Day of the Baby 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,

Rich

and Sarah.

Most importantly, I make ninja moves.

Some people call me the...

..Art Ninja!

Today I'll show you how to use old, socks to make a cute critter,

create a mobile inspired by Calder

and I make art that's fit for a mummy.

Because today it's...

..Day of the Baby.

RICKY YAWNS

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

And my clothes.

-Hey, Dad!

-Here you go, son.

-What's this?

-It's a hat.

It's a bit small.

That's because it belongs to your niece, Vicky.

Mum wondered if you'd look after her.

-Say hello to Uncle Ricky, Vicky.

-BABY COOS

But I have no idea how to look after a baby.

See you later, Ricky.

BABY CRIES

Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry. Sh, sh, sh. It's OK. Hello.

Oh, just wait there.

I don't have any toys to calm the baby down

and this is no place for a baby.

I mean, look!

I got a pair of my old socks lying around.

It has given me an idea, though.

I could make

the Art Ninja cute critter.

Just going to take one of these socks and turn it inside out.

We're going to lay it down with the heel facing the ceiling.

And with some scissors, I'm going to cut down towards the heel.

Going to stop about that blue line there.

I'm going to make that strip about 2cm wide.

And the same on the left.

These little strips in the middle, you cut those out.

I'm going to sew along these edges here

and these are going to become the ears of the cute critter.

But to help hold them in place, I'm going to use some pins.

Just makes it easier to sew.

Got some thread here.

I've doubled it over, like this.

Tied a knot in the end.

Now I'm going to start sewing along the line that I've pinned here.

You need to be careful if you're using a needle,

or get an adult to help you.

And needles are definitely something babies should not be using.

I'm just doing a very simple sort of tacking stitch,

just going over the edge.

Keep sewing.

Now I'm going to take out the rest of my pins.

The reason I sewed it inside out is cos when I turn it back

round the right way, the stitching will be really tidy.

There we go. Now I'm going to stuff these ears

with a bit of toy stuffing.

And you can get this stuff from any good craft shop

or you can use cotton wool or old socks or anything soft.

Push it in the best you can with your fingers and thumb.

Sometimes it's easier to use the end of a paintbrush.

Great.

Now I'm going to get a really big bit like this

and this stuffing's going to be for the head,

so I'm just going to start stuffing it up in here.

Now, the reason I've used a sock in this way

is because the heel becomes a perfect face.

Look at that.

Put this to one side for a second.

I'm going to start making the arms.

So, with my other sock, I'm going to cut about 2cm

away from where the heel ends.

I'm going to cut all the way down here

to the pink elasticated part of the sock -

about 2cm wide again.

And again on the other side.

This is going to need stitching,

so I'm going to use my ninja skills.

There we go. Now you just stuff that.

Now I need to sew those up to keep all the stuffing inside

and it's easier to do that by turning it back inside out.

The actual elasticated bit now,

just fold it down.

This is to tidy it up, keep it nice and strong.

Now I'm going to sew that up.

Snippy, snippy.

Turn it back in the right way and these are the arms.

This will hold in the stuffing in the head

as well as being, like, the neck and shoulders.

Now I'm going to get another big bit of toy stuffing to make the body.

That's the belly, there.

I'm just going to sew along underneath

to hold all the stuffing in.

Tie that off again.

Now I'm going to make some legs.

Snip up here again about 2cm from the side

and I'm going to leave a tiny gap before I get to the stitching,

so I've got a bit of material that I can fold in and stitch

and I can cut those two flaps out of the middle.

I need to sew and stuff as I go along with these legs.

Because I can't turn them inside out,

I'm going try and roll in the edges and do a little hidden stitch.

BABY COOS

You OK over there, Vicky?

There you go. It's looking great, but it needs a face,

so I've cut out a few bits of felt here.

Now I'm just going to stitch them on.

Now for the star eye.

Now for the mouth.

There we go.

I think it looks great.

My cute critter.

I think baby Vicky will love that.

You don't have to make yours gnarly like mine.

You could try these other great ideas.

BABY VICKY CRIES

Baby Vicky sounds a bit grizzly.

I'd better go and amuse her.

Hello, baby Vicky. Hello.

It's Uncle Ricky. Here's the toy.

Here's the toy. Here comes the toy. Yeah. Where's it gone?

Where's it gone?

Where has it gone?

BABY VICKY LAUGHS

How about

comfort blanket?

Blanket.

Did she just say "blanket"?

Here's a quick art tip of how to draw a baby.

So, I'm going to start by giving it a nice big head,

large eyes.

Babies always seem to have big eyes.

