Artventure

Hi to all the Smile Through Life Adventurers

We stumbled across this awesome website called Artventure. It is a really good website. The whole art lessons are computerised, and the lady that teaches the lesson (her name is Kirsty) explains every step in great detail, making it easier to understand each step. We have just joined up this year and we have absolutely no regrets. It is amazing. Kirsty has built up my self confidence for drawing even more then you can imagine.  The program is for kids from prep to grade seven but there are many great things on there to do. I am in grade 8 and there are some really good lessons on how to draw our faces or eyes that I have really valued. If  home-schooling people read this blog(unlikely but who knows? ) this is a really good art program to use -you should really look into it.


The link is below if anyone is interested in looking at it.  She has four free sample lessons that are really good. If you know anybody who would enjoy it, pass the link on to them, as it is a wonderful program and it is really enjoyable -you will have no regrets!

I can't thank Kirsty enough for what she has done for me to help me be a better drawer. And the good thing about it is you don't have to have all the fancy artist tools.  You can have fun using oil pastels, watercolours, texta, crayon, pencil and many more easy and cheap art supplies.



http://learning.artventure.com.au/





Kirsty helped me transform my portrait drawings from this to the one below! (yes, I am rather embarrassed to put this picture on the internet, it is rather bad)



Although this picture is a little scratchy, Kirsty really helped me understand the basic fundamentals  to a face or portrait. I really enjoyed this lesson.




This lesson is amazing and it has a lot of colour to make it look really cool.



 Some of my eyes need a little help but this lesson helped me draw realistic eyes, and ever since then I couldn't stop drawing eyes.

I really liked this lesson as it was very cool to instruct.




So if Kirsty ever reads this blog page, I just want to say thank you for what you have done for my drawing ability.
And I really recommend this program to anybody with kids itching to draw.

 

Yet another Holiday!

Hi

This year in May, our family went on a holiday to Adelaide for a wedding, and we then extended it to travelling on the Great Ocean Road. It was a wonderful holiday, I can tell you that. After spending a week in Adelaide in our big motor home, yes a motor home! We were on our way to the Great Ocean Road. Because I have a lot to tell you about, I will only tell you about my favourite highlights, but if you wish to find out about more of my holiday, please ask me in a comment and I will do up another post!

Well, the first place we went was Warrnambool! It had the best playground ever but hey, it was also a pretty cool place. In Warrnambool there was an old restored town, that the public was allowed to go in. It was very well, done and the small fee to pay to get in was very well worth it!

This is a birds eye view of the
 Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village (This pic doesn't capture the whole layout)
 

It had all the old shops like the blacksmith, and the fabric store and many more of the old styled shops restored very well. They gave us (children) a questionnaire  to do before we left the display. If you ever find yourself in Warrnambool make sure you pop into the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village.

The Blue Lake....

Just quickly, prior to Warrnambool we stopped over at Mt Gambia, and it had the most incredible lake ever. It was called the Blue Lake and it was well and truly blue.  It was a splendorous sight!



What a glorious sight.

We were on the road to the 12 Apostles! But along the way to see the 12 Apostles, there were some more rock formations. The Bay of Islands was the first stop, and I am just putting it out there but the Bay of Islands was probably nicer then the 12 Apostles, then again that is just my opinion.  It was a picture perfect place to be, the water was a beautiful colour.

This is only a glimpse of how magnificent it really is.
 

Bay of Islands

Then a few minutes down the road we came upon London Bridge! The rock was connected to land but then one day 'London Bridge came falling down'.

London Bridge

Later on we came upon The Lock Ard Gorge. This place has some history, as many shipwrecks happened at Lock Ard Gorge.

Top view of Lock Ard Gorge

Inside the Lock Ard Gorge

Then we were at the 12 Apostles. I have to admit that it wasn't as breath taking as I thought it would be, but it was none-the-less a beautiful sight. There isn't much to say about them but, just to say that it is a beautiful part of the world, and it was a pleasure admiring God's beautiful creation.

The sun wasn't in the right place for the photos unfortunately

 

 

Sadly we had to leave the 12 Apostles, but we still had many more places to enjoy.


We were still on the great Ocean Road but close to the end of our trip, and we were on our way to a tourist attraction, called Mt Otway Lighthouse. We were informed by the lady at the information centre that we might see lots and lots of kolas in the trees. At the beginning I began to doubt her word, but when we got further in, by crikey they were everywhere! They were so big and fat and plump! Almost every tree had a koala on it. Some were really low down on a trunk that we could have touched it. Apparently there is over 9000 of them - and they are causing a bit of a problem to the environment.



Just on of the cute kolas!

The next day we spent going to Melbourne, and once in Melbourne we spent the day exploring the city, it was really cool. It was Mother's day so we had brunch at a restaurant, and the food was fit for a king.  Then we had to leave to catch a plane :( :(

Well,that is the end of our holiday highlights. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and if you would like to find out more about my holiday, please leave a comment and I would love to tell you more!

Below I am going to post some really nice pictures of some places.

This picture was taken while looking through a telescope.  



Sorry you are going to have to turn your head!

I love this picture, the red and white triangle thing was a lighthouse!

Our motor home we hired.

In the Melbourne streets





I hope you enjoyed reading about my holiday, catch- ya until next time!