Day of the Birdman Art Ninja

'I'm Ricky. I live in Bristol.

'By day I work as an animator,

'which is lucky cos I love art.

'I live for art, I even dream of art.

'I draw.

'I paint.

'I make things.

'I hang out with my mates Gavin, Michelle and Sarah.'

SHE SCREAMS

'Most importantly I make ninja moves.

'Some people call me the...'

'Today I'll show you how to make an incredible cubist painting

'using an egg box,

'an awesome hot-air balloon animation

'and I'll make a collage that will blow your mind!

'Because today it's...'

ALARM BEEPS

It's a new day. Time to get my ninja on.

And my clothes.

Yah!!!

'Time for breakfast.'

No eggs?

This would never have happened when I was a kid.

We had fresh ones laid by the chickens.

My favourite was Mr Chicken. I loved that pet.

CLUCKING

'You wouldn't believe the fun a boy could have with a pet chicken.'

MUSIC: Love Rollercoaster by Red Hot Chili Peppers

MUSIC: Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees

KNOCKING

Oh, hey, Gavin, what you got?

Your magazine, Chicken Weekly.

It must have been delivered to me by mistake.

You've not got my magazine at all, have you?

Unfortunately, Annoying Best Mates Monthly hasn't been delivered yet.

Ha-ha, good one. Cheers, Rick, see you later.

See you later.

You know what, this has given me an idea.

I'm going to paint a picture of my beloved

Mr Chicken in the style made popular by Picasso, cubism.

Using this egg box to give it a great 3D quality, I'm just

going to wing it.

I'm going to start by drawing myself a line that I can follow to paint.

It's quite difficult to draw on an egg box

so make sure you take your time.

Right, it's looking pretty good.

I'm just going to draw the cone now.

That's the red, wobbly bit.

That's the kind of thing you learn from Chicken Weekly.

There we go.

Good start. Now I can start painting.

Put a bit of paper down first so that I don't ruin the kitchen top.

I've got some pre-mix paint here.

I'm going to use this to paint the main body of the chicken.

Hello. I am Pablo Picasso.

Hey, Picasso.

I helped invent cubism, which means showing things

painted from many different angles at once.

I made around 50,000 sculptures, drawings and paintings.

Here's one now.

Oi, Picasso, pipe down. I'm trying to paint Mr Chicken.

You are not the only one who has a monopoly on animals, you know.

I owned a pet monkey, a goat, a turtle,

packs of dogs and cats and a wise, old owl.

Wise words, Picasso.

You'll find you need to use more paint than normal for a picture

this size, because you're covering a lot more surface

area. You've got to go in these crevices, on top of these peaks.

And to do the feet, I think I need to change brushes.

'I need a smaller brush to do more detail.'

Now the next stage is waiting for that to dry.

But I wait for nothing cos I'm the Art Ninja.

There we go, nice and dry.

Now I'm going to do a nice blue sky behind him, and a nice green floor.

'Adding white to the blue to give me different tones.'

I think the sky's all done.

So I'm going to start doing some grass.

So get the green out. Going to add a bit of yellow to brighten it up.

And then some white to get a good shade of green.

I'm going to take the green up to where it meets the blue

and dab to try and get the representation of blades of grass.

Very important bit of the chicken now, the comb.

So I'm going to get out some red. Don't need too much of this,

just a little bit.

Don't know why it's called a comb, cos you can't comb it.

Right. That's the foundations of all the colours done.

Now I'm going to start putting in some detail.

Get some of this brown out

and do the back end of the feathers where it's a bit darker.

You can go back and use the original colour...just to help

some of these darker bits blend in.

Now, I'm just dabbing here to get the speckled effect of the feathers.

And right now my chicken can't see. So I'm going to do an eye.

Add a little bit of white. There's a highlight in the eye.

OK.

Wow! Look at that!

I think that's brilliant.

So from head on, it just looks like a normal picture. And then

when I turn it, all the peaks and troughs distort the picture,

giving it that Cubism effect.

You don't have to paint a chicken, you could paint whatever you want.

For instance, you could do a self-portrait. Freaky, hey?

When you lean it forward, it smiles. When you lean it backward,

little sad face.

'Incredible cubist art from an egg box.

'Get cracking on one yourself.

CLUCKING

'Now I need some breakfast.'

That was a productive breakfast time. Now it's animation time.

This is my friend Andre.

You all right?

This is his skate park, and he is

-going to be my skateboard for the day.

-Wahoo!

You can make an awesome human skateboard animation in just

three ninja moves.

'Ninja move number one.'

Find yourself a willing friend.

