Day of the Diamond 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.'

Ninja skills!

I draw...

I paint...

I make things.

I hang out with my mates, Gavin, Michelle,

Rich and Sarah.

Most importantly, I make ninja moves.

Some people call me the...

Today I'll show you

how to make a piggy bank robber,

make your things zing with a photogram,

and I do some art that's not just cool,

it's ice-cold.

Because today it's...

GONG BONGS

HE YAWNS

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

and my clothes.

Hey, a parcel.

Hope it's not something valuable.

Wow! A diamond ring.

There must be some kind of a mistake.

"You've got my diamond ring.

"I need it back...

"..urgently or else."

SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYS

Not only does this guy write in short sentences -

I think he has a short temper.

Maybe he's out after a long prison sentence for diamond robbery.

I best lie low and avoid that door.

I need to stay safe and keep THIS safe

until I decide what to do with it.

I've got an idea where I could put it. It's...

the Art Ninja piggy bank robber.

So I've got a balloon down here -

it'll become the main part of the pig's body.

Tie that off.

I've got a crisp tube here, but any tube with a lid will do.

Now I want to cut it just over the halfway point.

To get my scissors in there, protect

my fingers with some modelling clay.

Poke a hole with a pencil.

Now I'm going to attach this to my balloon using masking tape.

This crisp tube is going to become the snout.

Next, I'm going to make it some legs, or trotters.

I'm using an old egg box.

These make perfect little trotters.

There you go.

Now I'm going to tape those onto the balloon.

It doesn't need to be super-tidy -

I'm going to papier-mache this in a moment anyway.

Now I'm going to use the top part of this box here.

I'm going to draw some nice, little, pointy piggy ears.

I'm adding a little bit extra at the bottom, and that's going

to become flaps so it's easier to stick it to the balloon.

Now I'm just going to cut some slits along this bottom flap.

Going to fold it slightly to give the ear a little curve -

makes them look more authentic.

Stick them on with some masking tape.

There you go, he's looking pretty good.

The whole structure of the pig's there,

and I'll give it a nice layer of papier-mache.

So I've got some glue and water mix here.

It's three parts PVA and one part water.

I've cut my newspaper up into tiny pieces,

just makes covering the whole thing up a lot easier.

If you're doing this at home,

remember to put some newspaper down to protect the table.

I'm doing quite a few layers here

cos I need the piggy bank to be very strong.

There you go. I've done lots of layers of the papier-mache.

Now I could wait for that to dry,

or I could use my ninja skills.

Check it out. I've also given it a lovely white undercoat.

Time to pop the balloon on the inside.

Now I need to make a hole for my coins to go in.

I'm going to start off with a sharp pencil and a book.

I'm just going to lightly hammer it in.

There we go. And I'm going to make another hole at the back,

and that's going to be for the tail.

Now I've got this hole here, I can cut a nice slot for my coins.

Make sure your slot is big enough for your largest coin.

There we go. Now I can start putting on my design.

Mine, of course, is a bank robber.

I'm using pencil because pen will show through when I paint it.

There's one of his eyes,

and this bit here is going to be the mask to hide his identity.

Cheeky grin,

and I'm going to give him a stripy top.

Now I've got a great guide, I can start painting it.

I'm going to start with his mask -

I'm going to use black for that.

Now I'm going to move on to his stripy top -

I'm going to do that purple and white.

Couple of bits round his trotters here.

Looking really good so far.

I'm using light pink to paint his face and his bottom,

and I'm going to come back with a darker pink

to do some little details.

Now, carefully, I'm going to add some highlights to the eyes.

Now I'm going to add a piggy tail with a pink pipe cleaner.

Just going to wrap it round a pencil to make it nice and curly.

I've left a little bit straight

so I can push it into the hole I've made in his bottom.

I've painted the lid from the crisp tube a dark pink -

that's going to be the front of the snout,

and now I'm going to add some finishing touches with a black pen.

Here's some nostrils and a cheeky grin.

There we are - check him out.

OINK! OINK!

Let's put a couple of coins in him,

and, of course, you get them out by taking off the lid.

But if you think a bank robber's a little bit too hammy,

why not try one of these designs?

A pirate, a clown,

or even a baby.

KNOCKING AT DOOR

The door.

Maybe it's the scary man come back for his diamond.

Oh, phew! Sarah, am I relieved to see you.

I don't know, Ricky. Are you?

-Yeah.

-And what's that sparkling behind your back?

-Nothing.

-Come on, you can show me.

-Nothing there.

-Come on!

-I can't.

-Show me.

-No.

-Come on!

Come on!

SHE GRUNTS, GASPS

WEDDING MARCH PLAYS

HE GASPS

Sorry, Ricky. I didn't know you were...

Great, that's amazing news!

Bye, I've got to go.

Look what you've done now.

