Day of the Talent Art Ninja

'I'm Ricky. I live in Bristol.

'I work as an animator, which is lucky, cos I love art.'

Goal! 'I live for art.

'I even dream of art.

'I draw...

'I paint...

'I make things!'

Nailed it.

'I hang out with my mates...'

-Go, Art Ninja!

-'..Gavin, Michelle, Rich...'

-Yeah!

-'..and Sarah.'

It's me!

'Most importantly, I make ninja moves.

'Some people call me the...'

Today, I'll show you how to make some noise

with this tidy bit of kit.

You'll be Matisse-d with this cool bowl.

Matisse!

And we shed some light on a pile of old rubbish.

Because today, it's...

It's a new day.

I'd better get my ninja on.

And my clothes!

I don't just have ninja art skills.

I also make a mean cuppa.

Oh, I like this one.

MUSIC: Cold Water by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and Mo

Oh, song's ending.

-RADIO:

-Well, hi, this is WLBTRM FM.

-Thanks for that.

-You're welcome!

And it's the day you've all been waiting for.

The auditions for Bristol's Got Skills.

And me, Gav, Sarah and Rich are all going along to watch!

It's a real shame they've been cancelled.

Gutted!

The plans for my big day out, eliminated!

I'll see if I can drum up the others so we can do something else.

Drum up!

That's given me an idea for...

The Art Ninja drum kit desk tidy!

Here's some food containers I've been saving.

And I'm going to paint this one purple.

Got some paint here, and I'm going to mix it with PVA.

Right, just mix that in.

That's half glue, half paint.

This just means the paint's going to stick better to the containers,

and gives it a nice, glossy finish.

There we go.

Now that's dry, I'm going to give it a bit of detail.

I've got some lovely silver paint.

I'm going to get a minuscule amount of paint on my brush.

Most of it off.

And then just loosely get some paint around it.

This technique is called dry brushing,

and it means you get a finish where you can see both types of paint.

And as I'm using silver paint here,

it gives the drums a nice sheen.

There we go. I think that's looking pretty awesome.

Hmm. Now, I should paint the rest.

But let's face it, I'm the Art Ninja.

Sweet!

Now I need to give the lids a similar treatment.

Ninja skills.

So what I've done is I've painted the rims silver

and the inside white so they look like drum skins.

And this extra lid here, I've painted with gold paint,

and that's going to be my cymbal.

All right, they're starting to look like drums now.

But I need some stands.

So I'm going to start with my cymbal.

So I've pre-cut three strips of silver card,

which I'm going to tape together and bend to make into a stand.

Now I can stick that to the underside of my cymbal.

And I'm going to fold these pieces out

and back to meet in the middle to make the bottom of the stand.

I've used the same technique for the tom-tom,

but this one's a little shorter.

There we go.

I need a stand for the bass drum now.

So I've got another strip of card.

I've made a little valley for it to sit in.

So stick those bits together there. There we go.

Yeah, perfect.

And now for the other tom-tom,

I'm using some silver-painted lolly sticks,

and I'm going to stick them around

with a bit of double-sided sticky tape.

Sweet!

And finally, my snare.

I'm going to put that on top of my bass drum

with a bit of double-sided sticky.

It's looking like a pretty good drum kit.

But I think it could do with jazzing up a bit.

So I've cut out some stars from some tinfoil,

and I'm going to stick them on with a bit of glue stick.

Now, on the bass drum, I'm going to put an Art Ninja sticker.

But you can put maybe a picture of your favourite band,

or your own design.

Now to put my drum kit on a stage.

So I've cut out a cool, jazzy piece of card, given it a bit of glitter.

Assemble it here, ready for a gig.

And it is a desk tidy, so I'm going to tidy up some of my things.

Check it out! Drum roll, please.

Very tidy!

You don't have to make a drum kit.

You can try your hand at toxic waste.

That's not such a WASTE of space.

Or how about a BOOTYFUL pirate treasure chest?

Arr, me hearties!

Wow, I'm getting really good sound out of this.

KNOCKING Oh, it's the door.

-Hi, Gav.

