Couple of Clearance finds: Maped Spin Eraser and Canson Fanboy Comics drawing kit

Now that stores are starting to take down their Back to School supplies displays and discounting their remaining stock, there are plenty of deals to be had. Like this Maped Spin Eraser for under a buck at Target.
When I first spotted it hanging on a peg, it reminded me of a throwing ninja star or shuriken. It even glided quite well across the room when thrown partially open.
In this erasing performance comparison chart made with a Rhodia pencil and a Tombow Mono 2B pencil test swatches, the Maped Spin eraser performed as well as its predecessor and the Tombow Mono zero erasers. As it would be expected the Sakura SE2000 electric eraser was more efficient and easier to control across the test swatches.
Is it just me? or the Spin eraser looks significantly smaller than the Zenoa eraser that came out a few years ago? Perhaps another sign of the times.
The smaller protective cover of the Spin eraser even when closed still leaves a large surface of the erasing compound exposed. It is also harder to slide open. Notice how its exposed center has already pick up stray graphite from the paper in the picture below.
The Maped Spin Eraser is an ok addition to a collection of drawing supplies, but I prefer the older Zenoa model that completely encloses the eraser with its rotary case which is also easier to open and close.
Found a couple of Canson Fanboy Learn to Draw Comics kits in the clearance rack of the new Jo-Ann store.
This kit consists of a few how-to-make-a-comic instruction sheets, 3 stencil-sheets with panel borders and word balloon templates, a #2 pencil, and 12 heavy weight 6.625"x10.25" comic size sheets of drawing paper. The instructions are printed in English and French, and they were clearly written for the absolute beginner. The selection of stencil sheets, unlabeled purple pencil, and dozen sturdy sheets of drawing paper would make it a suitable choice for keeping kids busy on a short trip (just do not forget a sharpener and a nice eraser to complete the kit). Made for a fair paper sampler for a couple of bucks each. Though I would not recommend it at its suggested retail price.While the Canson Fanboy paper from this kit was cut to the exact same dimensions of actual comic books, professional artists work on a much larger paper size when drawing their original art. Thus a young artist would probably be better off working on regular 8.5" X 11" letter size or 9" X 12" sheets for daily practice. To get a closer experience of the scale typically used by professionals, they should try any of the 11" X 17" Canson Fanboy Comic and Manga papers currently available. For an even better value on practice drawing paper, I would suggest getting a pack of 150 letter size sheets of 110 lb Georgia Pacific white card stock at your local big box retailer.This card stock features a very smooth surface that works well both with pencil and markers. The 110 lb stock is thick enough that it can be used on both sides without any see through.2B graphite doodle.It is also strong enough to withstand some light washes without warping.

ARTScool Manga Cartooning Student Exhibit at The von Liebig Art Center

Had a chance earlier today to view some of the finished projects from my students from the second ARTScool Manga Cartooning class at The von Liebig Art Center. The students were provided with black and white cartoon outlines based on them as asked to add background elements and coloring.
Dragon Warrior by 11 year old student.
Ninja Attack by 7 year old student.
Jungle Boy by 9 year old student.
The Prince and the Castle by 9 year old student.
The Sugar Gliders by 8 year old student.

Spending Quality Time with Tato

Spent the last few days with my nephew in North Carolina. Here he is trying to make Origami planes.
Watermelon break.
Made these custom coloring sheets for Mateo given his love for trucks.
Used my trusty sets of Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens to color a few pop-up card backdrops for Tato's playtime. This one was done right after watching "Clash of the Titans" which turned out to be a pretty entertaining movie.
Every morning a couple of new pop-up cards would be waiting at the breakfast table.

"Oh no! no more filling left!", and Tio Pork Bun already finished the other two buns.
Checking out the dragon pen we found at Target.
Doodling with the ballpoint pen.
Enjoying my travel set of Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble crayons.
Coloring some truck drawings.
Train ride at the park.
Taking a Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencil for a spin.
So long as they are non-toxic, I have no qualms about sharing my artist grade art supplies with the little one. Of course one must remain alert to avoid accidental staining of the surrounding area. Keep in mind though that once you get kids to appreciate the performance of artist materials, they might come to prefer them over the more inexpensive kid grade tools. I would recommend keeping the good stuff at home and using the easily replaceable more affordable stuff in take-along travel kits

Mochica-inspired Drawings in Biennial 2010 Show

These two ink drawings inspired by Mochica mythology are currently on display in The von Liebig Art Center Faculty Biennial 2010 show until August 28th.

A Few T-Shirt Designs

I relied again on my favorite Sakura Pigma Sensei drawing set to create these t-shirt designs. Drawing the heavier outlines with the 1.0 mm pen on the letter size card stock sheets drained the pen quite a bit and roughed up its felt tip nib. The 0.6 mm nib was practically destroyed when trying to fill broad black strokes with it. I probably should have limited the Pigma Sensei pens for the more delicate line work, and used a regular Sharpie marker to fill in the larger black areas.
The plan is to use these designs with the Yudu screen printing machine as a product demo and to promote my upcoming Cartoon Sketching Manga-Style trend classes at the Jo-Ann store.
Seeing some influence from the Graffiti drawing book I borrowed from the library already in the treatment of the heavily stylized dark outlines surrounding the figures.
Will keep you posted on how they turn out.In the meantime, already decided to also use these designs for this promo poster for the Open House that will serve as my stand-in since I will not be able to attend it this Saturday.

Mall Food Court Sketches

Since I had a few minutes (well close to an hour and a half) to spare at the mall food court last weekend, I was able to get a few observation and fantasy sketches done with some of my favorite sketching pencils: Staedtler Mars Technico 780 2 mm leadholders loaded with H, HB, and B graphite leads.



Remember kiddies: "Carry a sketchbook and pencils everywhere you go, so you may take advantage of every opportunity to get some drawing practice you might come across".

Klutz Origami Books Review

Folding entire fleets of paper airplanes was a favorite childhood past time of mine, so I was a tad surprised to discover that so many children in my drawing classes did not know how to make a single paper airplane. Thus I started introducing a few origami toy models in recent classes.To expand my repertoire I picked up the Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes that provides clear step-by-step instructions on how to fold 10 flying models that perform quite well when thrown properly.
While the book included a pack of 40 sheets with 2o custom fun designs, I decided to do my early attempts with 24lb brightly colored Xerox paper. This heavier paper stock is quite cost-effective and yields sturdier finished airplanes (though you might want to use a bone folder to ensure neat crisp folds) that are easier to spot wherever they might land.
Already tried making every model from the book using regular size paper and quarter-sheets. They flew or glided quite well when made out of a letter size sheet. The mini gliders were fairly functional, but the mini darts did not work as well.
The first model of the book is probably one of the easiest to fold, and it works well both using a full 8.5" X 11" sheet and quarter-size sheets. After a quick demonstration, Nicole had no problem folding her first mini squadron.
Got a few quarter-sheet size Nakamura Lock paper airplanes ready for my next open house event.
This other Klutz Origami book kit would make a nice introductory gift for a kid interested in the art of paper folding. It covers 10 fairly simple origami designs (with the Jumping Frog and the Magic Star models been the most fun paper toys from the bunch) with clearly illustrated easy-by-follow instructions, and it also includes a pack of 80 square sheets of custom-designed Origami paper to get you started.These miniature versions were folded using 2" origami square sheets. Don't forget to check your local library and local bookstore bargain books section for more origami books and folding paper supplies.