Upcoming Classes in Durham Winter 2014

For my students in Durham:

Durham Arts Council Upcoming Classes - Fall 2014

Cartoon Sketching Anime & Manga Characters and

Creatures (Ages 5-12)

Sharpen eye-hand coordination and drawing skills while creating characters and fantasy creatures found in action and super hero movies, Japanese animation, and comic books. Create a cast and design a world to tell your own stories through comics or illustrated mini books. Class is suitable for beginners as well as advanced students that wish to continue to refine their sketching skills and try new art materials. Listed subtitles are flexible enough, so that each student may focus on the theme of their preference.

14F415.2 Wednesday, 5:30-7:15 PM October 15 - October 29 (3 weeks)

14F415.3 Wednesday, 5:30-7:15 PM November 5 – November 19 (3 weeks)

For the budding artists in the Student U program, our next two scheduled sessions will be on:

Thursday October 2 5:00-5:50 pm

Thursday November 6 5:00-5:50 pm

List of Upcoming Drawing Classes at the Cary Arts Center for Fall 2014

For the convenience of parents & students here is the list of my upcoming cartoon sketching classes at the Cary Arts Center. Graphic Storytelling: Manga Style (age 15 & up)

79768 Mon, Sep15 - Sep29,  7:00PM -  9:00PM

79769 Mon, Oct13 - Oct27,  7:00PM -  9:00PM

79770 Mon, Nov10 - Nov24,  7:00PM -  9:00PM

79771 Mon, Dec1 - Dec15,  7:00PM -  9:00PM

Saturday Teen Classes and Workshops (age 11-16Y)

79988 Cartoon Sketching: License to Draw Everything  Sat, Oct 11, 12:15PM -  3:15PM [1 meeting]

79998 Cartoon Sketching: License to Draw Everything Sat, Nov 8, 12:15PM -  3:15PM [1 meeting]

79999 Cartoon Sketching: License to Draw Everything Sat, Dec 20, 12:15PM -  3:15PM[1 meeting]

Saturday Youth Workshops and Classes (age 8-13Y)

80035 Origami Adventure Workshop (age 8-13) Sat, Sep 20, 12:30PM -  3:00PM[1 meeting]

Half-Day Weekday Art Workshops (age 6-12Y)

79538 Cartoon Sketching: Anime and Manga Style (age 6-12) T4 Fri, Oct 17, 12:30PM -  3:00PM [1 meeting]

79569 Cartoon Sketching: Anime and Manga Style (age 6-12) T3 Fri, Oct t24, 12:30PM -  3:00PM [1 meeting]

79570 Cartoon Sketching: Anime and Manga Style (age 6-12) T2 Fri, Dec 5, 12:30PM -  3:00PM [1 meeting]

79571 Cartoon Sketching: Anime and Manga Style  (age 6-12) T1 Fri, Dec 12, 12:30PM -  3:00PM [1 meeting]

Anime & Manga Design Friday Night Workshop (K5-12) (age 5Y-12Y)

79746 Fri, Oct 3,  6:30PM -  9:00PM [1 meeting]

79757 Fri Nov 14,  6:30PM -  9:00PM [1 meeting]

79758 Fri, Dec12,  6:30PM -  9:00PM [1 meeting]

Cartoon Sketching Anime & Manga Characters  and Creatures (age 5-12Y)

79759 Mon, Sep15 - Sep29  5:15PM -  6:45PM [3 meetings]

79760 Mon, Oct13 - Oct27,  5:15PM -  6:45PM [3 meetings]

79761 Mon, Nov10 - Nov24,  5:15PM -  6:45PM [3 meetings]

79767 Mon, Dec1 - Dec15,  5:15PM -  6:45PM [3 meetings]

Met the Cameron Village Regional Library Anime Club - Upcoming Classes at the Cary Arts Center

Thank you Nicole for introducing me to the members of the Library Anime Club. It was very nice meeting you all. Now I will have to look up "Black Butler" and the other funny anime that you highly recommended (was it something sounding like "Orion"?). Hope everybody was inspired to continue to work regularly with your sketchbooks after our short drawing demo session. The links listed on the column to the right include several art materials tips, drawing and paper craft templates, and my list of recommended reference and drawing technique books. That should keep you busy until our first official "Manga Sketching Workshop" sometime in the Spring.