-It's a bad day, mate.

Bristol's Got Skills has been cancelled!

That was my only chance!

-SAD MUSIC PLAYS

-Now it's gone.

Goodbye, hopes and dreams.

That's it, it's over!

Or... MUSIC SCREECHES TO A HALT

We could do a new talent show called - and wait for this...

My Mate's Got Talent!

And I can be a judge.

-Awesome!

-And you can organise it all.

Wow, thanks, Ricky!

Gavin was very animated.

A bit like this picture.

That's when we did the, uh, vacuum cleaners.

-That didn't SUCK.

-Nah.

That's when me and Gavin wore the same thing.

What's this?

Oh, that's the one from the future where we transformed into robots!

What?

-What was that?

-Don't worry, mate, it's just an animation.

Oh, and it had loads of this.

No, no, no. It was more like this.

So to make this cool robo animation, you'll need...

A photo of your friends.

Some paint or some correction fluid.

Some pens. A tablet or smartphone with animation app.

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

Ninja move number one.

You need to take a picture of you and your friend.

So, I'm going to set it to timer.

Strike a robo pose!

Sweet. Now we need to print it out.

Ninja move number two.

One of the good things to do is to stick down your picture,

because you don't want it to move.

And now I can start animating.

And I want the separate robot parts to come in one after the other.

Because if they all come in at once,

don't really get much of a cool effect.

But if they come in gradually, it looks way more epic.

I'm using correction fluid, just because it dries quicker -

it means I can draw on it straightaway.

Let's start by taking the first frame.

Right, I think I'm going to start with mine and Richard's waist.

I'm going to have the pieces sort of slide round...like that.

Now, just with a normal roller ball,

I start putting in a little bit of detail.

You can sharpen up the lines,

because it kind of scratches away where it's a little bit loose.

It doesn't matter if it's rough,

because it's going to happen so quick.

All right. Take my second frame. CAMERA CLICKS

And I can just paint over the top of that again

with the correction fluid.

And I'm just repeating this over and over again

until we are all armoured up.

Take a frame every time you add more detail.

Let your imagination go wild,

with whatever outfits you want to wear.

Ninja move number three.

I've shot all my frames on my tablet device.

But now, to add something extra cool,

I'm going to do some sound effects.

Just try and find some interesting stuff from around the house

that you can record to make cool sound effects.

WHIRRING So I've got my frames shot,

I've added some really cool sound effects that I recorded myself.

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

BANG

Oh, yes! What do you think, Rich? I think it's pretty good.

Yeah. But is it as good as this?

HE MIMICS ROBOTIC NOISES

KNOCKING ON DOOR

-Ah. Hi, Gav.

-Hello, Ricky.

I'm here about the venue for My Mate's Got Talent.

-So where is it?

-Your lounge!

Wait...no, wait...!

DRILLING AND CRASHING

-What are you doing?

-It's called show business.

You'll see.

CRASHING

While Gav crashes around,

here's a quick art tip of how to draw someone dancing.

So I'm going to start with her face.

A bit to the side. Pop her ear in.

Her hair's going to be all flowing around, like this.

Nice big happy face, cos you're happy when you're dancing.

And then she's going to be all bunched up like this,

sort of pushed to the side. So not a neck here,

not from this perspective.

And she's thrown her weight out one way at the top.

And her legs are going to be flicking out to the other side.

So, one leg up.

And the other one slightly further down.

And then, cos she's all full of energy and jumping about,

we can add a couple of motion lines.

And so she's really feeling the music,

I'm going to pop in a couple of musical notes.

There you go. Another quick art tip.

Ah, Ricky.

The other judges are ready, and the show's about to start.

-So, on my cue...

-Hang on.

What am I...? What am I doing?

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

-VOICEOVER:

-Welcome to My Mate's Got Talent.

It's time to meet the mates.

But first, please welcome your judges.

It's the nation's sweetheart, Rikky,

spelt with two Ks.

Next up, it's famous boyband manager, Bristol's Mr Nasty,

Rick-E.

And finally, it's the actual Art Ninja himself, Ricky!

