Day of the Angry Cloud Art Ninja

I'm Ricky, I live in Bristol. By day I work as an animator,

which is lucky because 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.

Most importantly, I make ninja moves.

Some people call me the...

Art Ninja.

Today, I'll show you how to make a great cloud hat for wearing

whatever the weather,

paint and play with spray

and I'll be creating unforgettable art

with a hose because today it's...

ALARM BEEPS

It's a new day and it's time to get my ninja on...

..and my clothes.

Hiya!

Oh, what?

Rain?

Oh...

Even my water's cloudy!

I'd best do some art that I've saved for a rainy day.

The sun certainly doesn't have his cap on today.

I think I need to make some headwear that's more weather appropriate.

The Art Ninja Whatever The Weather Hat -

even if there's a cold front, you'll keep a warm head.

So, I've got a nice bit of corrugated cardboard here.

How big do I need to be?

OK, about...

..there, so I'm just going to sticky-tape that together.

Now because it's corrugated cardboard, it's got all these lines

that I can make creases along. It gets it much more circular.

There we are, I'm going to cut some slits into the top, about two

and a half centimetres deep, all the way around.

There we are. And then I'm just going to fold these out and these

are going to create a nice surface area to glue our next section on to.

Speaking of which, I've got some balloons here

and I'm going to blow them up into various sizes.

A little bit smaller.

I'm using white balloons for a reason,

as they're going to make up the structure of a cloud.

Cool, now I'm going to sticky-tape these balloons together.

I'm going to roll the tape round back on itself.

I'm going to try and make them form a nice kind of cloud shape.

Which is easy, because clouds are so random.

I'm using eight balloons which I'd say

is the minimum amount for a cloud.

There we are. That's pretty cloudy already, isn't it?

Now I need to attach it to my hat.

The last one.

There we go, a pretty good start.

Now I'm going to give it a layer of papier-mache

and some cotton wool at the same time.

I've got a bowl here to hold it still

because otherwise it gets a bit messy.

So if you're doing this at home,

I do recommend putting some newspaper down.

I've got some papier-mache mixture here which is two parts glue

and one part water.

I'm just going to start layering it onto the balloons.

I'm using kitchen towel because it's white and it's quite light

and we're not going to be painting these balloons,

so we want it to stay as white as possible.

You could use tissue or white paper.

So, on top of all this kitchen towel,

I'm also going to be putting some cotton wool.

I'm just going to break it up like this into nice bits.

OK, it's looking pretty good.

Now I just need to do the crown part.

Just go round into the inside as well,

making it nice and soft for my head.

And some more cotton wool.

Looking pretty good, good coverage.

Now, the next stage is to wait for it to dry

and I forecast that will take about a second because I'm a ninja.

Hoi!

It's dried nice and rigid and it looks like a lovely, fluffy

white cloud. But we all know weather's a little bit more

dynamic than that, so I've cut out some weather symbols here

and I'm going to attach them with Velcro

which you can get from the supermarket.

So, I'm going to put a lightning bolt up here...

..and let's have the other end coming out maybe there.

And unfortunately it does always rain,

so let's put a bit of rain down there

and just for my own sanity, hopefully, the sun will come out.

There we go, time to try it on.

Ah, yeah!

My hair always goes frizzy when it rains.

The Whatever The Weather Hat.

Try making it to brighten up a grey day.

Here's a real quick art tip - how to make a character look soaking wet,

like I would be if I was outside right now.

So I'm going to start by drawing my character, a head here,

put a T-shirt on him.

A pair of shorts.

Now, I'm going to make him look really miserable

because he's soaking wet.

And on his hair, I'm going to draw a wiggly line to make it

look like it's all stuck to his head and soaked.

Above him I'll draw a rain cloud...

..then some drops of water coming out of it.

Some of them I'm going to draw closer to him

to give the impression that he's dripping wet.

Now I'm going to add some lines to the top of his T-shirt.

This could be where the water has kind of soaked in

and then underneath him I'm going to draw a puddle.

Another couple of lines here because water's quite reflective,

a few more drops.

There we go.

A quick art tip.

Don't be wet, have a go at it yourself.

Oh, that reminds me - I need to water the tufty heads.

Art Ninja!

There you are, my tufty heads.

I remember when these guys were just knee-high to a grasshopper.

Do you know what? I'll show you how to make your own.

I think I've got everything I need - I've got my soil, grass seeds,

yogurt pot and tights and some water.

OK, so a tufty head is basically some seeds

and soil in the ends of some old tights.

