Kid Sketches

Assembling a Manga Sketching Kit

2010-01-03T14:36:00.001-08:00

Just put together a custom sketching kit for Daniela, one of my nieces in Peru, that I just recently learned is really into Manga and Anime. I included a selection of several of my favorite sketching pencils and brush pens along with a reliable 2mm lead pointer and foam eraser. For drawing support I bundled it with a gift set of Naruto Hardbound Sketchbook and Journal by Rock Paper Pencils. The full rundown of tools included in the pencil case:

Sakura 127 0.7 mm mechanical pencil with spare Pentel Hi-Polymer leads
Staedtler Mars Technico 2 mm leadholder with Mitsubishi Uni F refills.
Tombow Mono 4B graphite pencil.
Sakura XRFW-100 Foam Eraser.
Maped Tattoo canister pencil sharpener (not shown).
Staedtler 2 mm rotary lead pointer tub.
Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen black brush pen.
Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen Shades of Grey
6 pen set.

This assortment should meet the needs of most fledgling artists in Middle School through High School after they have had some initial practice sketching and drawing with regular No. 2 pencils. They would then be best able to appreciate the different feel and advantages of mechanical pencils: mainly eliminating the need for frequent sharpenings and having a uniform length, balance, and grip all the time since they do not get shorter after each sharpening. The Pitt brush pens offer some of the performance of a brush with their ability to smoothly lay down an organic line of varying width with the convenience and clean-handling of a modern pen with their self-contained reservoirs of waterproof India inks. Their brush nibs might not be as resilient and durable as I would prefer, but at least they are reversible prolonging their useful life. The hardbound sketchbook and journal provide an adequate permanent personal record of the artistic development and progress of each students though I suspect that many older students might prefer a plain black sketchbook instead of the Shonen character branded books shown above.

Canson Fanboy Comic & Manga Trading Cards Review

2009-12-31T20:56:00.000-08:00

As I continue to try the pre-made Artist Trading Cards (ATC) blank packs available commercially, I picked up a couple of Canson Fanboy Comic & Manga Trading Cards boxes on my last visit to the Jerry's Artarama store in Miami. Each box contains 20 cards (2.5" x 3.5" 150 lb/250 gsm acid free paper) with their protective sleeves.
A two-sided instructional sheet is included in each box. One side is printed in French and the other in English. It is more of a quick primer and a bit of inspiration to get a budding manga artist started.
The front and back of each card is printed with non-repro blue grids for framing miniature art and recording the name of the artist and contact info.
Used the Prismacolor Archival Illustration Markers with a chisel, 03, and 005 nibs to ink a ninja character on the blank Canson Fanboy manga card. For a tighter cleaner image, it would be better to draw the coloring outline first with pencil, ink it, and then erase any remaining pencil marks that are still visible.
The Prismacolor 005 pen nib is quite delicate and bends rather easily under my normal drawing pressure. Thus, I had to periodically rotate the pen to bend it back to its original shape. I should probably stick to the 03 nib as my smallest regular pen nib, but all of them feature a steady ink flow and smooth performance on all the ATC stock tested. Even the bent nib retained its functionality throughout the test, but I would not expect the 005 nib pen to last as long as the larger nibs in the long run. Already decided not to get the 005 eight color set because of this experience.
Couple of finished cards drawn on Canson Fanboy manga paper. Once in its protective plastic sleeve, the card is a tad more difficult to photograph.
Not really happy with how this mermaid card turn out on the Blue Line stock. Yellow was not a particular good choice for rendering shadow areas of skin tones. Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens can be difficult to blend and apply evenly. I actually prefer the uncolored stage of this particular example.Selecting the colors more carefully and working from light to dark hues resulted in the cleaner image of this dragon sketch card drawn on smooth Strathmore 300 Bristol board.
The small size of the ATC format allows for their design and completion in a short time with very few tools almost anywhere. Managed to do a few of these sample cards while waiting at the hospital and auto shop.
Using the thickest pen nib, 08, to outline the figure and separate it from the background more clearly.
Sketching with the Prismacolor Archival Illustration Markers to create waterproof coloring outlines and coloring them with the water-based Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens is a pretty effective combination of art materials.
Finished custom manga set of ATC in their protective sleeves.
The Canson paper readily accepted H and & 7B graphite marks and erased fairly easily without damage to its surface .
A pack of Canson Fanboy Comic & Manga Trading Cards is quite a suitable addition for a field sketching kit. Its compact size and performance works well while on-the-go with a variety of drawing and coloring tools. The box of 20 cards with their sleeves is often priced quite competitively for 2-4 bucks, so it can be a pretty efficient option for when you lack the time to cut your own ATC cards.