HE LAUGHS

Now find a friend to help you shoot the animation.

All right, let's do this.

'Ninja move number two.

'Set up your animation and get ready to shoot.'

OK, I'm going to be doing a skateboarding trick using

Andre as a skateboard.

Rich is going to be taking pictures on the camera

cos I can't do both. He's going to be using a fish-eye lens

so he can take super-wide shots. You ready, Andre?

I'm ready!

Are you happy and comfortable, Andre?

-Yes.

-Are you ready to shred?

-Let's do this!

HE GRUNTS

We're going to move Andre along each time we take a picture or a frame.

This way, when all the frames are played together, it'll

look like I'm skating on Andre.

Now this kind of thing isn't very difficult so I want to work out

a cool skateboarding ninja stunt that we can do instead.

'Ninja move number three. Plan out your skateboarding stunt.'

To create a cool skateboarding stunt,

well, it will involve Andre flying through the air.

Can you fly through the air, buddy?

I don't think so.

To do this we're going to be using chromakey - or green screen - to

hold us in the air while the frame is recorded.

So now we know what we're going to do, we need to get on with

it. Cut to time-lapse.

'Remember, this kind of animation can be tricky so you might need

'some extra help and also...'

Animation's thirsty work so make sure you take plenty of breaks.

CLINK

OK, we've got all the shots so it's time to do some editing.

'There's loads of free editing apps, like I'm using, available

'online for your PC or tablet.'

OK, so I've taken out the green boxes, I've added some sound

effects, and I think it's time to take a look at our mini masterpiece.

-You ready, Andre?

-Let's do it.

Oh, it looks amazing.

Look at my legs!

BOTH: Oh!

BOTH: Oh!

BOTH: Oh!

Kick was so rad.

-That is good.

-It is good.

Well, seeing as I'm here, I might as well set up the ninja board and go

for a shred.

'So next time you're feeling bored, try turning your mate into one.

'Gnarly to the max!'

Here in Bristol, we have a hot-air balloon festival,

and I was thinking it'll be a good place to search for Mr Chicken.

CLUCKING

It also gave me an idea for an awesome balloon picture.

'The Art Ninja air balloon cell picture with awesome animation.'

What I'm going to use is just a sheet of cardboard.

And I'm going to draw a border around it

which is about the width of a ruler.

Right, I'm going to cut out the middle bit so I'm left with a frame.

'Be careful with scissors, they can be sharp.'

You're going to need two of these so I'll just ninja myself another one.

Now, grab yourself some clingfilm and a glue stick

and give the frame a generous portion of glue.

Looks like enough. OK, now the tricky bit.

Roll it out, over your frame.

OK, now cos we used loads of glue, it means we can stretch it

out across this frame without it suddenly sticking...

completely.

Look at that, nice and taut.

Now we want to put another good portion of glue on the other

side of the frame.

Now sandwich the clingfilm between the two frames.

Like that.

Stretch it around like this, just to make sure it's nice

and tight. And there we are, your first frame...

..ready for drawing on.

Now this isn't a canvas, this is a cell.

It's what animators use to draw on.

Rather than drawing straight onto it, I've drawn a little

image first as a guide so that I don't muck it up

and have to make my cell again.

'Now I'm just going to trace the guide onto the cell.

'I'm using a permanent marker to do this.'

Lot of seagulls in Bristol.

Great. Now I can paint it.

'I'm putting yellow paper under the cell so that when I paint it,

'I can see it more easily.'

There we are.

What I'm using here is acrylic paint,

which is pretty happy to

go on anything.

The great thing about this,

using cells, is that you could layer up a picture.

You create a foreground and background,

and if you were animating,

it meant you didn't have to redraw everything over and over again.

So what I've done here is drawn a lovely foreground.

So this is a box made up of two of the frames, one at the front

and one at the back, and I wrapped a piece of cardboard

around three of the sides but left one of them

open, cos that's where we're going to slide in our other cells.

And if we just slide...my frame inside...

Look at that!

So, hot-air balloon over the lovely, rolling hills.

But it feels like it's in a bit of a void,

it needs some background.

And I've painted some white

clouds on a blue piece of paper,

and I've put sticky tacks on the corner.

So when I stick it to the back, if I ever want to change the weather,

I can.

And there we are. Look how beautiful that is. It gives it real depth.

Now this piece of art has a trick up its sleeve.

So I've drawn some other frames,

and we can see here how they work, sort of one after the other.

So I'm just going to grab my tablet.

I've got on it some animation software.

Right, so my first frame's in place. I'll just go for a frame.

Nice. Swap out my frame to the next one.

