Day of the Trash 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.

'Most importantly, I make ninja moves. Some people call me the...

'Art Ninja.

'Today, I'll show you how to make an awesome toxic bin for your

'smelly socks, an incredible robot with dots

'and I'll paint with mates and pogo sticks because today it's...

'Day Of The Trash.'

ALARM BEEPS

Ohhhh! Tidy party last night.

I might need to tidy the flat though.

Time to get my Ninja on.

SMACK!

And my clothes.

Wow, it was an even better party than I remember.

I better clear up.

Ninja skills.

All this cleaning up has given me an idea.

I could use this old cardboard to make myself an awesome toxic bin.

I could put my old socks, any old rubbish in it.

# Art Ninja! #

The Art Ninja toxic bin, ideal for all your toxic waste or just...

ahem, your smelly socks.

I'm going to start by drawing round this plate.

There we are. Cut that out.

Doesn't matter if it's a bit rough,

it's going to be a toxic bin after all.

Right, we're going to need three of these.

So I'll just ninja myself some more.

'Yee-ha!'

Nice.

And I've cut out the centres of these two.

Just put those to one side for now.

Got any more cardboard down here?

I'm going to draw a wave across the top of this.

I can do a little bit better than that.

There we are. Going to cut that out too.

There we are.

And these two bits are going to be the main part of my toxic bin.

The great thing about the corrugated cardboard is that

I can roll it round.

But I'm going to keep it a little bit geometric, maybe every

two and a half centimetres doing a crease,

so it feels more industrial rather than like a perfect curve.

Great. Now just going to tape that together.

I'm going to do the same thing with this bit.

Cool. Now because I've cut this curve into it,

it means when I attach it together I can have it

pointing in a certain direction, and I think that'll look really good.

OK, I'm going to take the bit that I didn't cut a hole in -

that's going to be the base.

I'm going to tape the first tube to it.

And as you tape this to the base,

it will help hold it into a nice circular shape.

You can put some sticky tape on the inside too.

Cool. Now I'm going to take one of the rings I did,

and stick that to the top of this one.

There's quite a lot of tape in this one,

so you need to make sure you've got a dependable supply.

There we are.

Now I'll take that other loop I did, and turn it so that

the angle then is down first,

so it kind of leans over forward.

It's easy to put things in then.

It also makes it look like a pipe.

Tape that on too... Cool.

Now I'm going to use the final ring.

And that goes on top here.

Nearly there.

Now there we have the overall structure for the toxic bin.

Now it could do with a nice layer of papier-mache.

So, luckily, loads of mess round here.

Got some newspaper and papier-mache mix,

which is two parts glue, one part water.

I'll use one of those old boxes.

I don't want to get the kitchen too messy after clearing it up.

There we go.

So I'm going to do a layer of papier-mache all over,

and a little bit down the front of the inside.

A nice bit of messy therapy from all the tidying up.

The reason I'm covering this in papier-mache is to cover up

the sticky tape and make it easier to paint and it's helping me

clean up all that loose newspaper.

Right, it's looking pretty good.

Got a nice coverage all over.

The next stage is to wait for it to dry,

but I wait for nothing cos I'm the Art Ninja!

'Yee-ha!'

There we go. Nice and dry and painted silver.

You can paint it grey if you don't have silver paint.

I've painted the inside black too.

Next, I'll do a technique on the outside

called dry brushing to give it a bit of texture

and make it look old and worn.

So you need to put a bit of black paint in here.

There we go.

So I'm going to get a little bit of paint just on the tips.

You might need to rub some of the excess off.

Then just start flicking it across.

Just let the dry brush catch in places.

See how it picks up on all the facets, makes it look old and worn.

And I'm going to do that all the way round.

It's details like this that make it look really real.

Just round the top. There we are.

Right, now I'm going to draw some industrial-looking bolts round

the top and I'll do that just by sketching an outline of them.

Just sketching them. Lovely.

It's going to be full of toxic stuff.

I think it needs just one more finishing touch.

'I've made some little critters who like hanging out around bins -

'a cockroach, a rat,

'and there have been rumours...'

There's been alligators in the sewers!

There's one there.

Put some slime underneath like that.

And of course, probably going to keep some smelly socks in here,

so we need a little warning sign.

There we go.

This bin certainly isn't rubbish.

It's awesome.

# And I love what you do Don't you know that you're toxic? #

Oh, the toxic bin.

Just throwing it out there, but why don't you have a go?

I wonder what time it is.

Oh, I know what time it is. It's Animation O'Clock.

Hi, I thought it was a lovely day,

so I'll get outside and do some animation in the garden.

