Another Jo-ann Open House for Kids Summer Art Camp completed and next demo announcement

For those of you that can not make my ARTScool classes this summer: I am adapting my Manga Cartooning 8-lesson plan used for the Miracle Plus after school program to a trend class at Jo-Ann's. Thus on the course of several 2-hour sessions we'll discuss the cultural context in which Japanese comics are created, popular themes and styles seen in Shonen (comics for boys) and Shojo (comics for girls) titles, and work on basic sketching skills with an eye for developing each kid's manga cartooning style. Sample activities include: robot sketching as an early approach for drawing the human figure, designing original Kaiju (strange beast) to foster imagination, designing sets of manga artist trading cards (ATC), writing and illustrating a 6-page mini comic with its front and back covers, creating simple pop-up cards and dioramas as a means for pre-visualizing a story setting, trying different art supplies for illustrating and coloring covers and promotional materials than tend to be done in color while the stories themselves are traditionally rendered in black and white given their usual tight production schedules.
For those interested in this Manga Cartooning trend class, you will just need some paper and drawing tools to get started. I would recommend a 9" X 12" Canson XL Recycled Sketchbook that with its generous count of thin and light weight 50 lb (74 gsm) paper works fairly well for tracing exercises and general sketching. Just remember to use a piece of card stock as a shitajiki (or pencil board) under your working sheet to protect the other sheets beneath it. The Sakura Pigma Sensei drawing set would be my top pick for a starter sketching kit since it includes 4 pigmented pens with different nib sizes, a nice 0.7 mm mechanical pencil, and a efficient soft eraser. There are many coloring tool options to consider: washable markers, colored pencil, watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons, and watercolor pans. The 24-color Sakura Koi Watercolor Field Sketch Kit with its convenient waterbrush would make for a pretty versatile and convenient choice (select a sturdier paper support that can handle light washes like the 9" x 12" Canson XL Mixed Media pad or even some bristol paper). To sign up for the trend class or find out more come to my next demo on June 19th 11:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Jo-Ann Store Open House, Promenade At Naples Center, 6428 Hollywood Blvd, Naples, FL 34109-2013, phone (239) 594-0389.

Cartooning Classes - Photo Journal 1

This student creatively used the dragon coloring template as reference to create this colorful picture of "Dragon Riders".
Fourth graders displaying their drawing/coloring sheets competed during class.



Fifth graders posing with their projects completed on their third cartooning session.





The dragon template was given as a take-home assignment the previous week.
From time to time, I pick a student photo at random and sketch cartoon portrait like the example above. It was drawn with Prismacolor Illustration markers and colored with the double ended markers.
6th graders class working on assorted sketching and coloring sheets depending on their interest.
The small size of the coloring artist trading cards (ATC), allow for their completion within the class period.
The coloring pages featuring 9 ATC designs each contained a mixture of character types and creatures often found in Shonen and Shojo stories. Thus providing the students with an assortment of characters, robots, and fantasy beasts that could be used for reference to create their own stories in future sessions.


Coloring their trading card templates with the Crayola Super Tip markers is a good way of fine tuning eye-hand coordination.

Students were encouraged to add their own drawing elements and color their ninja or mermaid sketching templates as an in-class exercise.

"Learn to Draw Manga - Project Book & Kit" and Staedtler Graphite 771 Automatic Pencil Review

