Remember shopping for school supplies? You combed the store aisle to pick out the perfect binder. You couldn’t wait to crack open that brand new box of crayons.
Getting ready for school is a lot more than checking items off of a list. It’s a rite of passage. Fresh markers, pencils, and notebooks get kids excited about learning. Compared to used or donated supplies, brand new items match the excitement of a new school year and new possibilities. When they have the tools they need, kids go to school with confidence.
If you serve kids in need, you can help instill that confidence with new supplies from the First Book Marketplace. There is more to a backpack than meets the eye — it’s not just textbooks, paper, and pencils. The anatomy of a backpack includes items like calculators, for when students run out of fingers and toes to count. It includes gluesticks, because sometimes tape just doesn’t do the trick. It includes highlighters, so students can learn how to focus on key parts of what they’re reading.
When many students’ backpacks are put on the examining table it becomes clear that some things are missing from their anatomy. Maybe they have fresh paper, but nothing to write with. Perhaps they have pencils, markers and paper, but no backpack to put them in. The First Book Marketplace offers educators and program leaders the opportunity to help fill a child’s backpack with what they need.
And if it’s the backpack itself that they need, First Book has those too.
Please visit the supplies section of the First Book Marketplace to find more items that make up the anatomy of a backpack.
The post The Anatomy of a Backpack appeared first on First Book Blog.
When I visit a classroom, one of the first things I often say to kids is, "Today, please don't erase. I want to see ALL the great work you are doing as a writer. When you erase, your work disappears!" Often, this is what kids are accustomed to and they continue working away. But sometimes, kids stare at me as if I've got two heads. 
Pack your snorkel and fins. It's time for the Toby blog tour!
Toby is my upcoming picture book about a plucky sea turtle's adventures from egg to nest. I'll be signing books, talking turtles, divulging my innermost rhyming secrets (and just how many pencils I chewed through to finish this story!).
Without further ado, here is the tour call out:
Award-winning author Stacy Nyikos will be hosting a blog tour June 8-14, 2014, to celebrate the launch of her new book Toby.
Stacy is offering blog interviews, guest blogs, and a limited number of books for review and giveaways. About Stacy Nyikos – In a quiet little office/at a comfy little desk/Stacy Nyikos chews on pencils/and scribbles silliness…when she’s not plucking splinters from her teeth, that is. Stacy holds an MFA is Writing (silliness) for Children from Vermont College. She spends her days chasing—or being chased—by stories. Toby is her latest catch. He sees it the other way around—catching her in the form of two very curious but courageous rescue sea turtle’s she met during a behind the scenes tour of her local aquarium. Either way, a lot of pencils got crunched writing his story.
About Toby - Birds, and crabs, and crocs - oh my! - stand between Toby and his new ocean home. Can he outslip, outslide, out-double flip and dive them? Join this plucky little sea turtle on his adventures from egg to ocean to find out!
Interviews and guest blogs should be completed prior to May 31, 2014. This is a perfect opportunity for students, librarians and bloggers to access an award-winning author at no cost. Bring the arts to life; involve students in the interview and blogging process.
If you require a book/book review prior to an interview, please let me know your mailing address. We have a very limited number, so contact me right away.
The tour will be publicized by Provato Events through a press release prior to the event. All interviews will be listed on the Provato Events Website and on Stacy Nyikos’ Blog with links to the blog sites.
To participate in the blog tour, please contact me today.
Thank you!
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Michele Kophs
15114 NW 7th Ct. | Vancouver, WA 98685
360.597.3432 Direct | 646.219.4841 Fax
http://www.provatoevents.com/blog/Toby.html
Ever wonder what I work with?
I am always curious to see other artists' studios, the tools they use, even down to how they brush the paint on. It fascinates me.
I'm working on a project right now that has forced me to look closer at what I work with and why I work with it.
You can find commentaries on blogs, forums, and Facebook about how one artist will voice their favorite pencil, while another artist in the same field will swear by another brand. Call it the sport of art if you like
(I'm sure there's an artist out there with a rabbit's foot).
