google search results.

When a signed-in Google user is searching, your Google search result snippet may be annotated with the names of the user's connections who've +1'd your page. If none of a user's connections has +1'd your page, your snippet may display the aggregate number of +1's your page has received.

Just copy this code


<!-- Place this tag where you want the +1 button to render -->
<g:plusone></g:plusone>


<!-- Place this tag after the last plusone tag -->
<script type="text/javascript">
  (function() {
    var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true;
    po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
  })();
</script>


Check more tips

Hot to create page corner bookmarks

I used to believe that a person could never have too many books, or too many bookmarks. Then I moved into an apartment slightly larger than some people’s closets (and much smaller than many people’s garages) and all these beliefs got turned on their naïeve little heads.

But what a person can always look for more of is really cool unique bookmarks. Placeholders special enough for the books that are special enough to remain in your culled-out-of-spacial-necessity collection.

Page corner bookmarks are cute, practical and deeply under-represented in the world. They’re easy to make, easy to customize, and will set you apart from all those same-same flat rectangular bookmarks. Corner bookmarks are where it’s at... Read more

How to Make Your Own Energy Bars

Being a frugal cyclist is tricky. At times, it’s near impossible. So when I started training for LOTOJA last spring I instinctively shielded my wallet when the realization struck me of how much I would be eating, let alone pedaling, on my long training rides. Armed with the sum of human wisdom (Google) and a tough set of intestines, my homemade energy bars recipe experiment ended with this tasty number. At less than $.20 per 200 calorie bar, it satisfied my hunger and my budget... 


Energy Bars Ingredients List
1 1/4 cups store brand Crisp Rice (Rice Krispies)
1 cup uncooked quick oats
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
1/4 cup chopped raisins
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla 
Read more

How to Watch Movies in the Theater for Free

I know this sounds amazing, and there's a kicker — you can see these movies in theaters for free BEFORE they're released to the general public!

It sounds too good to be true, but it can be done really easily. For the past year or so, I have been attending movies in theaters before they've been released. I pay nothing to see them, and to top it off, there are often no previews, so 100 minutes actually means 100 minutes.

Some movie studios provide free screenings of movies. They do this to build interest in a movie, to do research, and to allow the press to review it. If people have a good experience, they'll tell their friends and write positive reviews.

Read more

A Method how to unlock your car in 10 seconds

Left your keys inside? No problem, You need just a shoe lace and handy fingers. Good luck :)

How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network

Knowledge is power, but power doesn’t mean you should be a jerk, or do anything illegal. Knowing how to pick a lock doesn’t make you a thief. Consider this article educational, or a proof-of-concept intellectual exercise.


Learn how to crack Wi-Fi network