But I'll tell you what, it's too hot for jeans...

Ah, that's loads better.

Who needs fancy pants kit to animate? Not me.

I just need my ninja fingers.

To make this nifty flipbook animation, all you're going

to need is some sticky memo notes,

a pen and your imagination.

You can make this animation in just three ninja moves.

Ninja Move Number One.

Take the last page of your sticky memo book,

that's where you'll draw your first frame.

Now, I'm going to be doing a motorcyclist jumping over

some of these rad little cars.

So - going to start drawing my motorcyclist.

Draw its first frame.

Put a little helmet on this person here. Safety first.

Then flick to the next page

and trace some aspects of your motorcyclist through.

But what I'm going to do is trace it slightly higher,

so it looks like the engine's running and they're bobbing up and

down as the engine ticks over.

Just flick that between like that.

And you can see that's starting to animate.

'Ninja Move Number Two.'

You've got to continue to draw all your frames

through your sticky memo book - all the way to the top.

Now this bit takes quite a bit of time, so let's time-lapse.

In case you're wondering, that's my mate Rich, who helped me film this.

Phew, right, once you've drawn all your frames all you have to

do is flip the book from back to front to make the animation work.

You can see the little motorcyclist riding along.

I've even done a bit of fumes coming out the back to show

the engine's running and a couple of skids.

Vroom!

And something special for the stunt.

'Ninja Move Number Three.'

Create the assault course for your motorcyclist.

So I'm going to have a little ramp over here.

And let's put some little cars for them to jump.

Pick-up truck.

It's kind of weird jumping over a big wheel,

but that's going to happen too.

And...fire engine.

And then I'm going to have a little area for them to land on.

A little landing pad, you know I'm a nice guy.

OK, let's test our bike.

If we flick the flick book and move it along the table at the same

time, it creates the illusion that the bike's actually driving along.

Yeah, it works.

And now we're ready for the death-defying stunt.

Ninja fingers away.

Yeah. Awesome fun animation without any fancy pants kit.

Why not see what you can create with some memo notes, a pen

and your imagination.

Ricky out.

BELL RINGS

-Oh, hi, Dad.

-Hi, Ricky.

-What have you got there?

I've been clearing out the attic. There's loads of your rubbish there.

That's all I need, more rubbish.

Oh, take that. Oh.

-Thank you.

-Oh, my arms.

There you go - one of your old robots in there

and your fluffy kangaroo, Skippy. You used to love him.

It's a bit more like rubbish Skippy these days.

And you used to love this - your old pogo stick.

-Oh, I must give that a go.

-Must go.

-Bye, Dad.

-Or should that be "pogo".

Bye, Dad!

Hey, cotton buds. I wonder what these are for.

I know, I could use them

to make a painting of this robot made up of tiny dots.

Just grab some paper.

And I'm going to draw myself a couple of guidelines before I start.

'I'm drawing my robot, but you can do anything.'

That's my outline done.

Now I'm going to use the cotton buds to make the points on my picture.

I'm going to start putting silver round the robot's head.

'This technique is called pointillism

'and is often associated with the artist Georges Seurat.'

You find that the more you use the cotton buds the bigger the end gets

and it's hard to get a nice, defined dot.

But the great thing about cotton buds is you can just turn around

and you've got another end you can use.

Right, I think that's enough with the silver,

let's move on to some red.

Bonjour, je m'appelle Georges Seurat.

As you know, this technique is called pointillism.

What's that, Seurat?

The point of pointillism is to paint points of pure separate colour,

which from a distance would make your eyes mix the colour.

Gives a whole new meaning to seeing spots in front of your eyes.

Computer monitors work in much the same way,

with their pixels acting like my spots.

I was way ahead of my time.

Talking of which, you'd better get on with your robot.

Seurat, you only painted seven big paintings in your whole life.

Oui, my most famous one,

A Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte,

took two years, but you only have a couple of minutes.

Thanks for that, Seurat.

He's got red outlines through his eyes, so we'll do those first.

I can't believe Dad brought more stuff round

when I've just finished cleaning up the flat.

Still, I think it's going to make a tidy picture.

Right, let's add some nice yellow in there.

I wonder what robot would say about this picture.

-Probably...

-HE BEEPS

Or something like that.

It's starting to come together now.

I think I'll add a little bit more silver on the top.

Now I'm going to mix a bit of black and silver together

to get a dark silver to do some shadows and some worn areas.

Adds a little bit of texture and depth.

There we are.

I'd say that's finished and it looks awesome.

Just going to put a frame on it.

The robot pointillism picture.

-AS ROBOT:

-You could make one too!