Holiday Guide Addendum

2009-12-16T10:42:00.001-08:00

As we get down to the wire with the holiday gift season, here is a short list for suitable gift suggestions for budding artists that might enjoy some quality watercolor sets:

Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencils set of 12 would be a good start.
Caran D'Ache Supracolor II set of 18 watercolor pencils another nice option.
Caran D'Ache Neocolor II set or 10 or 15 watercolor crayons. A personal favorite which I carry everywhere.
Holbein Artists' watercolors set of twelve 5 ml tubes.
Winsor & Newton Artists' watercolor half pans gift set. A classic choice.
Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks - a couple would make a neat stocking stuffer.

Ooops forgot to mention a couple of tools to use with these sets:
Pentel Aquash or Kuretake Niji waterbrushes - make an ideal bundle with the watercolor pencils and watercolor half pan sets.
For traditional round Kolinsky sable brushes, I would suggest researching if the following might suit your needs:
- Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Round Brush, for I really like my #4 for some loose sketching.
- Escoda Kolinsky-Tajmyr Sable Pointed Round Series 1212 & 1214, a responsive brush manufactured in Spain.
- Raphael Kolinsky Red Sable Fine Pointed Round Series 8404, I still have to try one of these, but I have seen it mentioned often as a popular choice for comic book inkers.

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

2009-12-15T19:09:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-15T18:34:00.000-08:00

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.

Photo Journal of the Card Making Station at the Family Night of the Boys & Girls Club

2009-12-14T23:08:00.001-08:00

Along with other artists from the United Arts Council (UAC), I participated in the Family Night of the local Boys & Girls Club about a week ago, and finally got around compiling this photo journal. I set up the greeting cards making station in 3 picnic tables (2 for coloring the 4 available card templates, and one for decorating them with glitter).
Poster display sleeves came in quite handy for covering the tables, providing a evenly smooth work surface, and securely holding the colored reference sample cards and step-by-step instruction sheets.
The coloring tables were stocked with an assortment of fine and broad tip Crayola washable markers that also included a selection of skin tone colors and some bright colors to expand the expressive range of the sets of classic colors.

Several families worked together on their holiday cards.

The finishing table was stocked with plenty of Crayola glitter pens, glitter shakers, and glue sticks to add some sparkle to the colored cards.

Abby with her display of students' art works. Had the pleasure of help jury the entries a couple of days earlier.
The Beads tables were another popular self-service craft activity available on this evening.

Several families enjoyed making their own holiday twig baskets with David and Sarah.

Miss Niki ran a very popular Clay Bowl Making station.

Kim held a Snowflake Ornament Station were Petri dishes were used quite ingeniously as the support for the paper cut out snowflakes.

Towards the end of the evening, I ended up doing several cartoon portraits and speed sketches of dragons and mermaids upon request which proved fairly popular (though did not manage to take any shots of that, for I still have to figure out a way to draw and photograph myself at the same time).

The benefit of sharing artist grade supplies with children

2009-12-12T00:29:00.000-08:00

Nicole finishing her homework with her "favorite lucky pencil": a Staedtler Mars Technico 2 mm leadholder. How many first graders do you know that can handle and operate a clutch pencil with a knurled metal grip on a regular basis? I started allowing her to try my gel pens, drafting tools, and watercolors gradually after she turned 2 years old. Thus she has gained some of her confidence and appreciation for artist grade materials naturally from a very early age as she developed her motor skills and eye-hand coordination.
Children often learn by example, so it is quite advisable to share quality time while exploring creative endeavors.
Closely watching her aunt Caro as she discovers the joys of painting with acrylic paints.
Proudly showing her first Barbie drawing for the evening.
Demonstrating her creativity and precise cutting control with her scissors, Nicole came up with a couple of reversible gift drawings depicting a colorful jacket for grandma and a Barbie for her little sister.
Didn't even need a ruler to draw fairly straight lines.

Coloring her third reversible gift drawing by request.