-Tonight's first contestant, Sarah!

-APPLAUSE

Hi. I'm so excited to be here.

I've wanted to do this my entire life.

I know everyone says that, and I just can't wait...

-Talent?

-AUDIENCE GASPS

Erm, today, Rickys, I'm going to be singing.

Take your time, pet.

# La-la-la-la-la

# La-la-la-la-la

# La-la-la-la! #

Rubbish.

BUZZER

APPLAUSE

While we wait for Gavin's next contestant on My Mate's Got Talent,

I'm going to make art using a bowl inspired by my mate,

French artist Matisse.

Ah, ha-ha! Bonjour, Ricky.

I didn't need talent shows.

I was one of the stars of modern art.

I was famous for my use of colour.

And I also made sculptures later on, when I was sick.

When he says sick, he means not very well.

Not sick as in awesome!

Although he was that too.

Yes. When I was sick,

I would sit in my bed and cut shapes from painted papers

and arrange them into compositions.

Well, your art certainly struck a chord with me!

Struck a chord. Cheers, Matisse.

A bientot.

Right, to start with, I've got myself some coloured card

and I'm going to doodle some fun shapes.

Kind of inspired in my mind by seaweed.

And Matisse. You can do whatever shapes you like.

Slightly bigger one on this pink one.

Now I'm going to cut those out.

There we go.

Now, to make my bowl, I'll need lots of these.

So I'll ninja myself some more.

Ninja skills!

Let's gather these together.

Great. Keep my bowl here.

And I'm going to give it a layer of cling wrap.

Make sure you give your bowl a good coverage.

The cling wrap will help you remove your card bowl later.

Lovely.

A little trick here is to hold the bowl away

from the table with something,

so I'm just going to use a plant pot.

That means when I can stick stuff to the edges,

I get a little bit of overhang.

Now I've got some glue and water mix -

that's three parts glue, one part water -

and I'm going to start sticking my shapes to the bowl.

There we go.

I'm starting from the very top of the bowl

and working back down to the bottom.

This way, the shapes overlap in the nicest possible way.

And I'm making sure that my shapes overlap each other.

And don't worry if this looks a bit messy,

because the glue dries clear.

Now I'm going to go and do another layer of further up,

towards the bottom of the bowl.

And that's going to overlap the first one.

If you're doing this at home, you'll probably need

to put some paper down to protect the art table.

But the art table is made for this kind of action.

I'm painting over the top of my shapes,

just to keep them all nicely stuck together.

And because they're overlapping,

it means that my final bowl will be nice and solid.

Just going to add on some blue triangles here,

to give it a bit more colour contrast.

One there.

Now, I'm not going to wait for this to dry.

I'm going to use some ninja skills.

Check it out! Now I need to remove it.

And the trick there is to get a ruler between my bowl

and the cling wrap.

Ah, yes!

Wow!

You can make a bowl using any shapes you like.

How about this one made from cut-out dogs?

Or acrobatic break dancers.

If Matisse had stuck around, he'd be BOWLED over by that.

TELEPHONE RINGS

BEEP

'Hi, Ricky! It's your mum.

'I heard you're putting on a talent show.

'I like twerking.

'But also on the bill today...

'..jumping Jack puppets...'

Wow!

'..home-made party poppers...

'..and shadow art that certainly isn't rubbish.

'Anyway, I've got to go to work.

'Not to twerk.'

Phew! Now where's Gavin?

Ricky, Ricky, Ricky!

Let's see what my ninja apprentices have to test my talent.

Can you make art with leftover paint tubes?

I'd only make a mess. And I've got enough of that already.

Ricky! Ricky Rickster.

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

Do you think you can make something out of a spade?

-No, that's a strange idea.

-Oh!

I think they'd better SHOVEL off.

What have these guys got?

Ricky, can you make art with split pins?

Cool, I choose you!

-BOTH:

-Yay!

-So what are your names?

-I'm Trixie.

-And I'm Kieran.

-Nice. And where are you from?

-Burnley.

I'm going to make something that won't SPLIT the talent show judges.

