Ezine Blogs: July 2009

Delaware Days

This week we have been learning about Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze.You can learn more about the artist and the painting at Artist of the Week.
Here is the project. If you don't feel like doing the project, just feel free to print out the black line as a coloring page.

You can click on any of these to make them larger. Below are PDF files. The first is step by step directions and the second is a completed black line drawing that you may feel free to use as a coloring page.

How to draw George Washington

Coloring Page

Here are some more examples from my students. I think they all did an amazing job!

Stop by and take a peek at my

latest header. After doing battle with my blog header design several weeks ago, I had decided that I would periodically change it out utilizing photographs I have taken of my sea world experienced first hand. I received many emails regarding the below photo featured in the posting, Things in my House" (http://musingsofaseawitch.blogspot.com/2009/07/things-in-my-house.html) .

Macro shot of the lampshade made out of sea shells.

This is one of those marvelous "finds" that I came across at my local Goodwill store. It was tossed in the corner of the sporting goods section. I nearly squealed with delight when I saw it and unbelieveably, not one shell was broken. It now resides in my living area and is one of my favorite pieces when lit (other than my hubby...okay, bad joke, but it begged to be said).

Below is a macro shot of the shade with the light turned off. You can see the fine sand that was used over the grout to give it the appearence of a beach covered with shells.

I love the look of the lit macro shot as it played against my blog background colors that I thought it would make a wonderful blog header. So a little photoshop magic and my narrative copy now fits the new header color scheme and the Sea Witch blog has a new header...or at least until the winds of change blow in again. Have a safe and delightful weekend. Sea Witch

Blog Header Friendships

These blogs I visit have become dear to me. Like grabbing a cup of hot "anything" and laughing with the neighbor across the fence, I cannot begin my day without these daily visits to you. You are my big box of Godiva chocolates and I want to taste each and every posting. I delight in your junkin finds, your new digital art tricks, the travels, the recipes, the day to day minutia of your lives. You have unwittingly become my cyber family and I want to thank you for this gift.

White Linen/Lavender Field recently showcased a nifty little tool that creates a mosaic right before your eyes...thank you WLLF (http://whitelinenlavenderfield.blogspot.com/) What a neat little bloggie tool to use and it's FREE. (http://bighugelabs.com/mosaic.php). While test driving the mosaic maker, I decided to utilize graphic headers from some of my favorite blogs that I follow. You have all inspired me and surround my life with delight. Do you recognize your header? If you do, leave a quick comment, I am always fascinated by who stops by.

Who says you can't go home?

This song plays a great part of my life after i enter university.

Well this song is originally sing by Bon Jovi...popular with the ''it's all right, it's all right...''part.

However, it is the best country song of Bon Jovi country-made song. It has another version which feat sugarland.

But at first Keith Urban is the one to duet with Bon Jovi, however Jon said Keith voice is too similar to him. So i went to youtube to listen ( now the video has been remove because it is unreleased version...demo). What i think is...okay i like both of them but...Jonny kinda humilating Keith. Of course the voice sound similar to Jon because the whole part Keith just sing a few lines.

Ya it is actually not that good if compared to Sugarland version because i dont see Keith sings like what he did in his own album in this song. I dont know but i just feel like Keith is...i need to give him a ''explaination'' on this. I think Keith is really talented so it'll be really good if there's chance to work with Jon. Because this is what i wanna see.

By the way, Jon did forget the lyrics for this song for few lives performance...haha. He admit it directly by saying'' Damn i forgot the words and on and on''...

Rockstar make mistakes too!!!

Things in my house.

Just for grins, I decided to snap a few photos of things in my house and post them on my blog. No rhyme or reason for what I took a picture of or why...just thought it would be fun.

So, I hope that you will grab your camera and do the same. Take random shots of things in your house, don't clean them, dust them, or rearrange them...share them in all of their "where they are sitting and what they look like" glory. Use the post title, "Things in my house" and then scurry back to this posting, leave a comment telling me to visit and I will.

Now, GO...snap pictures and post them. Sea Witch

Update

It's a......

Drumroll please.....

GIRL!

and healthy to boot!