And some eyelashes.

This just makes your baby look really cute.

Let's draw a little nose,

tiny little ears.

Now I'm going to draw the dummy.

That's just a circle with a kind of horseshoe shape on top of it.

Have a smile behind it.

Now a little bit of curly hair.

I draw the body quite small.

Arms outstretched, maybe for a little hug.

And the bottom part, I'm going to do a big nappy

and then I'm going to have the little legs

pointing out

with the feet pointing upwards,

so it looks like they're sitting down.

There you go. A quick art tip.

Don't be a baby. Have a go yourself.

BABY CRIES THEN LAUGHS

It doesn't seem like baby Vicky's getting comfort

from the blanket any more.

I'm going to make her something that will help her get some sleep.

I'll need tissue paper.

Ninja skills.

And some wire.

You can get this online or from a DIY shop.

I'm going to use these to make a mobile inspired by the sculptor

Alexander Calder.

I'm going to wrap this piece round a glue stick

so I get a teardrop shape.

Going to hold that in place with some masking tape.

I'm going to wrap this one round...

How about a hole punch?

Nice triangle shape, there.

Right.

Now I'm going to take my tissue paper

and I'm going cover it,

just one side. Get some glue stick.

And now I'm going to put my wire

just on top of it and fold the tissue paper over

so it sandwiches it in between.

Little trick here.

Use a brush, just try and push it into all the gaps,

right up flush with the wire.

That's one. Let's do the same thing with this one.

I'm going to do it with some orange this time.

Look at those.

Right, now I'm going to cut off the excess.

I'm cutting quite close to the wire.

Now for the green one.

Just tidying up those edges, rolling them in.

I'm going to roll this green one around a pen

to give it a little curly tail, like a spring.

So, I've got a tight spring there.

I'm going to do a more loose curve on this orange one.

I'm going to need plenty more of these

if I'm going to make a fun mobile for baby Vicky.

I'll Ninja some more.

Wow. Ninja skills.

Now I need to make the main frame to hang all these little bits off.

So, I've got some longer bits of wire here.

I need to find the centre, where they balance.

So, there.

Got a couple of lolly sticks.

I've pre-painted them white so they match the mobile.

Find the centre there. Now I'm going to tape them on.

Now the other one. There we go.

Now I'm going to cross them over.

I'm going to hold them together with a little bit of sticky tack

and then tie them together with some cotton thread.

And now I can hang it up and assemble the mobile.

There we are. That's a nice level,

so I can stick on my separate little coloured bits here.

I'm attaching these, just with a little bit of masking tape.

Now, a good mobile is a balanced mobile,

so when you let go of one side like this, it'll be all lopsided.

So go to the opposite end of that wire

and add another piece there, so it balances out.

There we go. Perfectly balanced.

Wow, Ricky, I'm impressed.

You must be sculptor Alexander Calder

on baby Vicky's comfort blanket.

The very same.

I take some comfort in you popping by.

I had to, since I was the creator of the mobile -

sculptures made with delicately suspended shapes

that move in response to touch or to air currents.

Talking of which, I must fly like the wind. Bye.

He's very mobile.

Let's get some more on here.

It's really starting to come together now.

I've got a few pieces left

and I want to make sure that the colours are contrasting,

so I'm going to keep the same ones away from each other.

Check it out! My Alexander Calder-inspired mobile.

You can customise yours to your own design.

I wonder how the baby's getting on.

BABY BREAKS WIND

Ugh. I can guess how.

RICKY SNIFFS

You pong!

Better change her

with some Ninja skills.

Oh, so much poo.

Poo.

What did you say?

BABY COOS

Oh. Must be hearing things.

Anyway, you're all clean, but I'm not.

I must get washed. Ugh.

Poo!

Since baby Vicky's been here, I haven't stopped moving.

A bit like this picture.

GURGLING AND GROWLING

Don't worry, mate. It's just an animation.

And I alphaBET you want to know how to do this one.

So, you can make this cool little animation with

some magnetic letters,

a fridge or a magnetic surface,

and a tablet with animation app.

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

Ninja move number one.

You need to decide what you want to do.

Now, with my letters,

I want to make a monster out of the word, "monster"

so I'm going to use an M, and O, an N,

an S, a T, an E and an R.

Well, I could use the two round ones as, like, eyes

and then maybe the M and the N

because they've got bits like this,

like teeth, they can join together and make the mouth.

I'm going to use the R to become like a little nose.

And then these bits will kind of,

I don't know, they'll kind just be extra bits on the top,

maybe like little antlers for the monster.

