Drawing Cartoon Panda Characters and Sketching page completed with Crayola Super Tips Washable Markers

These are the Cartoon Panda reference sheet and sketching page template that I will be using in the Summer Art Camp in Immokalee this Friday.
The Panda Team sketching pages will be distributed to groups of kinders and second graders. Students will be instructed to create the background and add any additional characters using their imagination. On the board, the instructor will demonstrate basic cartoon figure construction and possible design elements that could be included in the activity sheet like: bamboo grove, castle, temple, pine forest, mountain, pagoda, torii gate, etc.
I believe one of the better values for kids' coloring tools can be found in the 50-pack of Crayola Super Tips Washable Markers. Their fine tips lend themselves well for sketching with the fine point and coloring quickly with their broad side. Noticed that the last batch of sets I got at Target were actually made in Italy.
Finished colored sample. Now go make some more Cartoon Panda Team adventures on some blank sheets of paper or folded mini comic with your trusty markers or other favorite coloring tools.

The Write Dudes Wooden Pencils Spotlight

The second batch of samples I received from Mega Brands also included some wooden pencils: one pack was clearly designed for girls given their glitter-covered barrels with spiral motifs decorations, and the other fun pack was obviously meant for boys given their racing car designs. Both packs were made in China.
Sample doodle on Maruman Croquis sketchbook. The graphite lead was smooth, slow wearing, and closer to your average H grade in darkness.
The sparkling wooden pencils equipped with the Fashion Grips for a wider more comfortable grip during long note-taking sessions.
For school age boys, this Wooden Pencil Fun Pack would make a nice classroom prize. It included a couple of racing car erasers and matching sharpener. The sharpener did a fair job initially cutting the wood away, but its blade broke and snapped off the graphite lead a couple of times before I decided to sharpen the whole lot with my trusty Classroom Friendly crank sharpener. The erasers worked well enough for making writing corrections, but left a faint blue hue on the erased area. thus I would recommend using a dedicated white plastic block eraser for making corrections while drawing with the racing pencils. Both varieties of wooden pencils featured functional erasers on their end caps, whimsical designs tailored to each gender, and strong smooth-writing graphite leads that were also adequate for sketching. Worth trying for school use.

Mega Brands The Write Dudes Smooth Sticks Dry Gel Highlighters Review

We finally got to the last item from the first batch of Mega Brands samples: a carded pack with four Smooth Sticks Gel Highlighters that I decided to test on a handy Maruman Croquis Sketchbook.
The blue gel highlighter crayon fully extended. The tip length can be adjusted by simply twisting the end cap just like a twistable crayon.
Their smooth feel also reminded me of crayons, but they laid down some brightly colored translucent swatches quite effortlessly. The pink and blue ones crumbled a bit, but they were easily cleaned off the paper. These Smooth Sticks gel highlighters should prove useful to students that highlight their textbooks and study materials. For doodling and paper crafts, they would make fine "lightsabers", "laser blasts", and "explosion" highlights. Recommended as a fun addition for a kid's sketching kit.

Mega Brands The Write Dudes Super Gel Metallic ink pens and SRX Color Sharp Metallic permanent markers Review

Continuing the review of the Mega Brands samples I received recently, I tested The Write Dudes Super Gel Metallic ink pens and SRX Color Sharp Metallic permanent markers on a Maruman Croquis sketchbook, a Cachet sketchbook with black sheets of paper, and sheets of 67 lb toned card stock. Both metallic ink products were made in China according to their labels. Full photo coverage can be viewed in my Flickr photostream: photo 1 through photo 11.
The Super Gel Metallic ink pens were pretty smooth with their 1.2 mm tips and glided effortlessly on all the 3 supports tested. Their bright colors remained strong on the white and light brown toned papers. On the black paper, all the colors seemed to disappear leaving just silver marks on the dark background. They would make for adequate sketching tools, but they are probably best suited for making greeting cards and adding decorative touches to other paper crafts.
The SRX Color Sharp Metallic permanent markers might resemble Sharpies but thankfully without their chemical solvent smell. Their nibs laid down rather broad line strokes smoothly and quickly, so they would be quite handy when making signs and posters. Both the metallic gel pens and SRX permanent markers would work nicely for decorating paper craft projects and greeting cards. I plan to add these two metallic sets to the pool of optional art materials used in my Cartoon Sketching classes to test their durability and gauge the students reactions to them.

ARTSCool Manga Cartooning week 1 done!

We just completed the first Cartoon Sketching course of ARTScool 2011 at The von Liebig Art Center. The gallery of student works reflects the different interests of the boys and girls that attended the class and ranged in age from 7 to 14 years old. Throughout the course every student got their own cartoon portrait drawn on the spot as a souvenir, and I did my best to speed sketch as many additional requests as we could fit between class activities (additional portraits as ninjas, surfers, and mermaids come to mind). Everybody created a cartoon character using the Color Blank figurines, some students worked on their dragon illustration skills, others explored the story-telling potential of mini comics, some students worked on their coloring skills with the pop-up card activity and custom sketches, we shared some origami models (ninja stars, penguins, and jumping frogs), and the boys in particular had a blast with seveal origami mini airplanes.
Dragon drawn with Sakura Pigma Sensei pens and colored with Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens and glitter glue by a 12 year-old student. My sincere thanks to all the creative students and helpful interns for making the first ARTScool Cartoon Sketching class a success. Pop-up card skillfully colored with permanent markers by another student. Keep on sketching and exploring your artistic potential kids. Continue to dry different sketching tools and refine your personal sketching kits to suit your needs and preferences. Have a great summer and safe travels!

ARTScool 2011 Cartoon Sketching highlight: Mr. Lung versus Squirrel

Really like this drawing by one of the Cartoon Sketching students drawn this afternoon during class: the illustration strikes a nice balance between the bubble lettering and the cartoon figures, clear action line, and accurate observation and depiction of the t-shirt design that I wore today.

ARTSCool 2011 - Gallery of Works in Progress

This is a sample of the works in progress by students in the first Cartoon Sketching week-long course of ARTScool 2011 at The von Liebig Art Center. Each student started the creation of their own cartoon character using one of the Color Blank figurines. Full photo coverage available in my Flickr photostream: photo 1 through photo 17.
There were plenty of coloring activities to exercise eye-hand coordination and encourage the creative use of color.
Students also worked on basic construction of cartoon faces.
Students had a choice of partial sketches drawn on ledger size sheets (11" x 17" card stock) that they had to complete with foreground, middle ground, and background elements using graphite pencil. Then they were also provided with Sakura Pigma Sensei archival markers and Sharpie markers to ink and color their finished illustrations.

Students already started working on the coloring of their first pop-up card project of the week.

Panda Sketching Pages - Kids' activity for a rainy afternoon

Inspired by Sachiko Umoto's Illustration School books, I drew this reference sheet for a cartoon Panda featuring a couple of different facial expressions.
Print the Panda template of your choice and and sketch additional Panda friends and/or some typical Eastern paintings' background elements like pagodas, bamboo forests, rivers, mountains, etc.
How about making an entire "Panda Village" behind these two pals? Maybe draw some huts, rice paddies, koi pond, and some more bamboo stalks. A couple of cubs could even be drawn practicing their Wing Chun techniques.This last template should make a nice custom paper for folding origami airplanes that would sport a cute Panda logo on its fuselage.
Bonus activity sheet: Draw the background for this scene set in Antarctica. You could go naturalistic and sketch an entire penguin colony with some seal friends, or even use your imagination and create an Ice Palace with fantasy glacial inhabitants like "Ice Fairies"or "Snow Knights".

Got Supplies Ready and First ARTScool class filled today, yaay!

Ok guys looks like we are almost ready to go for ARTScool 2011 next week: with our first week's class filled up and the remaining drawing supplies arriving today, all I have left to do is color a few finished sketching-page samples and fold a few origami models. Spent the morning at The von Liebig Art Center printing out the handout lessons and photo-copying custom origami paper for making our initial paper airplane models.
Note to Parents: If you would like to provide your children with a nice sketching set for working at home and after their summer art camps are over, I would highly recommend pairing a generous supply of paper/card stock or portable sketchbook (8.5" X 11", 9" X 12", or 11" X 14") with a Sakura Pigma Sensei Manga Drawing set as a well rounded starter set with 4 drawing pens of different nib sizes, 0.7 mm mechanical pencil, and efficient white vinyl eraser.

List of Direct Links to Activity and Coloring Sheets

Since we have reached well over 300 posts in this blog, I have added a list of direct links to posts featuring activity and coloring sheets samples and templates on the column to the right side of this layout. Hopefully this will make it easier for fellow teachers and parents to find and print art activity sheets for their kids without having to navigate throughout a ton of posts.
Now you can easily find coloring templates, pop-up card template, sheets of Artist Trading Cards (ATCs), and sketching sheets with partial drawings to complete.