Great Website To Learn How To Draw

I've always admired people who could draw, it's an amazing talent and it not all in the wrist. It's all about visualising things on a 2D plain, and then being able to draw the lines appropriately. Well, I say admired, more like jealous! Sketching and drawing has been something I've wanted to do for quite a long time but I'm just no good at it!

That's when I came across PortraitClub, this website gives some great tips to help you learn how to draw, I mean I've been having a read through and trying some of the techniques and I tell you now, I've improved already! I went onto the website with pencil in hand and just sat down for an hour or so practising I could already see my advancements, its definitely all about the way you look at things. They don't give out too much information because the real "meat" of the help is in the portrait course they offer but that's enough of that let me tell you about the website.

The website has a fairly simple design and features Youtube videos and vast amounts of text to teach you the different ways of learning. They also feature a Blog that has little tips and tricks and some fantastic sketches from all across the web. The project course section features their offer of a step by step course featuring 3 DVDs with 4 hours or tuition and a free 100 page book explaining the portrait by eye. All in all if you think you would be interested in learning to draw then this is the website for you.

Home Or Away This Christmas?

So Christmas is coming up, Are you one of those who stays at home or are you one that visits?

I know a lot of families meet up to have that magical time but can Christmas really have that same feeling through technology?

Technologies like skype and other videocall software, do you know anyone who this as a form of communication over Christmas? I usually have about 10 relatives down for Christmas and it's always a great time. But this year it's going to be a bit different. I'm having to travel over Christmas this year and I'm really not looking forward to it. So I have been looking into websites that might help me get in video contact with my family.

So far I have researched several websites that don't have the need for software downloads.

The top website that I came across was the almighty Google+ they seemed to have free conference calls with little hassle, along as you are signed up. Another alternative seemed to be TokBox, but I believe they have just changed to a APP style program.

So in the end i've settled for downloading the skype app, I believe it will be easier to get going once I settle and my Somerset accommodation.

Internet blogging/website solutions

After my last article I've noticed that Wordpress is becoming an amazingly easy tool for new website owners to create the content that they want. Started in 2003, Wordpress quickly grew to become one of the biggest blog/website tools on the internet. With all that success I thought I'd take a look at the alternatives available and see how popular they are.

HABARI
A safe and secure blogging platform, HABARI is designed with the needs of the internet community in mind. It is designed to be an open platform that is constantly being worked on. It has a sleek interface and it uses modern software development techniques in its fantastic design.

Concrete 5
Concrete 5 is a free content management system that is a great alternative to wordpress. It's open source so people can contribute and make the software better for everyone.
Similar to WordPress and Habari, concrete5 is able to be downloaded, and installed on your web host and is a great platform built from scratch. It's main clients are website editors, designers, and developers.
Concrete5 is designed to make owning a website easy. You can simply edit away till the end of the day!

Cushy CMS
CushyCMS is a very simplistic way to run a blog/website. It has been designed to be implemented with little trouble, and boasts about it's ease of use. CushyCMS is a fully hosted solution, so no option to host your website/blog on another domain. That's not a problem here though, its a fantastic piece of kit!

Tomato CMS
Just like the others, Tomato CMS is an open source, blogging and CMS solution designed to meet the requirements of the modern blogger. I think this is a great tool and if you have used the others, why not check this out?

Wordpress a platform to success.

The VW transporter has long been my favourite of the larger vehicles and vans. I've come across a website that I feel really shows off the craftsmanship of Transporter restoration. S-Line transporters is another website built from a wordpress template, the site doesn't look too bad and shows that wordpress is really a growing solution to website creation. The main aspect of this site that I find entertaining is the gallery section.

Browsing through the images you can really see how well this company can fix up transporters, from fantastic looking seat covers to complete conversions every image has something to gawk at.
Taken from their website:-
"S-Line Transporters are the leading supplier for VW T5 Transporters in the South West, and exclusive stockists for Autohaus VW. We have now managed to increase our stock levels to cope with the demand, we have a forecourt in Minehead with an accompanying shop full of our parts and accessories. We hold over 10 vans in stock at all times and each van is carefully selected ensuring that they are well looked after, low mileage and one previous owner or less"
So if your interested in larger vehicles, take a look. They have do have lots of vehicles on show!

Surfing In The UK

The sport of surfing now represents a multi-billion dollar industry, but its not just America and Australia that surfing has become popular. The UK has seen surfing popularity skyrocket this year. With places like Cornwall, Devon and Bournmouth busy even on cold days! A great time to open a surf shop I would say.
A lot of surfing establishments have now opened online shops such as Freakfish, and quite right too! there is a large market to be explored.

English weather is always a factor against getting into the sea, but with the right wetsuit you can still keep fairly warm whilst riding the waves. After seeing all the people in the sea on my last trip to Cornwall, I think I might take up the hobby myself. There is a lot of trial and error involved and I realise I'm not going to be able to just get onto a board and surf, but with help from websites like surfingtipsandtricks.co.uk I may just be able to survive!