Some of the live caricatures drawn at the Art Festival

My live caricature tent at the Downtown Naples Festival of the Arts.
View from the models' chairs.
Brought my set of 30 Faber Castell Albrecht Durer aquarelle sticks as a convenient source of watercolor.
The base skin tone was laid down with PanPastel Red Iron Oxide Tint. The light facial shading for this sample ninja cartoon was colored with Derwent Graphitint. Before and after blending with a waterbrush.
This Jedi portrait was also colored, but only managed to photograph it in its black and white stage.
At most events with children in attendance, the mermaid portrait is a common favorite of young girl models. We also had an angel and a mermaid-fairy portrait requests, but things were too busy at the time to get a picture of them.
I really enjoyed drawing this particular caricature, for the originality of the request and degree of input provided by this young model that loves parrots.

Spending an afternoon doing art with my Nieces

Had the chance to conduct a few art activities with my nieces during the weekend.
Reference shot.
While using dry media, the girls drew and colored in the living room.
Finished butterfly drawing.
Tackling the Sketchbook Scavenger Hunt Project that I have been using in November with 6-8 grade students.
Also wanted to see what Nicole might do with the references I have been using at the Middle School After School program this past week.
Quite impressed that a second grader could draw this illustrations at the first try by simply studying the reference materials that we had on hand.
Fashion design has been a popular subject lately.
We moved to the kitchen, so the girls could use the potentially messier watercolor kits
Picking some color from the pre-moistened Faber Castell Aquarelle Sticks.
Doodling a puppy in a Cachet watercolor sketchbook.
Just finished replicating the coloring pattern of the sample turtle.
Both girls were quite happy to try my newest watercolor kit.
Camila making another happy heart.
Ta-da! it's finished.
One happy Tulip girl.
Drawing additional coloring outlines with a Staedtler Mars Technico 780 2 mm leadholder.
Wiping the waterbrush clean on a paper towel.
Doing watercolor pieces is always a big hit with the girls. Just make sure you protect the table from accidental spills and remind the kids to properly wash and rinse their brushes. The Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box proved to be quite efficient and a likable coloring kit for both of them. Colors were quite bright and pans readily release saturated washes.

Observations on the Crayola Watercolor Colored Pencils Classpack

Having reviewed the Crayola watercolor pencils already, we'll just take note of a couple of details on this sturdy classpack box. According to the labeling, the pencils were manufactured in Brazil with reforested woods and contain no tropical rain forest wood. There is also a warning that some of the pencils contain colorants that might stain.
To save class time and facilitate their distribution and collection, I bound each set of 12 pencils with rubber bands. So we ended with 20 individual coloring sets in each classpack box.
The bottom of the classpack box features a handy Color Wheel that works well as a teaching aid for explaining color theory, primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors, and how to select complementary colors for maximum visual impact.
One of the main advantages of using watercolor pencils is that they provide a pretty effective painting experience while minimizing the potential for accidental spills. All the colors could be applied dry before having to use a water loaded brush to blend them. With their water solubility and washability, we were able to use these Crayola pencils at the library without problems.
We had a few coloring template options for the students to practice with their new water soluble tools.
Some picked animal coloring templates.
Many of the girls chose to work on the mermaid coloring template.
Some of the students supplemented their color options with custom palettes made by scribbling Faber Castell aquarelle sticks on scraps of paper.
With colors left dry.
With colors partially blended with a wet brush.
The students seemed to enjoy their first session with the Crayola watercolor pencils, so we'll continue to keep them as a coloring option through the rest of their cartooning course.

Watercolor crayon palettes for postcard sketches

Quick art materials list for putting together a watercolor class activity with little equipment and keeping the potential mess to a minimum: watercolor crayon palettes, waterbrush or watercolor brush, and blank postcards. Portable watercolor palettes can be easily made by scribbling watercolor crayons like Faber Castell aquarelle sticks on index cards.
To activate the watercolor palette card, simply swirl a waterbrush or watercolor brush loaded with clean water on the dry watercolor crayon swatches.
Loading up a #3 Trekell Kolisnky round watercolor brush.
Then simply painting on a blank postcard with the fresh color washes.
This watercolor palette card was made with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons on a sheet of glossy card stock. The colors dissolved readily with the wet brush and went down brightly on a Cotman watercolor postcard. These watercolor crayon palette cards do not take up much space and can be customized with color selections according to different subjects: primary colors, secondary colors, and convenience colors for depicting skin tones and different kinds vegetation.

Bit of watercolor doodling

Another use for 3X5 index cards: quick watercolor doodles drawn with a waterbrush and some watercolor pans.
Just for fun decided to color this page of graphite doodles with a few washes of Faber Castell Albrecht Durer aquarelle sticks using a handy medium Niji waterbrush.

More Manga Sketching: Tons of mermaids and dragons

I had a blast this Saturday sketching for the kids at the The von Liebig Art Center Free family day. The most popular sketch request was probably Mermaid drawings for the girls and Dragons drawings for both boys and girls. Couple of the more unique requests were a drawing of roaches and a drawing of a mermaid with her puppy mermaid (that one was a first).
With all the excitement, I forgot to count how many drawings I was able to doodle over the 4 hours event, but judging by how empty my paper box ended up it was probably close to 70 quick sketches.
For those interested in the materials used, I relied mainly on a set of Sakura Pigma Sensei Manga Drawing set and a Faber Castell 4 Pitt Artist Pens Manga Drawing Set on 110 lb white card stock. Their pigmented black ink is both archival and waterproof, so the sketches are fairly light-fast and can be safely colored with watercolors.
When drawing so many sketches upon request, it's probably best to stick to the larger pen sizes to keep up the pace and produce bold outlines. I only needed to use the extra fine XS Pitt nib for writing in the name on the dog tag of a couple of puppies.
The 0.6 mm bullet tip ink nib and 1.0 mm bold tip felt nib of the Pigma Sensei were noticeably worn down by the end of the day since they were used most often, but they still perform quite well producing clearly defined dark lines.
Just in case you missed the Mermaid or Dragon coloring pages from the display table, I'm posting both files below.
Dragon Coloring page drawn with Pigma Sensei 1.0 mm pigment marker pen.
Mermaid Coloring Page drawn with Pigma Sensei 0.6 mm pigment marker pen. The following are a few scans from my display easel portfolio.
This coloring page was colored with Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils.
Faces drawn with pigment liners and colored with aquarelle sticks washes.
Faces drawn with pigment liners and colored with markers.
Robot guard coloring page drawn with Pigma Sensei 0.4 mm pigment marker pen.
Coloring page of Forest Ranger and feathered friends.
As promised, here is the other coloring page for the Forest Ranger 2.
Couple of mermaids drawn with pigment liners. Feel free to print it for reference or for some coloring fun.
Graphite sketch of a Manga face: big eyes, pointy chin, and small mouth rendered in a style often found in Shojo-manga (Japanese comics for girls).
Thanks for stopping by and hope you find some of the information on this blog useful in your path to learning more about manga sketching and my preferred art materials. Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.