Piccadilly Anime Flowers Sketchbook Review

While you can certainly practice your sketching and drawing skills on loose inexpensive sheets of printer paper, every once in while it might be a good idea to work on some type of sketchbook so you can maintain a more permanent chronological record of your artistic development. I own several sketchbooks in different sizes filled with assorted papers suited for different sketching tools to meet the needs and mood of any situation I might encounter.Occasionally a new sketchbook ends up in my rather large collection of partially filled sketchbooks mainly because I found myself away from home in an unexpected waiting situation without an adequate supply of drawing paper (Reminder: always carry a sketchbook with you! especially if you do not want to end up buried under a pile of unfinished sketchbooks ;)). Recently I picked up this 8.5" X 11" top spiral bound Piccadilly Anime Flowers sketchbook with 100 sheets of white paper in the bargains section of the local Barnes & Noble bookstore. Being left-handed, I really like that the wire binding is on top away from my drawing hand. Small enough to fit on any backpack or messenger bag, it is quite suitable for sketching on-the-go.
This markings sample chart shows that the paper can readily accept pigmented plastic nib pens, brush pens, graphite pencils, and colored drawing leads.
Uni F 2 mm graphite lead test doodle.
Uni H 2 mm graphite lead test doodle.Pilot Neox Violet Color Eno 0.7 mm drawing lead test sketch.
While this sketchbook might work best with dry media and some pens, it can also handle some light watercolor washes. Used some Winsor & Newton Artists' watercolors to color the waterproof ink sketches above with minimal buckling of its lightweight paper. Economical choice for a practical field sketchbook.

Helix Bow Compass and Staedtler Halfpipe Pen-style compass comparison and early test

While browsing through the clearance section of a big box retailer, I spotted this carded Helix bow compass for 75 cents.
Gotta admit I picked it up mostly because the existence of 2 mm compass leads was still fresh in my mind thanks to a recent post in Pencil Talk.
Got a pen-style compass out of storage for a quick comparison. Coincidentally both compasses were manufactured in China.
The Staedtler Halfpipe pen-style compass could travel well in a sketching kit thanks to its safety cap that protects the lead and needle while keeping it securely closed in its pen-form. Its barrel has a storage container for 3 pieces of spare lead. Sadly these nice features do not amount to much given its performance as shown below.
The Helix bow compass came equipped with a softer graphite lead and held its setting well, so it efficiently drew darker circles with precision at the first try (up to 8" in diameter"). Its center wheel allowed for minute adjustments, and its metal construction felt sturdy enough for its price point (though I would not bet much on its resistance to rust). By contrast, the Halfpipe loaded with a harder lead did not hold its setting during successive passes drawing unwanted lighter ever larger concentric circular outlines (up to 12" in diameter). Thus despite its protective cap and built-in lead container, this Staedtler compass would not be a good choice for use in a Geometry class or any other application that might require it to hold high-precision settings. Still they might be of some use in upcoming cartooning classes.
While I normally prefer to draw 100% freehand, I think both of these compasses might serve some students to lay down the initial construction circles for creating their own Pokemon or Bakugan style monster capsules.

Succesful Family Art Night completed and Upcoming Artscool classes for the Summer

Having just returned from speed sketching lots of kids' cartoon portraits at a Family Art Night event, I suddenly realized I have neglected to post the dates of my two upcoming 5-days long Manga Cartooning classes for ARTScool summer art camp at The von Liebig Art Center:
"Manga Cartooning: Shonen & Shojo - Design characters and fantasy creatures typical of Japanese comics using pen and ink, markers, and colored pencil.
Week 2 / June 21-25 1-4 pm (7-10 years old) Code 212
Week 5/ July 19-23 1-4 pm (7-10 years old) Code 512

Scholarships: The Naples Art Association offers financial assistance and talent-based scholarships for ARTScool. This scholarship fund is made possible through the generosity of the Barron Collier Jr. Foundation, Inc.

Please call 239-262-6517 x102 for further info or to register."

Westcott Ultra Soft Handle blunt tip scissors with Microban

Picked up this safety scissors as a back up tool for a pre-K art activity later today.
As a microbiologist, I do not place much value on the Microban treatment of the handles that supposedly "prevents the growth of stain and odor causing bacteria". Rather dubious benefit at best. Yet they are reasonably comfortable to hold and operate with a blunt tip design that would prevent accidental stabbings.
Seems like it should be a suitable choice for young children, for it is rated for ages 4+. Plan to test its performance in upcoming Family Art night events.
They did a fair cutting job, but had a tendency of creasing some the paper edges when cutting more complex outlines. For most of my card stock cutting needs, I prefer the precision and performance of the EK Success Cutter Bee scissors.

