Day of the Werewolf 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.

Make it with screws.

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 create a Moon Catcher

that will LEAF you gasping.

I make a pencil holder that's a bit of a monster.

And you can do anything if you plan it.

Even art that's out of this world.

Because today it's...

HOWLING

YAWNS

It's not a new day. It's the middle of the night.

But I can't sleep, so I guess I get my Ninja on.

And my clothes.

MUSIC PLAYS

It's 3am. Only night workers and lunatics are up at this hour.

Oh. Hi, Gav.

Hiya, Ricky. I can't sleep.

And I feel weird.

HOWLING

You look a bit odd. And your ears look funny.

In fact, they look a bit...furry. Let me take a picture.

He's gone and he's gone weird.

Weirder than usual.

It's still dark outside. Only the light of the moon.

HOWLING

Which gives me an idea.

While I'm awake, I'm going to make a Moon Catcher

inspired by artist, Andy Goldsworthy.

First, I need to forage.

Got some lovely leaves there that I've got from outside.

Some beautiful greens, some yellows and even some reds and oranges.

I'm going to need a tray...

and some water...

..and a mug.

-Hi, Ricky.

-Who are you?

I'm Andy Goldsworthy. I weave natural materials into sculpture.

My art has included flowers, leaves, mud, pine cones, snow and icicles.

You do know you're meant to avoid yellow snow, right?

I do. But my work often changes colour as the natural materials

I use decay.

So I use photography to capture it.

Well, bye then.

Andy was on a leaf. But now he's left.

I'm going to start by putting my cup on my tray

and then pouring in some water.

I want it to be about a centimetre deep.

Now my Moon Catcher is going to be frozen. There we go.

So the mug is making a hole,

so when it's frozen I can hang it up.

I don't want to put it too close to the edge,

otherwise the ice will be too weak, it'll just break.

Now I'm going to freeze these leaves inside my Moon Catcher.

So I'm going to start arranging them.

I'm going to start with the nice dark greens, right at the beginning.

And have them blend into lighter greens.

It's easier to put the water in first,

and then push the leaves down into it.

Cos if you put all your leaves down and then pour the water in,

they kind of just flow everywhere and it might ruin your design.

I'm fading through into the yellow leaves now.

I've picked fallen leaves for my Moon Catcher,

cos I get a really nice cross section of different

colours and shapes and sizes.

But you can use whatever you want.

You could use grass sticks, even acorns.

I'm going to start fading it through now into the orange.

That's a nice one.

And finally the red.

And check the back of some of the leaves,

cos they might have a more vivid colour on the back

than they do on the front.

There you go. I think that already looks beautiful.

But it'll look even better once it's frozen.

So I'm going to pop it in the freezer.

Hang on. I don't wait for water to freeze.

I wait for no-one. I'm the Art Ninja.

-ART NINJA:

-Yah!

Check that out. Beautiful. Now I need to get this cup out.

And that'll loosen with a little bit of warm water.

There we go.

And I carefully need to get it out.

Wow! Look at that. That is beautiful.

I'm going to tie a bit of ribbon around it, so I can hang it up.

Now the art doesn't stop there.

Just like Andy Goldsworthy, it involves photography.

I'm going to hang it up in the moonlight,

film it melting on my phone and play it in reverse as video art.

MUSIC PLAYS

Awesome. That's amazing.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Gavin, what you doing?

Oh, just knocking the door cos I'm hungry. Hungry like a...

HOWLING

A wolf?

I'm really craving a meat feast.

Great. Now he's going to think I run some kind of late night cafe.

It's really scary out there.

PHONE RINGS

Hey, Dad. What you doing up at this time of night?

Any chance you have any steak?

It's not for me, it's for Gavin. He's acting really strangely.

Like stranger than usual.

In fact he's become a bit of an animal.

Thanks, Dad.

Either Gav's turned into a monster or he's got

a monster appetite.

I'm going to make something equally gnarly. It's the...

Art Ninja Monster Foot Pencil Holder.

So I'm going to start by taking an old gravy pot and a piece of card.

And we're going to draw out in the shape of my monster's foot.

MUSIC PLAYS

Nice long monster toes. Just going to cut that out.

There we are.

And I'm going to stick this tube onto my foot

with a bit of masking tape.

That's not coming off.

Now I'm going to make my monster toes nice and 3D.

And I'm going to do that with a bit of newspaper.

Just rolling the newspaper into sausages with masking tape.

Stick it to the top of my cardboard cut-out.

