The White Pages – Illustrated with meaningfull objects

If you decided to put the text of the poem on the white pages, then you might not have room for a comic strip.

If this is you, then we are going to fill up the white border around the text with objects that are related to key words in the poem.

I have picked out the key words for you, as I felt some words lent themselves to illustration better than others.

Talk about it!

Remember we are only illustrating verses 2-5, on the white pages of our picturebook.

Verse 2:

• Magic
• It’s Halloween today so try and think of lots of magic things, witches and wizards and Harry Potter and pumpkins and spells and fairy’s and elves and broomsticks and wands and all sorts of other things to do with magic.
• You can make a spider diagram to help you think.
• When you have enough ideas, either draw the magic things yourself or find pictures from newspapers, magazines and the internet and cut them out and stick them in around the text.

Verse 3

• Electricity
• Cut out pictures of things that run on electricity; kettles and hairdryers and lawnmowers and motorbikes and anything else you can think of.
• Stick the pictures all around the text.

Verse 4

• Cross
• Try and find pictures of people looking cross. You can either do an image search on the internet and cut them out and stick them in, or you can put your new cartoon skills to use and draw lots of pictures yourself.
• If you are drawing pictures yourself then make sure the pictures all look different.
• We are trying to explore the theme of looking or being cross. We are not trying to draw one of our friends or family getting angry (although sometimes that is tempting.)

Verse 5

• Magic
• Because the poem repeats like a song, so does our theme.
• In verse five I want you to illustrate magic again, but this time chose a different type of magic.
• Look at the things around you in nature and creation and cut out pictures of things you think are magic.
• Some examples might be; the changing of the seasons, when all the leaves turn red and gold; the weather, thunder and lighting and so on; birds migrating; young animals being born…can you think of any more?
• Draw the pictures, or do an image search for the things you have chosen and cut them out and stick them on.

Doodle it!

Have fun, but remember not to stick things too close to the edge of the page, leave at least 3 cm of space all around as a border to leave room for your fingers turning the edge of the pages, and for the spine of the book.

Well Done!

You have taken part in ‘The Big Draw 2008′ and designed and illustrated a poetry picturebook!

You are officially awesome!

I expect that filling up The White Pages will take most of the weekend, but I will post again on Monday for some final advice on presentation, and putting your book together.

Big hugs!! xxx

The White Pages – Comic book style

What happens to the white pages is up to you. It is your chance to be creative and to shine – to make the book your own.

But I do have a few suggestions:

• Imagine a mini story for each verse and use stick men to act your story out on the white pages.
• You can use different colours for the different stickmen if you want to show who they are, or you could give them a meaningful accessory, like a hat, a hairbow, a distinctive hairstyle, a pair of glasses…
• Think carefully about the person you are trying to represent, and what makes them unique
• If they often wear an accessory or you associate them with a certain object, then use that on your stick man drawing.
• If you can’t think of anything then just draw them in a different colour and make sure it is the same colour all the way through, so your audience knows who they are.

 

• You can have five frames for each verse, to tell your story.
• If you are struggling with how to do this, you could tell your story over the five days of the school week, and label each frame Monday, Teusday, ect…
• Or three frames for each verse, to tell your story.
• If you are using three frames then you won’t have much time or space, so just think of a beggining, a middle and an end.
• You will probably need to use some text if you are using three frames to tell your story.

 

• You can arrange your frames going across the page, or up and down the page.
• Try and make all your frames the same size, you may need to measure them with a big ruler.
• Make each frame as BIG as possible.

 

Talk about it!

• Plan your story out on a peice of scrap paper before you draw it in your book.
• Ask your friend if it is clear what the story is from the pictures.
• If your friend is not sure, then you could consider writing in some text to make it clear what you are trying to tell people.
• Try to use as little text as possible.
• Most of the story telling should come from the pictures.

Adding text

• If you are going to add text to your comic you will need to plan where it is going to go before you draw your pictures.
• The pictures are the focus point of your story.
• You can add text to comics in three ways.

1. You can write in capital letters at the top or bottom of the page. this is like giving your story a narrator (someone who reads the story but does not play a charecter. Actors play different parts in a play or TV show, but story books are read out loud by a narrator)
2. You can add text in thought bubbles- this shows what the charecter is thinking, but we have already used this so I don’t want you to do this one.
3. You can add speach in speach bubbles- this shows a reader what the charecters are talking about, charecters say the text in their speach bubbles ‘out loud.’
4. Lastly, and this is a bit of a cheat, you can add text in sound effects.If you have ever seen the Batman comics they were great at this, and the even did the same thing in the Tv show: Pow! Zap! Bang! Wallop! You get the idea!!!!

• So try not to add too much text, as it may make your story look cluttered.
• Text in comic books is generally written in capital letters which are bigger than lower case letters and take up more room.
• Plan for the room that your text will take up in your story frame by drawing a straight line with your ruler and writing along it.
• You can try this on your draft drawing if you want an idea how long your line needs to be.

Doodle it!

Think of a mini story from your life for each verse of the poem ( verses 2-5) and get doodling!

Well Done!

This is a hard doodle, and you are being left almost completely on your own, but it should be lots of fun!!!!!

Body Language…

It’s up to you if you give your cartoon character a body, or just a head and shoulders. As we have drawn a 2D cartoon, that everybody knows is not completely realistic, I don’t think it matters if you give your character an out-of-proportion body.

You could give him or her a smaller body if you haven’t got much room. If I were you I would draw a stick man body for him. It is amazing what you can do with stick men if you think about it first!

How to draw a good stick man

• Don’t give him an extra long neck
• Make his body about the same size as his legs, or maybe a bit longer
• This isn’t realistic, but it will help you show movement and actions with your figure
• Make his stretched out arms about as long as his body
• Stick men don’t necessarily need features or hands and feet
• Sometimes it is best to keep things simple and try and get the movement right

Remember that arms are about expression and legs are about balance.

• If we want to show feeling towards someone we might lean towards them, or away from them.
• We can do a lot with our arms, we can stretch them out wide, fold them in our laps, cross our arms, put our hands on our hips, raise one arm in the air, scratch our heads, chew our fingers, the list goes on…
• You can show all of these things with stick figures
• When we make a movement with our arms or upper body, we use our legs to stop us from falling over.

 

• Legs can stand in a neutral position, which is shoulder length apart. Legs will often be positioned in this way if we are standing still – it looks relaxed.
• Legs can be close together, with heels touching, this pushes our spine up and makes us seem more alert – like the way soldiers stand to attention.
• Legs can bend. We can bend one or both legs or go down on one knee.
• We can throw one leg out to the left or to the right while keeping the other neutral – we often do this to balance out the top half of our bodies.
• We can use our legs to move, to walk, jump, hop and run.

For older readers

Balance: the human body is a complicated system of weights and balances. Our skeleton is finely balanced so that when we need to move one part of our body, we can adjust our skeleton by moving another part of our body to help stop us from falling over.

Often when one side of the body goes up, the other side goes down. You can think of it like a set of scales.

Talk about it!

You can look at sports pictures in a newspaper to get an idea of how this works.

Sportsman often move at high speeds and their bodies move in all sorts of complicated ways and contortions, but they still don’t often fall over. That is because their bodies automatically adjust to help balance them out as they are moving.

Athletes might have to train their bodies to respond in this way over many years if they are asking their bodies to perform a movement that is unusual, but everybody’s skeleton responds this way in real life situations.

It is more noticeable when looking at sports photographs because in Athletics and in other Sports, movements are often more exaggerated.

Doodle it!

Try drawing a stick man performing some everyday actions. Try and think of his body as a spine and keep a fluid line. Try and position his legs in the right way to help balance him out.

Well Done!

Well done, that’s brilliant!

Tomorrow we will see if we can finish your book off by drawing a simple stick man comic strip on the white pages, or using pictures of stick men and other meaningful objects to fill in the white margin around your text.

Design and Layout

I have put the text for the verses along the top on different pages. There are also some back page credits for you to stick on page 10. You can write your own name in!

As this has been a project about drawing, we are not going to be too strict about layout. If you follow these guidelines your book should look brilliant!

1. Imagine your pages are numbered 1-10
2. Verse 1 is going to go on page 1
3. The back page credits are going to go on page 10
4. After that you can try this scheme. The pages with verses on are highlighted in bold:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

So, the pages with the verses on are going to be the same coloured pages that your cartoon character is on….

• Have you got enough room?
• Which text style you use will depend on how much room you have
• Why not draw a thought bubble around the text so it looks like your cartoon character is talking/thinking the words?
• If there is not enough room on the coloured pages you could draw the thought bubble on the white pages…it doesn’t matter…people will still know that it is your character talking….

Think about how you want your white pages to look…I think you have two choices…

• If your white pages stay blank then we draw a simple comic strip tomorrow to illustrate the story
• If your white pages have text on them then try and place the text in the middle, and we can pick out meaningful objects and people to fill in the borders around the text to the edge of the page  

Pick a style of lettering (font) for each verse of the poem.

• Your lettering should be the same all the way through.
• Make sure there is plenty of room for the lettering.
• Then print it out, cut it out and stick it on.
• You can stick it where you like, as long as it is not in the way of anything else.
• Leave at least 3.5 cm at the edge of the page where you fingers hold the page to turn it
• Leave at least 2 cm at the edge of the page that is the spine of your book
• You can geuss this if you like, but the golden rule is don’t go too close to the edges!
• Now neatly cut your text out, and stick it on the page you have chosen…

Well Done!