-PHONE RINGS

-It's probably my mum.

She's the only one who ever calls.

-MACHINE BEEPS

-Hi, Ricky. It's your mum.

Thought I'd give you a call to remind you

what you're going to be doing today.

You'll be printing an underwater scene,

finding out how to fashion a sock ninja

and doing some pointillism painting using your old pogo stick.

-How does she know all this?

-And don't forget to flush the loo.

Whenever you go to the toilet you always...

Oh-ho! That's enough of that.

-Is it lunch yet?

-ALL: Ricky, Ricky, Ricky!

Better hold lunch. What can I help you guys with?

What can you make with old library cards?

A library card? Let's book it in for later.

BOTH: Ricky, what can you do with these toothbrushes?

-You've got some cheek. Maybe another time.

-BOTH: Aww.

BOTH: Ricky. What can you make with this?

-These guys look interesting. I choose you.

-Yeah!

-What are your names?

-I'm Shae.

-And I'm Ellie.

-Lovely to meet you guys. And where are you from?

-Wolverhampton.

-So what have you got for me today?

-A pizza base.

I don't think I can do anything with an actual pizza base

but maybe the bit of polystyrene that comes underneath in the box,

I can do some art with that.

I've got loads of those lying around.

Right, here we go. I've got my polystyrene pizza base.

-Wow.

-And I'm going to use it to make a print of a goldfish bowl.

I like fish on pizza. Love a bit of anchovies.

-Ugh!

-What's wrong with that?

There we go.

I'm using a pencil to push the lines into the pizza base

and these impressions won't be printed when I roll paint over it.

They'll come out as white lines. Is there any art you like doing?

-I'm quite into painting and doing...

-Drawing.

But actually, yeah. I like... I'm into modelling.

I do lots of things at home with clay.

Sounds great.

I've drawn my fish, but now I'm drawing a couple of little reeds.

My flat is a bit of a mess today and my mum was calling me

and having a go about having to tidy it up.

How are you guys at keeping your place tidy?

-You don't want to know.

-No.

-That makes me feel better.

What hasn't helped with my mess today is my dad's brought back

loads of my old toys and games.

OK, guys, do you want to see it so far?

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-OK. Here it is.

-Ooh.

-A fish.

-A fish in a fishbowl.

And my circular thing makes it into a fishbowl.

-But now's the cool bit, yeah?

-Cool bit.

I've got with me some paint and a roller.

Put some blue paint into it.

You need quite a lot.

You'll have fun when you do this. Right, here we go.

I'm just getting the roller all full of the paint.

There we go. Start rolling it on.

I'm just rolling it round now, over the fish.

Just be a little bit careful here not to go over the edges too much

and get it all over the top. I'm doing it in the kitchen as well,

so the surfaces are pretty easy to wipe clean.

'Make sure you put something down on your surface when you have a go.'

-OK, guys, I've got it all nice and covered.

-I want to see.

-Yeah.

I'm not going to show you yet. I'm going to print it then show you.

-BOTH: Aw!

-Right.

Printing, printing, printing.

Push it down, make sure all the paint comes off.

You turn it over as well.

Going to rub it on the back just to make sure you've got

all the shape of the whole picture.

-Come on!

-OK, guys, we're going to peel it off now.

Drum roll, please.

Have to be quite quick, otherwise the paint dries to the paper.

Here we go. Oh, yeah. I think you are going to like this.

-Are you ready to see it?

-BOTH: Yeah.

-OK, guys, what do you think of this?

-That's awesome.

-It's amazing.

So, guys, what would you score it?

BOTH: Erm, probably... Yeah.

110%!

110%? That's not even possible.

'I know that and I'm not even a maths ninja.'

Right, let's give it a little frame.

Great bit of art.

My fishbowl picture made on a pizza base.

See if you could top that.

Thanks very much for your help today. Bye-bye.

-BOTH: Bye, Ricky!

-I can finally eat.

Do you know what? You can do art everywhere.

Check this out.

MUSIC: Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky

Now, there you are - my cupcake ballerina.

I'm sure you can do something equally as tasty.

-DOORBELL RINGS

-Oh, hey, Gav.

-Hello, mate. What's all this then?

-Oh, it's just a box of my old trash.

I remember this. You loved him.

You took him, like, everywhere with you.

You did stop that eventually though. Last year.

-Yeah, all right. Give me that.

-Oh! Can I borrow this?

I used to be pretty nippy on a pogo stick.

-Mate, be my guest. You know, hop off.

-See you then.

Gavin's talents run deep

and here's a quick art tip that will add depth to your work.