And masking tape works as a really nice base

for sticking the scales on to.

Put the main bits of the toes on now.

I'm going to start building it up.

I want to give it a nice slope into the monster's leg

because that will help me in later stages.

Here we go. Now it's ready to add some scales.

For this, I'm using some old plastic spoons.

I carefully cut off most of the handle

but I'm going to leave about two centimetres behind.

And then just snap off these little edges.

Now I'm going to need a lot more of those.

But luckily, I've been collecting for quite some time.

Now I'm going to stick these to my monster toes with the spoon

side facing down.

And this little extra bit of handle here,

that's what I'm going to use to stick it down.

Stick them with some sticky tape.

Now I'm letting these overlap

because they look more like authentic scales.

It does take a little bit of time though.

So I've got a quicker way.

Ninja skills.

Great. Now I can paint it.

I'm going to start with a nice rich blue colour.

I'm using acrylic paint here

and that's because it's really good at covering the spoons.

The last little bit at the back.

Now I could wait for this to dry.

But not me. I use my Ninja skills.

Now I'm going to add some highlights

and some texture to the scales to help define them.

Slide in a little bit of paper, underneath the scales

so you don't overlap onto the ones below.

Start with some light blue first.

Some white here too.

This is going to make the scales look all worn

and very monster-y looking.

That starts to really define the scales.

Now we're going to move on, and do another row.

Going to add a new piece of paper.

I'm going to start blending again.

MUSIC PLAYS

Let any other colours get under the brush,

this helps blend them in a bit more.

There we are.

Look at that beautiful effect.

And now I'm going to do the rest Ninja style.

Look at that.

But the toes won't be complete without some claws.

And I'm going to make them by recycling some old plastic forks.

Just going to chop off three.

Now I'm going to stick them together with a little bit of sticky tape.

The outside one I'm going to put in the middle,

cos it's a bit thicker.

Then put the other two next to it, so the middle one protrudes.

There you go. Slide it in there.

I've got a few more here. I'm going to slide them into place.

Right. Time for the finishing touches.

The things I'm going to put inside my pencil pot.

The Monster Foot Pencil Pot.

You don't have to make a monster's foot out of recycled

spoons like mine.

You can try a colourful parrot's foot made out of recycled forks.

Or how about re-using some old plastic knives,

to make a fluffy elephant's foot.

Really let your imagination run wild.

It's still late. It's not even early yet.

I wish I could sleep.

Here's a quick art tip of how to add a shadow to your drawing.

So I've got a drawing here

with a little wolf man wandering the streets.

And the first thing you need to do is decide where the light's

coming from.

So, I think mine will come from the lower right here.

So, I can project the shadow onto the wall behind him.

So, I can start doing a rough outline of the character again,

just back here.

And I'm going to exaggerate his features a bit,

making them longer and thinner.

It's also good if the shadow overlaps a little bit

with your character going behind it.

And the shadow does tend to get bigger

when it's projected away from your character.

Now I'm going to connect my shadow to my character.

And now I can start filling it in just with a rough scribble.

And the last little finishing touch

is a little bit of shading on the back of the character

away from where the light's coming from.

There you go. A quick art tip.

MUSIC PLAYS

Hi, Dad. Did you get any meat?

I didn't have any luck at the 24 hour supermarket.

The STAKES were too high so I couldn't reach!

Ooh. That's a howler.

HOWLING

And that.

Well, try another supermarket. This is an emergency.

-But Ricky...

-Bye.

-Ricky!

Dad's a bit of a night owl, but I've never seen him so animated.

And talking of animation, here's one now.

MUSIC PLAYS

Whoa, is this magic?

No, it's just an animation. So let's shed some light on it.

If you don't want to be left in the dark, you'll need a light,

or some big torches, a sheet and somewhere to hang it,

some friends and a tablet with animation app included.

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

Ninja move number one.

You need to hang your sheet up and back light it.

Then set up your tablet app ready to shoot.

Now this animation works better when the lights are off.

Even better at night-time.

Ninja move number two.

The next thing you need to do is work with your group of mates

to come up with some awesome animation ideas.

Think about how you can work as a team, maybe do something

that's completely inhuman and look around and find some cool props.

Got any ideas, guys?

-Tonnes of them.

-Yes.

-A few.

Ninja move number three.

It's time to start shooting.

Now we're going to do a really cool trick here that makes it

look like Andre is duplicating.

Because we're shooting onto a sheet and there's no depth,

we can hide people behind him and have them

step out at the right time. It's like he's copying himself.