Cary residents might want to keep an eye out for my upcoming "Cartoon Sketching - Manga Style" 3-lesson series in the Winter catalog of the Cary Arts Center. Starting on February from 4:30 pm-5:30 pm and 6:00 pm -7:00 pm every Monday after school, we will cover tentatively:

1. Fantasy Creatures.
2. Superheroes.
3. Dragons and monster design.
4. Ninja sketching school.

We also got a 2-hour Manga Sketching Workshop for Teens planned for the last Saturday of January 2012.

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!

Gathering some Goodies to Assemble Prize kits for Cartoon Sketching class contests

Time to start searching my storage bins and assemble a few prize kits for the drawing contests commonly held during my Cartoon Sketching classes in the after school program.
The white polypropylene slim pencil holders should make nice compact sketching kits. They are half the size of the regular pencil cases commonly found at retail and office supplies stores.
No idea how well the Spanish Paperchase neon erasers might perform, but I am fairly certain that they will be well-received by female students.
Squads of plastic ninjas ready for action. Actually plan to use them for drawing reference in upcoming lessons.

Cartoon Portrait Warm Up and Upcoming Public Event

Been practicing my speed sketching skills for the upcoming 15th Annual Downtown Naples New Year’s Art Fair. I will be in the live art area on 5th Avenue South from 10 am to 5 pm on the 1st and 2nd of January of 2011. Drop by to welcome the New Year and get your cartoon portrait drawn in a jiffy.Sharpie cartoon portrait of a couple of students at the end-of-the year party for the After School program.
Graphite portrait based on a photo.

Painting Ceramic Bowls in the After School Program - Part 3

As this school term comes to a close and the holidays fast approach, many students are on the final stages of decorating their ceramic bowl painting projects. The idea is that they might use them as gifts once they are sealed with a protective coating.
Simple but pleasing cartoon design.
Applying some finishing decorative touches.
Starting the base coat on a new bowl.
Coloring a pre-drawn outline.
Skull bowl.Adding some paint decorations.Can't go wrong with a flaming skull design.Fellow instructor and student adding some decorations with Caran D'Ache Neocolor I wax crayons.Carp design in Ying & Yang pattern.
Painting her pre-drawn coloring outline.
Holiday kitty bowl.
Combining glitter and fresh acrylic paint drips.
These students took their bowls outside to apply the acrylic paint splatter a bit more freely.
While it might have seemed like a good idea at the time, it took quite a bit of elbow grease and water to clean up the surrounding area afterward.
This bowl was overworked a bit too much for my taste. The latter broad paint applications seem to take away some of the character from the earlier splatter pattern.
Some students decorated both the exterior and interior sides of their bowls.
Bowl interior view.
Some fanciful ink drips and splatter.
With light glitter application.
This students made good use of the glitter shaker.
This one in particularly turned out quite nicely.
Finished bowls drying. All that remains is to give them a protective varnish coating.
WIP bowls with their first base coat drying.While it can be a tad messy and labor intensive with the clean up at the end of the day, this bowl painting activity has proven quite popular and fun with the majority of the students participating in the after school program.

Sample Rough Comic Pages Bundle

To have another example bundle of rough comic page layouts for the Comic Jam Project, I penciled the following sheets:Sample male character sheet. Visit the Manga Start site for other useful sketch templates and drawing exercises.
Sample female character sheet.
Rough dialog layout.
Alien versus predator rough layout.
Hunter squad on recon duty.
Alien infestation.
Ground-to-Air battle.
Crisis management at Command Center.
Drone squad attack.
Fantasy battle between Valkyrie and Rhino warrior.
Dino 2-panel gag comic.
Ninja comic page.
Gardening 2-panel gag comic.
Fairy page.