Ask your mum, sister or auntie but please ask,

or you and me could both be in trouble.

I'm going to use a mug like that, hold it open nicely,

then you can put in some seeds.

Now quite a generous portion, I'd say just over a teaspoon,

because they're going to grow the hair of the tufty head.

So just throw them in like that.

All right. Then quite a generous amount of soil.

Make sure it's nicely full, push it down.

OK. Then slide it off, but make sure it all

goes down to the bottom - a nice big ball like that - and tie

a knot in the end of the tights to keep all the soil in place, like so.

Get your yogurt pot and fill it with water about a third of the way up.

Nice.

And then knot first, put your tights full of soil into it

so all the seeds are at the top and the water will start to soak

its way up the tights, through the soil and feed the seeds at the top.

And after about two weeks watering it every day,

left in a sunny place...

it'll look like this.

It looks good and green but lacks character.

But we'll soon fix that.

You need to get some card and start drawing some eyes and a mouth.

Cool.

Once you've cut them out, you just stick them to your tufty head.

I'm using some Sticky Tack...

..on the back there.

Oh, yeah! He looks awesome, doesn't he?

Right, let's get him back up on that window sill.

All they need now is sunshine,

but there's none of that happening around here today.

I'm sure that picture moves on its own,

it's almost as if it's animated.

Ahhh!

Ahhh!

-Wah...

-What is it, mate?

I just had the worst nightmare about having my hair cut.

Hey, shush now, you two.

These guys need to learn how to control their mouths.

Well, maybe I should.

I'm going to show you how to make your tufty heads talk

with this awesome lip-sync animation.

All you're going to need is some pens, some thick paper,

some scissors, some sticky tack, a mirror

and something to shoot your animation on.

You can either use a tablet with an animation app or a camera

and something to record your sound with,

and you can make the animation in just three ninja moves.

Ninja move number one.

You need to record the dialogue for these guys to talk,

-so I'm going to do that on a smartphone.

-Wah...

-What is it, mate?

And as the voice speaks, I'm going to change the mouth shape

to match what's being said. Now I need to make my mouths.

Ninja move number two.

If you're wondering what mouth shape you need for a certain sound, grab

the mirror and slowly say the word so you can spot what shape you need.

Ooh.

I might do it to the side because a straight on one

may not read as well.

Ooh, ah, ah.

I just had a nightmare.

There you go. A medium open mouth, maybe.

Now I need to cut them out.

I think it's good to keep it simple to begin with and as you get

better at lip-syncing, then start adding in some more mouth shapes.

So now I have all my mouth shapes.

Ninja move number three.

It's time to shoot the animation.

You can stick the mouth shapes to your tufty head using

a bit of Sticky Tack. I've put my sound recording

up on my computer so I can see it and so I can listen to it.

"Wah, what is it mate? I just had the..."

Perfect. And now I'm going to set up my camera and start shooting.

I'm just going to use this shoebox as a little stand for it

and find the first frame.

Argh... This might take some time, so time lapse.

Each time I replace a mouth on the tufty heads

I take a new picture so that when I edit the pictures together,

it'll make it appear like they are talking.

OK, tufty heads, I think that's enough chatter.

It's time to take a look at our mini masterpiece.

Ahhh!

Ahhh!

-Wah...

-What is it, mate?

I just had the worst nightmare about having my hair cut.

Tell me about it! Your haircut gives me loads of nightmares.

There you go. Try making your tufty heads talk

and remember, there's loads of great animation apps to help you.

Art Ninja!

The weather must be better by now.

I'd love to get out and do some painting.

RAINDROPS FALL

Wow, it's persistently raining out there.

That kind of thing didn't put of famous artist J M W Turner though.

In fact, I think I'll do some Turner-inspired art using wet paper.

Whoa, who are you?

I'm famous British painter Turner. J M W Turner, to be precise.

I was a landscape painter who often captured the energy

and power of the sea and the weather.

Here's one of my best-known paintings.

I once tied myself to the mast of a ship

so that I could paint up a storm.

Dude, you don't need to tie yourself to a ship!

You just have to put your painting the rain, I'll show you.

See you later.

I've got some dark paper here, some nice primary colours,

a bit of black and white as well.

The first thing I'm going to do is give the paper

a good spray with some water

because that will give the painting a nice rainy effect.

And I'm going to paint a picture of a busy road at night.

I'm going to start by painting some cars with some blue,

adding a little bit of white to it to lighten it up.

To the roof.

