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

ARTScool presentation for Group of First Grade Students

In what is becoming my signature introduction demo, I speed sketch a dragon on the board to grab the students attention from the start. Thanks to Marilyn from Charity for Change for taking these pictures (otherwise it would have been awfully difficult to give a presentation and take pictures of myself at the same time). This presentation was a prize for a class of first graders in the School "Giver" Program. Since they invited a second class to join them, we had about 50 students in attendance.
We talked about the mission of the Naples Art Association at The von Liebig Art Center and upcoming summer art school program ARTScool.
After having filled the board with demo drawings, I decided to switch to my trusty clipboard for the remaining sketches. That way the students could keep them as souvenirs of the presentation and/or teachers could make copies if multiple students were interested in them.
One of my favorite watercolor pencil illustrations for show-and-tell that I originally made for a birthday party at the Miami Children's Museum.
These are the 2 custom colored samples and the coloring sheets for the kids that I made in advance specially for this event.


"Artist Ninja can paint you into a corner" (joke courtesy of Sheri whom you'll certainly meet if you attend ARTScool)

We completed the hour by drawing as many students' requests as possible with my Worther Shorty leadholder and Sakura Pigma Sensei pens : lots of dragons, a mermaid, a Barbie fairy, a robot, a ninja, and a Bakugan-inspired robot.
Also brought a few of my completed sketchbooks to give the students an idea of the amount of practice and type of art materials exploration that can be conducted on them. I hope that will encourage some kids to start sketchbooks of their own since a couple asked were you can find them.

Testing and selecting a Sketchbook for upcoming cartooning classes

Couple of sample sheets colored with Prismacolor markers to use as cartooning examples during ARTScool presentations.
Getting the class supplies ready for the ARTScool summer classes.
Already got most of the sketchbooks that we'll need for use in class after conducting the different doodle tests shown below.
Creapen brush pen tests.
Pigment pen doodle tests.
Pencil tests.







Several test pencil doodles were drawn on the sketch pad to make sure that wooden pencils and leadholders worked adequately on this support.
We'll have a few pre-printed pages with different panel layouts to speed up the lay down of different comicbook pages.



The 50 lb sketch paper is thin enough so that panel templates and reference images can still be seen clearly through each sheet. Thus I plan to have a few sketching worksheets for tracing exercises on these class sketchbooks.
This Canson Field Sketchbook features the same 50 lb (74 gsm) paper spiral bound with hard covers. The sturdier format makes it the more practical choice for use on-the-go and sketching on location. The lightweight Canson sketch paper readily accepted graphite pencils and pigmented drawing pens.

Paper Mate Classic HB #2 Wood Pencils

Another find from the dollar bin at an Office Depot store. 24 unfinished pencils for a buck sounded like a pretty good deal, and they seem like an adequate starter pencil for my cartooning classes. The back of the box indicates that these pencils were "finished in the USA with wood from Indonesia and/or China and other imported and USA materials". Whatever happened to pencils been simply made on a single country I wonder.
For a quick comparison got a few pencil samples from my collection that lie on the opposite end of the value priced daily general use Paper Mate Classic pencils. The Utrecht Drawing pencil is a store brand pencil designed for art students. The General's Draughting pencil is an above-average thick graphite lead American-made pencil that I found browsing at Pearl. In my opinion the Japanese-made Mitsubishi Hi-Uni is the pinnacle of what a premium art pencil should be and the standard against which all other pencils should be measured: ultra-smooth dark break-resistant lead with an impeccable distinct barrel coating finish.
This comparison marks chart highlights the difference in darkness between the different graphite grades and brands. The 8B Utrecht Drawing pencil is the softest and darkest of the group and naturally is quite prone to smudging. The fact that the F Mitsubishi Hi-Uni pencil looks darker than the HB Paper Mate Classic shows how graphite degree ranges can differ across manufacturers. The Paper Mate pencil's tip was the only one to snap and break off repeatedly during this doodle test, produced the faintest lines, and it also felt the scratchiest. While it is possible to draw with all 4 pencils, it is clear that the Paper Mate was built first as a writing tool for everyday use rather than a practical sketching tool. Like I often remind my students: Artist grade pencils typically do not feature an eraser while writing pencils like the classic #2 usually sport ferrules and erasers. The small pink erasers are adequate for making quick corrections while taking notes but tend to be too abrasive to correct drawings without marring the art paper surface.

A few Moleskine pencil doodles

It is usually a good idea to keep a small sketchbook and pencil with you at all times, for you never know when you might have a few free minutes that could be productively spent making some drawings or writing some thoughts down.
Sandbox at the playground inspired this straight cartoon portrait drawn while sitting on the edge of the sandbox.
Trip to the Zoo
inspired "Tato Keeper of Mutant Bees".
Dragon ninja in training
inspired "Tato meets his Dragon avatar". A pocket Moleskine sketchbook is the ideal size to take along on all sorts of outings and make quick notes, record stray thoughts, and sketch some doodles for later use. If I do not have much warning or carrying space on a given day, I simply stuff the Moleskine with my Worther Shorty or Staedtler leadholder in one of my pockets before going out.

Crayola Hassle Free Watercolors set review

This Crayola Hassle Free Watercolors set was my latest find in the dollar bin of a local Office Depot store.
Since its color palette includes 3 primary colors and 3 secondary colors, this set could easily be used to illustrate basic color theory and the effective use of complementary colors.
Sample color chart and demo doodle on 90 lb Canson watercolor paper. Colors are fairly bright and transparent allowing for some gradual build-up of a painting. The two included white watercolor pens feel just like regular brush nib markers. The tray set is well designed and truly mess-free, for the solid paint pots would not spill even when shaken upside down. Colors can be mixed by simply dipping the marker in two pots, just make sure to start with the lighter color first to prevent its contamination with the darker hue.
When switching colors, the brush markers can be cleaned simply by rolling them on the pre-moistened cleaning pad which is also reversible. It really only takes a couple of seconds to load the marker brush nib with color. While keeping it in the paint pot longer results in a more intense color, it will also make it harder to clean completely before switching to another color.
The set required minimal cleaning as advertised. After cleaning the markers on the pad, I also ran them under the faucet to remove all traces of color after this review test was completed. The cleaning pad also rinsed clean quickly with just regular tap water. Recommended for younger kids and as a good amusement option while traveling by car or airplane given its mess-free nature.