Well done, that’s amazing! 

Now draw your thought bubble….

The easiest way to draw a thought bubble is to draw your bubble around the text first, and then draw three or four smaller bubbles that get smaller and smaller as they get nearer to you cartoon charecter’s head… 

Good Luck!

Cutting Out and Sticking On

Doodle it!

Now you have your four faces, beautifully coloured in or printed out, you will need to cut around them.

• Cut roughly around the shape of the face and hair in a nice shape, leaving a margin of white paper.
• Find your sheets of coloured paper you will be using and turn them to the right view (tall or long)

• If you want your face to pop up from the page then you can stick it on to some card, then cut the card to fit the shape of the paper face.
• Don’t cut along your contour lines, make sure there is a margin of white paper around your shape.
• You will have to stick something behind the card before you glue it to your coloured paper.
• Something like cotton wool or a thicker piece of card would be ideal.
• The cotton wool will sit in between the cardboard face and the coloured paper, and will make your face stand out slightly from the page.

• If you haven’t got the right materials to make a pop out face then just stick your shape straight on to your coloured paper. Draw a thin line around the shape you have cut out to make it clear that you did it on purpose.

• You will need to do this for all four shapes.

Well Done!

Well done, that’s brilliant. Later on we will be thinking about text and lettering. You are all doing really well!

Colouring in your Charecter

Doodle it!

When you are happy with all four of the expressions you have drawn on your four photocopies you can think about colouring them in.

I was going to suggest using the computer, but as we are going to stick them onto the brightly coloured paper that we have prepared, I think that it might be better to use paler colours. You could try pencil crayons, but really anything goes.

If you do want to try using the computor then Microsoft Paint, or Apple’s free to download Paintbrush is a good way to start. They will let you open a file that is already on your computer and fill the shapes with colour using the bucket tool. You can pick the colours from a colour wheel and if you are using Paint then you can select up to six colours that go together and save them so you can make sure you use the same ones next time.

• Remember you will have to print the file out to get it off the computer again.
• If you make a change and you like it and want to keep it, then rename your file something new. This will make sure your file is put on the shelf in a new place and means that it won’t write over the old one. You can call your file something similar, like faceone.jpeg, and save it in the same folder, so you won’t loose it.

For Older Readers

If the computor programe you are using does not have a custom colour option, (when you can save the colours so you can use them again next time) then you will need to make a note of the colour code that is the #____ number that comes up in a chart when you select a colour from the colour chart (or square shape) This number is called a Hex code. In computor art every colour and shade has it’s own Hex code and if you make a note of it, you can type it in and find exactly the same one next time.

It’s a bit like the colour by numbers paintings you see in ‘real’ art.

Otherwise, you could use paints, pencil crayons, wax crayons or anything else you can think of.

Talk about it!

Try and think if you want to do anything different with the colour for the verse that says ‘it switches me on like electricity,’ you could make your cartoon charecter yellow with bright yellow hair for this bit, or you could make him fried with red and black electric shock treatment if you wanted to make it extra funny.

Well Done!

That’s really good. Later we will be thinking about page layout and where to put the text. You are doing really well! Remember, even if you haven’t been able to make any photocopies and you can’t do the faces yet, you can come back to them if you know what you are going to be doing.

Expressions

Doodle it!

Now you have picked a feeling for each verse, try and draw it on to one of your photocopied faces. If you haven’t got a photocopy, try printing one out. If you haven’t been able to get to a photocopier yet, you can still plan what you are going to do.

Talk about it!

Practice first. A really good way of practicing is to cut a plastic wallet in half so you’ve got two sheets of A4 clear plastic. Then place one of the clear plastic sheets over THE FACE and draw on the expression; which is the eyes with pupils, nose and mouth.

You don’t need to bother with the face or hair if you are drawing onto the plastic as you will be able to see through.

You can try a few of these expressions on the same sheet. If you move your sheet quickly between them it can help you to imagine what your character would look like as an animated cartoon.

When you have found an expression that you feel captures the feeling then copy it onto the duplicate FACES in pencil (or pen if you are feeling confident).

Well Done!

That’s brilliant, your cartoon character is really beginning to take shape now!

• If you haven’t got a plastic wallet you could do a similar thing with tracing paper or greaseproof paper.
• If you draw on the top sheet with a pen, then afterwards you can put it underneath and use it as a guide.

Just to be clear your expression should include:

• Pupils in your eyes
• A nose – just a squiggle is fine
• A mouth

 If your not sure which feeling to pick you can chose one from my list. Choose one for each verse. You can try pressing the ‘Archives’ button if you want another look at the poem…

Landscape or Portrait

Landscape or Portrait

If you have a sheet of rectangular A4 paper, there are two ways you can hold it: landscape, or portrait.

Landscape is the long way, like the horizon line. This is why it is called landscape. Just remember L for Long.

Portrait is the tall way, so the paper is tall like a persons head and shoulders. This is the way paper comes out of a computer printer, so remember P for Printer.

How you chose to hold your paper can have a real impact on your drawing because it changes the space you have got to draw in.

For this project, you will need to look at your cartoon character, ________ _________, and decide which view is better for your book, landscape or portrait.

Make sure your character fits on the page.

You will need to remember to turn your page to the right view (tall or long) each time you plan a new page of your book.

Pages in your book

There will be ten A4 pages in your book. We will make the front and back cover separately.

• 10 x A4 pages
• Front cover
• Back cover

You will need to divide your pages into Left and Right.

A good idea would be to use some of the coloured paper I sent you for the lefts and plain white A4 paper for the rights.

So you will need:

• 5 sheets of coloured paper for the left. Pick one colour that you like so the lefts are the same all the way through.
• 5 sheets of white A4 paper for the rights.

I’ll send you some plastic wallets later so we can put the left and the rights back to back.

For now, just organise your pages in a pile so you have one colour and one white, one colour, one white and so on. Then stack the ten pages out of the way ready to draw on later.

Spider Diagrams

Doodle it!

If you are having trouble thinking about your feelings while you read the poem, you could draw a spider diagram.

This is a picture that looks a bit like a spider. It has a subject written in the middle in a bubble, and lots of legs going off in different directions.  At the end of the legs are all your thoughts and feelings about what is written in the middle. You can also draw pictures at the end of the legs if you find it easier to express your feelings in that way.

For older readers

Lots of people (including me) find that spider diagrams help them to think more creatively about things because of the shape of them. 

Spider diagrams can also help you to find solutions to problems because they let you come up with lots of different ideas, and then chose the best idea.

Spider diagrams let you create, and then evaluate.

Talk about it!

I made a spider diagram for each of the five verses in the poem. Here are some of the feelings I wrote down. Some of them I have used more than once…

• happy
• pleased
• proud
• confident
• special
• surprised
• ready to answer or respond
• alive
• happy
• excited
• curious
• afraid
• scared
• as if i might be in trouble
• giggly, because it is funny
• happy
• safe
• warm
• loved
• contented
• sleepy

Now you have a go!

Words and Pictures

Talk about it!

Words and pictures go together. You will hardly ever see a picture without words.

Here are some examples. Can you think of any more?:

• Paintings in an art gallery have titles.
• Photographs in a newspaper have factual captions. Captions tell you the names of the people in the picture and how old they are. They tell you what is happening in the picture.
• Roadsigns often use labelled diagrams, at roundabouts and so on.
• Books have illustrations. It is often the illustrations that younger readers remember the best.

We will be making pictures to go with our poem and put in a book.

Our design brief is to help our readers respond to the poem.

Because we want our reader to respond in a personal way, and think about their feelings, we are going to use a ‘talking head’ with a speech bubble on the page with the text.

Your cartoon character, _________ _________, is going to be the face we will use.

I know you have a bit more time now you are on half term, so from tomorrow the activities might take up a bit more of your time.

Doodle it!

For today I just want you to read through the poem again and try and describe the main feeling you had when you read each verse. You might need to read each line slowly and think about what it means to you to really understand how you are feeling.

Like this:

In verse one, I felt ………………………………

In verse two I felt ……………………………….

In verse three I felt ………………………………

In verse four I felt ………………………………..

In verse five I felt …………………………………

Well done!

Tomorrow we will think about how to help ____________ __________ act out our feelings about the poem. This is really hard and if you are struggling or haven’t been able to make enough photocopies we can start with one face and do it really well. If you only manage to illustrate one face in October you will still have done really well!!!!

The other thing you could do if you haven’t managed to get to a photocopier is skip this bit and come back to it. You can still design the backgrounds with us later this week and come back to this bit when you are ready.

The Poem

The poem we were going to read was a poem about the seasons and was free to use on the internet. Unfortunatley though, I have lost it. It was not a very well known poem and I can’t find it again on the web or in my browser history. So we are going to use another poem from a book I have at home.

The poem we are going to use is protected under copyright, but as we are doing this as a special project, and I own the book it comes from, I’m sure it will be ok.

I’ve chosen a poem about identity because we have looked a bit at what our names mean already. Here it is;

Isn’t My Name Magical? by James Berry

Nobody can see my name on me.