SHE SIGHS

That didn't look...?

He wouldn't have thought that...?

With Sarah?

Nah.

Here's a quick art tip

of how to draw a treasure chest.

So I'm going to start with my chest bottom.

Nice big old-fashioned chest,

maybe some cast-iron bars going across it...

..and a couple of dots as bolts.

And then a nice, big lock here.

Now inside the chest, I'm going to do a cloud,

and that's going to be my heaped pile of treasure.

Now for the lid - a line across,

and a slightly-rounded shape on the top.

And some lines to add some perspective.

Now I'm going to decorate my pile of treasure.

So let's put some gems in there -

maybe a diamond.

How about a nice crown?

Then some coins.

And some lines to make it look like the treasure is shining.

There you go - quick art tip.

Why don't YOU make some art to treasure?

PARROT SQUAWKS

All that business with the diamond ring

and the scary man has sent a shiver right down my spine.

Really, if I had an X-ray, I think you'd be able to see it.

That gives me an idea for some art.

Not so much an X-ray -

maybe I can make my own version of a photogram picture.

Don't worry, all will become clear.

Let me just grab some interesting objects.

Right, so I've got myself a watch,

some headphones,

a pen,

some keys, an old phone charger,

a banana and some cool shades.

I'm going to get some nice coloured paper,

and I'm going to draw around these items.

Let's start with yellow.

I'm going to start drawing round

the banana, seeing as we've got the yellow out.

A photogram is a form of art made popular by American artist

Man Ray.

Did somebody call my name?

Hey, Man.

Man Ray, to be precise.

I beg your pardon, Ray.

I'm actually appearing as a photogram,

one of my favourite forms of art.

It's a photo made without a camera.

I put objects onto photographic paper and then expose them to light.

It makes a negative shadow.

Now would you mind disappearing into the shadows

so I can have a go at making my own version?

It's becoming very transparent that I'm not needed here.

See you later, Man...

Ray.

So Man Ray liked to call his photograms "Rayographs",

but I'm going to have a go at my very own "Rickograph".

I'm not going to be using photographic paper, though,

so I'm going full-colour.

Cool, banana's done.

I think I'm going to use this cable next.

Now remember, you can draw around whatever you like.

That's cool.

I'll move onto the green.

The reason I'm using a mechanical pencil is cos you can click

the lead out so it's a long thin piece, and then use it to get

in all the nooks and crannies on smaller items, like keys.

Once I've drawn all around these objects, I'm going to cut them out

and make a picture that will cheer up even Man Ray.

I'm going to start by cutting out the banana.

There you go - nice banana cut out.

You'll need to cut the rest out, but not me,

cos I'm a ninja.

There we are. Good stuff.

Let me grab myself a piece of black card,

cos it'll give the colours great contrast,

and they'll really pop out.

Now I'm going to arrange them into a composition that I'm happy with.

Put this pen pointed back into the centre.

Now I'm going to stick them down.

This is looking good but to finish it off,

I'm going to give it a nice frame.

Awesome! My very own Rickograph.

Remember, when you do your photogram,

you can use any colour and draw around any object you like.

KNOCKING AT DOOR

WHIMPERS: The diamond ring. The scary man behind the door...

SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC

Oh, phew!

Gav, I'm so happy it's you.

Wow, I'm touched. You've never said THAT before.

Well, I was worried it was the scary man that's after this.

Whoa, Ricky! Let me take a closer look at that.

It's the perfect fit.

Now take it off, or you and me will both be in big trouble.

It's stuck. Help me, Ricky.

THEY GRUNT

I'm sorry, Gav, there's only one thing for it -

If we can't get it off your finger,

we'll have to take you to hospital, have it cut off.

Cut off?! But it's my favourite finger.

Wait there.

Wow. That's the most animated I've ever seen Gavin,

and he's a pretty lively guy.

This picture's pretty...

animated.

STOMACH GRUMBLES

Are you all right, dude?

I think it's something I ate.

Let's have a look.

This guy's got issues...

not. It's just an animation - a chalky one.

To make this rad little animation, you'll need...

A little chalkboard,

some coloured chalk, a friendly friend,

and a tablet with animation app.

There's plenty of these animation apps available online,

so just find one that you like.

And you can put it together in just three ninja moves.

Ninja move number one.

Plan out your animation.

I'm going to be using my magic chalkboard

to look inside of Andre's body.

Now you can use your chalkboard to look inside machines,

through walls - anything your imagination can muster.

Ninja move number two.

The next thing you need to do is set up your tablet app

ready for animation.

There's not a lot to set up here.

Once you've decided what you're animating,

you can get on with it.

Every time I take a new frame, I need to wipe off the old one,

and for that, I'm just using a damp cloth.

Now this is the problem, cos I need a guide to animate to.

