Patiently Arranged Dandelion Works by Botanical Artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc All images via Duy Anh Nhan Duc Self-taught botanical artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc uses a steady hand to arrange dandelion blossoms in artful imitations of their flight through the air. His monochrome works are each reminiscent of a universal childhood urge to scatter a dandelion’s seedlings with a single blow, eager to watch the feathery pieces take flight in the wind. His solo exhibition, The Imaginary Herbarium, is currently on view at Galerie Bettina in Paris through February 15, 2017.
Robert Munsch | Author & Illustrator Kevin Henkes Meet Dan Gutman | My Weird Classroom Club Dan Gutman was born in a log cabin in Illinois and used to write by candlelight with a piece of chalk on a shovel. Wait a minute. That was Abraham Lincoln. Actually, Dan grew up in New Jersey. In 1994, Dan cooked up a novel about a boy who finds the most valuable baseball card in the world and discovers he has the power to travel through time using the baseball card like a time machine. Honus & Me was nominated for eleven state book awards, was made into a play and a TV movie, and established Dan Gutman as an emerging name in middle-grade fiction. As a full-blown author, Dan Gutman wrote many other middle-grade books (many of which he won many, many major awards for). Then, in 2004, his insatiable quest for world domination led Dan Gutman to come up with the idea of chronicling the weird antics at Ella Mentry School. There are now more than thirty titles in the My Weird School and My Weird School Daze series. Meet the Man Behind the Pictures
Understanding Camera Lenses Understanding camera lenses can help add more creative control to digital photography. Choosing the right lens for the task can become a complex trade-off between cost, size, weight, lens speed and image quality. This tutorial aims to improve understanding by providing an introductory overview of concepts relating to image quality, focal length, perspective, prime vs. zoom lenses and aperture or f-number. All but the simplest cameras contain lenses which are actually comprised of several "lens elements." Optical aberrations occur when points in the image do not translate back onto single points after passing through the lens — causing image blurring, reduced contrast or misalignment of colors (chromatic aberration). Original Image Any of the above problems is present to some degree with any lens. Note: For a more quantitative and technical discussion of the above topic, please see thetutorial on camera lens quality: MTF, resolution & contrast. ZOOM LENSES vs.
David Shannon | | Author & Illustrator Scaredy Squirrel - About Mélanie Watt Where were you born? Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. What’s your birthday? August 20th. Where do you live now? Do you have any pets? What are your hobbies? How did you get involved with children’s books? What was your training or schooling? Do you have any tips for young creators? What is your favorite book? What is your favorite movie? What is the thing you like the most about creating children’s books? Where do you work? How do you research or create your stories? Where do you get your ideas? You both write and illustrate your books. What’s your favorite childhood memory? When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up? Do you have any special secrets or insights about one of your books or characters?
5 DAY CREATIVE TEXTILE COURSE: FLAX PROCESSING, SPINNING, WEAVING AND NATURAL DYING « Selvedge Join textile artist Susie Gillespie and learn how to process, spin, weave and naturally dye linen. Susie will pick your flax from her orchard in August (2016) so it has time to dry. But don’t worry, she’ll talk you through the process of planting the seeds, rippling and retting the stems so they are ready to be spun. You’ll start by making preparations to the flax stems to prepare them for spinning, this will include revealing the flax fibres, removing the pith, combing them and finally winding them so you can tease off the fibre to produce the yarn. Once you have a hank of your own linen you can experiment with a range of natural dyes or keep the linen in its natural state. You can take the course at your own pace and we hope you’ll find time to enjoy the tradition of sitting together spinning and weaving linen. You’ll come away with your own linen cushion cover, or piece of artwork made from start to finish completely by you. 10-4, Sun-Thurs, 7-11 May 2017, 10-4, £775 per person
Bruce Coville | Author Rick Riordan Pioneering Painter Alma Thomas Is Making a Comeback 30 Years after Her Last Major Retrospective In 1972, at age 80, Alma Thomas was the first African-American woman to receive a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum. Interviewed that same year by The New York Times, the artist, who grew up in Columbus, Georgia, before settling in Washington, D.C., said: “One of the things we couldn’t do was go into museums, let alone think of hanging our pictures there. My, times have changed. Just look at me now.” Thomas, who achieved widespread recognition late in her lifetime for her colorful, exuberant abstract paintings, is once again in the spotlight after slipping from the mainstream art-historical canon following her death in 1978. The first graduate of Howard University’s fledgling art department in 1924, Thomas taught art for 35 years in a segregated junior high school in Washington, D.C., while always making her own work.
Jane Yolen | Author Using Graphic Novels in Education: Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales Welcome to Using Graphic Novels in Education, an ongoing feature from CBLDF that is designed to allay confusion around the content of graphic novels and to help parents and teachers raise readers. In this column, we examine graphic novels, including those that have been targeted by censors, and provide teaching and discussion suggestions for the use of such books in classrooms. This post takes a closer look at the Hazardous Tales series by Nathan Hale. Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales is an award-winning graphic novel series that showcases major events and individuals in history, primarily United States history. The Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series includes: Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: One Dead SpyNathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad! Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales is a series takes a wonderfully fun rumpus through some of the most dangerous times in American History. In One Dead Spy: Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad! In Big Bad Ironclad! In Donner Dinner Party:
Elin Thomas Makes Moldy Petri Dishes Look Cuddly Artist Elin Thomas makes moldy petri dishes look cute and cuddly. Using a combination of embroidery thread, crochet, and needle felting, she creates unique textile pieces. The fuzzy felt produces the effect of tiny hairs sprouting from the yarn spores. If something has mold on it, I’m usually grossed out.