My name is inside

and all over me, unseen like other people

also keep it.

Isn’t my name magic?

-

My name is mine only.

It tells me I am individual,

the one special person it shakes

when I’m wanted.

-

If I’m with hundreds of people

and my name gets called,

my sound switches me on to answer

like  it was my human electricity

Isn’t that magical?

-

My name echoes across playground,

it comes, it demands my attention

I have to find out who calls,

who wants me for what.

My name gets blurted out in class,

it is a terror, at a bad time,

becuase somebody is cross.

-

My name gets called in a whisper

I am happy, because

my name may have touched me

with a loving voice.

Isn’t it all magic? 

Talk about it!

Read the poem out loud. Poetry is meant to be read outloud. It is a dramatic medium.  It often sounds a lot different out loud than when you read it in your head.

When you read poetry, don’t pay too much attention to where the lines are on the page, try and thing more about the punctuation.

If there is a comma, like this: , then give a small pause

If there is a full stop, like this: . then give a long pause

Make sure your voice goes up when there is a question mark, like this: ? just like in normal talking.

You could try some of these excersises:

• Try reading the poem out loud at different speeds and in different voices.
• You could raise your voice for some bits and whisper for others.
• Try emphasising different words in the sentance and see if it changes the meaning.
• Try making up actions for each line as it appears on the page.
• Be dramatic!!!!!!

Well done!

Well done, that’s brilliant. It’s really good to read the poem out loud as it will help you decide which are the really important bits that you want to illustrate. 

Doodle it!

As you are reading the poem out loud, you might find a particular bit funny, or true or silly. If something jumps out at you then make a note or a doodle on a bit of scrap paper.

Because it helps to make useful things…

I have added a section that describes what we are doing. I will try and do this for all the projects we do in Saturday Club too.

Contour Lines

The thickness of your contour lines might depend upon the thickness of the black pen you are using to draw them.

I have been experimenting with drawing lines over my drawing over the last few days and it seems to change the ‘look’ of ________ ________ quite a lot. I suggest that you make a draft contour line by tracing the outline of your cartoon through some tracing paper or greaseproof paper before you draw on THE FACE. Making a draft will protect THE FACE and make sure that you know what you are doing and what effect your line will have on the ‘look’ of your final character.

Doodle it!

The simplest way to draw contour lines is just to go over the line that is already there and make it a bit thicker.

But, as I’m sure you will have noticed from looking at other peoples cartoons, there are several technique’s you can use. Here are some I noticed:

• Stick closely to the line that is already there, draw inside the drawing (not outside the drawing) if your pen is thicker.
• Remember that as you are following a shape that is already there, you don’t necessarily have to draw in one long line. You could start your stroke going up the page and then meet it the other way going down the page.  
• If you have a thicker pen, you can draw in shorter strokes. It might be easier to stick to the shape of the line that way, and to correct your mistakes.
• You don’t have to have thick lines everywhere. You could use thick lines in some part of your drawing to give definition, but stick to a thinner line elsewhere. A thick line is a bit like the drawing version of an exclamation mark. I tend to add exclamation marks a lot!!!! But not everybody does
• Don’t draw in any of your features (and don’t go over your eyes). Just stick to outlines. 
• However you chose to draw your outline, try and make sure the edges are as smooth. 
• Make sure all the shapes are closed and there are no gaps. This is very important if you want to go on to make art on the computer later, as we can fill closed shapes with colour or pattern to save hours of colouring in (and because it’s cool).

Well Done!

That’s great, you’ve drawn your first set of contour lines! If you feel like you’ve messed up this bit then don’t panic. We might be able to correct mistakes later with a biro, or maybe on the computer.

Pay attention to the details…

Before we start, it is really important now we have put some time and effort into making THE FACE that you find a way to make reproductions.

For this project, we will be making a book, and we need THE FACE to appear four times, once on each page opposite the four verses in the poem.

This means you will need 4x copies of THE FACE, which we will finish off today and tomorrow.

Never draw on your original, (except when I tell you to!) .

Try and beg/borrow the use of a photocopier to make your copies before the weekend.

PC or Mac Art

If you are really stuck, and you can’t find a photocopier to use or borrow then you could try scanning THE FACE into your computer, although you will need someone to help with this.

Once you have scanned a file in, rename it will something you will remember and save it in a folder with your name on.

You should be able to click on the file in your folder to open it any time you want to (obviously ask first) and run printed copies off. I can’t guarantee this though, because I don’t know what scanner or software programme you have at home, so you will definitely need to enlist an adult who knows exactly what they are doing.  

It might be best to scan a copy onto your computor anyway just encase your cartoon gets drinks or food spilled on it or something. You could try asking to use the scanner at School and then saving the file onto a USB flash disk, or emailing it to yourself as an attatchment. It depends what your school policy is as to weather you will be able to do this.

Why is it good to have a permanant copy of THE FACE, and to be able to make reproductions from it?

It is good to have a permanant copy of THE FACE and to make reproductions from it as there probably won’t be another oppertunity to take so much time over an art project again this year.

However, as we have made one charecter already we use him/her for other projects.

Some of the things we could do include:

• Making puppets (on a stick)
• Making brithday cards/greeting cards/thank you cards
• Making funny cartoons
• Illustrating our own stories

I’m sure there are heaps of other things we can do too, and most of them we should be able to do on a Saterday morning or Sunday afternoon, if we can build on the work we have done already.

But before you run off to make copies of THE FACE we have a bit more doodling to do…

Doodle it!

• Find a black pen that you like and are happy using and go around the shape of both your eyes
• A biro or a gel pen or a thin black felt tip would all work, try a few strokes out on a peice of scrap paper to see which one you like best, and find easiest to work with
• If THE FACE of _______ ________ has eyelashes or eyelids that you want to be there every time you draw him, then draw those in now, you can draw in pencil and go over with pen if you perefer
• If your cartoon charecter wears glasses, then draw them in now.

Well done!

That’s amazing, you have given THE FACE of ______ _______ two rather special eyes. Tomorrow, we will be drawing contour lines, so don’t run off to make your scans or photocopies just yet!!

Talk about it!

A contour line is a smooth, black line. It is an outline and it helps to make your cartoon look proffessional.

Traditionaly contour lines were drawn in very carfully with black paint or ink and a brush. You needed a steady hand for this kind of work!

Nearly all cartoons have contour lines. For some reason contour lines are very important to cartoonists, although I’m not really sure why. Choosing how thick to make your contour line can make a huge difference to the look of your cartoon.

Here are a list of cartoons charecters, try and have a look at some of them and the way they are drawn, paying particular attention to the contour lines. (Some are for younger readers and some for older readers):

(you don’t have to look at them all!!!! Maybe just pick the ones you like/watch already!!!)

• Ben 10
• Charlie and Lola
• The Powerpuff Girls
• The Disney Films, Aladdin, Lion King etc.
• Scooby Do
• Tom and Jerry
• Jonny Bravo
• Tracy Beaker
• Mona the Vampire
• Miffy (picture books)
• Spongebob Squarepants
• Neopets (online community)
• The Simpsons
• Pokemon

Now have a little think about how thick you want your contour line (outline) to be, and what sort of black pen you are going to draw it with…

Eye, eye, captain!

Doodle it!

• Find a pencil. We are going to draw eyes onto THE FACE
• A harder pencil is best. Hard pencils will have the letter H and then a number, an HB pencil is fine but make sure it has a sharp point.
• Most pencils are HB, so if you are using one of these, sharpen it carefully before using it.
• Draw lightly, don’t use too much pressure.

• Find your cut out eyes and place them on THE FACE.
• Make sure they are the right way up.
• Draw one eye at a time, starting with the right eye.
• This means you want to be able to see the big R you drew on your cut out.

• Place your cut out on the guideline going across your face, which is going to be your eye line
• Make sure you are happy and that your eyes are not too close together or too far apart

• Get a friend to put an index finger on your cut out eye, do it doesn’t move when you are drawing it.
• If you are careful you should be able to draw around the eye shape without too much slipping
• If there are a few mistakes or the shape is not very smooth, carefully correct the line with your pencil

Well done!

You have drawn your first eye!

Doodle it!

• Now you need to do exactly the same for your left eye
• Turn your cut out eye over so the big L that you drew if facing up so you can read it
• Put the cut out on the left side of the guideline that you drew
• Make sure the left eye is about the same distance from the middle as your right eye
• And follow the same steps you used to draw your right eye!

Well done!

You have given THE FACE of __________ ___________ two lovely eyes.

Talk about it!

Hopefully we are going to make some photocopies of THE FACE so we can draw different expressions onto it, so you will need to think which of the details around your eye you want to be permanent.

The permanent features of your eye won’t change each time you draw them, so go back to your doodles that we did in our planning and decide what is really essential.

Don’t draw in your pupil!

Tomorrow we will be finalizing the detail on both our eyes and talking about ways to reproduce THE FACE so we can draw expressions on it as _________ __________ responds to the poem we are going to read together.

Well Done!

That’s brilliant, I think you have done really well so far!!

Hairstyle!

Doodle it!

• Now we have got cut out hair and eyes we are going to start assembling our final cartoon face.
• Use a duplicate photocopy with guidelines on
• Carefully cut around the outline of the face that has been drawn on in pen. If you not confident with scissors you can ask someone to help you.
• From now on we will call this THE FACE.