I'm going to start by drawing a horizon line

and I'm going to draw some little mountains over the side.

As they're far in the distance, maybe some snow on top

and some up here.

The further things are away the smaller they are, so even though

the mountains are huge, they're quite small in the distance.

I'm going to draw some animals just below the horizon line.

I'm making this sheep quite big at the front of the picture,

so it appears near to us, and I'm going to draw another sheep

midway between the first sheep and the mountains.

As things move backwards, they get closer to the horizon line.

Now I'm going to do some little shrubs of grass,

bigger at the front, getting smaller to the back.

There. The different-sized objects have given my picture depth.

There's a quick art tip.

See what you can do.

Ewe, get it? Female sheep.

Hey, you there!

Oh, this guy's odd and his style sucks.

-Do you have odd socks?

-I said sucks!

Odd socks suck but they don't have to any more

because you can turn them into the sock ninja.

Here's how you make it. Eugh!

Stuff cotton wool in an old sock and use hair bands or elastic bands

to keep it in and make a head for your sock ninja.

Cut out the heel of your sock.

Keep that - you'll need it later.

Make some slices for the body and the arms and use a needle

and thread to sew them, stuffing with cotton wool as you go.

Secure the hands with bands.

Hello there!

Cut, sew and stuff the other half of the sock to make legs

and then sew them on.

Very springy.

Using felt, cut out shapes to add detail and use glue

to attach them to your ninja.

Stick on eyes, headband...

..ears, mouth and sash to complete the full ninja effect.

The sock ninja makes a great toy.

Now you no longer have to throw your odd socks.

Unless you're using them as a ball of course.

That looks fun. Where can I get one?

Those 3D tellies are good these days.

I wonder if Gav's up for a laugh.

I'll go and find him. What's that, Skippy?

You want to come too? All right.

-Ninja skills. How you doing, guys?

-Hey, Ricky.

Rick, look! I've got pretty good at this pogo stick I borrowed

and I got Michelle and Sarah involved as well.

There's only one thing for it. Let's have a pogo party.

Oh, no!

Oh. This gives me an idea.

Let's make this pogo party arty.

But first, we need to get our ninja on.

Art Ninja. Come on, guys.

-Art Ninja?

-Art Ninja?

Right, come on, guys. Give me a hand with this tarp. Roll it out.

-Ah, we're kicking then.

-We're kicking it.

-Oh, is this our canvas?

-It is our canvas.

-Right. Who wants to help me put one of these together?

-Let's do it.

-We need to make our customised brushes.

-Right.

And we're doing this by actually attaching a little sponge

on the bottom of our pogo sticks.

We're going to be putting paint out on this board,

dipping these bad boys in it and then painting our picture.

-So safety first, guys. Go run and get your helmets.

-OK. Sweet.

OK, guys. I'm going to show you how a ninja does it.

-That is so cool.

-That looks rad.

Hey, Ricks, what do you call this technique?

Well, painting pictures with dots is called pointillism

but as I'm using a pogo stick I'd really like to call it pogoism.

Pick a colour each.

Splat it out on your board and let's start painting.

-PAINT SQUELCHES

-You're like you're enjoying that.

Yeah, Gavin, yeah!

-Now splat! And let's po-go!

-THEY CHEER

So, Gavin, just start filling in this area here. OK.

OK, you're going to come along here.

If you could try and just accent that a little bit.

I think the painting's really coming together.

I wonder if they know what it is yet.

It's kind of obvious, with all the hopping.

Right, we're nearly there, guys. We are nearly there.

There's no need to pogo any further.

I think we have a masterpiece on our hands.

-Or more like beneath our feet.

-Awesome.

-Yeah.

Yeah, that's more like it. Check it out.

-It's amazing! Nice, man.

-That's awesome. Really cool.

-Wicked.

This is one of my favourite pieces.

Inspired by my only childhood friend, Skippy the kangaroo.

-Aw!

-Oh, look at him.

This is all for you then, old Skip, mate. What do you think?

You think it's rubbish? I think you're rubbish, you...

-HE GRUNTS

-I'm going to have words with you.

Remember you did a drawing of me I said was a perfect likeness?

Well, it was rubbish...

I can't believe the cheek of that kangaroo.

Well, that's that. Time to get back to the flat.

You didn't really think I'd get rid of him, did you?

I was just throwing away the old paint.

Today has taught me a valuable Art Ninja lesson

- you can turn your old trash into art treasure,

but pogoing brings both pain and pleasure.

I don't know about you, Skip, but I'm ready for my kip.

You're one toy I could never throw out.

Night, Skippy.

Night, Ricky.

ARRGH!

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