Making Customized Manga Sketching Sheets

Given the ease that we can now take multiple digital pictures and quickly select individual elements from them with graphic programs like CS3 Photoshop, I have taken lately to digitally assemble and customize individual manga sketching sheets for each student during my cartooning classes.
Whenever possible it is helpful to photograph the subjects against a light background to speed out the process of selecting them with the Quick Selection tool and deleting the extraneous photo elements. After adjusting the Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast, I typically use Filter>Artistic>Cutout to flatten and simplify the image so that it fits more harmoniously with the hand drawn elements.
With this particular comic page layout, two parallel characters' stories could be shown side by side in the two vertical rectangular panels. The horizontal rectangular panel could be used to portray the set up of their impending meeting which would be covered in the following pages.
Used a photo of Camila holding a Sparkler to create a picture of a moment of magical discovery surrounded by imaginary buddies.
The first panels portray a fantasy background to inspire a possible whimsical setting, and the second panels were left blank to allow for some freehand sketching of the next step in their story lines.
The idea was to suggest possible compositions for each panel, so assorted fantasy elements were penciled around the photo selections which could then be inked or erased according to each child's decisions before the coloring stage.

Learn how to become Carbon Neutral with your Blog

Got an e-mail earlier today about a Make It Green initiative from Christin Gericke of the German company kaufDA. The premise is simple, you blog about it and add a button to your blog, and they plan a tree to neutralize your estimated blog's carbon emissions for the next 50 years. Pretty creative idea and you can learn further details from this site.

Elementary-Middle School Family Night Preview - Giant Fantasy Coloring Cards for Older Kids and Tweens

Early dragon concepts drawn with Pilot Color Eno violet 0.7 lead and adjusted to gray scale mode.
Hydra-type dragon.
Fantasy Knight.
Medusa.
Serpent Sorceress.
Ninja Elf.
Golden-armored Rah.
Steam powered Mecha drill-bot.
Lady Fleur.
Minotaur.
Bipedal Dragon Guard.
Iron Shark.
Phoenix.
Three-headed Dragon and Mecha Kraken.
Coloring cards sketched while waiting at the ER for a couple of hours. Mostly dragons , heroes, and mythical creatures in the style of popular Anime and Gaming toys. Thought of them as oversized coloring cards as I cranked them out with a variety of brush pens and pigment liner pens on letter size Georgia Pacific white card stock.

Crazerasers Quick review

Found this carded set of novelty erasers for a buck at a local big box retailer. I recall spotting them in the stationery aisles of some drugstores as well.
Each piece can be taken apart and put back together like a mini puzzle.
The white rice section of the Tamago egg omelet eraser did a fair job in removing its sample of the HB swatch, but the black base of the salmon roe eraser failed to do the same and left an ugly smudged surface behind. The poorly trimmed edges of the disassembled red sushi roll eraser.
It might be possible to use a sharp knife to clean up some of the rough edges, but it hardly seems worth the trouble. The erasing performance of these Chinese Crazerasers is rather poor, and they are crudely put together especially when comparing them to the flawless fit and high quality of the original Japanese products they are trying to imitate. Not recommended for fine stationery fans, but they might provide some small amusement as party favors or play food.

Stabilo Swing Cool Highlighters clearance find and catching a touch of Bakugan Fever

On a recent trip to a Pearl store, I found these bundles of 10 Stabilo Swing Cool highlighters for a buck each. I figured that they might make suitable prizes for mini-contests in my cartooning classes. Their washable ink is equally suitable for highlighting study texts and some fun coloring.
The fluorescent inks could be easily washed with water, as shown by the lighter areas where some stray water droplets accidentally splashed on this artist trading card inspired by the Bakugan Freezer. Given the popularity of the Bakugan cartoon and toys with kids, I am preparing some coloring and sketching activities in that style for some upcoming Family Day events.

Coloring and Cutting Activity: Standing character templates

Developed this coloring activity for an upcoming Family Night at a Preschool later this month.
Once the image prototype was colored with Prismacolor Premier Double-Ended Art Markers, it was carefully cut with sharp scissors.

If the figures are short enough, you can even fit up to two character per letter size sheet of card stock.
Side view of how the paper strips are connected to support the standing cut out.
Colored cut outs standing together.








Print any of these templates on letter size 110 lb card stock, color the characters with crayons or markers, carefully cut outlines, assemble standing figure by joining the strips of paper behind it, and enjoy your new cast of characters. If your Jet Printer can not handle card stock, you could always print them first on 24 lb paper and then glue it to the card stock.A few examples of possible color combinations for these coloring templates:Set of finished colored samples standing around a Bakugan trap for size reference.Bonus coloring sheet: If you made it this far down this lengthy post, you may print and enjoy some more coloring fun.