• If you are happy with the shape of the hairstyle you cut out a couple of days ago you can stick it straight onto THE FACE.
• Paint the glue onto the part of your cartoon head that your hair will cover, and then attach your cartoon hair, pressing firmly
• Remember that hair usually takes up the top third of THE FACE.
• But if you stick it too far down you will probably have to make your eyes smaller later on.

Well done!

You have given your cartoon man a cool hairstyle!

Talk about it!

Drawing our eye line half way down our head shape is a trick we have used to make our face look more like a tennis ball. We have moved everything on our face down a bit so our hair can ‘grow’ naturally from the hairline at the front of our head, instead of sprouting wildly like a punnet of cress from our baldy scalps.

You can take a rough measure with a pencil to check if I’m telling you the truth.

To measure with a pencil you need to look in the mirror and hold a pencil at arms length. Close one eye and move the pencil slightly back and forth until it is the same size as your face in the mirror (it’s that perspective thing again.)

You might need to move your chair nearer or farther away from the mirror so you have the pencil in the right place. Also, make sure you keep one eye closed or the measure won’t work.

When your pencil is the same length as your face in the mirror, move your thumb up to where your eyes are.

Then lower your pencil and put it on your page, without moving your thumb.

This will show you roughly how far down your face your eyes go.

Artists often use this rough measure, probably because they are always carrying pencils with them! They use it for faces and also other things like landscapes.

Grab a pencil and try it out!

The History Bit

A note about serious drawing

Yesterday, we talked a bit about measuring and how where things are in space makes a difference to how they appear to the human eye. 

The main thing to remember when you are trying to make a realistic drawing (much more difficult and serious than making a cartoon) is that you are trying to recreate the way objects, plants, pets and people look to the human eye.

The easiest way to do this is to look at them!

There are lots of different tricks you can use with a simple pen or pencil that can help you to recreate how things look in ‘real life.’

We will continue to look at some of these in Saturday Club, but as I have said before, I’m no expert.

Why doesn’t everybody make realistic drawings?

In the days before photography, realistic drawings were very important and a drawing or painting would be the only way of knowing what someone looked like, other than actually looking at them.

Many wealthy or famous people would pay to have their portraits painted so their family would remember them when they died. The only way we know what the famous Tudor King Henry the Eighth looked like is because we still have paintings of him. We have to trust that the artist who painted him did a good job and achieved a good likeness. Photography is a fairly new way of capturing what somebody looks like. It’s only about 150 years old.

Photographs are considered to be a more accurate than a painting or drawing. This is because:

• Photographs collect data
• The data they collect is light waves
• Photographic cameras record light waves on to photographic film
• They physically capture the light and record it onto a material we can touch and hold
• Digital cameras do not have a film but they still collect accurate data and they still record light waves
• Digital cameras record light waves electronically

Photography and the human eye

Cameras collect data in the same way the human eye collects data. The data the human eye collects is exactly the same data a photographic camera collects. What we see through our eyes and what we record on a photographic film is the same thing: light.

The problem for drawers is that we don’t draw with our eyes.

We draw using our hands. We tell our hands what to do with the pencil or pen with our brains. Our brains receive light information from our eyes and interpret it.

“Ohhh, that looks like a tree,” our brains might say, or, “I have never seen a cat so fat before.”

Our brains do this automatically, we can’t stop them. But it means that however faithfully we try and record the information we see with our eyes, by the time our pen or pencil makes a mark on the page we have already made a judgment.

Making judgments is actually one of the really fun things about art.

It does mean though, that realistic drawings have fallen out of fashion to some extent.

Because we now have cameras to capture light data and they tend to do it quicker and easier than a human artist can.

Breaking the rules!

Many artists have discovered they love to make judgments! When drawers and artists are not tied to a set of rules that help them to make things realistic they can do more or less anything they want to.

As we have said before, one of the great things about being creative is being able to bend the rules, or to break them altogether.

What we have done throughout October is try and learn a few basic rules so you know how thing work…

Hold tight, because we are just about to break them!!

Drawing is not a Maths Lesson

Do you remember, right at the start of October, I made a statement (even though statements should not have exclamation marks).

I said: drawing is not a maths lesson.

Then I asked you to measure your face and feel for the bones and we talked about anatomy and you might have been fooled into almost thinking that drawing was a maths lesson, kind of.

Well, it was just a trick. Drawing is still not a maths lesson.

Talk about it!

Here are some reasons why drawing is not a maths lesson:

Maths is about numbers and figures. Drawing is about shapes and lines.

Some maths is about shapes and lines, but when we are using maths, or drawing mathematical drawings, shapes and lines are usually measured accurately and to scale.

Mathematical drawings are things like plans and designs.

In mathematical drawing, lines and angles are carefully and accurately measured using special equipment that gives accurate results every time.

Compasses and set squares and rulers are all used regularly in mathematical drawing.

In creative drawing we use our eyes to guess the measurements of the things in fount of us. Sometimes we might take a rough measure, because getting things in the right place is still important, but it doesn’t matter if we get things wrong. We can be creative.

Being creative sometimes means bending the rules, or learning the rules, and then breaking them.

For older readers:

The main reason why drawing is not a maths lesson is because creative drawing is based around an optical illusion, a sort of magic trick.

The world around us is measured in three dimensions. When we measured our face, or measured our guidelines, we measured the height (length), and we measured the width. We did not measure the depth.

We know our face has depth because we felt it with our fingers. Depth is the third dimension.

In mathematical speak we might say that an object has volume. We could calculate (work out accurately) the volume of an object by measuring its 3 dimensions. Like this:

length x width x depth = volume

The problem with this is, a piece of paper does not have three dimensions. Because it is a flat surface, it only has 2 dimensions.

A piece of paper is two dimensional.

This is a very serious problem. Realistic drawing involves drawing 3D objects onto a flat surface that only has two dimensions.

This problem is so serious that artists didn’t really work out how to solve it properly until about 700 years ago. That means that people were not able to solve the problem of how to make a realistic drawing for is a very long time. We can work out that it was a very long time like this:

Millions of years the world has existed (when people have been painting and drawing) – (minus, or subtract) 700 =

a very long time.

The device artists use to solve this huge, humongous problem is called perspective.

Perspective is a trick of the eye drawn on paper.

The trick is:

Things seem to recede or get smaller as they move further away from the person who is looking at them.

This means that:

• The closer things are to the viewer, the larger they appear.
• The further away things are from the viewer, the smaller they appear.
• There will come a point where an object will appear so small to the human eye that it will seem to disappear.
• This point is called the vanishing point.

Why is this a trick?

This is a trick because objects don’t change their size depending upon how far away they are from our eye. They only seem to change their size. If we measured them, they would still measure exactly the same.

How do we know this is true?

We know this is true from looking at a set of train tracks.

Here is how it is…

• Train wheels are fixed on an axle, so they are always the same distance apart.
• Trains don’t use roads, they follow train tracks.
• Train tracks are two lines that always stay the same distance apart (often called parallel lines).
• If train tracks didn’t always stay the same distance apart, then the train wouldn’t be able to follow the tracks and would fall of the tracks and derail.
• And yet, when you look at a set of straight train tracks, they will seem to get closer together as they get further away from your eye.
• The tracks will reach a point where they seem to disappear altogether (if you are looking at a stretch that is long enough).
• The point where the tracks disappear is called the vanishing point.
• The vanishing point is always located somewhere on the horizon line.

(Something odd does happen to train tracks around the point where they have to take a bend, but you would have to ask an engine driver about that, what I tell you is mostly true.)

Doodle it!

Draw a set of train tracks vanishing into the distance for yourself, and you will see what I mean!

Well Done!

You have taken your first step towards learning about perspective. Perspective is the trick of the eye that artists try to mimic to help their drawings appear three dimensional. Perspective is very hard to understand and many adult drawers don’t understand it, or can’t get it quite right.

Perspective is not one of the tricks we are going to use in our cartoon drawing as it is far too complicated.

Cartoon characters are often not realistic.

We have already used some other tricks in our cartoon drawing though.

Can you think what they are?

(I’ll tell you tomorrow…)

Hair and Eyes

Talk about it!

Yesterday I modeled my cartoon hairstyle.

I roughly traced my face shape onto a sheet of A4 paper.

Once I had roughly traced my cartoon face onto the bottom middle of my A4 page, my next job was to draw my final cartoon hairstyle.

I drew my hairstyle over the face shape in pencil. I picked the hairstyle I liked best from all of last weeks doodles and tried to copy it.

It took me a couple of goes to get it right.

Next, I roughly cut out the hair shape and stuck it onto the back of an A4 brown paper envelope.

When the glue was dry I cut carefully around the lines. Viola! One cartoon hairstyle!

Doodle it!

Now you try… here are some steps to follow:

Step 1

• Your original drawing is in pen, so you should be able to trace it roughly onto a sheet of white A4 printing paper.
• Trace in pencil.
• Draw your face onto the bottom middle of your plain sheet of A4.

Step 2

• Roughly draw in your guidelines (the two lines that cross in the middle) in pencil.
• Your guidelines will help you find your eye line, which is the guideline across the middle of your face.
• Your hair starts above your eye line.
• How far above depend will depend on your chosen hairstyle, but a good rule is that hair should take up 1/3 of your cartoon face.

