Fillming Ad for The von Liebig Art Center

Thanks Sara for inviting me! Just spent a fun afternoon with fellow volunteers for the filming of the fall ad to promote The Von Liebig Art Center. Did a couple of passes as background people entering the building, and then we set up a classroom on the second floor to simulate an ongoing ARTScool kids' art class. We even had 4 properly attired interns walking around the room supporting the students creative efforts. Speed sketched a few cartoon drawing examples on the dry erase board, and the students colored and cut the components of the pop-up castle activity for the camera. The kids were having so much fun, that many continued with they projects after the camera stopped rolling. Aimee made some mean chicken salad and home made brownies for the well-stocked refreshments table. It was fun meeting other volunteers, and naturally quite a few souvenir cartoon portraits were drawn between takes. Quite curious to see the finished ad this coming fall on local cable channels.

ARTScool 2011 Final gallery - Open House

Today we held the ARTScool 2011 Open House to showcase samples of the students' work created during the past 8 weeks of summer art camp held at The von Liebig Art Center.
These graphic works were on display in the hallways throughout the building and on the tables of 3 classrooms.
It was a lot of fun to see so many entire families walking through the exhibit and collecting their kids' final projects on this Sunday afternoon.
I enjoyed the opportunity of chatting with some of the parents of the talented kids that took my classes this summer.
It is always nice to hear course feedback directly from the satisfied parents and kids.
Even on our final day, a few interns were hard at work unloading the kiln since the students from David Himmel's ClaysCool class worked on their projects all the way until last Friday. David is a great teacher for kids of all ages and levels with many taking his class multiple times in the summer. After a solid foundation on ceramic building techniques and glazing, kids are able to explore their creativity in 3-D in no time. ARTScool 2011 was a complete success, so hope that most students, interns, and fellow instructors will return for ARTScool 2012. In the meantime, keep sketching and drawing kids!

ARTSCool Cartoon Sketching Week-7 last day Photo Gallery

Thanks to all the students that took one of my cartooning classes this summer. Enjoy the rest of your school break and keep on sketching! Thanks to all the parents and grand parents that support the artistic development of their kids and grand kids. Please feel free to print and use any of the resources featured in this blog and on the list of sketching/coloring pages on the right. Additional recommended reading: Sachiko Umoto Illustration School books. Her simple and charming drawing style is quite easy to follow for budding artists of all ages. On the last day of class, the students completed their pop-up castles. Afterwards some of them made a mini comic, some experimented with oil pastels, and quite a few worked on a large underwater or outer space scene.
Really impressed with the creativity, discipline, and dedication displayed by the students that worked on their pop-up card project for the past two sessions. Once their first task was accomplished for the day, the students had the option of creating a mini comic or work on a large scale illustration to be eligible for the classroom prizes that included toys and art supplies.
Underwater scene colored with oil pastels.
This student chose to color her cartoon portrait with oil pastels. While another student used Prismacolor Art Stixs to color her own portrait.
Mini comic drawn with marker on ledger size card stock (11" x 17"). Five minutes before the class was over, our jury of interns chose the prize winners from our gallery wall and the completed pop-up castles. Thanks again Grace, Sarah, and Xylia for all your help this week! You were all great interns, and hope you consider returning for ARTScool 2012. With your discipline, initiative, and positive rapport with the kids, I am certain that you will prove again to be instrumental in creating a fun art experience and maintaining a safe environment for our students. Any instructor would be lucky to have you as part of his or her classroom support team next summer.

ARTSCool Cartoon Sketching Week-7 Photo Gallery

Photo gallery of my final Cartoon Sketching class for ARTScool 2011 at The von Liebig Art Center. This group of boys and girls ranged in age from 6 to 11 years old.
Students had the opportunity to try a variety of coloring tools: markers, watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons, and even some soft pastels.
Drawing from reference Xevoz kits
and fantasy chibi drawings from imagination.
Making a pop-up castle card.
Several students jumped at the opportunity to color the chibi animal characters from one of the class drawing demonstrations.
Hmm, perhaps coloring on the dry erase board should be part of the curriculum for future classes next summer.
Throughout the week all the students received several cartoon portraits and custom drawing requests as souvenirs or starting point for different inking and coloring projects.
Half of the students already got their PanPastel and Prismacolor Art Stix colored cartoon portraits, so I will complete the remaining later today. Thank you to all the students and interns that participated in one of my Cartoon Sketching classes this summer. With our impending move to North Carolina, this might just have been my last summer class at The von Liebig Art Center. It has been an honor working with all of you, and I hope that you will all continue to embrace your artistic side and keep on sketching and further developing your artistic skills. Keep on drawing and filling many sketchbooks!

Summer Art Camp Photo Gallery: Students with their Cartoon Portraits

Once the short introductory lecture and drawing demonstration have been completed and the students are engrossed in their respective drawing/coloring activity sheets in all my Art Camps this summer, I have taken to draw as many cartoon portraits as the remaining class time allows. Given my usual sketching speed, that means that most of the students and even a few class attendants have gotten at least one custom drawing to take home as a souvenir in addition to their completed projects.
Any students missing their cartoon portraits will be the first to get drawn on my last day at their summer art camp next week. We'll be working under the African theme, so we'll draw some lions and probably some other inhabitant of the savanna like zebras or giraffes.




Good thing the Sakura Pigma Sensei drawing pens feature waterproof archival ink, for some students colored their cartoon portraits with the Crayola Super Tip markers. Thus the outlines were not blurred nor smudged by the water soluble dyes. Quick Note: Since I plan to relocate to North Carolina in the next couple of months, my last remaining scheduled ARTScool art class from August 1 to 5 at The von Liebig Art Center might be the last opportunity to attend one of my Cartoon Sketching lessons and get a souvenir cartoon portrait drawn for Naples residents.

2nd ARTScool Cartooning Class Completed!

The final classroom gallery showcased the variety and creative output of the very talented group of students that took one of my last two Cartoon Sketching classes planned in Florida (for I am already getting ready to move out of the state). My last and final summer art camp will run from August 1 to 5 at The von Liebig Art Center in the afternoon shift (1 to 4 pm). This class group remained quite focused on drawing manga characters, dragons, ninjas, and cats in their projects and special requests that I speed sketched for them during different sessions. I wonder if classes should have been advertised as the Dragon Ninja and Kittens Sketching Class instead. Thanks to all the parents and dedicated students that made this summer art camp a success. Enjoy the rest of the summer and keep sketching guys!
My sincere thanks to all our hard-working interns that assisted me this week with distribution and collection of art materials, classroom clean up, and escorting students during outdoor activities.

ARTScool Cartoon Sketching Week 4 - Photo Gallery

Just sharing a peek at the works in progress (WIP) and sketches from my students in the 4th week of ARTSCool at The von Liebig Art Center summer art camp.





Inking and coloring exercise on a pencil sketch drawn on my last flight back to Florida. Actually managed to complete a couple of dozen penciled images in the 2-hour flight for the students to ink on their first Cartoon Sketching session.
Pencil sketch skillfully drawn from a reference image.
Sketch that won the first mini contest of the week for its originality and loosely inspired by Xevoz Iron Spectre. The prize: a Sharpie decorated canvas bag.
Couple of adorable puppy sketches in the whimsical style of Sachiko Umoto.
A couple of pretty accurate sketches drawn from observing Xevoz model kits.

Class entries for the Coffee Label Art Contest.
Gallery of student works a day before the last day of this summer art class. It has been an honor working with you guys. Really hope you do keep practicing your sketching and drawing skills in your sketchbooks during the rest of the summer and beyond!