I'll go and grab my things.

So I've got a little bit of sticky tack.

Some modelling clay.

A pencil that I'm going to pop in my pot.

Little bit of string.

A couple of lovely shocked pictures of Sarah.

You need two pictures, exactly the same.

Love it.

A couple of pieces of card.

And, of course, trusty split pins.

I'm going to start by sticking these two pictures of Sarah to some card,

just to make it more rigid.

So, today, we're having a little bit of a talent show here.

Do you guys have any talents?

-Well, we're both really good at singing.

-Oh!

-Yeah.

And I do a lot of drama and gymnastics.

Can you act at being ninjas?

You got a ninja pose for me?

That's pretty intense. Nearly blew me off my seat.

Definitely got ninja skills.

Just going to stick down my second picture of Sarah to the card.

I'm going to start now by cutting out Sarah's body and her head.

There we go.

And now I'm going to cut out her arms and legs

from the other picture.

When I'm cutting out Sarah's arm,

I've made a really large circle at the top,

because that's going to work like a hinge.

I'm going to cut out Sarah's legs in the same way.

There we go.

I've cut out Sarah's body parts.

And now I'm going to make some holes to put her back together.

I'm going to put a piece of modelling clay down

so I don't mark the table.

And using my pencil, I'm going to poke a hole through.

Du-du! Now I need to move on to the legs.

There we go. Now I'm going to make more holes in the arms and legs.

These need to be one centimetre above the first holes I made.

Right, I'm just going to put the split pins in,

just to check that I've got Sarah made up in the right way.

There you go, popped her back together.

It's pretty good, but it's going to get even better.

Cos I'm going to make Sarah into a puppet.

Just going to turn it back over,

cos I'm going to tie a bit of string on so that I can control Sarah.

First, I'm going to take the arm off

and thread the string through the top hole.

Then I'm going to put the other end of the string

through the hole on the other arm.

Tie a little knot here.

Now I'm going to attach the arms back to the body with split pins,

and tie a knot on each end of the string.

Snip this bit.

And I'm going to do the same thing

between the holes on the legs as well.

Let's go through that one.

And finally, I'm going to attach another piece of string.

This time, I'm tying it to the middle of the string

that connects the arms and the piece that connects the legs.

-It looks good, Ricky.

-Thanks, guys!

Got a lovely printed background for her.

Just going to hold her head down with a little bit of sticky tack.

-Now, you guys ready to see it?

-Yeah!

Because I've turned Sarah into a split pin puppet.

-Woo!

-Wow!

Woo! Woo!

Do you know what? I think it's so good, it deserves a frame.

There we go.

So what mark would you give it?

We give it a...

Oh, wow, you've got me jumping for joy with that!

Thanks very much, guys, it was a great suggestion.

-Bye-bye!

-Bye, Ricky!

-VOICEOVER:

-It's our next contestant, Rich!

-What's your talent?

-Today, Rickys, I'll be performing...

-..magic!

-AUDIENCE OOHS

Now, this, I've got to see.

Prepare to be razzle-dazzled by Raheem,

the incredible disappearing rabbit.

But first, to ensure the spell is not broken, close your eyes.

AUDIENCE OOHS

Alakazam! Abraca-rabbit!

Bunny offski!

Sorry, pet. Maybe next year.

BUZZER

Ommm...

Now, this guy truly has talent. It's the Grand Master.

Ommm... Wha!

Whoa. I'm OK, man.

Greetings, dude!

Now that's a showbiz entrance.

Step number ten to enlightenment.

Confetti-spreading vessels for much celebration!

-Party poppers.

-Let's go!

Grab a paper party cup.

Push out the end...

and tear it off!

Get a balloon and tie a knot in the end.

Cut the end of the balloon.

Stretch it!

Careful, dudes. You don't want to...

Ow.

Stretch the balloon over the cup.

Get some strips of coloured card and cut them into tiny bits.

There you go, dudes!

Party central!

Lesson ten complete.

Lesson ten, very Zen.

-Pull and shoot.

-CHEERING

Whoa!

-Not so Zen.