Step 3

• If it helps you, divide your cartoon face into 3 equal parts. The top third is where your hair will go.
• Remember – bigger is better!
• Your hairstyle should grow past the top of your cartoon head, up into the empty space above your face shape.
• This is why we are drawing on A4 paper, to leave plenty of room for your hair!!!

Step 4

• When you are happy with the pencil shape you have drawn, roughly cut the hairstyle out.
• Stick it onto the back on an A4 envelope. Brown envelopes are best as they are slightly thicker, but you could recycle a used white envelope.
• If you can’t find an envelope use some thin card or another sheet of paper – you don’t want your hair shape to be too floppy though or it will be harder to draw around.

Step 5

• When the glue is dry, cut carefully around the hair style.

Well done!

Brilliant! I think you should feel a real sense of achievement! Your cartoon character will really begin to take shape now he (or she) has got some hair.

Why not play about with your new cartoon hair and cut out eyes. Move them about a bit, doodle in a mouth, see what looks good to you.

You can always make more duplicates, or just roughly trace through on a page of A4.

Make sure you leave at least one photocopy for best!

Checklist

Doodle it!

We have done a lot of planning and we know what we want our cartoon characters to look like.

My checklist is below, what’s yours?

(you don’t have to draw anything yet)

Talk about it!

Here is my checklist…

• Eyes – my eyes needed to be smaller, so I trimmed around my cut out until I had a shape that fitted my cartoon face. A good way to do this is to draw a smaller shape inside your cut out in pencil and then trim the edges, making sure you stay within the lines.
• Pupils – now I have trimmed them my eyes are quite narrow, so I gave my cartoon character slanting pupils, like a cat.
• Eyebrows – No eyebrows for me.
• Eyelashes – I have drawn two top eyelashes. I will sometimes draw in bottom eyelashes if I want to show my cartoon character opening his eyes extra wide, but when he is blinking, the top set will move to the bottom, if you see what I mean!
• My cartoon character is extra shy and I have decided he will blink a lot when he is feeling shy/confused/overcome/embarrassed, so getting this right was key for me.
• Eyelids – I am only going to draw a slightly thicker top line for an eyelid. When my cartoon character is feeling extra tired I will make this bigger.
• Hair – my character has wild, wavy hair that always looks like it is moving.
• Ears – you will never see his ears.
• Nose – just a kind of heart shaped squiggle.
• Nostrils – no nostrils
• Lips – quite a thin top lip. Thicker bottom lip but not too pouty. My cartoon character has a really wide smile! (You never see his teeth.)
• Accessories – no accessories for me, just a big smile!

It might help you to write a sentence about each feature you have picked to help you remember and fix in your mind what you are going to do.

Well done!

Tomorrow we will start modeling your cartoon character’s hair. This is taking a long time, I know, but hopefully the effects will be worth it. Big, massive huge well done for sticking with it!

xxx

Colour and Emotion

So far we have thought about how your cartoon man looks, but not how he feels.

We know that ________ _________ can:

• wink
• blink
• smile
• frown
• yawn
• rest

Over the two weeks we are going to read a poem and think about how your cartoon character would respond to it.

For today we are just going to use colour to help us think about cartoon emotions.

Doodle it!

• Now we know your cartoon character’s favourite colour, pick a medium (something to draw with) and doodle him feeling an emotion in his favourite colour.
• You can pick any coloured medium we have used over the last few days, or try something new (we have used wax crayon, chalk, felt tip pen).
• You can pick an emotion from the list below.
• Happy, sad, exited, tired, confused, surprised, very, very, very happy!

Why are we doing this?

When we draw cartoons we try and show emotions through facial expression and body language. We make our cartoon character act out the story we want to tell by drawing him in a certain way.

Our cartoon character is not just a cartoon, he is an actor as well! To show emotions and feelings to your readers (your audience) you will probably need to use some of the actions we have practiced over the last few days.

The golden rule is: actors use actions to show feelings and emotions.

Well Done!

This can be hard to understand and hard to draw, but have a go and keep practicing. We will be fine tuning your cartoon character this week, so don’t worry about mistakes!

Talk about it!

This drawing exercise is a lot harder than it sounds. It might help you to pair up with a friend and ask them to act out the emotion you are trying to draw. You can try and draw and copy them (onto your cartoon character’s face).

Then swap and they can draw and copy you. 

It might help you to use one of your duplicate faces (photocopies) for this doodle. You can always go over the lines in the colour you are using.

Five Questions

Today, I want to ask you some questions about your cartoon man, ________ _________.

1. What is his favourite colour?
2. Is there anything he hates eating?
3. Does he like Christmas?
4. Would he like to go on holiday somewhere hot, or somewhere cold?
5. If he could be any animal in the world for a day, which one would he be?

Talk about it!

Discuss your answers with your classmates or drawing partner, then write your answers down along with anything else you have found out about _______ _______ on a piece of paper and put it in your file or with your other drawings. This is the start of _______ _______’s profile.

Doodle it!

Try drawing ________ ________:

• Frowning
• Smiling
• At rest (face relaxed)

Try drawing

• In pencil on paper.
• In cartridge pen, gel pen or thick felt pen on the back of a brown envelope
• In pencil crayon on tracing paper

Well Done!

You are really starting to get to know _______ _______ now! Hopefully this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…

Naming your cartoon man (or lady)

Today I want you to name your cartoon man. It’s important that you always name your cartoon people, babies animals and pets as it helps give them an identity.

Your name can be as sensible or silly as you like.

Here are some tips:

1) One name or two, or three, or four, or five or six. It doesn’t really matter as long as you can remember it. I think two names are best, then if you want to name other charecters later on, you can make it clear they belong to the same family. 

2) You don’t always have to use whole names in speech, text or thought bubbles. If you think you would like to make a comic strip with your cartoon drawing sometime in the future, then I would seriously think about picking either a short name, or a name that can be shortened.

3) Try and make your name memorable. You could use a name that you just think sounds really good, or that is unusual, or you could use a well known name from a soap or movie. If you have decided to use a first name and a second name, try using alliteration, where the first and second name both start with the same letter. You could also use foreign sounding names or descriptive names, like superman – a man who is super.

4) New parents of real babies often use name booksto help them chose the name of their child. These are books full of names from different countries and cultures, all arranged in alphabetical order. Name books will often tell you the meaning of your name, and where it comes from. If you are struggling, you could use the same method for your cartoon man. Novelists also often use these books to find names for characters that fit their personality and background. What does your name mean, and where does it come from?

5) Names that suggest nicknames are great, as they help to show relationship between people, and it means that if you happen to get bored of your name, you can sort of change it.

Doodle it!

Draw your cartoon man on newspaper paper. Unfold one of the sheets from the middle so it is nice and big and try drawing in felt tip pen, or wax crayon.

If it is a nice day where you live, try drawing your cartoon man with chalk on the pavement in your garden or at the park. Chalk will wash or wear off so as long as you have permission you are not damaging anything. Don’t draw on anything that belongs to someone else though! There is something fun about drawing outside…

Now you are getting to know your cartoon man a bit more, and kind-of know what you want him to look like, you could try…

• making him blink
• making him wink
• making him yawn
• making him look surprised

Well Done!

I hope you are feeling really enthusiatic about your cartoon man, ______ _______, and all the new things he/she can do!

Talk about it!

Swap stories about what your name means. Do you know anyone else with your name? Do you know anyone famous with the same name?

“Let the wild rumpus start…”

Doodle it!

Now the real fun begins! Doodle doodle doddle. Here are a list of tips to help you…

1. Don’t draw on your original drawing. What you will be doing over the next few days is just doodling and practicing, and practicing and practicing and experimenting and having fun…
2. Practicing freely is brilliant for helping your imagination get warmed up so: don’t worry about mistakes!
3. Draw in your eyes on one of your duplicate photocopies of your cartoon face in the place you think they should go, then trace over the lines with some tracing paper or greaseproof paper.
4. When you look tracing paper you might find that your eyes look too big, or are in the wrong place. Don’t worry about this too much. We can make minor adjustments later when we know what kind of ‘look’ we are going for, draw in all of the other features anyway! 
5. You will need to add hair (a few strands or a hairstyle, you chose) a nose, mouth (try and think of upper lip and lower lip) and maybe ears or a bit of your ears, depending on your cartoon man’s hairstyle. Have fun, be sensible or wild, let your imagination run riot!
6. At this stage I would also like you to think about adding some detail to your eye shape (even if it isn’t perfect at this stage)
7. Some details you might like to think about include: eyebrows; pupils of various shapes and sizes; eyelashes, top or bottom or both; eyelids (try open and closed)
8. You might want to try all of these things and see what difference they make, we are only doodling after all, feel free to make mistakes…
9. Remember though, less is more. Its better to draw a few features and make them really stand out that put everything in and get cartoon overload.
10. The more you draw your cartoon man, the more you will get an idea of what his ‘best’ features are. Just like when you are looking at a real person, you will get an idea of what makes him different from everyone else.

Well Done!

Brilliant, I expect to see lots of wild and crazy drawings. This is the really fun part for me. It’s the bit where you get to break all the rules and just be really silly. I hope you enjoy it too. 