Right, let's get on with it.

For each move take a shot using the animation app on your tablet

and then move the scene on by one small step and take another shot.

OK. I've sliced and diced the animation. Hey, guys!

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

Here we go.

MUSIC PLAYS

Nice work, guys. Whoo! Yes.

So, grab yourself a nice big torch, hang up a sheet,

turn off the lights and make yourself an awesome animation.

Ninja skills. Strike a pose, guys.

Ninja skills.

PHONE RINGS

'Hi, Ricky. It's your mum!

'You're probably not up but I hope you didn't wolf your supper down.

'I also wanted to say what else you've got coming up.'

There's some art done from scratch...

dis-guy's drawn the short straw...

and you really get the end of the stick.

How does she know all of this?

Mum must have a crystal ball.

'I knew you were going to say that! Bye!'

I'm so tired now. I really must try and get some rest.

Ricky, Ricky, Ricky.

No chance of that with the Ninja Apprentices around.

What are they even doing up at this hour?

Oh, it is nearly dawn.

Ricky, can you make art with a feather duster?

As much as it tickles me, I'm going to have to say no, I'm afraid.

Ahh.

-Hi, Ricky.

-Hi, Ricky.

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

If Gav's a werewolf, maybe they can build him a lair.

How about making something with...

A broken broom.

Sorry, guys. Not this time.

I've DEN something with that already.

I wonder what these guys have got?

Can you make art with washing up liquid?

-I choose you.

-Yay!

-Yay!

-What are your names?

-I'm Nina.

-I'm Alice.

Nice to meet you. And where are you from?

-BOTH:

-We're from Scotland. We're from Clarkston.

I've been itching to use washing up liquid,

cos I've got some art that involves scratching.

I'll just go and grab my things.

I'm going to start by making myself a very colourful background.

I think I'm going to start with an orange.

I'm colouring my paper with a rainbow of thick wax.

So, guys, I need some advice.

My friend Gav, I think he's turned into a werewolf.

What would you do if your friend had turned into a werewolf?

Run away from her.

Can you guys make a sound like a werewolf?

Ah-whoooo!

Scary.

What's the latest you guys have ever been able to stay up?

The latest I have stayed up was an all nighter.

Nocturnal.

Like a werewolf.

HOWLING

Wow.

All right, guys. I'm going to get myself some black paint

and I'm going to mix the paint

with about a teaspoon of washing up liquid. Mix it in.

The washing up liquid makes the paint a little bit thinner

and it means when it's dried, it scratches off really smoothly.

Right, so now I'm going to cover my wax crayons in it.

Once the paint's dried, I can scratch parts of it off,

revealing the rainbow underneath.

Now we can either sit here and watch paint dry,

or I can use some Ninja skills, what do you think?

-BOTH:

-Ninja skills.

Ninja skills.

There we go.

Now I'm going to start scratching off the paint with a lolly stick.

It's like drawing with a pencil that changes colour as you move it.

Seeing as it's the middle of the night,

I'm doing a night-time scene.

I've done some bushes. Now for some trees.

Just do this. This can be the horizon line here.

And the mountain.

Its peak going up there.

In this nice open space here, I'm going to add a bit of humanity.

Maybe out on a camping trip.

And no camping trip is complete without a tent.

Alice, are they animal ears on your head?

It's just a hair band. You can take them off.

I thought she was turning into a leopard.

Now I've been using a lolly stick to scratch it off so far.

But I want to put in a bit more detail now.

So, I'm going to go for something with a smaller tip.

A cocktail stick, getting a thinner line with this.

I'm just doing some diagonal lines to add a bit of texture down here.

I'm going to do them going in the opposite direction

on the other little bush.

And we'll do maybe some flowers over here,

just catching a bit of the moonlight.

Right, the tops of these trees.

I'm going to use a swirl pattern.

Using a different technique in all these areas just makes

the picture look really diverse and vibrant.

OK, now I'm going to do some stars in the sky.

It's not a night-time scene without some stars.

I think I've done my last star.

You guys ready to see it?

-BOTH:

-Yeah!

OK. There you go. My Scratch Off Forest Scene.

-BOTH:

-Wow.

What would you score it?

-BOTH:

-A ten.

That's what I like to hear.

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

Amazing. I'm really happy with that. Thanks very much, guys.

-It was a great suggestion. See you soon, bye-bye. BOTH:

-Bye.

I'm really tired now.