So on each of these frames the bird,

he's moved just a tiny amount towards the balloon.

Ooh, now he's bumped into it.

Cool. Let's have a little look at it.

'The air balloon cell picture. Why don't you try it yourself?'

I wish I could fly up high in the sky.

Looking down like a bird. Oh, I can imagine it now.

PHONE RINGS

BEEP

'Hi, Ricky, it's your mum.

'Bet you can't get to the phone

'cos you're flying by the seat of your pants again.

'Anyway, this is a quick call to say it's chicken Kiev mini

'bites for tea, if you want to come round.'

A bit insensitive. I was just thinking of Mr Chicken.

'Also, I wanted to say what else we've got coming up.

'You'll be making a superhero with a straw, learning how to make

'jelly worms...and you'll be forming a collage with your biggest fan.

'Bye!'

Wow. I better get on with it.

This art won't make itself.

What to do first?

-Ricky, Ricky.

-Ricky, Ricky.

What can I do for you, guys?

BOTH: Can you make something with a bike pump?

Um, not that today.

Oh.

-ALL:

-Ricky, what can you make with this foot stool?

A footstool? Have to put my foot down on that one.

Ricky, what can you do with these?

How about this guy? Yeah, I pick you.

Yes! Yes!

-What's your name, buddy?

-I'm Cory.

-Hi, Cory. Where are you from?

-I'm from Cardiff.

Cardiff, yeah. So what have you got for me today?

-Can you make some art with straws?

-Make something with straws?

I can do better than that. I can make you a cartoon superhero.

I'll just get my bits.

Here we go.

Got myself some Sellotape, some paper, some card,

coloured pens and scissors and, of course, special straw.

What I'm going to do to begin with is I'm going to roll the paper

round the end of the straw just to get a tube.

There we go. Going to sticky-tape that together.

There we are.

Now I'm going to fold over the end and then take that down.

Put that to one side.

Now I'm going to draw myself a superhero.

-What superpowers would you have, Cory?

-Super strength.

Super strength? Nice one.

Good choice.

This is my superhero. I'd love to see your design

for super strongman.

Why do superheroes always wear their pants over their trousers?

I think it's just the fashion.

The legs, there we go, and the cape.

And I'm going to put a little emblem in the middle.

I think he's going to be called Rad Man.

Six-pack.

Red, blue and yellow are good hero colours, aren't they?

Let's get colouring him in.

When I was younger, I had to put up with cheaper superheroes

such as Budget Boy.

His special power was getting money off things.

But don't worry, this superhero isn't going to be cheap,

he's going to be top of the range.

What colour should his bottoms be?

-Um, blue.

-Sounds good.

There we go. What colour should his pants be?

Um, black maybe?

Black, yeah. Black pants.

When you have a go, you can mix up the colours.

-Shall I give him a yellow cape?

-Yes.

Yeah. Here, we can see him coming then.

And then I'm going to do the Rad bit here.

Make some yellow booties.

And I think I'm going to do his face pink,

cos I'd be pretty embarrassed if I had my pants on over my trousers.

OK, I'm going to cut that out.

Now his legs.

Go round here and his hands and his head.

There we go.

Now I'm going to stick my little tube that I made to his back.

More sticky tape.

There we go. Put the straw in.

-Right. Do you want to see him?

-Yep.

-What do you think?

-That's awesome!

He looks good, doesn't he? And then check this out.

-Wow.

-What do you think of it?

It's super! I'll give it 110%.

110%? That's not even possible.

I reckon you could make your hero even more super.

-Yep.

-Thanks very much, Cory. Have a good day, mate. Bye-bye.

Bye, Ricky.

Here's a quick art tip. How to add speech to your cartoon doodles.

So, the first stage is working out what your characters

are going to say and then leaving space,

so you can write it in afterwards. So I've drawn these guys here.

Little one of me getting my ninja on and I've left space at the top

and down here where I want to put it.

When I come to actually write the text, I'm going to do

it in capitals, so it's nice and bold and easy to read.

Time to get my ninja on.

And over here I'm going to write "art ninja".

The next stage is to draw a circle round your text

and that just borders it off nicely

and then a little tail to indicate who's speaking.

Now, on this one over here, I'm shouting,

so I'm going to use a zigzag border to give it more energy.

And finally, you could enhance your drawings by using text to

create sound effects.

So I'm going to put a nice big Ka-pow up here.

In this one, I'm using bubble writing. There we go.

There's a quick art tip.

Hey, you there. Birds fly in the sky. But why?

Because they eat worms from the earth.

Look at this guy. Check out how orange his face is.

-But you can't eat worms. Can you?