Talk about it!

At this stage you will be wanting lots of feedback and lively discussion from your friends about what works and what doesn’t. It is probably best to draw in two’s or three’s, then you can all share hints and tips and borrow ideas from each other.

Don’t worry about your drawings looking exactly the same as each other if you share, remember you already have differently shaped eyes and faces, so there is not much chance of that!

Don’t throw anything away! Your bad drawings are just as important as your good ones (in fact maybe more important as they will really help you learn and remember how to do things well next time).

What to draw on.

I like to draw on greaseproof paper for this bit. I like greaseproof paper because it is smooth and see through and it comes in a roll so it lets me be larger than life with my drawing without worrying about going off the page. I like to draw with a thick marker pen initially as it makes big, fat, smooth lines that help me be spontaneous.

Over the next few days, we are going to try drawing our cartoon man in all sorts of different ways…

Making your cut-out

Doodle it!

If you have drawn a pupil…

• Put your tracing paper over your cartoon face, or go get your photocopy. We will call this your duplicate.
• Find a 2p coin and position on the middle of your guideline on your duplicate.
• Check your eyes are not too big for your cartoon face.
• If your eyes are stupidly big, and you don’t like it, then draw around the 2p anyway, just make a smaller circle that you think is right inside the circle you have drawn around.
• You will be left with a circle within a circle. These are called concentric circles.
• If you find the 2p coin is just the right size, then there is no need to draw another circle, just draw around it in pencil on your duplicate.
• The circle you have drawn will be your imaginary eyeball.
• Finally, roughly around your imaginary eyeball, stick the shape on to a piece of card and trim around the edges so you have a nice, neat, smooth shape.

If you have drawn an eyeball…

• Put your tracing paper over your cartoon face, or go get your photocopy. We will call this your duplicate.
• Draw the eyeball shape you have chosen on to your duplicate in pencil. Take care to get it right and don’t be afraid to rub it out or have a few tries at it.
• Try drawing on the widest point around the middle line, so your eyes are nice and big. We can always move them up or down afterward.
• When you are happy with the shape, go over it in felt tip so you have a smooth shape and know which line to follow.
• Roughly cut out the shape on your duplicate and stick onto a piece of card.
• Trim round the edges, following your felt tip line, so your shape is nice and smooth.
• While you still remember which way around your eye goes, label each side.
• So if you drew on the right side initially draw an ‘R‘ on the side that is facing upwards (the side you can see when your eye is on the right side of your page)
• Then flip the shape over and put an ‘L‘ for left on the other side.
• Now you will always know what you are doing!
• Obviously if your are left handed and drew on the left side first then you will need to put an ‘L’ on the side of your eyeball that is facing upwards.

Well Done!

You have drawn your first set of cut out eyes! Now your cartoon man will begin to take shape. But before you do anything else…

Paperclip your eye to your other drawings so you don’t loose it. You may need to start a file or folder about now so you can keep all your rough sketches and draft copies with your final shapes and images.

Once we have made your cartoon man (or lady) we will be coming back to him again and again for various things. You might decide at a later date that you want to give him a family, or make him a pet.

You will be able to use the same material again and again and you will find you can vary it endlessly as long as you keep all of your bits and bobs safe. As we go on towards the end of the month you will find there is plenty to think about in drawing, cartoons and animation without having to start from scratch each time.

Duplicate it!

From now on we will be making duplicates at every stage of our animation. This is:

1. So we can come back to our drawings at any point we decide and not have to do all the planning and preparation again
2. As back up, just encase anything goes wrong.

Backing up is an important habit to get into whether you use the computer to make art, or if you prefer to make it by hand.

So, before you do anything else, make a few duplicates (photocopies) of your face with the guidelines on so we can see what looks good with your eyes and draw them in and move them around (you will find it really makes a difference to the look of your cartoon man and you will want to get it just right).

The duplicates will be drafts of our final image.

Well done!

That’s brilliant, I will see you here tomorrow to talk about drawing on our eyes…

Talk about it!

I made two cartoon face shapes and I lost one but once I have decided where my eyes should go I will try and post them up. Sorry!

Happy Birthday!

How To Make Cut Out Eyes – Question and Answer, read right through…

Ok. So over the weekend we are going to make cut outs for our eyes. We are making cut outs so that we can:

1. Move our eyes around a bit before we actually draw them in
2. Make sure both eyes are exactly the same.

Doodle it!

If you have managed to get hold of some tracing paper, or greaseproof paper, you will need it now. If you haven’t got any tracing paper or greaseproof paper then make a photocopy of your face before you draw in your eyes.

If you can’t get to a photocopier in time and you are itching to start making your eyes then you can go back to your original pencil drawing (the one you copied from real life) and draw your stencil on that.

What am I drawing?

You are drawing the white bit of your eye.

How do I draw that?

You should already have chosen what the white bit of your eye is going to look like. So dig out your draft drawing.

Do I draw straight on to my cartoon face?

No, because when you have drawn an eye you are happy with we are going to cut it out and make a stencil. Make sure you draw on to one of these things:

a) Tracing paper or greaseproof paper. This is the best option because you will be able to see your pencil guidelines through tracing paper or greaseproof paper, which will help you to make your eyes the right size, in the right place.

b) The next best option is to make a photocopy of your cartoon face. You will probably be able to make out your guidelines on a photocopy if you look carefully, and you can always go over them again in pencil.

c) If you can’t do either of the above then draw onto your original pencil drawing that you copied from life. You can make some guidelines on here if you think it would help you.

If you followed the tips for younger readers…

Then your eye might look something like this OO, ()(), xx, ” and so on…

If you have drawn a small eye that you think would look better coloured in black, then you have probably drawn a pupil.

My pupil is very small, won’t it be a pain to cut it out?

Yes. Yes it will be a pain  and very fiddly. That is why, if you have drawn a pupil, you will be drawing it fresh (freehand) each time your cartoon man appears. We will be drawing in a circular guideline to help you understand where to put it and how big to make it.

But isn’t that harder? I am only a younger reader.

It sounds hard, but we will be drawing an ‘imaginary circle’ as a guide, in pencil, for your eye to move around in. And I think you can do it.

What is an imaginary circle?

It is a circle, probably about the size of a 2p coin, that you can draw in to help you decide where to put your pupil each time. When you are happy, you can rub it out again.

Why is this good?

An imaginary circle is good because it helps you decide where to put your eye, and makes sure that it is in the right place every time. It also makes sure that your cartoon eyes are expressive. Your cartoon eyes will be able to look up and down and left and right, and still look realistic, as long as they stay within the imaginary circle.

But I spent ages drawing the white of my eye and it’s exactly the shape I wanted. It really looks like me, but I want my cartoon man to be able to look up and down and left and right.

Don’t worry. That is why we are making a cut-out. Your cut out will be a stencil you can draw round to make sure the eye of your cartoon man is the same shape each time he appears. But you will also be drawing in a small, round pupil fresh (freehand) each time.

This is too hard to understand, I’m not really sure what I’m meant to do…

Your right, it is difficult to understand without a diagram (factual drawing) to help. That is why I will be posting a picture on Sunday to help you.

Watch this space!

P.S

• If you have drawn a small eye that you think would look better coloured in black, then you have drawn a pupil and probably need to find a 2p coin to draw around.
• If you have drawn a shape that would look better mostly white then you have drawn an eyeball and will be drawing the same shape again on your tracing paper.
• You will be able to make sure the size of your eyeball fits the size of your face by looking at the guidelines and the overall shape through your tracing paper.
• After you have drawn your eyeball or imaginary circle you will be sticking the paper to a piece of card and then cutting it out.
• So you will need to find, some tracing paper, a pencil, a felt tip pen, a piece of card and some glue or sticky tape by Sunday
  

What are guidelines?

Whatever kind of drawing you like to draw, measuring is quite important. It helps us to decide how:

• High things are
• Tall things are
• Wide things are
• Deep things are
• Long things are

Some people seem to be able to do this naturally with their eyes, but almost anyone can learn it with practice.

If you are not an instant genius at deciding how high, tall, wide, deep and long things are then don’t worry about it. There are some things we can do to help.

For older readers

One of the things we can do to help is map the space we are trying to draw on our peice of paper. We can do this with grid lines. Guidelines are like a very simple grid.

You must draw your guidelines lightly in pencil, as at some point we are going to rub them out.

For younger readers

The guidelines we will be drawing on our cartoon are going to look like a big cross.

You must draw your guildlines lightly in pencil as at some point we are going to rub them out.

Doodle it!

Find a big ruler and place it accross the widest point of your cartoon face shape. We measured arcoss this a couple of days ago on your real face. Do you remember what to do?

Start you measurement at the widest point of your left cheek and end at the widest point of your right cheek. Make sure you keep your ruler straight.

Now write this number down.

Well done!

You have found your cartoon man’s cheekbones!

Next…

Next we need to find the halfway point of that measurement. This means dividing the number by two.

If my cartoon man’s face measures 14 cm across then I need to make a mark on my page at 7 cm, which will be the middle point. You can use Centimeters (cm) and milimeters (mm) to measure if you want to be extra accurate.