Sketching a coloring outline with a black Faber Castell Pitt Artist brush pen.
Her gift drawing to me: the wrapped present image drawn on the front, and a coloring picture drawn on the back. The easel with the castle drawing and the watercolor palettes and brushes show that with her keen observation skills she has already taken notice of my favorite hobby and interest in art supplies.
Out of the blue, Nicole declared that she was then going to draw an abstract piece.

Just finished her abstract piece.
A few examples of the creative work done on a single afternoon by my 6-years old niece. The concept and execution were entirely her own. All I did was provide her with some sheets of blank card stock and lent her some of my Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens to explore her own ideas. Sometimes all that is required to foster a child's interest in art, is to provide encouragement and supervised access to quality art materials. Just make certain that such tools are non-toxic and sturdy enough to meet their needs in a safe manner.

Artist Trading Cards (ATC) early tests

2009-12-10T23:20:00.000-08:00

Continuing to brainstorm material for art enrichment classes for Elementary school children next year, I am focusing on small format activities that could be accomplished in 50 minutes class periods while keeping supply requirements and clean up to a minimum for a quick turnover of the classroom. Given the popularity of Kodomo (Manga for kids) card-based games like Pokemon and more recently Bakugan, young kids (9-12 yeras old) are likely to get drawn to an activity where they could create their own Manga style trading cards. Creating Artist Trading Cards (ATC) is an ideal creative activity for kids that allow for effective experimentation with a variety of sketching and coloring tools (crayons, colored pencils, markers, pigment liners, watercolor, and even some collage) in a short time period. While cutting your own 2.5" X 3.5" cards typically used for ATCs from larger sheets is certainly a cost-saving option, they are also available in convenient packs of 20 Strathmore 300 Bristol cards (with smooth or vellum finish depending if the intended media will be India ink or graphite pencil) for when we might be a tad short on prep time.
For drawing the coloring outlines, I used a brush pen loaded with a Platinum ink cartridge, Copic multiliner SP pens, and a Staedtler Technical drawing pen since their waterproof ink would better resist smearing when coloring with alcohol and water-based media.
Always a good idea to have a larger piece of scrap paper beneath the ATC to facilitate coloring all the way to the edge.
Coloring stages.
Close up of the finished card.
First sample set of ATCs colored with Copic Sketch Markers and Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens.A few coloring cards ready for testing.
The small format allows for quick completion time with fairly satisfactory results. Nicole here looks quite pleased with the card she just colored in a few minutes.
Colored Mermaid card close up.

Photo Journal of the last After-School Holiday Cards making class for Elementary School students

2009-12-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

After introducing myself and doing my signature speed sketching demo of a dragon on the dry erase board, I explained the process of decorating the Holiday Cards templates with Crayola markers, Pentel Outline markers, and glitter.Elementary school students (3rd & 4th grade) enjoying the United Arts Council (UAC) after-school Holiday Cards making class.

Coloring stage.
Once the students finished coloring their blank cards with the markers and silver pens, they had the option of adding some sparkling decorative touches with glitter shakers or glitter glue pens.
Using a finished reference card as a guide.
While the Crayola Glitter pens can be a tad hard to control, they can yield some nice decorative results with a steady hand, steady pressure, and some patience.

Students working at the glitter station that was strategically set up right next to the sink and a large trash can to facilitate clean up.

Students with their completed Holiday Card projects and a couple of finished card close up photos.
Crayola marker colored card sample.
Crayola marker + Pentel Outline marker card sample.
Crayola marker + Pentel Outline marker + Crayola glitter glue card sample.
Got mixed feelings about the use of glitter. While the students certainly seemed to enjoy having the option of using glue sticks with glitter shakers or glitter glue pens, there is certainly a tendency to over use it and cover much of the coloring work with excessive amounts of glitter. A few cards ended up in the discard bin since the underlying outline and marker coloring got buried under a thick sparkling layer of red and silver glitter.

