Thanks for Supporting the Children's Miracle Network!

Thank you to all the guests that patiently waited for their turn to get drawn at the Caricature Stand at Costco and generously supported the Children's Miracle Network 2011 fundraising campaign. For the kids interested in attending my upcoming ARTSCool summer art camp Cartoon Sketching classes at The von Liebig Art Center, these are my scheduled 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm class periods:

• June -13-17,
• July 11-15, &
• August 1-5,

for further info and registration instructions check the ARTScool page. To view related blog posts of the class materials used, promotional events, and photo galleries of past ARTSCool classes simply click here.

UAC Immokalee Summer Art camps Tentative schedule 9:30 am to 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

• July 1 - Asia
• July 21 - Antarctica
• July 28 - Africa

Happy Spring Break to Students and Fellow Teachers!

This week we concluded the Cartoon Sketching courses at two Elementary schools (3rd through 6th grade groups) as part of the Miracle Plus program for the United Arts Council. One of the students slipped the nice note above with the pile of completed quizzes and surveys.
Once we got the final paperwork out of the way.
Students had a selection of sketching and coloring worksheets and a few reference sheets to choose from for the remaining of their class periods.
Those who chose to exercise their creativity were encouraged to come up with original drawings of their own.Discovered that a pretty effective way of ensuring that all the students wrote their first and last name in their quizzes was to use the completed tickets to choose some random prizes (like Silly Bandz packs, mechanical pencils, and drawing pens to keep practicing).
Students that created original drawings also received some sketching pen prizes.
Also drew as many cartoon portraits as I could on the last day of class, and the students seemed quite happy with their souvenirs. Keep sketching and practicing guys!

2-Day RCMA Dragon Mural Project Photo Journal

The United Arts Council of Collier County sent out the call, and local volunteer artists came together to paint a Dragon Mural in two days for RCMA Community School in Immokalee, FL From our initial conversations, we soon realized that it was our first time for several of us tackling a mural project.
While keeping an eye on a nearby thunderstorm, the team managed to primed and traced the main dragon outlines on Sunday night.
We had to fill the holes on the walls right before painting them.
Getting the painting supplies ready on Monday morning.
Terri Wegman painting the Day Dragon wall.
Heidi Saletko and Cesar Aguilera working on the Night Dragon wall.
Patti Smith painting the Day Dragon's eye. From photographs the walls seemed taller, and it was hard to accurately judge the proportions of the walls to be painted. Thus the large dragons designed by Cesar ended up with a lot of empty space on either side of the wall. So baby dragons were hastily added to balance the composition of both walls.
Me finishing up a purple baby dragon.
During recess. it was great to hear how much the students and staff were enjoying the new art in their courtyard. Several of them were students that had attended my holiday cards and cartooning classes the last school year and were quite excited about the possibility of continuing their lessons later on.
Baby dragon close-up shots.
Finished Night Dragon wall.
Finished Day Dragon wall.
All done! This UAC mural project sure was fun with such a great group of volunteer artists. Working with latex paint was an interesting experience since it was my first time using it. Cesar mentioned that its consistency and handling made it ideal for creating Pollock-style drip paints.

Updates Schedule of Public Appearances in Naples

Ok here it goes, I will be in a few places around Naples promoting assorted summer art activities for kids in the next few days. Plan to drop by if you would like to get a quick cartoon portrait or special request drawn as you find out more about my beginner's manga cartooning drawing classes:

Saturday 8 Jo-Ann Store Open House
Promenade At Naples Center
6428 Hollywood Blvd, Naples, FL 34109-2013
(239) 594-0389They will be holding class activities and product demos from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. I am working on some special sample drawings and pop-up cards for this event. I will try to be there most of the afternoon after doing an airport pick-up in Miami.Tuesday 11 Family Art Night @ The Boys & Girls Club of Collier County from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm as the final United Arts Council event at this location for the school year. Got plenty of fantasy and Bakugan-style coloring sheets and a supply of watercolor pencils and brushes for the kids to keep them occupied while they wait their turn to get drawn as knights, robot-pilots, mermaids, or dragon riders (some of the most popular choices from the past).

Saturday 15 City Fest Family Day 1:00 pm -4:00 pm ARTScool and adult classes instructors will be holding demos on the back deck of The von Liebig Art Center. I will have my trusty set of Sakura Pigma Sensei pens and a good supply of card stock to draw caricatures for the kids as time allows.

ARTScool summer art camp at The von Liebig Art Center completed 5-day courses:
Manga Cartooning: Shonen & Shojo - Beginner's class where we gradually develop drawing skills through a series of doodling, tracing, coloring, and sketching exercises. The students will be guided through some warm-up doodle assignments and offered the opportunity to try a variety of appropriate drawing and coloring art supplies after watching the in-class drawing demonstrations, design their own characters and fantasy creatures in the typical style often used in Japanese comics and animation, create their own mini comics, color trading card templates (featuring dragons, ninjas, robots, mermaids, and fairies) to practice their color theory and fine tune their eye-hand coordination while creating a custom deck of souvenir cards, assemble pop-up cards and card-stock dioramas with their manga creations to help pre-visualize a story environment or build their own fantasy worlds, sketch wooden reference manikins and assorted toys and action figures to exercise their observation skills and memory.
Week 2 / June 21-25 1-4 pm (7-10 years old) Code 212
Week 5/ July 19-23 1-4 pm (7-10 years old) Code 512

