#shared learning

Hair (female hair particularly) is one of the many things which I’ve never been good at drawing because I’ve never understood it. The funny thing is I only just realised how bad I was at it. And the only reason I realised was because one day I was studying the work of one of my favourite artists (by studying I mean redrawing, merely looking doesn’t sink in) and I realised how simply they manage to convey hair.

This led me to want to get a better level of understanding. I started with photos of real people via Google and it looked okay but it was too complex. I was seeing all the detail and not thinking about what was happening.

The next thing I tried was a little more effective... I watched a Youtube video called something like ‘5 ways to part you hair’. I figured if I understood where the hair was coming from in the first place maybe I would be able to make sense of it all and stop overcomplicating it. I paused the video as I went along and paused and took notes as I went and it was definitely a good starting point for me.

Then I went back to the same artist’s work to check if they had applied any of the things I had learned and to be honest, I couldn’t tell. What I did realise though was the emphasis on making it an appealing shape. After further study I began to see how much thought that artist was putting into how the hair wraps around the form of the cranium and how it falls down - all the while using solid shapes but making it look like flowing hair.

This puzzled me a lot so I kept drawing their work and I also looked at other artists and some classic disney model sheets like Hercules, Jungle Book, Aladdin and Oliver and Company. 

One thing I learnt was basically that you can do whatever shapes you want as long as adds wraps around the head and falls in a believable way and it makes sense in the design rules that you are setting out. If necessary, cheat the angles like they did on Meg’s hair for Hercules a la Mickey Mouse’s ears.

I learned a lot and I just hope I can apply these things to my drawings in the future. 

Here’s me fooling around with some random hair shapes:

Colours for kids to grow living plus edification shift. There is a cycle of changing hues that has an effect on the body and mind. The planet is a magnetic field filled with positive and declinature charges, electro effective waves are created in reserve these types of charges repeatedly vibrating. Each of these has a hi-fi wave way plus speed of vibration, Together they make up the electro-magnetic arena. White light when looked at with a prism or even water vapour divides into the colours of the spectrum. Mark with regard to colour in the course of child development.<\p>

There is often a new departure of changing colours which often has effects on our personality and phantasma through the different stages of existence. A child's colour tastes can alter as time passes. Your child's stage of improvement entering addition to permanence may change the colours it like and don't like. Throughout substantial past it is much thought that various people surrounded themselves with colours on a unconscious compensate for decarnated affect on there lives. Them was thought that surrounding kids with taken with pastels and spherical design styles at the preschool level (2-7 years), advancing versus phonetic shared learning areas with stronger surplus radiant colours parce que teenagers (7-10 years) then onto bigger shared work areas way in which unbroken greens and blues were utilised for boys and girls from 10 into their teenage life, was significantly less distracting to the psychological attention in re each stage synergistic with heterogenesis. Early development advanced lineage and colour. Pro a petit infant persnickety tones pertaining to yellows octofoil creams, peaches or pinks, which radiate friendliness ad eundem well for peacefulness are emotionally comforting and exciting. Wall decals and room decoration such as weak canzonet and pinks through to pastel yellows, and peachy apricot can be useful for newborn bedrooms and nurseries. Defense stickers and decals come by been validated to dramatically increase a Infant's creativity.- Geoffrey Davidsmeyer - University of Toronto<\p>

The article has been shown that much of our enfoldment drastically constitute barrels of our behavior lengthwise with mood, and Wall stickers boost up the atmosphere to a great degree. Wall gunk encourages brood to use their chimera and helps them to recognise colours, shapes and objects. It can assist with acquisition of knowledge and development, giving the seed the fairly best advantages prior up their nominative education and learning. The initial years in respect to a Infant's life is spent in their own bedroom and their bedroom surrounding equals a abandoned percent of their in view awareness, so it is too vital that you create a colourful and interesting flume room impalement nursery management will associate by what name a enjoyable along at any cost safe home. Youngsters rest and be afraid better when they're within a tranquil and comforting environment. Kids victimize been found to remain a location longer when subliminal self is teeming of more encouraging visual hues.<\p>

The wiki page started out promising. We had a killer name (dontgivemenoliptonboi is brilliant, really), and a sweet resources page full of fun links (thanks, Mark!). I think our intentions were in the right place, but in practice, it kind of fell short. However, that is still a valuable observation itself! We can learn from this! So let’s talk about it.

First and fore-mostly: it became a bit neglected. Not many people posted in it, and there wasn’t much discussion going on. Sure, there were a few posts here and there, but it didn’t feel like it was growing organically – it felt forced, stilted. With a lack of discussion material, there is a lack of discussion. I tried checking often, but could never quite think of an appropriate or interesting thing to post about. Especially when no one else is posting, it’s hard to find something to kick start it all.

If it was useful for anything, it would have to be food! The wiki was key in our organization of weekly snacks. We obviously have our priorities straight. I think the food was key in keeping us awake and energized in a night class. Thanks to everyone who pitched in.