So, you need to work out what you want to do and then experiment

using different letters to make different facial features.

Ninja move number two.

Start shooting. Now, this is a really quick animation to do.

So, start with the word

and then transform it into the monster or creature you've designed.

In order to make the mouth look bigger, I'm using multiples of the

same letter. I'm using Ms, Ws, Ns, Hs

and a couple of Ls for fangs.

And finally,

Ninja move number three.

Right, here's a really fun trick.

I want to give this more impact

and I'm going to use a technique called screen shake.

So, I'm going to move the tablet each time

just a little bit, like this, around and maybe angle it

up and down slightly around the actual face

and it'll make it look like the roar is so loud

it's making the room shake like an earthquake.

Hopefully.

Hey, dude. I've sliced and diced the animation.

I've added the extra clips of you, thank you very much.

-No worries.

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

GROWLING

GROWLING

Grr!

WHIMPERING

Hey, dude, you're a bit of a monster, yourself.

What can I say?

Well, what can you say?

Grr.

THEY LAUGH

PHONE RINGS

'Hi, Ricky. It's your mum.

'If you do get a moment between feeds and changes,

'here's what to do.

'Think outside the box with this pixel head.

'Don't flip the channel when Ad Man comes on.

'And "loo" knows what else might happen with this toilet paper?

'Anyway, must go. Dad looks like he needs burping.'

I bet he does.

Well, baby Vicky's all fed

and she looks all sleepy, too.

Ricky, Ricky, Ricky!

Sh!

Baby Vicky's asleep!

Ricky, can you make art with a plastic box?

Keep a lid on it. I'm busy.

-BOTH:

-Aw!

Hi, Ricky. It's Shari from Dixie.

I was wondering if you can make something with this.

HORN PARPS

You may be from Dixie, but that's a bit trixie.

HORN PARPS

Hey, what's this guy got?

Hey, Ricky, what can you make with a cardboard box?

That's more like it. I pick you.

Yay!

I'm going to use a cardboard box to make a pixelated mask,

like in a computer game.

I'll just go grab some things.

Got my box.

Got some colouring pencils.

And just to lay out my design, I got myself some gridded paper here.

And I'm going to use it to do my design of a face.

My baby niece Vicky's here right now,

so I think I'm going to do my mask of a baby.

I think eight by eight is a good amount.

Just enough detail for a video-games character.

So, I'm going to draw off an eight-by-eight grid.

Two, three, four.

Going to need to have some eyes, so going to pop those in first.

So, I'm making my design by just colouring in separate squares.

Just going to add some red for some rosy cheeks

and then I'm going to add a dummy.

Doesn't need to be super neat cos it's just a guide for me

to make my mask.

And now I'm going to colour in the rest of the face

a nice pinky colour.

There we go. Have the design for my mask.

So now I need to transfer that design onto my box.

And as I've broken this up into an eight-by-eight grid,

I need to do the same thing to the box.

About 40cm in width

and it's a square box, so 40cm in height.

So, what's 40 divided by eight?

-Five.

-Five, thank you.

OK. Now I'm going to copy that eight-by-eight grid -

5cm for each block - onto my box.

That's it. I'm going to do the same along the top.

There we go. Now I'm going to draw lines along.

And lines across.

OK, Joel, I've got my eight-by-eight grid on the box,

so now I need to make the coloured squares,

so I can transfer my design onto the box.

Just going to make one for the skin tone here.

I'm going to cut this into a strip,

cos then it makes it easier to cut off

loads of separate 5cm squares.

OK. So, I've got a strip and I'm just going to cut along

where I've put the 5cm mark

and I've got one of my first squares.

I could sit here and I could cut out all the other squares or

I could use some Ninja skills. What do you reckon?

Ninja skills.

Yeah, there we go.

So, I'm going to poke some holes in the box,

so I can have some eye holes to see through.

That's one.

I'm going to cut them out with some scissors.

Now I can start sticking on the separate squares of my design.

I'm going to start with the blonde hair, I think.

And it's kind of like painting by numbers.

You just throw on the colours to match the design.

I just quite like the way this reinforces the idea of pixels.

Now I'm going to move on and put some skin colour on it.

Just going to add some rosy cheeks, as well.

This is the whites of the eyes.

OK. That's the last bit on there and now I need to do the other sides.

But I'm going to do that with some ninja skills.

Here we go.

-You ready to see it, Joel?

-Yeah.

Well, the only way to show off a mask is to put it on.

How's it look?

Wow, Ricky, that's amazing.

Looks good, yeah?

Yeah.

What would you give it out of ten?

This much squared.

