creativeLIVE

I recently discovered this online creative classroom. I wanted to wait to post about it until I had actually experienced one of the classes.

The way it works is that different artists will teach a course or workshop and you are able to watch the classes live, for free. If you miss the class, you can download it after but in that case you have to pay for it.

The class that I took had around 1500 students. There are frequent Q&A sessions throughout the class where the teacher answers questions from the live audience, the class chat, and Twitter.

There are not a lot of courses at the moment but this is something that is just getting going and I am sure the selection will expand.

If you enroll in a class you are sent a reminder email an hour before the class begins. I have enrolled in Fundamentals of Digital Photography, The Creative Eye with Art Wolfe, and Watercolour 101. I am particularly looking forward to the weekend workshop on DSLR Cinema which was how I found out about it in the first place.

I think this is an amazing opportunity and it is wonderful that they can provide these classes for free.

http://creativelive.com/

Ondine

This looks like it has the potential to be really good.

In theaters June 4th.

Children's Books

I love children's books with beautiful illustrations. I don't think I could ever grow out of them. There are many that I have seen recently and loved but I wanted to make a list of the ones from my childhood that have stuck with me.

Catkin
My all time favourite. I was heartbroken when I lost my copy and I finally decided to buy a new one this year.

More on PJ Lynch to come in one of my "Artists Who Inspire Me" posts.

The Balloon Tree
I don't even remember the story of this one but it has a special place in my heart because I had a dress that was just like the princess's dress so I called it my balloon tree princess dress.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses
How could you not love these illustrations? So magical.

Final Drawing

This was my last drawing. There were a few different choices for the assignment. I chose the one where we could draw absolutely anything but we had to do it very very well.
I am happy with it and it was well received by the class and teacher.

Intolerance

These are stills from Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages. It is a silent film from 1916. It follows four different love stories from different time periods. They take place in Babylon, Judea, 1572 Paris, and modern day(1916). It is incredibly epic and is two hours and fifty seven minutes long. Not an easy watch but intriguing and with some beautiful imagery.

Ponyo

Hayao Miyazaki is a magician. I have seen five of his films and loved them all. His latest is Ponyo from 2008 and it's a gem.