Now, the paint that I'm using is acrylic paint,

and that's because it sticks to wet paper better.

But you can also use poster paint.

Another car next to it.

Look how the paint runs into the water like that,

it makes it feel like it's raining.

So the roads. We've got to have some colour

coming from the other direction as well.

I'm going to add a little bit of black in, just to put some detail

back into the cars and give it some windows and some tyres.

You don't have to be a professional painter for this technique to work.

If it starts to dry as you're painting it, just add a little bit

more water to keep it all nice and moist.

It all adds to the effect.

As the cars start to go off into the distance,

you don't need to paint as much detail.

For the number plates with a bit of yellow. Yeah.

Now I'm going to do the street lamps with a bit of yellow

and a bit of white round the edges to give them that glow.

Some red for the back lights.

I'm just sort of dabbing it on to get a kind of

nice blurred, watery effect.

I need a bit more water, actually.

And a bit of white for that car that's coming

in the other direction.

And of course we're going to need some reflections,

because there's water on the road, look at that,

all flowing through the water.

Lovely.

I'm just picking it up in the lamps to give it a nice glow.

And then the reflections of those back lights.

Now we could do with a little bit of black going back in

to pull them out from the dark background.

Spray. All it needs now is a frame.

Look at that.

A Turner-style water picture.

Go on, now it's your turn to try it.

-PHONE RINGS

-Oh, my hands are all messy.

I'll have to let the answer phone get it.

Hi, Ricky, it's your mum.

Your dad is absolutely bursting...

with pride about what a great artist you've become.

He's especially proud of what you've got coming up.

You'll do some art on the fly, you'll relax while watching how

to make the Do Not Stress Ball and who knows what you'll do with a hose?

Bye!

Well, that was enlightening.

I wish that rain would stop, I'd love to get out.

Ricky!

I'm not going anywhere with these pesky ninja assistants.

What can I help you with?

Ricky, what can we make with elastic bands?

Elastic bands? Bit of a stretch,

-maybe I can be more flexible next time.

-Oh....

Ah, this looks interesting. I pick you.

Yay!

-So what's your name?

-I'm Maisie and I'm from Liverpool.

Liverpool, lovely. And what have you got for me today?

Can you make art with a milk bottle?

I can do better than that, I can make an amazing sun catcher.

I'll just get my stuff.

OK, I've got myself some pens, a pair of scissors

and a milk bottle and some double-sided sticky tape

and I'm going to cut out the handle

because that's the hardest bit to do anything with.

Careful while cutting it out

because some of the plastic is thicker than the other parts.

There we go, cut along this line that the milk bottle has

to create two halves, but still being careful.

And the bottom.

It's raining here at the moment.

What do you like to do on a rainy day?

Sit in and like make jewellery and stuff like that.

Very arty.

After this, you could make a milk bottle sun catcher.

This side I'm going to draw a splat.

Why are you drawing a splat?

You'll just have to wait and see, won't you?

And a couple of drops.

And on the other side I'm going to draw a little fly. Here's his eyes.

He's got his tongue sticking out and a big grin on his face.

I'm going to draw him some wings, separately so I can put them

where I want later.

I'm just colouring in the fly's body now.

-What colour?

-He's a black fly but I'm going to do his tongue red,

so there will be some colour in there.

I'm going to colour in the splat green and the pens that I'm using

are just normal felt tips, a couple of them are permanent pens.

I'd recommend having a go with a few pens

and seeing what writes on it best.

-What colour would you paint your fly?

-Blue.

-Like a bluebottle?

-Yeah.

Good idea. What's your favourite colour?

-Pink.

-Pink is a good colour.

What's your favourite colour?

My favourite colour is yellow. In fact, save the best till last.

Here we go.

You could use pink, Maisie.

I'm going to cut that out.

I'm cutting the edge first to get to the flat bit easier.

So it's not just a drawing, it's also a sun catcher,

so we're going to stick these bits to the window

and when the sun goes through it'll make it look bright and colourful.

That's amazing.

So what's your favourite insect then, Maisie?

-A butterfly.

-I like butterflies.

Do you think you'll use your milk bottle to make a sun catcher?

-Yeah.

-You could make a butterfly one.

-Yay!

I'm hoping that my sun catcher will make the sun come out.

Is it sunny up there?

Yes.

There we go, and I'm going to attach the wings to him

with some double-sided sticky tape.

And because he's been splattered, I might hold off on the other one.

So I can stick the fly on the window,

I'm putting tape on the back of it and some tape on the splats.

How long have you being doing art for, Ricky?