For this, I'm going to be using a tool that you've probably

heard of before called onion skinning.

Erm...

what is onion skinning?

Well, onion skinning means you can see the

-previous frame before you draw your next one.

-Ah, OK.

Ninja move number three.

There's two parts to this animation.

There's not just the animation on the chalkboard,

we have an animation model, as well.

Gnarly to the max.

So I need to animate Andre to react to the stuff that's

happening on the chalkboard.

I think it's time to take a look at our mini-masterpiece.

Great stuff.

Get yourself a chalkboard, some chalk, a friend and a tablet,

and have a go yourself.

Ninja skills!

I'd better get some help for Gavin -

he's going to do himself an injury trying to get that ring off.

PHONE RINGS

-ON PHONE:

-'Hi, Ricky, it's your mum.

-'Just giving you a ring.'

-Not you as well.

'I wanted to say Dad's told me yours and Sarah's special news!

'Congratulations!

'I have to get a hat. So much to plan.

'Your plans are nearly foiled by the ninja apprentices,

'you have an unwelcome visitor who brings the bling,

'and it's ICE to see you getting stuck into some super-cool art.'

How does she know all this?

'Anyway, I've got to go, and you'd best choose a best man...

'guess it'll be Gavin!'

-POP!

-Yes!

-Oh, no.

-Can't believe I'm going to be your best man.

Can't wait to tell my mum the good news. Bye, Ricks.

Could this day get any worse?

-BOTH:

-Hi, Ricky!

Hey, it's Lauren and Mark from the Dengineers.

How about making something with...?

A broken broom?

Sorry, guys. Not this time.

I've DEN something with that already.

-BOTH:

-Ricky, Ricky, Ricky!

Hey, what have these guys got?

Ricky, can you make art with tinfoil?

OK, I choose you.

THEY CHEER

What are your names?

-Hi, I'm Naimh.

-Hi, I'm Jack.

Nice to meet you, Naimh and Jack. Where are you from?

-BOTH:

-Belfast.

All right. I'll just go and grab my things.

OK, here we are.

Got my trusty tinfoil.

What are you going to make, Ricky?

I think I'm going to make an owl, and I'll show you how.

Cool.

I'm going to start by covering my piece of cardboard in glue.

Do you guys like owls?

I like the way they can turn their head around.

Hopefully this'll help you make some head-turning art.

Right, now I'm going to take the foil and I'm going to stick it

over my piece of cardboard, and I'm going to keep the shiny side up.

There you go.

Put a little bit of glue on the back, just to stick down the edges.

OK, so I've got my reflective surface now,

and I'm going to use that to sketch the drawing of my owl onto.

What I'm doing now is, I'm pressing into the foil

on the cardboard with a pencil, kind of creating a relief picture.

Just finishing the outline here.

Now I'm going to glue string along the lines to add extra detail -

make it look really 3-D.

Now I'm going to use a brush here, just because you get a finer line.

It's a little bit fiddly, but I'm just going along

and gluing string along the lines that I've drawn with the pencil.

So what would you call an owl, if you had one?

I would probably call mine Sir Hoots-a-lot.

Sir Hoots-a-lot? Yeah, that makes sense.

The tootsies done.

Finally, I'm going to put in Sir Hoots-a-lot's beak.

I'd like to point out that Sir Hoots-a-lot's

first name is Sandra.

So I need to cover this picture again in another layer of foil.

Now I can wait for it to dry, or I could use some ninja skills.

-What do you reckon? BOTH:

-Use the ninja skills.

Ninja skills it is.

WHOOSH! Ninja skills!

Now it's ready for another layer of foil.

So I'm just going to start pasting on the PVA glue again.

Now I can put over my second layer of foil.

Using my fingers,

I'm just going to push the foil into all of the gaps, and as I'm pushing

down on the string, the picture's starting to appear through the foil.

And then to get into the tighter nooks and crannies,

just going to use a cotton bud.

The reason I've done two layers is so if I accidentally tear

this layer of foil, it still looks good underneath.

Right, I've pushed in all the gaps that I can now,

and I'm going to add a little bit more detail with a pencil.

I think I'm going to give him nice feathers on his belly.

Now I've got two layers of foil on here,

this pencil's leaving really nice lines.

I'm going to put a little bit of detail on the face now.

There we are. I think it's ready for a final finishing touch.

I've got some black boot polish here,

and with a piece of tissue,

I'm going to rub it all into the gaps and the grooves that I've made.

So the boot polish is accentuating all the detail that I've made.

In some of the areas where the foil is ripped

and you can get through to the string, it's really thick

and black, and it gives it a nice bit of contrast across the picture.

All right, I think that's it.

You guys ready to see it?

-BOTH:

-Yes.

What do you think of this?

-It's amazing, Ricky.

-Well done.

What would you give it out of ten?