A few close up shots of the finished cards.
Batch of finished cards for the Holiday House sale.Once most of the students had completed their first card and the rest were well on their way to follow suit, I started doing a few random quick 3.5" X 5.5" sketches on request. Initially mostly dragons, Batman, several bunnies with their carrots, and a Sponge Bob. At one point a student requested to be drawn, so I did my version of a speed manga cartoon portrait (the idea is to get a quick impression of the subject with the fewest lines possible resulting in a cartoon that would be suitable for a weekly manga series or webcomic). That's when the line of students formed up and I kept drawing the quick cartoon portraits until it was time for them to catch their buses. As much as I enjoy drawing with a resilient brush pen, a soft flexible brush nib is not suitable when trying to complete a full sketch in a couple of minutes. I continue to find the Sakura Pigma Sensei 0.6 mm pigment pen to be a reliable choice for this speed sketching situations. Its sturdy bullet fiber tip holds its shape well while delivering a steady ink flow under demanding conditions. As I was sketching as fast as I could, I overheard one of the students say "I did not know you were that good an artist!" sounding a bit surprised. I guess I should take that as a compliment or that I might need to polish my intro and holiday cards presentation a tad more. I believe the students enjoyed the creative activities nonetheless, and they seemed quite happy with the sketching practice sheets that were made available to them by the end of class. It has been a pleasant learning experience for me as well, and I am already brainstorming future short art enrichment classes on making sets of Kodomo (manga for children) trading cards or Artists Trading Cards (ATC), creating manga short stories with their own characters and guardian pets, fantasy drawing, etc. My sincere thanks to all the Holiday House Leads, Lead Teachers, and adult class assistants at the Immokalee Elementary schools for their hospitality and support during this Miracle Plus Holiday Cards Project.

Mermaids Sketching Template

2009-12-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

Feel free to print these two sheets for a bit of doodling fun.
Couple of more sketching handout sheets for the Holiday Cards classes.

Practice Cartoon Coloring & Sketching Assignment Sheets

2009-11-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

While some of these practice sheets have been posted before, I figured I would list together all of the bonus sketch pages we have made available for students to take home and practice their budding creative skills after completing their Holiday Card decorating activities in the after-school special classes.

Photo Journal of Ongoing Holiday Card making classes for After School UAC Miracle Plus special program (...cont.)

2009-11-13T00:12:00.001-08:00

Another happy group of students by the end of the Holiday Cards Making class. Some of them managed to do 2 and 3 cards each during the class.
While I normally prefer to remain behind the camera, I'm making a rare appearance on this photo thanks to a gracious school host.
Batch of finished cards.
This group came up with the original idea of "silver snowmen" cards. I think they look quite sharp though I wonder how long will the metallic markers will last at this rate.
Another enthusiastic group of 3rd grade students starting their holiday cards special project.

Groups of happy budding artists with their finished holiday cards.
Students coloring their second batch of card templates.
Another batch of finished cards ready for the Miracle Plus Holiday House sale.
Many students seemed to enjoy adding some decorative touches with glitter and their silver Pentel Outline markers.

Photo Journal of Ongoing Holiday Card making classes for After School UAC special program

2009-11-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

Just completed the first week of After School art enrichment classes in Immokalee Elementary Schools for the United Arts Council. Teaching classes of 3rd and 4th grade students how to make their own greeting cards for their Holiday House fund-raising events planned for December. It's great fun and extremely gratifying to see the students embrace the process and make it their own. It has also been quite eye-opening as to the logistics and flexibility required for efficient and successful sessions. Originally I had intended to provide each student with their own set of 24-50 Crayola Super Tip markers, and I am quite thankful that someone along the way chose to order sets of 8 broad tips markers/student instead. It is challenging enough to have each student clean up and collect their 8 markers by the end of each class. I can't imagine what a classroom might look like with 360-750 single markers spread all over the work tables or desks.

Completed cards by the end of the class. Given the rambunctious spirit of this group of 3rd graders observed in the hallway right before this after-school class, I decided to limit the final decorating step to drawing snowflakes and other decorative symbols with the metallic silver Pentel Outline pens. It proved a sensible choice, since we still managed to complete 2-3 cards per student and reduce clean up time afterward.

The finished cards above were colored with markers and decorated with glitter by 3rd grade students. Given a choice of 6 coloring card templates, most students picked the Snowman or the Santa card design. Given the simplicity of these cards coloring outlines, this class was able to complete and decorate 2-3 cards per student in the hour-long class. The big take away lesson for myself was to limit glitter dispensing to smaller shakers with smaller diameter openings for subsequent classes. Using the large 4 oz shakers with larger openings resulted in glitter flying all over the finishing table.
For this particular class we managed to use the Crayola broad tip washable markers (both Classic and Multicultural sets of 8 markers), Pentel Outline markers, and some glitter shakers which resulted in some nice-looking cards. The Multicultural marker set proved really handy to render a variety of skin tones and open up the expressive potential of a fairly limited palette of 16 markers. Though this level of craftmanship meant than on average each student was able to complete only a single card in the hour-long class.

