Making some Pop-Up Card Reference Samples

Figured it was less confusing to prepare the sample finished cards with the same materials used in class. Nicely rendered samples with Copic Markers and Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens might give unrealistic expectations of the hues that students could achieve in class with fewer colors. The round corner puncher that I recently picked up on clearance, has proven quite handy for card-making and other paper crafts.
My nieces kindly helped me by preparing some pop-up card references for class.
Camila likes the bright colors of the large set of 50 Crayola Super Tip markers.
Bit of division of labor for higher efficiency: one colors while the Nicole cuts the colored characters.
Once the standing cut outs were finished, it was time to color the background of each pop-up card.
Finished reference samples.

Photo Journal of Art Sessions at Naples Eden Autism Services school

My thanks to the caring staff of the Naples Eden Autism Services school for having me earlier today to conduct a few art activities for the students. For your convenience these are a few quick links to blog entries with demo videos and printable coloring templates for class activities: Nakamura Flying paper planes, Jumping Origami Frogs, and Pop-Up Cards coloring templates.Student coloring his project with some hand-over-hand assistance.

Foray Battery Operated Sharpener Review

As you shop for "Back to School Supplies" might be a good idea to take a gander at the Clearance bins that you might come across. Found this Foray Battery Operated Sharpener for 56 cents in the marked down rack at the entrance of a local Office Depot store.Did this little video review for it.
The white sharpener could be used for regular graphite pencils, and the gray sharpener could be used for colored pencils to keep the individual colors from getting soiled with graphite dust. The dial on top allow for clockwise adjustments of the barrel opening to accommodate different diameter pencils: 8, 9, 10, and 11 mm. The unit is powered by 4 AA batteries, and it is a tad loud. Since pencils are held vertically for sharpening, it reduces the chance of breakage due to side stresses.
By adjusting the red knobs on the bottom of the unit, you can control the sharpness of the resulting pencil points from blunt to sharp. The longer taper on the pencils on the left is meant for regular writing pencils while the shorter taper pencil style would be suitable for colored pencils.
I suppose it is nice to have the option of sharpening pencil tips in different styles, though I tend to prefer working with sharp ones. Still this Foray Sharpener was a pretty good pencil accessory buy for under a buck.

Coloring templates for upcoming classes at Eden Florida

Since I was asked to volunteer a couple of hours this coming Thursday at the Eden Autism Services school, got planned some speed sketching demonstrations and prepared this set of simple coloring outlines for the students to practice their eye-hand coordination.
The ever popular cats and dogs theme.
Drawings of bunnies are also common requests during summer art classes and drawing demos, so it was a natural choice for this set.
Came up with a dragon coloring outline that is quite simpler compared to my usual approach. Figured it would be safer to eliminate all extraneous detail, so that the coloring template could be colored within the expected shorter attention span of the students. Really curious about the reception and effect that the speed sketching demonstrations will have upon the students.

Drawing Truck videos for my 2-year old nephew

Hello Tato, these are your 3 short videos on how to draw different vehicles based on these Transformers I managed to dig out from storage. Just have mom or dad click on the pictures to see the videos. The materials used in these demos are: California Republic Palomino 2B Pencil, Derwent pencil extender, and a Piccadilly sketchbook.Sketching a bulldozer based on this green transforming robot.
Sketching a truck based on this blue transforming robot.
Sketching a racing car based on this green transforming robot. Quick link to original fire truck test video drawn with a Sakura Pigma Sensei 0.4 mm pen.

ARTSCool Manga Cartooning Photo Journal Day 5

ARTScool Manga Cartooning course at The von Liebig Art Center day 5. Thank you gang for attending this class and completing the feedback survey, and I hope you continue practicing and developing your sketching and visual communication skills in your sketchbooks. It was a pleasure working with you these past few days.For their final class project, the students were provided with a customized inked cartoon version of themselves and asked to draw the background elements and apply some coloring. Works in progress. One of the students chose to draw the entire piece himself.

Couple of big Pop-Up card projects.
Completed in-class projects.

ARTSCool Manga Cartooning Photo Journal Day 4

ARTScool Manga Cartooning course at The von Liebig Art Center day 4. Student sharpening her observation skills by sketching a plastic reference tiger figure. Student drawing from demo performed on dry-erase board. Student drawing from imagination of a dinosaur hall for his mini comic project. Student drawing of a dragon versus a sheep. Drawing and painting from imagination.

ARTSCool Manga Cartooning Photo Journal Day 3

ARTScool Manga Cartooning course at The von Liebig Art Center day 3. For this class warm up several standing cut outs were available for coloring and serve as targets for the origami ninja star shooting range.

"Visit to Unicorn Planet" mini comic project drawn and colored with Crayola Super Tip markers.
Basic pop-up card.
Some students used some of the available coloring cut out templates to build their action dioramas as an oversize pop-up card style.

Couple of penciled pages of student mini-comic version of the "Cinderella" story.
Probably one of my favorite student's creations of the day: "The Ice Cream Pizza Ninja". Creative use of the pop-up project learned on the first day applied to a fairly original ninja projectile: a pizza with ice cream cones for its sharp edges.

ARTSCool Manga Cartooning Week 5 Photo Journal

Today we started our second 5-day ARTScool Manga Cartooning course at The von Liebig Art Center. The course is being taught in English and Spanish since the last two students that joined the class only speak the latter.
Warm-up pencil sketching exercises.
First batch of pop-up cards using the available cut out templates.



Student first comic page.
For the second day, I have folded a few jumping frogs for the students to enjoy during their break and to use as samples for those who might want to learn to fold their own. Today the Nakamura paper planes were well received at break time.