5 Things I learned: Blending colors makes much more sense now. At first I struggled to understand how I could create enough different shades to fit into 11 boxes using the equipment requested, but I soon learned how to combine my utensils to make it work. I’ve never used most of these before and so much of this experience was learning. I learned also that the way you shade may be affected by a glint of light and that you need to slow down in order to truly get a solid shade. Paying more attention too, as I messed up the pattern and had to accept my mistake and finish. Although still learning, I’m starting to understand the purpose of each utensil. I didn’t know the difference between the carbon and charcoal and found the carbon to be a more productive way to shade the darkest boxes and the charcoal for transitioning to light. Lastly, I learned that drawing can and will take a while. As I’ve mentioned I used to do a lot of sketching and it was quick, but I realize now that real art takes time to complete.

A bit more than 50%
I accidentally made two neighboring corners black and so the look of my project has been tweaked a little. Shading is much easier now, I’ve discovered the benefits of the blending pencil and this is now significantly quicker to complete. It’s not perfect and I’m still having trouble trying to make it all blend together but it’s progress.
25% Complete
I used to sketch when I was a bit younger but never got into shading, and now I’m learning that it is much harder than I previously thought. I think the biggest challenge so far is using the vine charcoal as I was expecting a real dark black color, but it seems to be more of a dark gray. This made it slightly more difficult to separate shades that we too similar between boxes.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

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