While I am quite happy with the effort and enthusiasm of all the participating classes so far, I am particularly impressed by the attention to detail and skills demonstrated by this group of 4th grade students.

Printable Colored Greeting Card Samples

2009-10-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

Class supplies just arrived! Quite ready for some some serious decorating of the colored holiday cards with glitter glue pens and silver markers.

Applying some sparkling details to a few more card samples. Feel free to print any of the colored templates below, customize to your liking, and use them for greeting cards these coming holidays

Just print on letter size card stock or premium printing paper. Fold in halves twice leaving colored illustration on the front of the card.Add some highlights and sparkling details with glitter and/or metallic markers like the Pentel Outline markers (optional). Selectively trim part of the right side of the characters' outlines with sharp detailing scissors like the EK Cutter Bee® Scissors (optional).Get or make matching envelopes. Spread some cheer these holidays through conventional mail.

Getting closer on the Elf card design

2009-10-21T00:03:00.001-07:00

First tried using part of an earlier elf drawing by itself for a less cluttered card design. Then sketched a few more pages of elves with a 1.0 mm Sakura Pigma Sensei pen until I came up with one I liked. Shrunk it down to 25% of its original size and pasted it on a blank card template.
I think this card template might be simple enough to color quickly and complete the target set of 6 cards for the card-making class.
First coloring test done with Copic Sketch markers
Digitally placed the scarf behind the arm and tried a slightly different color palette. Finishing with a couple of snowflake patterns drawn with Pentel Outline markers.

Brainstorming the last greeting card template for Class

2009-10-18T19:16:00.001-07:00

Just having some fun doodling an elf in color without drawing a coloring outline first on blank Rhodia paper.
Trying out a few Copic Sketch marker combinations to render skin tones with some variety. Got to come up with a final design to complete a set of 6 coloring card templates to use for class.
Elf taking a coffee break with couple of buddies.

The Baker Elf concept cards. I fear they might be a tad too busy to color in the time allowed. Guess this is what happens when working often with the Food Network playing in the background.
Toy Workshop Elf card template. Left lost of blank space, so students could add their own background details like the rest of the workshop, a holiday tree, or a snow-covered field. Yet it seems rather busy for such a small format (1/4 of a letter size sheet). Not really happy with any of them, so I guess I will sleep on it.

Card Making Class Colored Samples

2009-10-16T20:37:00.001-07:00

Colored a few card templates with Copic Sketch markers to use as finished samples for my upcoming card-making classes at Immokalee Elementary and Middle schools. These finished card samples simply need to be printed on letter size card stock, folded in halves twice, and they are ready to be fitted with an envelope for mailing.

Rikota Brush Markers Set Review

2009-10-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks George for generously sending me these Rikota Brush Markers and Sterling protractor and 6" ruler. The latter two make a nice addition to my collection of straight edges and templates and are a nice reminder of a time when drafting products were actually manufactured in the USA. While the country of origin is not clearly indicated on the markers, it is a fairly safe bet that they were made in China or Taiwan like the rest of the stationery offerings at Barnes & Noble.
These marker sets can often be found in the artists' section of Barnes & Noble bookstores. I would regard them as a value-priced introducion to the creative potential of brush pens as sketching and coloring tools.
Color chart drawn on blank Rhodia paper.
Quick coloring test.

Their brush-shaped felt nibs are not particularly sturdy nor resilient. Three of them are already sporting frayed tips after very light use during these review tests. Line variation is accomplished mainly by rotating the rather rigid nib on the paper rather than changing the pressure on the brush nib.
Their pigment load is low to moderate, so a single brush stroke tends to look fairly light on bright white paper. For rendering darker hues and shadows, they layer and blend fairly well. Yet, I would not bet on the longevity of the work created with these markers. They are clearly meant for creating disposable art like notes, greeting cards, and perhaps some calligraphic marks while the brush nibs are still somewhat new.
This set of 12 Rikota Brush Markers would make a nice coloring present for a kid artist or provide a spot of fun for an adult artist stranded on a strange city away from his or her regular art supplies. For higher quality brush markers, I would recommend trying the Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens or the Tombow Mono Dual Brush-pens.