Oh, a long, long time.

I've had a passion for it ever since I was young.

It does take a long time to master all the arts

and become an Art Ninja - maybe 300, 400 years.

OK, are you ready for the reveal?

-Yeah.

-Here we go.

So what do you think?

Wow, that's amazing.

-Do you think you'll make one?

-Yeah.

Wow, look at that. A fly sun catcher.

So what would you give it out of ten?

A sunny seven out of ten.

Oh, that's not bad. Thanks very much, Maisie, bye-bye.

Bye.

There's no need to waste any part of a milk bottle,

even the lid can be an important part of an artist's kit.

A couple of extra ones here.

See? You really can do art everywhere.

The weather's still bad, I'm feeling stressed.

Hey, you there!

Oh, and this guy, he's so annoying.

Feeling stressed?

Funny you should say that.

You need the Do Not Stress Ball to squeeze your troubled mind.

I feel so relaxed.

Here's how you make it.

You need some clingfilm...

..half a cup of rice...

..then pour it into the clingfilm and wrap it up nice and tight.

Voila.

Now you need two different coloured balloons...

..and some scissors.

Cut off the open ends of each balloon.

Snippy.

Stretch one balloon over the top

and pull it all around until the rice is nearly covered.

With the rice end facing up, take the other balloon

and stretch it over the top.

Now you need a black and a white marker pen.

Use these to draw an interesting face on your ball.

Here's one amusing example of what you could do, ha-ha!

The Do Not Stress Ball.

I want one. I need one now!

Where do I get one?

Not available in the shops...

or anywhere. Ha-ha-ha!

Argh...

Wow, do you hear that?

SILENCE

Silence. It's stopped raining!

I'm going to get out while the going's good.

Gavin, what are you doing?

Sorry, mate, I thought as it's sunny outside I'd get out and water all

the hanging baskets in the block. It turns out there's quite a lot.

So you're telling me I've been stuck in all day

and it hasn't even been raining?

Erm, yeah.

Ahhh!

THE SCREAM ECHOES

Are you all right, mate?

Yeah, I'm OK now.

Now this has given me an idea for some art.

You take that hose and I'll meet you at the warehouse in a bit.

I will defeat you, monkey serpents!

Oh, Gavin, pull yourself together!

Ninja skills.

Oh, Gavin, we need that hose for art purposes, my friend.

It's time to get our ninja on.

Art Ninja!

BOTH: Art Ninja?

Strike a pose.

Great, Ricky, it's a wall.

That's right. But where you guys see just a wall,

an Art Ninja sees a canvas.

And anyway, I'll be directing you guys

and you'll be doing all the work.

OK, kids, you know the drill -

don't use drills without an adult.

OK, guys, this is all about placing the pins in the perfect positions.

Start feeding the pipe through.

That's it, clip that one in, just slide it through a little bit.

Yeah, just bend it round that one.

That's perfect, yeah. OK, Sarah, move across a little bit.

Yeah, start stretching up nice and high.

Yeah, a couple of bricks above your head.

Now that's directing.

SIREN BLARES

Yeah, that's great, guys, it's looking really good.

There you go, Gavin.

Ricky, what are we making?

You don't worry about that, my friend,

you just keep taking instructions from me and all will become clear.

OK, Sarah, so just tighten that onto that valve there.

I'll give you a little clue here, it needs to be watertight.

Oh, yeah?

Oh, look at that, you're a glowing example.

OK, Gavin, have you got that nozzle nice and secure?

Yep, got it.

Right, come down.

Man the pumps.

Kill the lights.

Pump for all you're worth.

MUSIC: New World Symphony Largo by Antonin Dvorak

Behold, my magnificent fluorescent elephant.

Oh, well done, guys, it looks amazing!

Gav, I'm particularly pleased with you today,

so much so - why don't you have a going at being in charge?

Really? Oh, thanks, Ricky.

Gavin, if you're going to be in charge, you should stand

in the right place. How about on this massive obvious X right here?

Perfect.

I'm the director, I was born to do this, it's my time to shine.

Man the pumps!

Whatever you say, Gavin.

Action.

Watch this.

I'm going to get you for this, Ricky!

You should have worn trunks, mate.

Just you wait.

Art Ninja!

It was nice to get out of the flat in the end.

Today has taught me a valuable Art Ninja lesson -

if you want to make art but the weather is ominous,

make a picture with hosepipe and paint that's luminous.

And Gavin didn't even get his own back.

What is it?

There's something on my face?

Ahhh!

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