The Carnival of Homeschooling is Up!

Be sure to check it out over here at Small World.

PS Today we get to take a peek at God's wonderful creation growing inside my tummy! We are hoping for a girl, so please THINK PINK for us, but more than that, please pray for a healthy baby!

Vintage Village - my favorite place to shop.

Shameless plug? Never! Just want to share with you all my favorite place to shop for all things vintage. Yes, I have a booth here. Yes, I adore the hags that run it and the more than 50 dealers we have there; all who are creative, talented and terrific people. Yes, I keep their website current...and YES...I shop there. A lot. I went in late Saturday afternoon to take new pictures for the website and as usual, I didn't make it to the back area where my booth is located...instead I was sidetracked by a lovely silver mesh purse from the turn of the century that "I needed." Grabbed that out of one of my favorite booths, My Vintage Heart, and started a pile at the front desk. And so it goes almost every weekend. I go in for pictures and I come out with treasure. With so many wonderful things inside Vintage Village it is easy to get sidetracked. After making updates to the Vintage Village website which included new slide shows, I decided I wanted to share some with you. (Which brings me to this posting.)

The Vintage Village website, chock full of all things Vintage Village; our events, pets picks, punch coupon, and lots of photos. (http://vintagevillageantiquesandmore.com/). New photo slide shows are uploaded about every two weeks. Click on the link to visit the cyber side of Vintage Village.

So many wonderful things to see that you just don't know where to turn first.

White, tone on tone is always a lovely theme and is an eye pleasing background palette for other items like the highly sought after flow blue pieces on the shelf unit.

Pretty crystal chandeliers abound in Vintage Village. If you are looking for one, this is the place to come as we have them in every size you could want. Sweet vintage christening dress, pretty cabbage rose bowls and plates and a cottage cupboard in a soft green patina are offered by My Vintage Heart.

Delightful vintage records in bright yellow or red and different size corks are terrific for your altered art pieces.

I am crazy about this vintage paper chest of drawers. My mom always had seasonal sweaters in these when I was growing up. Fantastic price at $32.00.

The famous "Black Cat" poster. Very French!

Sweet Victorian child and puppy painting in lovely vintage frame.

I hope you all have the opportunity to come visit the friendly dealers at Vintage Village. We adore meeting making new friends and saying hello and thank you to old ones.

Oh, and that silver mesh bag that I acquired like the shameless, vintage bag collecting hussy that I am...here it is.

Night Rider

Our third week of American Art History brought us to the birth of our nation. Now we know that this painting was actually done in the 20th century and the poem on which it was based was written in the 19th century, but the event itself occurred in the 18th century. For my historical purposes, I focused on the event itself. Based on the event and the painting itself, I created a criteria based lesson.

I particularly enjoy creating criteria based lessons for two reasons.

1.) The finished pieces tend to be more creative as I encourage artists to take the elements and mix them up and juxtapose them.
2.) Kids learn to really look at the details of a piece of art or artist's style, internalize it, and hence don't easily forget it.

First we discussed the artist(Grant Wood)and what is intentions really were behind this piece as well as discussing some of his more famous pieces(American Gothic) and influences.(You can learn more about him here and here)

Then we looked at the painting itself and tried to draw out every element and detail we could. For younger students, keep the elements really basic, but encourage them to really look too. Young eyes often catch very small details we adults miss.

After we did this we came up with this list of criteria that our artwork should have.
Once the minimum criteria was achieved they could add as many or as few details as they wished. They were to begin in pencil and then outline in black sharpie and color in oil pastel.

The picture must show...

1. An outdoor scene at night.
2. One very tall building with a steeple.
3. 11 more houses of varying size some of which must be arranged in a circle or oval.
4. At least 17 lighted windows.
5. A horse with a rider(this could be a rocking horse too)
6. Nine other people in the picture.
7. Trees of varying sizes and at least 4 different shapes.
8. A winding hilly road with a bridge...
9. That crosses a winding hilly river or stream.
10.The light source coming from the right and casting shadows to the left of the picture.

The kids spent a great deal of time on the drawing of their pictures and weren't able to get to the coloring, but even so these pieces are pretty impressive.

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