Cartoon Portrait Sketching Class at Cary Arts Center Photo Journal

During the last class in this week's track out camp at the Cary Arts Center, our creative students (6-10 years old) got to try a variety of sketching and coloring tools (like Chartpak Ad markers, Prismacolor colored pencils, Pentel Outline Markers, and Pentel Color Brushes). They worked on mini-comics, pop-up cards, and Artist Trading Cards (ATC) according to their preferences.

As part of my typical drawing demonstrations, every student got at least two cartoon portraits drawn to their specific requests (karate girl, butterfly girl, movie star, cheerleader, and ballerina). Each portrait was an opportunity to explain pen size selection and the typical steps taken to draw a cartoon likeness in a variety of settings.

Then the students had plenty of time to further customize and color them with the colored pencils, markers, and brush pens loaded with color dyes. Some students also took the opportunity to sharpen their drawing skills with the art materials at their disposal and created pop-up cards.

We finished the Art Camp with an exercise in visual storytelling by creating a classic 3-panel comic page assignment of two characters being taken by a Martian in an UFO to planet Mars that I learned at the last Durham Library Comics Fest. Nice work girls. Keep practicing your sketching and drawing skills!

Current Cartoon Portrait Speed

It was such a busy day yesterday at the Briliant Sky Family Fun Day, that I did not get the chance to photograph any of the 62 cartoon portraits I drew in 4 hours.  So my average speed was 15.5 ink sketches per hour.  Most popular requests were mermaids, butterfly fairies, and angels for the girls. Most boys went for the dragon ninja theme and the usual sport player request (baseball, basketball, and hockey). Several girls did request the ninja/samurai portrait as well. Thank you to all the families that stopped by my table. To any of the parents that I met yesterday, if you have the time please e-mail me a picture of your child's cartoon sketch portrait, so that I may illustrate this post. Until next time.

Caran D'Ache Neocolor I wax pastels - Excellent coloring-choice for budding artists

Just reviewed these fine wax pastel crayons in my main art supplies blog.  They are an ideal choice for kids artists since it takes very little pressure to release the crayon's pigment on paper, cardboard, ceramic surfaces, and even plywood. Since Caran D'Ache Neocolor I crayons are wax based, they can also be used as resist with watercolors. My brother built these standing boards with 2' X 4' plywood boards.  I drew the designs, and my soon to be 5-years old nephew Mateo help me by coloring half of the target board. These two boards were drawn and colored in a few hours last night in the middle of a living room. 

The board on the left will be used a target practice for his ninja-theme birthday party, and the one of the right will serve as a fair-style photo board once the eye section is cut out to allow kids' faces to peek through the red ninja mask.  

Custom Birthday Pop-Up Card

Drawn with Sakura Pugma Sensei 06 pen, colored with Copic Sketch markers, and highlighted with Pentel Outline markers on colored card stock.  Pasted together with Yes glue.

Art Supplies on clearance found at Super Target

Just wanted to share this find with local readers that might shop in the Durham area.  The Super Target by the Streets at Southpoint mall have marked down their art supplies in their office supplies section, so it might be a good time to pick to pick a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen set for your sketching/coloring kits.

More Origami Ninja Stars

Just building up a stockpile of ninja stars for my nephew's upcoming ninja-theme birthday party.  After searching for "origami ninja star" and watching a few YouTube videos, finally figured out how to build the single-sided ninja stars and assemble them into a Double Ninja Star or a Super Shuriken or Ninja Star Frisbee.  Actually secured the back of the Frisbee with tape, so that it may be thrown repeatedly without falling apart.  For this batch of origami stars I used rectangular pieces of 24 lb color paper that measure 4.25" X 8.5" for each module.  The Super Shuriken above is made out of 7 single-sided shurikens joined together, and actually flies quite well.