Most of my tools have a story or memory attached to them. The oldest tool I've used every day in the studio is my
kneaded eraser.
My dad is an art teacher most of my life, so I grew up with this wonderful tool laying around his art studio coiled up or made into small pyramids. Something to do while thinking or working. I was introduced to it very young.
The next tool oldest to me is a retractable Tuff Stuff! The moment I discovered this eraser years ago I fell in love and haven't gone back. It gets into the little spots and is always a clean erase. I don't go anywhere without it!
My pencils are newer to me. I have worked with mechanical pencils for at least 15 years now, but the one I used as a teenager...well....was great for a teenager.
Two years ago I did some research and tried
Pentel GraphGear 500 on a whim. Love them! Great body weight, good lead selection, amazingly priced! The green Pentel is their most standard.
Pentel P205...still a great drawing pencil!
Sketchbooks are personal, in every sense, like a diary. I have always favored the large
Strathmore or
Canson spiralbounds, 9x12 inch. I have several moleskines too that are smaller....and I adore them, but I like space for my hand when I draw, this allows it.
Color Theory wasn't around in the beginning for me, so I just picked colors that worked to my eye. This did not help in finding the best palette for me, or how to lay it out even.
All of my palettes up to several years ago were rectangle and felt rough to me. Nothing progressed fluidly for me, only manageable.
There was a teacher of watercolor where I work
(The Des Moines Art Center) who had a round palette out during one of her classes, and I was introduced to the
Stephen Quiller Palette.
A circle! Imagine color on a wheel!I took her class, several times, and have since learned how to better use my palette effectively.
The paints I use are a blend of
Daniel Smith and
Winsor Newton. I always have a messy palette, it's cleaned maybe once every two months. I also paint on primarily
Arches Hot Press and Cold Press 140lbs. It's a comfortable inbetween weight and their brand is one of the oldest. I'm open to other papers, but I'm a snob about Arches. The brushes?
Cotman series 666.If you know my work you'll notice my use of white. This started in the phase of trying to keep the white of the paper and failing. I taught myself watercolor, so I turned to problem-solving (an illustrator's best trait).
First it was
FW liquid acrylic. I would brush it on, but it cakes easily. Nowadays I usually water it down.
The other partner in crime is the white gel pen. Discovered this while watching watercolor videos on YouTube. Genius! I don't think I use the best one, your basic
Gelly Roll, but will be ordering a
UniBall gel pen and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works!
Last but not least, the infamous indigo colored pencil. I started using this prominently last year while working on
Tangerine. I was first introduced to
Verithin Colored Pencils by Prismacolor a couple of years back. They're fantastic because of the harder lead with less wax. Because I'm not a colored pencil artist, this worked great for sketching!
The indigo was an accident. I was sketching with it, and as I added color (without thinking of the muddiness it could create) I noticed how it's more dulled tone worked. After
Tangerine I continued to sketch with it. The hue is attractive to me, mixed with graphite or color. It helps to provide me my shadows.
Although indigo can create mud very quickly (it's not for the inexperienced), it does create a more earthy visual of color hues in the painting. I trust it so much I paint with indigo as well.
I try to sharpen always with a blade so that I don't go through the pencil as fast (taught by my dad), and the electric eraser was a gift to me. Never knew I would have a need of it until I discovered it erases the indigo colored pencil wonderfully!
Do you have a favorite pen or material that you use a bit religiously?
one for every month of the year!
that's what's up next!
i thought it would be fun to do a series of paintings of beautiful little mermaids, based on the gemstone of the month.
i always think it's interesting (and inspiring) to see how other artists work...their creative process, if you will. here's a peek at mine...
from tiny little thumbnails to the sketch outline to a little bit of *coloring* (because i like my sketch books to look pretty) :)
from there i will trace my sketch directly from my sketchbook and then transfer it to my canvas, so that the painting remains as close to the original sketch as possible.
can not wait to start paintings these beauties! :)
Who knew watching pencils being sharpened could be so hypnotic?