Yeah. That's about ten. I'll take that.

Thanks so much, dude. It was a great suggestion.

Bye.

Hey, you there.

Keep it down, the baby's asleep.

Oops, sorry.

But here's something you won't want to shout about

because everybody would want one.

It's the funny flip book.

Ha-ha-ha. It's so funny!

And here's how you make it.

Take some funny pictures of your friends and family.

Baby.

Print them out, making sure they're roughly the same size.

Splendid.

Take some scissors

and cut out your photo, leaving a white strip on the left-hand side.

Using one of your photographs,

make a guide by drawing lines on a piece of paper -

one above the eyebrows and one between the nose and the mouth.

Using a pencil and ruler,

draw these lines across the photos.

Cut along the lines, but not over the white bit.

Do the same with the rest of your photographs,

so all the flaps line up.

Lovely.

Finally, take one more piece of card...

-RICKY SNORES

-..and fold it in half.

Slide your photos inside the folded piece of card,

staple where the white border is on your photos.

RICKY SNORES

Let's take a look at the funny flip book.

Not so funny yet.

Ha-ha-ha. It is now.

The funny flip book is so funny.

Don't you think?

RICKY SNORES

KNOCK ON DOOR Ninja skills!

Hi, Ricky.

Ho-ho. Whose is the baby?

It's my baby niece, Vicky. I'm looking after her.

Oh, she's a cutie.

I don't know where she gets it from, though.

BABY VICKY CRIES

Oh, my top is ruined!

There you go, mate. Dab yourself off.

I'll just get you a spare shirt.

There we go.

Sweet.

Let's take baby Vicky out for some fresh air.

I'll get my wheels, you bring yours.

Ninja skills.

Hi, Ricky. Where's Gavin?

Coochie-coochie-coo.

Oh, Gavin, he's got your hair.

That's very funny, but he's not my responsibility.

Ask Uncle Ricky here.

Boo hoo, mate. Cry me a river, Gavy. Go wipe your tears.

Hang on.

This loo roll gives me an idea to make some great art

and maybe it will send the baby to sleep.

But first, we better get our ninja on.

IN BABY TALK: Don't we, baby? Get your ninja on. Get your ninja on.

Art Ninja.

-Art Ninja.

-Art Ninja.

Art Ninja!

So, how are we going to make art from all this loo roll, Ricky?

Well, mate, you're going to be helping out

by keeping the baby amused.

And knowing your sense of humour, shouldn't be so hard, should it?

Sarah, we're going to make a massive piece of art

out of all of this loo roll.

-Let's do it.

-Or perhaps,

let's roll.

It's all right. I don't mind looking after you, do I?

OK, Sarah, I'm going to roll this loo roll down to you

-and I need you to tidy up the trail behind it.

-OK.

That's how we roll.

Great, Sarah. Well, that's looking pretty much done.

We can move over a do a nice big circular bit over here now.

What we need now is a bit of colour.

Do you know what, Sarah?

All this toilet roll's making me think I need the loo.

Do you mind taking over for a bit?

OK.

TOILET FLUSHES

Hey, How's the bald, dribbling one?

All right.

And how are you, little one?

All that rolling around

is having quite a soporific effect on the baby.

Soporific. Good word.

And the baby's asleep.

-How's the art coming along?

-Yeah. Good, mate.

Making a picture that a mummy would be proud of.

Ideal for a baby.

-OK, Sarah, let's get a little bit of colour in there.

-OK.

Look at that. It's looking really good.

You've missed a bit.

Sarah, do you mind carrying on with the art?

I'm going to go and deal with Uncle Gavin.

Coochie-coochie-coo.

-Coochie-coochie-coochie-coo.

-Hey!

Hey!

Help. Mummy.

No, Gav, today you're the daddy.

Oh, this is coming along. You've done loads.

Thanks.

Right. Now I think it's time to start adding some final details.

Coochie-coochie-coo.

(The baby's sleeping.)

(Great. Now come on over and check out my loo-roll picture.)

What do you guys "Sphinx" of it?

It's beautiful. I think I'm going to cry.

Here you go, mate. That's all I've got left.

I think we're going to need more than that, mate.

OK, then.

Well, that all unravelled nicely.

My baby niece, little Vicky, she's still here, though.

My dad's picking her up tomorrow, now.

Today has taught me a valuable Art Ninja lesson.

If your baby niece is giving you issues,

amuse her with art made from tissues.

I think the baby's sleeping.

And after the day I've had, it's what I should be doing.

Good night, baby Vicky.

Art Ninja. Poo.

Aarrgghh!