Drawing the up and down (vertical) guideline 

Now you need to place your ruler on the mark so that it is going up and down like a skyscraper (vertically). This will be the tall bit of your cross. Draw along the line lightly in pencil and try to keep your ruler straight.

Well done!

The line you have drawn is the same line we measured a few days ago when we measured the length of your face. It should run right from the top of your cartoon man’s skull down over the bridge of his nose, right to the bottom of his chin.

Drawing the horizontal guideline (across)

Measure the length of the up and down line you have just drawn. Write the measurement down on a bit of paper. 

Now you need to divide this measurement in two to find the middle.

For example, if my vertical (up and down) line is 21 cm long, then I will need to make a mark at 10.5 cm.

This means there will be 10 cm and 5 mm each side of my mark, so my mark is in the middle.

If you ever need to check that the line you have drawn is really in the middle then you can just count the number of centimeters and milimeters each side of the line. If there are the same number of centimeters and milimeters areach side of the line then your mark is definately in the middle!

Doodle it!

Now, place your ruler along side the mark you have made on your page. Make sure that your ruler is straight. 

The line you draw with your ruler should cut straight through the mark you have made in the middle of your vertical (up and down) line.  Make sure you draw lightly and in pencil as at some point we are going to rub these guidelines out.

The point where both your lines cross is the imaginary centre of your drawing. If we are drawing somebody ’straight on’ then our imaginary centre should be more or less exactly in the middle of our cartoon shape.

Well done!

You have drawn your first set of guidelines. This will help you plan where to put all your features (eyes, nose, lips, mouth, ears etc. ) on your cartoon face so that it looks fairly lifelike, and like a real person should look.

Talk about it!

Ask someone else to check your work and offer to check theirs. Check that both their lines are in the middle by counting the centimeters and milimeters either side of the line. Check that the ‘imaginary centre’ of their drawing, where both lines cross, is in the mor or less in the middle of their cartoon face.

More information for older readers…

As you get better at drawing cartoons, you can:

• change the imaginary centre of your drawing
• if you make it higher, your cartoon man will look like his face is pointing up
• if you make it lower he will look like his face is pointing down
• If you move it to the right he will look like he is pointing right
• if you move it left he will look like he is pointing left.

You can check how this would work by drawing a cross on a tennis ball and moving it about.

We are not going to do this during this blog because drawing someone’s face at an angle is much more difficult. It changes the shape of their face. It changes the shape of their features and where the features go. But if you decide you like drawing cartoons after we have finished then you can maybe give it a try in the future.  

Once you have finished your pencil guidelines we can start to think about drawing our cut-out eyes.

Extra well done

Today’s doodle was really hard!!!!!!

Where do my eyes go?

Today we get to think about where to put the eyes on our drawing. This is just the first bit, so keep checking back for more! It’s probably best that you don’t draw anything until I tell you, although if you want to practice you could make a photocopy, or copy of your drawing and have a little practice.

If you want the eyes on your drawing to move then it is important not to draw straight onto the piece of paper with a pen.

Later on, we will be making cut-outs, or stencils of our eyes.

Where do I draw my eye-shape?

Eyes come roughly half way down our head.

We have to leave plenty of room for our hair! Hair takes up a surprising amount of room on cartoon faces, and it is important because it helps them to look round.

You can vary where you put your eyes and get away with it to a certain extent, but it will change how your cartoon man looks. One of the reasons we will be making cut-out eyes is so you can move them around on your page and see what difference it makes.

Two basic rules:

• If you put your cartoon eyes below the middle of the face your cartoon man will look much younger. This is what you do when you want to draw babies.
• If you put your cartoon eyes too high, above the middle line of the face, then there won’t be any room to draw in the hair and the face will probably look out of proportion.

How far apart do I draw my eyes?

You will have to look at your face and notice how far apart your own eyes are.

Some basic rules:

• It’s important that you put both your eyes the same distance away from the middle line of your face (which we will be drawing on to help you).

• If I was to say this in mathematical language, I would say ‘your eyes must be equidistant (the same way away) from the middle line of your face’

• Some people naturally have close set eyes. If this is you, then try and position your eyes in a middle position and then move them slightly closer to where the nose would be. You don’t want your cartoon character to look permanently cross eyed!

• Some people naturally have eyes that are wide apart. If this is you, be careful. Drawings of aliens traditionally have wide-set eyes, and you don’t want your cartoon character to look like an alien! So position your cut-out eye in a middle position and then move it slightly towards your ear.

• If you do decide to go moving your eyes about you will still have to make sure they are equidistant from the middle line. You can do this by measuring them.
  

So, unless you have decided you are an exception and have eyes that are far apart or close together then your eyes will be in the middle of the middle of the middle. And because there are two of them, they will be spaced equally apart.

Got it?

Good, well done! I will see you here later today for instructions on how to draw guidelines…

Anatomy

In human biology, anatomy is the study of ‘what’s underneath.’

What’s underneath the skin?

Flesh and bones.

Drawing can be gruesome as well as pretty and nice looking. 

Artists like to know ‘what’s underneath’ as it helps them understand how things look. Art students sometimes study skeletons because they like to know where all the bones go. They might also look at dead things, plants and animals, in a scientific way and try and understand the object’s structure and how it is made.

You have probably done this before without thinking about it. If you have been to the beach and looked at shells or crab shells in detail then what you have really done is look at a creature’s anatomy. Bones and shells are important because they help to hold up the fleshy bits. Without bones we we just be a great big puddle of skin. Yuck.

Believe it or not, you have already made your own anatomical (factual, scientific) drawing!

In our last post we drew a diagram (factual drawing) of our eyeball. We drew our eye as it looked underneath our eyelids. We looked at the anatomy of our eyeball. Now we know why our eyelid creases above our eye, it’s because it is helping to hold our eyeball up, and stop it from popping out - which would be rather embarrassing.  

Note

One of the reasons we are taking this little break from drawing our features onto our cartoon is because I need a little bit more time to experiment. I need to find a way we can reproduce (copy) our drawings.

As we have not had the chance to learn much about anatomy yet and we want to be able to reproduce our drawings in so they all look very similar (almost the same), I may have to experiment with using a photocopier.

You may be able to find a photocopier:

• At school
• Attached to your desktop computer
• In a library
• In a stationary shop
• In a Post Office, local village shop or ‘Spa’

How do we learn more about anatomy?

When we draw any living thing, weather it’s a human, animal or plant, our drawings will always be better if we pay attention to ‘what’s underneath.’

Sometimes this involves some careful guesswork and lots of looking. Other times we might need to do some research. 

Today we are going to research the anatomy of our face, paying particular attention to it’s shape, and where things go.

Doodle it!

You will need a soft tape measure to make all of the measurements. If you only want to make some of them you might be able to get away with a long ruler. You will also need a pen and paper to record your results. Make sure you measure in cm (centimeters). If you don’t like maths you can use a calculator to multiply (times) the number, or just use your 2x table.

First of all feel all over your face with your fingerips. Try and find our where all of the bones are. You should be able to find:

• Cheek bones
• Jaw bones
• Forehead

Which bones move, and which are fixed in place?

 

 

 

These bones, along with the hard case of bone on the top of your head, are called your skull.

Which bones move, and which are fixed in place?

Follow the method below to complete your measurements…

Method

1. Measuring your cheekbones

Start point: the outer corner of your eye nearest to your ear. End point: the outer corner of your other eye, the side nearest to the ear on the other side of your head.

Place the end of your tape measure underneath the outer corner of your eye, the one nearest to your ear. Hold the end of the tape measure firmly in place.

Next, lay the tape measure in a straight line across the bridge of your nose to just past the outer corner of your other eye. The tape measure should be resting on the top of the “apples” of your cheeks, or just on top of your cheekbones. Mark the point where the tape measure meets the corner of your other eye with your finger. Read the number at this point and write down this measurement.

2. Measuring your jaw line.

Start point: The top of your jaw bone, just underneath your ear. You will have to feel with your fingers to find out exactly where this is. End point: the middle of your chin. 

Run the tape measure from the top of your jawbone, down and along your jaw line until you come to the middle of your chin.

Multiply the number at the end point by two (x2) and write down this measurement.

3. Measuring your forehead.

Start point: the widest point of your forehead, halfway between your eyebrows and your hairline. You can feel with your fingers where your hairline beggins. End point: The same, widest point on the opposite side of your head.

Place the start point of the measuring tape on one side of your forehead at the widest point halfway between your eyebrows and your hairline. Run the measuring tape in a straight line across your forehead until you come to the same point on the opposite side of your head.

Read the number at the end point and write down this measurement.

4. Measure the length of your face

5

Start point: The middle of your hairline, where your forehead meets your hair, hopefully above your nose!

End point: The tip of your chin, in the middle.

Hold your measuring tape at the start point. Run the measuring tape in a straight line down the length of your face. It should run straight down your nose, to the tip of your chin.

Read the number at the end point and write down this measurement.

Record your results on a peice of paper

Hopefully you have made a quick note of measurements 1-4

Now write them in a statement (factual sentance)…

The width of my cheekbones is — cm.

The length of my jawbone is — cm.

The width of my forehead is — cm.

The length of my face is — cm.

Well done!

You have successfully measured your face, and learned a bit about the anatomy of your skull.

Talk about it!

If you are related to me and would like to know more about the anatomyof your face, then fill in the sentances above and email them to me.