If there were a reason to start rumors of a pencil lead shortage, these drawings by Tom Betthauser might be one. Amazing detail on a huge scale - this drawing is four feet by five feet.
Tom also posts detail close-ups of works in progress on his Tumblr. Leave some pencils for the rest of us, Tom!
(via http://www.tombetthauser.com/)
Forget those boring, run-of-the-mill school supplies,
Cool Pencil Case will make even the most reluctant student want to go back.
Cool Pencil Case offers products for any taste and style - if you can't find it here, it doesn't exist. Here's a bit of what you'll find over at Cool Pencil Case;
Collectable Erasers~ Animal Erasers
~ Assorted Chocolate Bar
~ Cookie Erasers
~ Fast Food
~ Sushi
...and more
Pencil Cases~ Humorous - Toothpaste
~ Chic - Violin Pencil Pouch
~ Asian Contemporary - Asian Roll
~ Shoe Craze - Converse Shoe
~ Youth - Plush Animal
~ Animals - Blah Fish
~ Sporty - Race Car
Pens & Pencils~ Chop Stick Pencils
~ Popcorn Pens
~ Couple Pens
~ Musician Pencil
...and more
Desk Supplies~ Cool Stickers
~ Pocket Diary
~ High Top Shoe Notepads
~ Sticky Notes
~ Day Planners
...and more
Not only is Cool Pencil Case the hottest supplier of all your back-to-school needs, they also offer free, fast shipping for orders over $30 and no coupon is required. Can't decide? Grab a gift certificate and let your student have all the fun.
Check out Cool Pencil Case at;
http://www.coolpencilcase.com/
The first time this boy appeared on my sketchbook I thought he was great: a sketchy, crooked, fragile boy. Unluckily was not enough in tune with the story he wanted to lead...
La prima volta che questo ragazzo è apparso tra le mie bozze ho pensato che fosse perfetto: abbozzato, storto, fragile. Sfortunatamente non era abbastanza in sintonia con la storia che lo vedeva protagonista...
Two updates to the work blog in less than a week? Start building your fallout shelters because the end of the world is no doubt on the horizon. The sketches above are some rough character/concept stuff from a project written by a friend of mine. I think they came out looking pretty good.
I'm currently writing the third and final book in the Forts series, and finally feeling excited about it. For a while there I was struggling with how to start, and seriously lacking motivation for some weird reason.
You know...because motivation is never a problem for me.
(That last sentence was as sarcastic a sentence as I've ever written.)
Steven
My sidebar says today is Pencil Day. Since I am a total writing instrument geek, I wanted to dig into this one a bit, and do you know what I found? No one agrees on when, exactly, Pencil Day is. Furthermore, there isn't even agreement on the name of the day to celebrate this most taken-for-granted tool.
One source has it listed as being #2 Pencil Day, celebrated on August 17th, though it doesn't list why.
Another source has it listed as Pencil Day, a one-time event held on December 11, 2007 as part of a campaign to support the Writer's Guild of America strike (the one that made us - and the networks - realize the true geniuses behind our favorite shows).
Still another source says Free Pencil Day is celebrated annually on March 30, in honor of the first patent on the modern pencil.
And then there is the source that gave me November 19th as the official Pencil Day, and listed the invention date as 1895.
Well, I don't know about you, but that many discrepancies bug me. However, let's just agree to disagree on date and name, and move on to some cool stuff about pencils:
Pencil Facts
- Once pencil can write 45,000 words, or draw a line 35 miles long.
- A pencil can write in zero gravity, upside-down, or underwater.
- "Lead" in the pencil is actually non-toxic graphite.
- Modern pencils come in over 350 varieties - each designed for a specific use.
- Pencils have been mass-produced in Europe since 1622.
- The first U.S. pencils were made in 1812.
Pencil Ancestry?
- 1565 marks the first record of a pencil, documented by Conrad Gesner, created from a piece of graphite fitted into a wood casing.
- In 1795, N.J. Conte produced a crude prototype of a pencil using a pulverized graphite base.
- A patent was issued to Hymen Lipman on March 30, 1858 for a pencil with one writing end and one eraser end.
Pencil Trivia
- Do you know why 75% of all pencils are yellow? During the 1800's, the best graphite came from China, whose people associate yellow with royalty and respect. Therefore, a pencil painted yellow became known as the best money could buy.
- Are there left-handed pencils? Maybe, according to the Dixon Ticonderoga Company (who makes my all-time fave pencil for writing - yellow, #2 5/10). They say that on a right-handed pencil, the imprinted words read from the point to the eraser. Just the opposite for a lefty pencil.
- Pencil markings don't fade in sunlight.
I know. You feel totally enlightened now, don't you? So go out there and enjoy what's left of Pencil Day...whenever it is.
Sources (in addition to the links above):
Red; a colour which features in many children's storybooks. Rose Red, Dorothy's ruby red shoes and of course, Little Red Riding Hood. Only she's not so little anymore.
I was beginning to wonder if I ever really would write any more, but yesterday I DID. And it wasn't all that hard, after I made myself sit down and do it. Might even try it again today...
I spent the whole day (9 AM to 7:30 PM) at the hospital with a friend who had to go in for a procedure--I figured three or four hours--but the doctor was three hours late, and THEN they told us she had to lay flat without bending her leg for four hours...Anyway, I had gone prepared. Figured there would be no interuptions there, and nothing to distract me, so I packed my pads of paper and a couple of mechanical pencils and set off. Didn't know where I was going with the story, but managed to get six pages written. Now if I will only do that for the next several days, the book will be finished and ready for revisions. And with such a good critique group now, I really need to finish it before I get far along enough to need it to post!
Another Little Grandson day. Today we played all sorts of ball games outside, and played with the playdough, as well as having a puppet show and reading a story and playing a long game of concentration...which he won hands down. Amazing, though, how many rules there are to our ball games, and how quickly they can change. :-)
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you've listed so many great tools though I don't know most of them. for me, I like mechanical pencils, water soluble colored pencils and my laptop. but I think the best tool is really yourself and your hands.
thanks for sharing this, have a great day.
you are so right, i love seeing and hearing about what artists like to use. I loved reading your post.
i enjoy most the things you have mentioned. Go through spurts with different materials. For a long time it was Derwent Inktense pencils or prismacolor pencils. Now i am learning a bit about watercolors.
Thank you for being so candid about what you use. I often look at art work and wonder what they have used to create it. Sometimes I can guess. Sometimes I am clueless! I love your work and your sense of color. I know I want my art work (which is mostly colored pencil) to be more vibrant and your post has really convinced me that I need a color theory class and a watercolor class would be nice.
Thank you everyone for such wonderful comments. I am beaming with joy knowing that I shared something new and something helpful!
Lissa, I couldn't agree more, that you yourself is the best tool. Thank you for sharing that, because I teach it so often in my classrooms.
Tammie Lee, I think exploring or switching out your mediums from time to time is such a healthy thing! I got so wrapped up in being a watercolor purest I forgot that I was an illustrator! And in essence almost lost what kind of artist I am internally. I have some Derwent watercolor pencils that I haven't really dived into. Waiting for that special day when I'm up for that challenge!! ;) Watercolors are fun if you keep them fun, hope you enjoy all that you learn!
Laura, thank you for your comment about being candid. We're told so often in business to be professional in how we speak, I'm the opposite. How I talk here is how I teach and talk with my clients. I really hope you do take some color theory and watercolor classes! Dig around and find some, or ask community schools if they know of any private tutors. Totally worth a few workshops!
Sara, Thanks for the great tips. What fun! I feel like I've taken a tour inside your studio. I love rapidographs, for softer looks and colors I use a soft brown ink and for the softest looks, I use a number 2 pencil. (funny, isn't it- it is so simple) I love watercolor paper with a cotton feel and slight texture. Sometimes it looks dirty when reproduced. I try to compensate for that in photoshop when it is scanned. My dad was a watercolor artist and used to rip the paper to add clear clean white sparkles. Thanks for sharing, you have amazing talent. bk