Spotted this compact Walter Foster "Learn to Draw Manga" Drawing Kit by Jeannie Lee on the 75% off clearance rack of a local Borders.
Since I am still sporting my braces, I realized the audio on the video review might be hard to make out. Thus I'll also cover the main points in this blog entry.
The 32-page instructional booklet has a nice layout and packs enough fundamentals and techniques to serve as a fair introduction to Manga for elementary students (4-6 grade) that previously have not had much exposure to anime and manga. Even some middle school students might find it as suitable reference given the pleasing art style that is clearly influenced by popular conventions of Shonen and Shojo comics.
The tools featured in the kit: a pencil, an eraser, and 4 felt-tip colored markers are fairly disappointing and barely adequate for elementary students to get started. The lead core in the pencil was off-centered, so it would be impossible to sharpen it evenly. The eraser works, but not as cleanly as a foam eraser or the reliable Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser. The limited markers' palette of black and 3 primary colors allow only for some crude coloring. Students would probably had been better served with a range of gray markers and a skin colored marker. Thus unless you can find this compact Manga kit on clearance, I would not recommend it and would direct you instead to the full version kit if you like the drawing style of this author. The larger kit packs a few more tips and techniques and seems to have a wider marker selection. For middle school students it would be better to bundle the instructional book with a more substantial manga drawing kit like the Sakura Pigma Sensei kit or a set of Prismacolor Illustration markers.
For children that tend to break the leads on 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm mechanical pencils too often, it might be worth switching to the larger 1.3 mm lead used in the Staedtler Graphite 771 Automatic Pencil. For more photos and another review of this mechanical pencil you might want to visit Dave's Mechanical Pencils.
While I regard the erasers in most mechanical pencils just as simple plugs meant to keep the leads inside the barrels, the Graphite 771 twist-up 1.5" eraser is actually quite functional and efficient in removing pencil marks cleanly without damaging the paper surface just like the classic Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser.
The thick 1.3 mm graphite lead resists breakage better than thinner leads, and it can still be used without sharpening to produce a range of line widths by simply rotating the pencil. Yet if a finer point were desired, the lead can still be easily sharpened with a 2 mm lead pointer as shown above.
Some test sketches inspired by the Manga project book.
The Staedtler Graphite 771 Automatic Pencil is a fun comfortable 1.3 mm mechanical pencil that would serve children well for writing and drawing applications with its well-designed ergonomic triangular grip, break-resistant lead, and substantial and efficient 1.5" twist-up eraser. Its lanyard hole (at the base of the pocket clip) might be useful to prevent accidental loss by securing it to a larger sketching kit or backpack especially for kids prone to losing their smaller school supplies. Adults that prefer pencils with wider bodies are also likely to enjoy this value-priced Japanese pencil bonus pack with 2 spare erasers and tube with 6 spare HB graphite leads.

Suggested reference materials for boys

Quick tip for my local readers and past students, I spotted a few copies of "Let's Draw Manga Transforming Robots by Yasuhiro Nitta - PLEX" marked down to $3.99 at the Borders on US 41 in North Naples. Not a bad deal for budding artists that could use a couple of pointers on sketching and building their own robots in the tradition of Gundam and Power Rangers Zords.
Shonen Jump magazine is also an inexpensive source of inspiration that showcases multiple manga story lines designed for boys by different artists. This anthology format is reminiscent of the common Japanese model of manga distribution and provides a good sampling of popular manga stories. This magazine's larger format allows an easier appreciation of the panel drawings that are typically shrunk in the manga collection digests.
Tip for Parents: Remember to check your local library video and manga collections for further free inspiration for your kids, but be careful in selecting appropriate titles for the different age groups. There is a lot of manga out there, and each title was created with a specific target demographic in mind. Thus it falls to you to choose suitable anime movies and manga series according to the maturity level and interests of your kids.

Artscool Manga Cartooning at The von Liebig Art Center - Photo Journal of day 3

Quick tip for parents: To provide additional sources inspiration for children interested in Manga (Japanese comics) and Anime (Japanese cartoons), I would highly recommend the animated films by famed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki distributed in the USA through Walt Disney Home Entertainment. Many of the titles can be found at the local public library and feature positive role models and ecological themes like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Rated PG).
Volunteers judging the students' creations for the second character creation impromptu contest.
Prize for the girls was drawn and signed by a gifted class volunteer. Runners up got other sketches drawn to their specifications by the instructor.
Brainstorming character ideas for Shojo (comics for girls) and Shonen (comics for boys) as a group.

Drawing their own designs and coloring with watercolor pencils.


Drawing several pages of sequential storytelling.
Coloring some monster designs.
Happy group of budding artists.

Drawing "Secrets": a few Shonen Manga drawing tips for my bulletin board

Came up with a few tips and sketching sample sheets for my bulletin board at the Boys & Girls Club.
Tip sheet on creating Sentai rangers and Kaiju monsters.
An example of a "Super Sentai" team of 3 rangers with their animal totems hovering above them.
A few approaches to creating "Crazy Critters" (think of them as potential monster creatures for boys' stories or magical guardian creatures for girls' stories) : (I) Combine different animal traits into a single creature to form a chimera-type critter, (II) combine a human, an animal, imaginary creature with elemental forces (fire, ice, lightning, wind, lava, etc.) for more powerful critters, & (III) combine a human body with different animal parts to create fantastic critters like the ones often described in Greek and Egyptian mythologies (mermaids, centaurs, harpies, gorgons, and severeal beast-headed deities like Anubis and Horus). In fact a potential interesting creative challenge, would be to come up with your own interpretations of classical myths like technologically enhanced futuristic versions of the Twelve Olympians (Greek Pantheon).
An "S" shape is a good starting point for sketching a basic dragon body.