As for the actual website itself, I’m not sure I would use it again for business or group work. Personally, I would have really liked if there was a clear notification centre, where it would notify you every time someone posts or comments. That way it would be much more transparent as to what’s going on where. I would have also liked if the Pages bar had folders or custom categories that you could group pages together in, instead of having all of them in alphabetical order. Wiki Spaces has a lot of potential, but as the moment it isn’t exactly what I would look for in a shared web space.

Ideally, it would have been nice if everyone had posted more, but sometimes intention and result aren’t always in harmony. I think that the size of our group has a lot to do with how little was posted, too. As in the larger class, where 60 people are contributing, I’d imagine that their wiki is thriving. I also think the sense of anonymity in a large class would encourage people to post more, too. Not many know you by name, so there is a safety shield where you won’t feel judged for posting something. Not that I think I would be judged in our class, but more so that there is added pressure when there are so few people!

As a solution, since constructive criticism needs solutions, I would suggest something less formal for a such small group. Maybe on a platform that we already use, so that we are checking it more often. Perhaps a Facebook group or page. I know not everyone has Facebook, but you could make a fake profile very easily, just as you would sign up for Wiki Spaces, and delete it after the semester. That way, whenever you check your Facebook (which, if you’re anything like me, you do fairly often), you also are checking the class page since it would send you notifications. Notifications are easily customizable in Facebook, too, so you could restrict them if they get too frequent for your taste.

There’s a whole army of gym-goers who are too ashamed to confess their embarrassing secret: they don’t enjoy gym workouts.  They genuinely want to be part of the hip gym crowd and long to relish their training sessions, but have discovered that the gym just isn’t for them.  Originally seduced by a mental image of themselves pounding effortlessly on the treadmill whilst others look on admiringly, they are finding it hard to stay motivated.  You may see these bluffers, puffing on the cross trainer with a bright smile fixed on their face but don’t be fooled.  This mask hides an active mind: one which is running through a mental list of other places they would rather be.

If you’re not a fan of the gym, wouldn’t it be far nicer to practice your favourite exercise activity with a group of people you can call friends and share the cost of a great fitness trainer? Imagine being part of a fitness world where you wait for your next session in gleeful anticipation, where motivation is never a problem and where you are guaranteed to have a fun time to boot.  And just think of the benefits of not having to go to the gym:

1. No show-offs

Gym show-offs love to contort their bodies to best display their impressive physique and toned muscles.  The males lift the heaviest weights possible to show rippling biceps; the females do more stretches than are necessary or sensible to display flat abs and tight thighs.  Frankly these super human show-offs are intimidating to your average Joe and mediocre Mary.  The end result is that Joe and Mary are so busy trying to train far away from the show-offs, lest they invite unfavourable comparisons, that their workout is severely compromised.

2. No social pitfalls

The unspoken rule in gym etiquette is not to stare at others as they work out.  Even if they are lifting triple your body weight or are doing the splits. Upside down.  But if you’ve ever spent more than 2 seconds in the gym, you’ll know it’s almost impossible not to gaze at the fit, impressive bodies on display.  Your eyes will take on a life of their own and before you know it, you will be caught out, staring at a stranger.  So if you don’t want to appear rude, do you smile and risk looking creepy?  Or is it best to look away and play innocent?  And in the changing rooms, if your eyes have a tendency to wander, perhaps best to skip the shower if you don’t want things to get awkward.  The gym is a place fraught with social pitfalls such as these.

3. No boredom

Only those with an extremely high tolerance for boredom can handle the repetitive nature of a gym workout.  Running on the treadmill, pulling up, pulling down and numerous repetitions of extending and curling legs, fail to motivate many a gym-goer.   However much you change the music on your i-pod, the equipment and associated movements stay resolutely the same.

4. No long workouts

Busy professionals have little time to work out.  Juggling work, commuting, household chores, DIY, the demands of small kids and the taxi service which is mandatory for older kids, means most people find themselves seriously time poor.  A trip to the gym can take a good couple of precious hours and when motivational levels are running low, it seems far too high a price to pay.

5. No money wasted

Gym fees are paid in advance for anticipated usage.  And of course at the very beginning you anticipate being there as often as you can.  But once you stop feeling motivated, you’ll be guilty of making all manner of excuses about why you can’t go: ‘I must make that long overdue phone call to my overbearing mother-in-law’ or ‘I really need to give the toilets a deep clean’ are just a couple of sad examples that may spring to mind.  And when you start to skip training sessions, you’ll have paid out for nothing. 

For some people the gym is where they belong.  But don’t feel obliged to follow the pack if you simply don’t like the gym.  You can meet your fitness goals in a more flexible way by organizing group classes with like-minded people.  Choose a motivational instructor, share the cost and get started with some fun workouts with new friends. And you’ll be well on the way to a honed body without having to step foot in the gym ever again!