-You are most welcome.

Ommm...

-VOICEOVER:

-Today's final act, Gavin!

So what's your...talent?

Synchronised swimming!

Without any water? AUDIENCE LAUGHS

MUSIC: Bolero by Maurice Ravel

Stop, stop, stop! MUSIC STOPS

Sorry, Gav.

That was all very "unique".

But my lounge is getting trashed! AUDIENCE AWWS

So for that reason...

The winner of My Mate's Got Talent is...

Gavin!

I'd like to thank my mum, Tom Daley, the ocean,

the majestic cuttlefish.

The fifth Earl of Leicester.

That wall. Oh, these flowers!

OK, Gav. Congrats, you won.

But you need to clear something up for me.

Sure, what's that?

This mess.

Grab the clock.

Good job!

And now I've got an idea of some amazing art we can make

with all of this rubbish.

Give Sarah a call, will you?

And, Gav, get out of that bizarre outfit.

Ninja skills!

CRASHING

Oops. Gavin?

Gav! Oh, Gavin.

Look at the mess you've made.

Now pick up all this rubbish and bring it over here.

We're going to need the plastic, the cardboard and the wrapping.

Rapping!

-HE RAPS:

-# Yo, yo

# My name's Gavin and I'm no fool

# But when it comes to rapping, I am cool

# What? What? #

MUSIC SCREECHES TO A HALT What?

Gav, I hate to tell you this, mate, but the talent show's over.

And I meant WRAPPING!

Not rapping.

-Sorry, guys.

-Very good, Gavin. Very good.

-Really?

-Why've you got us here anyway, Ricky?

We're going to do...

ECHOING: epic art!

-That's a bit freaky, Ricky.

-Don't be afraid, Gavin -

the shadows are our friends.

And now we're all here, do you know what time it is?

Time to get our ninja on.

Art Ninja!

Art Ninja?

Guys, that was rubbish.

-GAVIN AND SARAH:

-Art Ninja!

-Yeah.

So, where's the canvas?

The wall is our canvas, Gavin, have you learned nothing?

Enough of that trash talk, you two. If the wall is our canvas,

where are our materials?

Well, this lot, obviously.

And we're going to need the ladders. Sarah, grab that one.

Gav, help me with this one.

-There we go, onto the pallets.

-OK.

Let's get some rubbish!

Sarah, help me with this.

POPPING

Er, guys? This art isn't going to make itself.

-Yeah, these bubbles aren't going to pop themselves.

-Good point.

Roll me.

POPPING

Right. We've got some strange appendages to make.

So, first up... Yeah, we need to stuff that in

and get this good piece of garden equipment popped in there.

-You can hold it in place by stuffing in that bit of foam.

-OK.

-Yeah, that's good. How you getting on, Gav?

-Yeah, all right.

There's a black bucket with some sponges and stuff on.

Cool. Pop it on.

Let's just line up this one here. Take it slowly.

DRILLING

And then tie the rope around it to hold it in place.

I mean, it's certainly starting to take shape,

but I'm just not sure what that shape is.

Don't worry, Sarah, the art will soon emerge from the light.

OK.

Aww, thanks, mate. I didn't know you cared.

-I don't. They're for the sculpture.

-Oh.

-Here?

-That's it, just slide it on there, the face facing me.

-OK.

Sweet, mate, nice one.

And that is it.

Now all we need is one last bit of ninja skills

and all will be revealed.

Check out these two sick ballroom dancers.

That, mate, is definitely not rubbish.

That's a wrap. Shall we?

STRICTLY COME DANCING THEME PLAYS

That's a RAP.

-HE RAPS:

-# When it comes to art, it's fun that I'm having

# Last name Strange First name Gavin. #

Well, that wraps up the day.

Today has taught me a valuable Art Ninja lesson.

Even if your mates are a couple of chancers,

they can still help you make sick ballroom dancers.

Their talents were... interesting, though.

Particularly Gavin in his synchronised swimming gear.

Urgh, I hope I never have to see that again.

MUSIC: Bolero by Maurice Ravel

Ahhhh!