I might watch some TV though, to relax me.

Mind you, there's never anything on at this time.

Hey, you there. Nothing on TV?

Nothing I want to watch.

Can't disguise your distaste for annoying TV personalities.

You could say that.

I just did. Now you can make a disguise with a straw mouth.

Ah, tasty. And here's how you make it.

You'll need a piece of card and a pen.

Draw yourself a funny mouth.

Colour in the inside of your mouth.

Not that one.

Now add some more colour

Red.

I'm good at colouring inside the lines.

This guy is annoying. The disguise is cool though.

Now cut it out with scissors.

With a pencil and modelling clay,

pierce a hole big enough for a straw.

Now take a straw and poke it through the hole with the mouth

facing away from you.

You can try many different disguises.

Vampire disguise...

..beauty disguise.

..or...

You thought I had a moustache, didn't you?

Disguises. The disguise straw.

No-one need know you're grumpy again.

Ricky, I mean you.

What did you just say?

-Really, I mean you.

-Oh.

KNOCK AT THE DOOR

-Gavin.

-What?

-You're not a hairy werewolf.

Of course not. I'm the least hairy person I know.

It is cold out, though.

You're not hairy but you're definitely gnarly.

No wonder I got the wrong end of the stick.

Speaking of which. Take this stick, grab your board

and let's get down the skate park.

HOWLING

-Ninja skills.

-What are you doing?

HOWLING

-More importantly, what is Gav doing?

-Well, I thought Gav was a werewolf.

-A where what?

-A werewolf.

-Where?

Ooh. We haven't got all night. He's just messing around.

Speaking of getting the wrong end of the stick.

We could make some awesome art with that stick.

HOWLING

I'm confused and scared.

You won't be, mate, once we've got our Ninja on.

Art Ninja! Strike a pose.

-Yah! I'm Ninja.

-I'm Ninja.

Andre, you are a natural.

Whoa, what is that? You could take someone's eye out with that.

This is a light stick

and you can use it to make some pretty eye-catching digital art.

But how does it work?

Well, it's made up of lots of different coloured LEDs that

change colour as you move it.

And you can use it to paint with light.

And if you have a camera with a long exposure setting, you can

then use it to capture the images.

But why are we here in a skate park?

I'm glad you asked that, my friend.

-We are going to use our skateboards and interact with the images.

-Rad.

I've made some cool images on my laptop and loaded them

onto this SD card.

The light stick has this little module at the back that can

read the SD card.

And when I press this button it'll print out my picture in light,

one line of pixels at a time.

And then we capture those light pixels with a stills camera.

I still don't get it.

Dude. You don't have to. Today you're in charge of lights.

Go grab 'em. And Gav, get over by the camera.

Let's do this.

Gav, the camera is set to long exposure,

so just hold down the button to take a picture.

OK, Ricky.

I'm ready with the light stick. OK, Andre!

Kill the lights!

Now it's dark, the stick will leave a trace of light in the air,

just like a sparkler does.

Let's go.

Let's see how it looked.

Oh, wow. It's my werewolf picture from earlier.

The light stick has projected the pixels of my picture

and we caught it on camera.

That's awesome.

Do you know what? We need something to interact with it.

We need another skateboarder.

-Ah, yeah, it's Griff.

-This guy.

But if we got Griff to ollie over the werewolf,

he'd be all blurry because of the long exposure.

We need a flash of light to capture him in the air.

Andre, bring that flash over.

What, this one? Oh.

-You OK, dude? I can't see.

-Great.

Gavin. You do it so well, take a picture on the camera.

I'm using the light stick and Andre, you just shoot the flash

when Griff is at the top of his jump.

First positions, please.

Go.

MUSIC PLAYS

OK, Griff. Three, two, one.

MUSIC PLAYS

-Oh, my days, that looks amazing!

-Wow.

-That's amazing.

Look how tweaked it is.

ROARING

Can I have a go?

Have you ever tried jumping over the moon?

Great idea. You prep the stick, I'll be back in a flash.

Guys, I still don't understand.

All yours, Gav.

There you go, dude.

A cow really can jump over the moon.

I still don't get it.

Art Ninja.

What was I thinking? As if Gavin could ever become a werewolf.

Today has taught me a valuable Art Ninja lesson.

If you get the wrong end of the stick, add some lights to

make art that's sick.

I'd better get an hour of sleep before the sun comes up.

Humans turning into werewolves, hey, whatever next?

Huh? Huh? Whoo! HOWLING