Got a few classroom prizes for the after school Cartoon Sketching classes

Browsing the clearance end cap at a local Staples store, found this neat gel pens with big-eyed animal mascot toppers: Merangue Popeyed pens. Promptly scooped this bunch to add them to the pool of student prize incentives (notice the dinosaur sharpeners generously donated by George from My Supply Room that started this particular lot) for ongoing elementary school-level cartoon sketching classes in the after school program.
Take a look at the Puffer Fish and Tortoise before and after squeezing them to activate their eye-popping feature. They should all make fine prizes for in-class art contests and could even double as reference models for cute cartoon animals.

Creative Workshop with the Kids: Sharing art supplies with the nieces

It had been a while since we had a chance to visit with my star art students, so I brought a fairly large selection of art supplies to share with them this past Sunday.
Camila coloring with Sakura Koi watercolors and a waterbrush.
Drawing with a full set Prismacolor Art Stix woodless colored pencils.
The ever popular fairy motifs.
Camila loading a Sofft knife with Burnt Sienna. Their similarity to make-up tools made PanPastel jars and their applicator tools quite appealing to the girls.
Added some extra colors with Crayola watercolor pencils.
Nicole using an Art sponge for broad color application.Using a mini applicator for more delicate coloring.
The PanPastel and Sofft tools were a big hit with the girls that used them to color small trading card-size pieces and 8.5" X 11" sheets of card stock. The erasability of PanPastel layers was a great feature that allowed the kids to make quick corrections with regular erasers when the coloring got outside the lines by accident. The low dusting properties of these soft pastels made them fairly easy to clean afterward with a wet rag and a vacuum cleaner. Always keep a close eye on your budding artists when allowing them to explore the creative potential of artist grade art supplies.

Going on Hiatus

Just got notified that I have reached my photo upload limit on my Picasa Web Album. Going to have to evaluate options and figure out a course of action. Bit busy with classes and event prep, so I might disappear from Blogger for a while. Just keeping you in the loop dear readers. Will continue to upload pictures to my Flickr album in the meantime.

Family Art Night Activity Sneak Preview - Pop-Up Card and Cut Out Templates Test run

I have prepared a few greeting card pop-up card templates with "Mother's Day" and "Happy Easter" themes along with a few options of cute cut outs that will actually pop-up when the cards are opened. Will have markers and foam stickers for further customization at an upcoming Family Art Night event at the Boys & Girls Club on the 13th of this month. For a quick test run, I used them on a recent art class for a High School group.
Trying out different coloring approaches.
Sample finished card.
Once students completed their first pop-up card and understood its simple mechanics, they started designing their own backgrounds. That's the main idea: get familiarized with the pop-up card creation process, and then let your imagination loose and create your own cards for different occasions.

Live Caricatures drawn at the Boys & Girls Club Crawfish Boil Fundraiser

Just got back from the Boys & Girls Club Crawfish Boil Fundraiser. Spent the last few hours drawing live caricatures: some fairly straight cartoon portraits, a couple of athletes posing, and some chose to be depicted wearing fantasy costumes.
Was really pleased that I was stationed within the gym. The shade and air conditioning really help keeping guests comfortable while they are having their cartoon portraits drawn.
There was plenty of room behind me, so other guests could easily watch the caricature drawing process while they waited or decided how they wanted to be drawn themselves.
The view from my drawing table. I wished I had been able to check out the tattoo table across the gym, but I remained quite busy throughout the afternoon. Been meaning to look into temporary paint or markers that could be used to create temporary tattoos at future events.
The first model of the day requested a basketball theme portrait. After a quick I-phone search we verified the proper look of a basketball. Going to have to research and practice more how to draw the cartoon version of popular sports equipment and uniforms for a smoother work flow.
Ninja and Fantasy Warrior portraits were quite popular with the boys.
Several guests today went for the straight cartoon portrait version of themselves.
Going more for a samurai girl look, I equipped this model with a classic naginata.
This model just reminded me of Tony Stark, so I had to dress him up in an Iron Man suit.
Pretty happy with how the first couple drawing of the day turned out. It can be pretty challenging to fit two people in the letter size card stock.


This request was peculiar in that the model requested to have his face hidden partially behind a ninja mask. Warned him that his mom might not like that particular choice, but he seemed quite happy with his new wall decoration.
Just realized that I did not get around to photographing any of the mermaid portraits drawn today, but at least got to record this princess and angel portraits.
The event was a blast, and both kids and adults seemed quite happy with their souvenir cartoon portraits.