Stephanie :

” The greastest thing that we can do as a human race is to see each other the way , God sees us : beautiful. ”

Stephanie had 80 % of her body burned in an airplane crash.

How Listia’s Online Trading Is Helping to Reduce Landfill Waste

We all have things to give away, sell or get rid of but with no clear-cut method of actually doing it. Of course there is eBay, Craigslist and Freecyle but now there is also Listia. Users on Listia bid for points and then get ‘credits’ when they post an unwanted item on the website. They can earn more credits by referring friends. The community bids on these items auction style, ensuring the item goes to the person who wants it the most.

The lister doesn’t have to deal with a lot of emails thereby ensuring some privacy. If a user wants an item but doesn’t have enough points, they can buy more. Points can be bought at the rate of $5 for 50 points.

The company was launched in 2009 by Gee Chuang and James Fong and is backed by Venture Capital Firm Andreessen Horowitz, several angel investors and Y Combinator. Over the weekend, I had an e-conversation with Mabel Yoshimoto from Listia and she got down to explaining the basic model of Listia that Chuang envisioned.

According to Chuang, Listia was started because they wanted a better solution to get rid of all the unused stuff piling up in our homes. So they set up a credit system with public profiles that made the process more streamlined. Their system of credits then allows users to purchase items on the site that could potentially end up in landfills, and rewards users for giving stuff away. Because every user has a profile, with feedback and reputation, Listia creates a social trading community.

“Our long term goal is to fundamentally change the way people think about the question, “what do I do with my old stuff?”.  Throwing things away is the easiest option right now, but if Listia can make  it fun and rewarding to give things away to others, then we can change this behavior and encourage reusing and recycling.“

To date the company has rescued over 30,000 DVDs & CDs and over 40,000 toys from landfills. Most of these items are comprised of various materials including plastics that are not recyclable and can take millions of years to decompose. Toys are the most traded item on the site along with jewelry, crafting materials like plastic beads and scrapbooking supplies. Collectibles like game and trading cards made of plastic-coated papers also rate high. Finally DVDs and video games are also widely traded. According to Mabel, these are made of type #7 plastic and are not accepted by most recycling programs.

Listia helps users as much as it can to find items new homes. Mabel says, “Items that don’t receive any bids automatically get re-listed up to 10 times. After that, the seller is notified and they can choose whether to continue relisting manually or not.” Any disputes are mediated by Listia Assurance that looks at problems on a case-by-case basis to ensure a smooth auctioning process.

Users can ship their items or can coordinate pick-up if the buyer is local. As the company grows, so does its avenues for local trading thereby cutting down on transportation of items. This also opens up avenues for trading of larger items like furniture. Users can now use an iPhone to post their unwanted items on the Listia site and soon Android users will be able to do the same from their mobile device.

By Akhila Vijayaraghavan | August 26th, 2011

 

 

http://blog.listia.com/68059893

I Love This New Site I Found :

Share this:

~ Andy Warhol~

Lesson #3 Basic Drawing

Learning to Draw With Basic Drawing Techniques

By Jacob Neila

So here are the basic drawing techniques you will need to learn if you want to start out with drawing.

First, it is very important that you stay mentally focused. Teaching yourself to draw naturally means you are training your brain to understand how to draw, and this is a mindset that can only be developed through practice, practice, and more practice. So keep at it and do not give up. Keep yourself motivated; don’t throw any of your drawings out, no matter how bad you think they are. Being able to look back at your older drawings as you are learning is a fantastic way to stay aware of the progress you have made.

Doodling, as silly as it may sound, is actually a great way for you to start developing your skills. Doodling allows you to start putting lines on paper and not worry about the outcome; this is the beginning of training your brain to think differently when it comes to drawing.

Similarly, sketching is a great way to keep your brain free from what it thinks drawing is. Contrary to doodling, with sketching you do focus on the outcome, but not on the particular way you make that outcome real. You just freely draw what you want to draw. Again, what it eventually looks like does not matter, only that you are training your brain to draw.

Once you’ve got the hang of getting some of your creative thoughts on paper, even if it’s not exactly what you want, you are making progress. It is then that you should consider moving on to slightly more advanced techniques, such as:

Contour drawing: Contour drawing means that you only draw the outlines of the objects you are drawing. Not the details, not the shading, just the outlines. You can take an entire scene, the very room you are now in, for example, and just draw the outlines of the objects you see. This is an easy way to train your brain to see the individual lines an object is composed of, and not the object as a whole.

Another technique to use is hatching. With hatching, you just draw the shape of an object with straight parallel lines, usually diagonally. Like contour drawing, hatching allows your brain to focus on the shape of an object, rather than identifying what the object is which is what your brain normally wants to do. You can take these one or two steps beyond and add depth or additional detail by using the proximity and/or thickness of the parallel lines to determine tonal value. To get even more advanced, you can use crosshatching, which is to say that you create multiple overlapping layers of lines crossing each other to create even more depth and detail. Crosshatching by itself is a commonly used shading technique.

To get used to shading and lighting, you can apply tonal drawing techniques. By only drawing the darker values of the object you are drawing, and therefore accentuating the lighter values, you are getting used the concept of depth, and lighting. Tonal drawing means that you do not use strong edges or lines. Drawing the shades is easily accomplished by blurring the areas that are darker. I would suggest using a blending stump instead of your fingers, as your fingers leave an oily residue that can damage the drawing over time

One last essential technique you have to know and conquer is perspective drawing. Look at how the lines of an object converge as they approach the horizon. The point at which they converge is called the vanishing point. You can train yourself to draw in perspective by starting out with simple geometric shapes, and moving on to more complex shapes as you get the hang of it.

Combine some or all of these techniques, and learning how to draw will become an easy and very satisfying experience for you.

Drawing Assignment

–          Using the basic above techniques draw a dreamscape & nightmarish scenic view

–           Don’t over think

–          Write or draw out your thoughts for the assignment before actually drawing it in your sketchbooks

Think & draw in abstract ways.

Two Key Things To Teach

Art Is Imperfection

Art Is Not Perfect

So Need to Judge

 

——————————————————————

Critiquing VS. Judging

Doodling Examples

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson #2 Distraction with Doodling

Reasons for doodling boredom, to redirect mind during distress, improve memory and concentration.

Types of Doodles:

• Abstract /Non-objective/Random
• Conscious vs. Unconscious

Doodling Exercises:

   Picture prompts

   Word Prompts

   Doodle Pages/Books

   5 Minute

 

 

My Favorites:

It is good to have your favorites and dislikes written down this the first way to get to know yourself and prepared to art journal

Color:

Symbols:

Shapes:

Animal/Insect:

Restaurant/or type of food:

Activities:

TV shows:

Pet Peeves:

Authors:

Saying:

Quotes:

Poems:

Art Medium/Style:

Any Known Triggers: