Cartoon Sketching class demo pictures

Made this cartoon portrait of one of the students while demonstrating pen sketching with a Platinum brush pen.

Pencil demo drawn with Tombow Mono 2B pencil.

Attention parents: some quick links to sources for some sketching kit upgrades

Thanks to the teens and parents that came to the manga cartoon sketching class on Saturday at the Cary Arts Center.  I know we discussed and introduced quite a few sketching tools that are not so readily available locally, so for your convenience here are some links for the main ones that your kids may wish to add to their current sketching kits.

Japanese mechanical pencils for those that prefer not to have to sharpen regular wooden pencils:

1. Pentel Graph 1000 a personal favorite.
2. Uni Shift Pipe Lock Drafting Pencils feature a design that protects the drafting tip during transport.
3. Pilot S3 drafting pencils value priced plastic model with sleek look and good performance. I recall seeing it for the first time in photos in the How to Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style book 1 by Hikaru Hayashi.

2 mm Leadholders for a reliable drawing too with constant length and width with a comfortable grip:

1. Ohto Comfort Sharp Leadholders are a nice value priced introductory choice with built-in lead pointer in the push button.
2. Uni leadholders and leads are another personal favorite choice that have been a staple of my own sketching kit for years. You might want to pick up a leadpointer to round up your kit and sharpen your lead as needed.

Waterbrushes and Brush pens to expand the versatility of your sketching kit with the ability to apply watercolors with a minimal set up and draw with brush and ink anywhere:

1. Pentel Aquash waterbrush nice convenient tool for working with watercolor pans and water soluble pencils anywhere. Also available from Holbein, Sakura Koi, and Kuretake.
2. Brush pens wide selection of drawing pens for when you need some line width variation in your strokes. Some feature flexible nylon marker tips, and others are actually made of synthetic filaments and even sable hairs. Popular choices include: Zebra disposable brush pen, Pentel Pocket brush pen, Kuretake No. 13 Fountain brush pen, and Pilot Futayaku double-sided brush pens.

Erasers:

1. Uni Boxy Eraser Black another personal favorite since it does not show smudges given its dark base color.
2. Pilot Foam eraser love its performance with dark softer leads.
3. Iwako erasers for a bit of fun or inspiration, but probably won't be used much for actual erasing.

Initial Session with the Mustangs group at the Boys & Girls Club

The students today really impressed me with their talent and enthusiasm.

Some of the drawings done by the Boys and Girls Club Mustangs group during the character design part of their first Manga Cartooning lesson using some index cards sketches that were provided as reference and some blank sketchboard templates for support.
Thus for their second session, I have prepared a series of Faber Castell Pitt Artist brush pen quick 3-minutes illustrations (about 19 reference doodles drawn in an hour at the food court while waiting for my color ink printer cartridge to get refilled) as examples of some of my sketching symbols from memory.

The students could use them as references to copy when they get stuck for inspiration. I suspect they might make also suitable coloring sheets.

Art Materials for Manga Cartooning workshop

One optional art supply that might be often overlooked is a handy letter size clipboard to hold and support your drawing paper. Try to keep several sheets of paper on the clipboard while working to provide adequate cushioning and get the optimal performance out of your drawing tools. This set up also allows you to easily change the angle of your drawing surface, so that you can view your reference model and your drawing at the same time for improved accuracy.
A couple of readily available paper choices for a beginner's Manga cartooning short course. All the materials shown on the bottom row can be easily found at the office supplies sections of major retail stores. The Canson Manga drawing paper is a sturdy specialty paper that works well with both pencil and inks that can be found at many online art supplies retailers. Faber Castell Pitt Artist pen inks display quite nicely on this Manga paper.
Close up snapshot of the suggested minimalist sketching kit. This reference chart showcase some of the handling properties and the range of greys and dark swatches that can be rendered with a selection of Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencils of different graphite grades (HB through 8B). If I had to pick a single inking pen, the Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen B with its brush nib and waterproof pigmented ink makes for a fairly versatile brush pen choice that can easily draw thin to thicker lines just by changing the drawing hand pressure on the tip. It does take a bit of practice not to prematurely damage the tip of the delicate brush nib: the broad sample strokes were drawn using the side of the brush nib by keeping the pen almost parallel to the paper while the thinner strokes were drawn using a fairly light touch. Avoid pressing the nib point directly against the paper and try holding the pen at an angle to reduce undue stress.

Halloween Coloring Sheets drawn with brush pens

Just a few pictures of the quick coloring doodles I handed out to trick-or-treaters along with Skittles and Sunburst candies last Halloween night. I had fun sketching outside in the cool early evening with my trusty set of brush pens: mainly the Pilot Double Sided Brush Pen, the Uni-ball Brush Pen Set, the Platinum Pocket Brush Pen - soft, and the Kuretake No. 8 Fountain Hair Brush Pen.

Busy little artist

If we look carefully around us, we can learn from even the youngest among us. In this case, my niece Nicole demonstrated great focus and dedication to her art by producing many pictures and postards to share with appreciative relatives.

Set of postcards featuring robots, a butterfly and a puppy to brighten someone's day!

I doodled this quick bee in crayon for her to copy when she asked for other ideas to draw
and she surprised me by turning it into a mixed media piece (using crayon, markers, and my prized Kuretake brush pen) and improving the design with a smile and extra pair of wings. Truthfully, I didn't think that my special tools bucket was within her reach when I left her drawing at my drafting table. I have to admit that she achieved denser black bands with the brush pen, and got to give her credit for her light touch and control of the delicate nylon brush tip. Though I suspect her younger sibling might have been rougher handling the same pen. Close supervision is especially important when allowing children to experiment and use artist grade tools (which tend to be fairly expensive and sometimes toxic). To be safer, select child grade art supplies like Crayola and Faber-Castell "Red Line" crayons and markers for daily practice.
Hrmmm, I suppose I should continue to lose weight since Nicole later crafted such a gigantic paper doll depicting me.