-BOTH:

-It's a ten!

OWL accept that score.

I think it's so good, it deserves a frame.

There we are.

Thanks for your suggestion, guys. You've been brilliant.

-BOTH:

-Bye!

OWL HOOTS

'Hey, you there.

'Do you like bling as much as me?'

It's another scary man about a diamond.

'Now you can make bling your thing with rock salt jewellery...

'..and here's how you make it.

'You'll need a bowl

'and some rock salt.

'Pour a heaped teaspoon into the bowl.

'Now get some paint.

'Put in a pea-sized amount.

'Now take some PVA glue.

'Add some to your mixture -

'about a teaspoon.

'Now stir.

'Now take some clingfilm.

'Now pour your mixture into the clingfilm.

'Don't be blue - enjoy it.

'And use the clingfilm to mould into your desired shape.

'There. Leave it to dry overnight.'

COCKEREL CROWS

'Good morning! It's ready.

'Unwrap your rock.

'Mesmerising.

'It dries lighter overnight.

'Now grab a ring base...

'..available in all good craft shops.

'Get some strong glue

'and stick your rock on top.

'That should do it.

'Stick your rock to your ring base.

'Sparkly!

'Check out THAT rock.'

KNOCKING AT DOOR

Oh, no - that angry man again.

SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC

KNOCKING AT DOOR

SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC CONTINUES

The coast is clear. I'm going to get out while the going's good.

Ninja skills!

I think I'm far enough away.

That diamond bloke will never find me here,

but all this skateboarding has made me so thirsty.

Oh, cheers.

-What, no ice?

-How about that?

Hang on, who are you?

I'm Jamie, and I'm an ice sculptor.

Pleased to meet you.

Hey, all this ice gives me an idea for some cool art.

But first...

we'd better get our ninja on.

Art Ninja!

-(Strike a pose.)

-Art Ninja?

OK, so here we are - this is where we make our ice.

Can we make an ice sculpture

inspired by this diamond ring?

Yeah, I think so.

Awesome. Well, where do we start?

-Let's go into our studio.

-OK, cool.

CHAINSAW WHIRS

Wow! That looks pretty serious.

In all my years of Art Ninja-ing, I've never had to make art

-with a chainsaw.

-Well, this is the best way to cut ice.

Jamie's an expert with a chainsaw, but don't be using one at home.

While Jamie cuts the ice down to size, I'm going to make a template.

Most people draw themselves a template, but not me,

because I'm a ninja.

Ice cold ninja skills.

Hey, Jamie, here's my template. So what's next?

OK, we're going to stick this to this piece of ice

so that we can cut it out.

That's good.

'More sharp tools.

'This is a band saw and, no,

'don't be using this either.'

OK, so now we've got a much thicker piece of ice,

which we're going to make the diamond out of.

MACHINE WHIRS

OK, so we're going to sculpt the diamond.

All right.

'With Jamie's help, I'm marking out bits of the ice which

'need carving to make our diamond.'

How long would this normally take you?

Oh, I could do that in a couple of minutes probably, Ricky.

Excellent.

Now that looks really good.

So now what we want to do is make

it look really polished and glassy,

so we use this hotplate here which is in hot water,

and that will just polish out all those little saw marks.

Wow, it just suddenly becomes totally crystal clear, doesn't it?

It allows the light through it,

and suddenly the whole thing's transformed.

-It really looks bling now, doesn't it?

-It does.

OK. So now what?

Now we need to make the ring for the diamond.

OK, so this is the base of our ice sculpture

and we can position our ring on top of this.

So we've got to get this in exactly the right spot,

and then you need to line up

the other section of the ring.

-OK.

-That looks good to me.

-There we are. Just got to plonk our diamond in.

-Exactly.

Now that's one sparkly rock.

I'm pretty wedded to ice sculpture.

Good work, Jamie.

Now I just need to go and give

that small ring back to that scary diamond bloke.

Now where did I put it?

Oh, no.

Yikes! It's frozen solid.

PHONE RINGS

Oh, it's just Gav. Hi, Gav.

-ON PHONE:

-'Hi, Ricky.

'I'm here with a man that says you have his diamond ring.

'He wants it back right now.

'I'm sending him down to you. Bye!'

HE EXHALES

The guy's going to lump me.

I think you might need this hairdryer.

HE GROANS

This is going to take me ages.

I gave the scary guy his ring back, by the way,

and he wasn't what I expected -

check him out.

I know!

He was supposed to deliver it to somebody,

but posted it through my door by mistake.

Today has taught me a valuable Art Ninja lesson -

if something feels scary, then do something nice,

some really cool art that's made out of ice.

So everything got sorted in the end.

'Hey, Ricks, congratulations on your great news -

'we can't wait for the big day!'

THEY CHEER AND HOOT

HE SCREAMS