Austin Roller 2 Crate and gathering Supplies for Manga Cartooning Class

Last Thursday I started teaching Manga Cartooning lessons after school for 4rd, 5th, and 6th graders at a Immokalee Elementary school for the United Arts Council (UAC). Some of the students had attended the Miracle Plus holiday cards class last fall, so I was pleasantly surprised when one of my groups actually cheered when I walked in.
Selected several child-safe sketching tools and premium 24 lb papers for the initial sketching worksheets. The heavier paper stock is less likely to suffer ink bleed through and handles erasures better than regular 20 lb copy paper. The successive classes for the three different groups of students require moving these art supplies from classroom to classroom between periods.
Some of the manikins and plastic figurines used as reference models for sketching practice.
To carry all these art supplies from class to class more efficiently, I used my X-mas Jerry's gift card to pick up an Austin Roller 2 Crate. In the past I relied on different carts and assorted cardboard boxes, but they have a tendency to fall apart when maneuvering throughout campuses and multi-storey buildings.
This new roller crate should also come in handy for taking supplies to outreach programs, school events, and children's parties. The supplies for the Conservancy Turtle Craft and coloring sheets will fit easily in this cart for the upcoming event at Waterside Shops this Saturday, January 16th 11 am to 3 pm which I will be doing as part of the von Liebig Art Center's educational outreach program. We'll have some Manga Cartooning worksheets available as a preview of the Artscool classes, and I plan to sketch some souvenir cartoon portraits of the attending children as part of the entertaintment. I understand the Conservancy Scientist will be bringing a live Red-eared Slider Turtle for show and tell. Thus it should be quite fun weather permitting.
While folded the roller crate is only 3.5" wide, so it does not take up much storage room and easily fits in a car trunk.
Unfolding the crate sides and lowering the bottom tray is all that takes to assemble it in seconds.
Funny how the sales clerk did not know what the plastic bars stored on recessed slots on the bottom tray of the crate were used for. Not even the graphics in the box showed the reinforcement bars in use. Yet it was not too much of a leap to slide them right on top of the crate sides for increased stability.
Once assembled this crate can reportedly hold up to 100 lbs. While I did not actually weigh it, I managed to fit tons of art supplies in it. Its adjustable handle expands from 23" to 39" for optimal comfort while pulling it.
Fully loaded crate and ready for the next Manga Cartooning class. It rolled fairly effortlessly and worked quite well for my first lesson last week, and so far all I have noticed is some wear on the exterior plastic frame on the bottom of the crate. Its ease of use, space-saving design, and good capacity made it an easy choice to try. All that remains to test is its durability during the coming weeks.
Update: Still pretty happy with the performance of this cart, though I have noticed recently that this very same rolling crate tends to retail for about 33%-50% less at other online sources and at office supplies and big-box retailers. They are all made in China typically branded with the store name and can often be found at $19.99.

Bit of Speed Sketching for the Evening - Trial for a new Sketching tool

While most of the students and their families decorated their holiday cards, I started taking requests for quick sketching demos. My trusted Sakura Pigma Sensei 0.6 mm pen which is my usual first choice for event sketching turned out not to be up for the task on account of being rather dry. Thus, I ended up switching to a black Copic Sketch marker outfitted with a medium round nib. This was the first actual field test for this customized sketching tool that I put together mainly for sketching cartoon portraits. Its line is much thicker than 0.6 mm, and proved quite suitable for drawing bold strokes quickly and smoothly. It is certainly a good choice for keeping up the sketching speed though it is difficult to render small details with it. Its other advantage is that Copic markers are refillable, so carrying a bottle of spare ink would ensure continuous reliable service even when the ink supply runs out halfway during an extended event.
The first sketch request for the evening was for a picture of Strawberry Shortcake.
Good thing dragons were requested often since they are one of the subjects that I can draw quite quickly. Since my family name means "Dragon" in Chinese (notice the dragon character printed on the back of my coat in the last photo of this entry), I am rather fond of them.

Demonstrating how loosely stringing a few basic geometric shapes together can quickly convey the concept of a robot city that would fit in the Transformers universe.
Since mermaids always seem to be a popular subject with Elementary and Middle School students, 2 of the available bonus sketching sheets featured them.
I think this was the third mermaid cartoon portrait request for the evening, but I have to admit I lost track of the actual number of sketches I managed to produce on this evening.

Tinkerbell was another popular request.
Trying to explain the drawing and design process while sketching as many doodles as possible can be a challenge sometimes.
Also recall doing a Sponge Bob, Patrick, Spiderman, and Winnie the Pooh quick sketches. Bit surprised nobody asked for a Batman sketch.
Kept on drawing the students' requests until the very end of the Family Night event. I think most were pleased with their sketches though I was not able to undertake all of them in the time allowed. It was quite fun and looking forward to performing in similar venues in the future.

Photo Journal of the Card Making Station at the Family Night of the Boys & Girls Club - Parkside Elementary Edition

Continuing the Family Night events for the Boys and Girls Club in cooperation with the United Arts Council, dad helped me set up the Holiday Card Making stations at Parkside Elementary on this evening.
As a bonus creative activity, we had a selection of coloring and sketching worksheets set up behind the sample cards display.

The full-size poster sleeves proved quite useful again in defining the work stations and facilitating clean up of the glitter station.
We had a pretty good attendance to for the Family Night student performances and arts and crafts activities.



Student coloring one of the dragon bonus sketching worksheets.
The microphone came in quite handy to provide instructions clearly in English and Spanish at the beginning of the card making activities.

Students and their parents working together on their holiday cards.


Students coloring their holiday cards.



The glitter station always seems to be a pretty big hit with the students, but I try to limit its use to events held in areas that are easier to clean up or contain like the cafeteria or outdoor venues. The experience of taking the card-making station down a second time in as many weeks convinced me to find a better way to store and manage the Crayola markers rather than continue to keep them separate in their original cardboard boxes. The latter is an exercise in futility, for it consumes a couple of hours just trying to reassemble the different color palettes in their respective boxes. Next event I will keep all of the markers in an extended tray or dedicated storage tub.