I can work out the maths for you and tell you the conclusion of our experiment.

Experimenting…

We have done a lot of thinking and drawing over the last few days. We’ve done some hard stuff!

So today I just want you to play.

Doodle it!

http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/

Click on this site and you can paint or draw a virtual masterpiece!

You can:

• Change the thickness of your brush
• Change the colour of your brush
• Change how see through the line of your brush is
• Make paint splatters
• Undo bits
• Replay your drawing, so it is like a mini video
• Frame your drawing and hang it in a gallery
• Start all over again

Talk about it!

When you have finished your drawing, have a look at what other people have done. Click to replay other peoples drawings and select your speed.

It is really good to look at how other people have created their art and it might give you all sorts of ideas!

Well done!

Hopefully you are beginning to think big with your drawing.

While you are playing, try to imagine what you would like your cartoon man to look like…

What kind of hair would you give him?

What colours would you use?

What does he like to do or say?

Eye Spy…

You will need a pencil and a rubber for today’s doodle…

What do we know about eyes?

• They have 3 parts. These are the eyeball, the iris and the pupil.
• The eyeball is the white bit. It is round like a tennis ball but partly covered by eyelids.
• Eyelids act a bit like curtains on a window, and partly cover the eye.
• Everyone’s eyeball is the same tennis-ball shape, but the shape of the eyelid makes them different.
• There are around 170 different eye shapes

More about eyes

• The iris is circular. It is the coloured bit of your eye.
• The shape of the iris may be partly covered by the eyelid, just like curtains can cover a window when they are drawn.
• The pupil is the black bit of your eye.

Doodle it!

Draw a diagram (factual picture) of your eye on a bit of scrap paper and label the different parts. There are four parts to label:

1. The eyeball
2. The eyelids
3. The iris
4. The pupil

Use arrows so you know exactly where everything goes.

Express yourself!

We have already mentioned that the eye is really a tenis ball shape. The white eyeball is really a kind of blank canvas. It has a frame, the top and bottom eyelids. But we can position the iris almost  anywhere within that frame to get a different expression. Eyes are all about expression.

Remember:

Lots of expression does not always mean lots of detail. If you look carefully you can show expression with a simple, smooth line.

For Older Readers:

Look in a mirror and see the shape of your own eye. Hold a piece of blank paper over your forehead so it covers your eyebrows and really look at the shape of both your eyes together.

Fold a piece of new A4 paper in half. Try and draw the shape of your eye one half of the paper. On the top half of the paper draw the shape of the white bit of your eye you can see in the mirror. You can cover the top half of the paper with these doodles, until you get something you like. You might need to add the iris and pupil to see how lifelike your doodle is.

Number your eye whites. You can choose how many you want to do.

It doesn’t matter, as long as you are happy.

On the bottom half of the papercover your eyebrows with the paper again. Look at the crease of the eyelid and the shape it makes. It will probably look a bit like a half moon, or crescent moon above your eye.

Choose a numbered drawing from the top half of the paper that you like.

Look carefully at the drawing you have chosen.

Now you are going to copy the drawing you have chosen on to the bottom of the page, but add the half moon shape of your eyelid.

This will make the shape of your eye BIG, EXAGGERATED and CARTOON LIKE.

Rub out the line where your eyelashes would be in real life, we want to develop a nice smooth shape that is unique. It doesn’t matter if it is not very realistic.

You want a nice, smooth, exaggerated shape.

It does not matter at all if your cartoon eye is not perfect. It is much more important that it is meaningful and expressive.   

We have made sure your cartoon is meaningful by modelling the eye shape on your face.

We have made sure your cartoon is expressive by making your eye larger than usual.

For younger readers:

Younger readers just need a basic shape for their eye. Look at your eye in the mirror. It might look like;

• A big dot
• A side-ways comma “
• A round circle O O  
• A narrow slit – -
• A small circle o o
• A dash ~ ~
• A plus sign + +
• An owl shape () ()
• A kind of six, with the circle made black 66

You have to really like the type of eye you use as tomorrow you will be putting it on to your main drawing.

Try out lots of mini faces to see which type of eye you like best.

Don’t draw anything on yesterday’s drawing yet!

Talk about it!

Ask a friend which of your eyes looks most like you. If you are having trouble then make your shape simpler, or use the tips for younger readers.

All your cartoon people will share this type of eye. It is really important that you are pleased with it and like looking at it.  

Well Done!

Today’s doodle was difficult, but hopefully you are beginning to make art that is important to you. This is great as drawing is about your emotions as well as how good something looks on a page.

If you like your drawing then the chances are that someone else will like it too!

Cartoon You

Yesterday we decided what shape our face was most like, today we will begin to make a cartoon version of ourselves. The shape of our face will be the most important thing.

Doodle it!

On your half page of A4 which you kept over from yesterday you should have a rough pencil sketch of the shape of your face. The more accurate the face shape the more the cartoon will look like you, so if you want a good likeness, now is the time to go over any areas that need changing with your pencil. Don’t worry about rubbing out mistakes, mistakes don’t really matter.

Just make sure you go over the lines you want to keep quite heavily with your pencil so you know what line you need to follow.

Copy it!

Next, we are going to copy the outline shape of your face from the top half of the paper to the bottom half.

It’s probably easier to draw smoothly if you pick quite a thick pen. A good felt tip that is not going to run out is ideal. You can use a biro or a gel pen, but this will make your line more wobbly.

When you are copying your pencil drawing don’t take your eye off the line you have to follow. Try and look at the pencil line with your eye and draw at the same time with your pen in your hand. This is quite a quick way of drawing, and you prabably won’t need to take your pen off the page very much.

If you make a mistake and you are not happy with your pen drawing:

• Cut the A4 paper from yesterday along the fold line (half way).
• Stick it or paper clip it to the top half of a fresh sheet of A4 paper.
• Now try again.
• You can do this as many times as you like.

When you are happy with your shape in pen, carefully add the neck using two lines. You don’t need to add the neck on the shapes you are not happy with.

Top Tip

Drawing like this takes practice, but it’s how many professional artists, illustrators and cartoonists work. This is because nobody gets things right the first time. Copying is important.

For Older Readers

Over the next few days we are going to add some features to our cartoon. We will also think about ways to make identical copies so you can start to develop different characters who all look like they belong in the same comic strip. If you want to do this really well you will need some clear tracing paper. Grease Proof paper might just about do.

Although it’s tempting to start adding eyes and ears and noses all over the place at this stage, try and save your best pen drawing for tomorrow when we will be adding eyes to our drawing.

Talk about it!

Which cartoons do you and your friends enjoy? On TV, in films, in books and magazines? What is it about the drawings that you like?

They might be:

• Funny
• Silly
• Lifelike
• Colourful
• Remind you of someone you know

Well done!

You are really learning some important stuff now!

If you are finding the instructions difficult to follow, you might need to ask an adult to help explain.

Stick with it and keep drawing!

What shape is your face? (part I)

If you are a lady and you go to the hairdresser they will usually give you a haircut that suits the shape of your face. Human beings generally like to look quite similar and the ‘ideal’ face shape is considered to be oval-ish. This is because the oval face shape the most symmetrical. It may well not be the most interesting.

The hairdresser will often try and cut a lady’s hair so that her face looks more oval.

Many ‘Hair’ magazines are devoted to face shape for this reason.

Lot’s of people (including me) look at Hair magazines before deciding what haircut to have so they get an idea of what might suit them.

In actual fact most people realise that many different face shapes can be beautiful.

Faces come alight and change their shape when we smile, and also when we frown, look surprised, or laugh.

This is one of the reasons it is hard to draw people!

Knowing the basic shape of your own or someone elses’ face may make it easier to draw them.

For Older Readers

The easiest type of likenesses to draw are:

1) Face on – so you can see all the features, eyes, ears, mouth, nose etc. The neck area face on can be difficult, and so can the hair.

2) In profile – so you can see the outline of someone’s forehead, nose, mouth from the side, chin and neck.

We have already mentioned the neck and hair can be difficult to draw. Can you identify any other areas that might be harder to draw than others? Why do you think this might be? Would you draw these bits at the beginning or at the end?

Today we will be thinking about ‘Face On’ portraits.

Look at your face in a mirror.

Does it remind you of any of the following shapes…

• An oval
• A heart
• A square
• A rectangle
• A circle
• A triangle

Your face will not be exactly like an oval, heart, square, rectangle, circle or triangle but it will probably be more like one than the other.

Hair can get in the way and disguise or mask face shape so it is probably best to scrape it back or move it out of the way if possible.

Doodle it!

Fold a piece of A4 paper in half. On the top half, draw the shape that looks most like your face. Try and get the proportions right.

You might need to think about things like:

How wide is my circle going to be?

How long will I make my oval?

How wide will my triangle need to look?

Is my square rounded?

What kind of point will I give my heart?

Try and look carefully at your face and ask yourself questions before you put pencil to paper. As you will be thinking carefully, it is better to use pencil for this task. It doesn’t have to look exactly like you at this stage.

Talk about it!

Leave a comment and let me know which shape you drew….

Well done!

That’s really good. You’ve started to think about what makes your face unique and special to you.

Tomorrow we will continue this doodle on the bottom of the same paper. Don’t throw it away!