-Nope.

Well, now you can, with new jelly worms.

Here's how you make them. You need a jug.

Some red jelly.

Some orange jelly.

And some gelatine.

Then add hot water.

Be careful or get an adult to help.

Now, add cold water. Don't drink it.

You need cream. Smells good.

In it goes, just a bit.

Use a spoon to stir your mixture.

This should melt the jelly until it looks like this.

Next get some bendy straws.

Making sure the bendy end faces downwards, put them in a tall glass.

Pour the mixture into the glass around the straws,

nearly to the top.

Mmm. Spread the straws out.

Then leave them in the fridge for seven hours to allow the

mixture to set.

Grab a plate, remove a straw.

Give it a squeeze like this and hey presto, a jelly worm.

Oh.

All you need do now is squeeze it onto a plate and repeat for

as many straws as you have filled.

Jelly worms. Stored in a fridge near you.

Mm, might have to try some of those.

Oh, this interview with Beaktoria Peckham's really cracking me up.

Do you know, I'd like to think that somewhere, right now,

Mr Chicken is reading this too.

Oh, I'd love to find him.

I've got an idea.

Hi, Michelle, I've got a plan.

I'm going to fly and meet Mr Chicken.

No, no, no, don't hang up, I'm serious.

Can you meet me at the warehouse? And bring a big fan.

Ninja skills. Hey, Mich. Did you bring that fan I asked you for?

I'm your fan, Ricky. Go, Ricky!

-Give me an R, give me an I...

-Michelle, everybody.

Give me a C, give me a K. Go, Rick...

Can I just interrupt you there? What I need is wind.

Oh, you've got more than enough of that already, mate.

All right. Well, what's that thing for then?

-Oh, the fan, fan, you should have said.

-That's our fan, fan.

The fan, fan.

What I want to do is make a collage by blowing things through that fan.

If only we had some feathers.

If only we had some pillows.

-En garde.

-Are you being serious?

-You bet I am.

I think we've got enough feathers now, so let's get our ninja on.

-Art ninja.

-Art ninja.

Strike a pose.

Right, so what we're going to be doing is making a massive

collage on this board here

and using this fan to blow all of our cool stuff against it.

But first, we need a guide, so we know where we're aiming for,

and we're going to do that by using some charcoal.

-Let's do some art.

-Let's do it.

Are you going to give me any sort of clue as to what this is?

It has something to do with feathers.

OK. Right, some form of bird.

Or maybe just a really big pillow.

Now it's time for us to start gluing.

Smooth.

We first need to start gluing here, along here

and around the belly here.

OK. Why these sections?

This is going to be all the same colour,

so we need to do those bits first.

I see. OK.

Right, and it's all nice and sticky.

It's time to start playing with my number one fan.

-This is the exciting bit, isn't it?

-It is.

OK, so what colour are we going for?

We're going for this nice dark blue colour.

Michelle, start the fans, please.

Yes!

More, more, more. Whoa!

Stop it. Turn it off.

Wow! Right, let's start gluing this bit and this bit.

-This is really fun.

-It's a blast.

-Give me light blue, Michelle.

-Coming up.

-Fire up the fan.

Yeah!

This lower bit's going to be red.

Whoa!

OK, Michelle, let's go for a different texture this time.

-Sawdust.

-Ooh, cool.

-Fan, fan, fan.

-Whoa! Oh, yes. It looks brilliant.

-That's ace.

We're not done yet.

We need more feathers and some plastic balls.

Fan!

-Yeah!

-Whoa!

-Whoa!

-Oh, it looks brilliant.

-It really does.

It just needs one final finishing touch. A little bit of texture...

..on its beak.

Perfect.

That looks awesome.

-Not bad for a wing-it job.

-Oh, good one.

-Ricky, what are you doing?

-I must find Mr Chicken.

Mr Chicken?

I'm coming, Mr Chicken. Mr Chicken?

You just wait there, Mr Chicken, I'm coming for you.

I kind of flew around the world.

Well, that's what I'm going to lead my mates to believe

with this e-mail.

But still no Mr Chicken.

Anyway, it's time for bed.

Well, I may not have found my old pal, but today has taught me

a valuable Art Ninja lesson.

If you want to fly like a bird man you'll need glue,

sand and a giant fan.

PHONE BUZZES

Who could that be at this time of night?

It's an e-postcard from Mr Chicken.

Hey, it's turned out all right.

He's on holiday in Mississippi, Tennessee

and Kentucky, the chicken's favourite states.

Hang on? Kentucky?

AH!

To get your Art Ninja on, go to the CBBC website.

Ninja skills.