Using Pentel Outline Markers for decorating colored Greeting Cards

2009-10-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

A few card templates printed on white card stock were colored with Copic Sketch markers and Faber Castell Pitt Artist brush pens.
For finishing decorative touches, the Pentel Outline Markers are particularly useful. They were cleaner and quicker to use than glitter shakers and glue sticks to effortlessly add some "sparkle" in a tightly controlled fashion to the marker-colored greeting cards samples. The main precaution would be to use them in well-ventilated areas since they have a fairly strong solvent smell. The reflective effect was quite visible under artificial lighting and effectively enhanced the cards with the silver "snowflake and star designs"
Finished batch of colored samples with some silver highlights as seen the following morning. The silver effect looked a bit duller under natural light, but it turned out to be just a matter of finding the right viewing angle.

Greeting Card Coloring Templates and Samples

2009-10-10T21:36:00.001-07:00

Just finished a few coloring card templates and colored samples.
Used assorted markers (Copic Sketch, Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens, and Crayola Super Tip markers) and watercolors to color a few of the card templates. They will serve as examples in upcoming card-making classes for Elementary and Middle School students.
Feel free to print out the blank coloring templates below (I would recommend using 110 lb white card stock) and color them with markers (or your favorite coloring media) to make your own holiday greeting cards with your kids or students. You could also add decorative touches with metallic gel pens and silver markers. I would just appreciate a comment or e-mail with feedback on the reception and usefulness of these templates for your group.
This template could be printed on a sheet of card stock and cut in half to make 2 simple cards.
Basic cut out card. Print on a letter size sheet. Fold in halves twice leaving the Santa on the cover. Colored the outline and draw any additional elements you might like. Use sharp precision scissors to cut the outline of the Santa peeking around the wall. If up to the challenge, you could also draw and color the back of Santa inside the card.
This one was designed mainly as a coloring card with some blank space around to allow some creativity in drawing background environment like some snow and a few pines.

These Santa and Snowman designs lend themselves well for cut out cards and as blank canvases to exercise your individual creativity by adding your own background details and decorative marks.

The Maneki Neko cards feature a traditional Japanese Lucky Cat sporting a festive holiday hat.

Mini Card Making Workshop

2009-09-29T10:26:00.001-07:00

For a creative warm-up, the girls started some coloring pages using my trusty set of Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils.
Coloring with Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens.
Painting with watercolors for a bit. Forgot to bring my waterbrushes, so we were limited to using conventional watercolor brushes from my back-up supplies. The girls had a harder time regulating the amount of water to use, and keeping things neat was far more challenging. The pot full of rinsing water ended up on the floor, some yellow ochre rinse water splashed on the fabric cover of a kitchen chair, and the actual paintings were loaded with excess water taking longer to dry. Tip for parents and teachers: to encourage frequent practice and development of watercolor painting skills in young children, the waterbrushes really help prevent the splashing of colored water in unwanted areas and reduce clean up time.
Watercolor by Nicole. Time to switch to the card-making activity.
Sample illustrations from greeting card workshops for kids with a bit of Manga style.
Sample line art for holiday greeting cards featuring a Daruma doll in Santa garb and a Maneki Neko wearing a X-mas hat.
Making their own stickers with a Xyron 1.5" create-a-sticker gadget.
Using some Pentel Outline markers to write some decorative holiday greeting messages.
Bit of collage by adding some custom made stickers to decorate the card's interior.
Carefully cutting around the right half of the drawn image. Naturally close supervision and a steady hand are required at this delicate stage.
Ta-da! cut-out snowman card.
A handful of cards ready for coloring and decorating after working in the kitchen for about an hour. Time for a break and change of activity:

Another Watercolor Session with the Nieces

2009-09-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

Camila can't believe how easily her waterbrush picks up the pigment from the Daniel Smith watercolor stick.
Sketching with the Niji waterbrush.
Mom standing by with the watercolor stick ready to support Camila's painting exploration.
Marissa trying to join in the coloring fun. Adult supervision is particularly important when allowing children to explore their creativity with artist grade art materials.
Coloring with Neocolor II watercolor crayons and Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils on the first page of sample ink doodles in the Exacompta Sketch Book.
Adding some color detail with a Caran D'Ache Museum Fixpencil.
Picking up color straight from the watercolor stick.
Painting with the Niji waterbrush on a Handbook watercolor journal.
Playing with some loose painterly strokes as practice for my upcoming "watercolor painting postcards" demo for the media and tourism representatives at the von Liebig Art Center early next month.
The idea for this watercolor doodle is that an squid-like monster is coming through a inter-dimensional portal (Stargate style).
Combining some painting and loose sketching to achieve different textures with the watercolor sticks. All this fairly abstract watercolor playtime inspired my niece to experiment and create her own piece with the watercolors sticks.
Nicole's abstract creation of a "Multicolored Heart".

A few Sample Warm-up Worksheets for upcoming After-school Manga Cartooning class

2009-09-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

Ok guys if you dropped by to get a head start on the material for the After-school Manga Cartooning class, you could try using the following worksheets as a reference for your daily practice doodles which I trust you have been doing all summer. By now, I expect most of you should have used up at least half of the pages from your sketchbooks.Sample doodle sheet drawn with a graphite pencil.
Worksheet with a large selection of facial traits and head shapes that could be used to draw many distinct faces for a basic cast of characters. Let your imagination fly and create a few characters for your next manga project or short story. These last 3 pages were drawn with a 08 Prismacolor Archival marker.
Constructing assorted faces by starting with different types of head shapes. Round faces with thin necks would be suitable for younger characters while square faces with broad necks would better fit older characters with greater physical strength.
Step-by-step head construction sequence with a bit of age progression in the final step. When sketching in a typical manga cartoon style, just a few wrinkle and expression lines can add several years to the character. Youthful characters tend to sport slender necks and pointy chins. To age them to adulthood: try broadening the chin, thinning the hairline, and widening the base of the nose.

Sketching in color with Faber Castell Pitt Big Brush Artist pens

2009-09-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

Just having a spot of fun sketching a manga version of Peter Parker unmasked with Faber Castell Pitt Big Brush Artist pens on regular printer paper. The outline was drawn first with the black brush pen, and it dried pretty quickly since it did not smear at all when coloring in the flesh tones with the lighter Pitt pens. In general, I find these Pitt Artist Pens (both the regular and Big Brush formats) to be efficient tools for sketching and coloring manga subjects.This manga Batman was actually drawn with a Prismacolor Archival Illustration brush marker which does smear a bit when colored over with the Pitt Artist brush pens. This second sketch was drawn on white card stock.Kaiju (Japanese Giant Monster) that combines traits from Wolf & Tiger (a bit inspired by some samurai manga and Naruto) drawn with Copic and Prismacolor markers and colored with the Pitt Big Brush Artist pens.

Pentel Handy-line S highlighters review and doodles

2009-09-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

Got a handful of Pentel Handy-line S highlighters among the samples I received from the manufacturer a few weeks ago to try and review. Didn't have much reason to use them since I do not mark my books and I haven't had to highlight any photocopies lately. Finally got around playing with them a bit and found them to be quite suitable for some random doodling. Their clever retractable design eliminates the need for pen caps that could be lost. While they are refillable, I have not seen the refills available for sale at any neighborhood retailer (though they can be found online after some Googling). In my eagerness to check how they could be refilled, I unscrewed the refill on the orange highlighter by turning the push button counterclockwise until the whole fluorescent ink refill separated from the nib and could be removed through the top of the highlighter. Perhaps I did not reinsert it back in place correctly, for the ink flow did not return to normal yielding streaky marks. I removed it again and flipped the refill hoping that it would make better contact with the nib, but the improvement in the flow of fluorescent orange ink was marginal at best. Thus the lesson would be not to tinker with the refill mechanism unless you really need to replace an empty refill.
While probably not their intended use, these highlighters worked pretty nicely for some spontaneous doodling combined with a medium Pentel RSVP ballpoint pen line work. The colors show quite brightly on the white card stock as seen in the digital photographs above. When doodling just for fun, they could also be used for drawing laser blasts and light sabers. Keep in mind that fluorescent inks generally do not scan well, so you might not want to use them for illustrations that you plan to reproduce later. The scanner could not pick up the yellow and orange marks of the test doodles.
I think some of my students will enjoy these samples for drawing and marking their study materials when I give them away as prizes during our upcoming cartooning class mini contests.