Day of the Vlog Art Ninja

I'm Ricky.

I live in Bristol.

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.

Nailed it.

I hang out with my mates.

Gavin, Michelle, Rich, and Sarah.

It's me.

Most importantly, I make ninja moves.

Some people call me the...

Today, I'll show you how to pimp up your room, ninja-style.

We create a snappy picture.

And there's big-hitting pixel art which packs a punch.

Because today, it's...

GONG SOUNDS

HE YAWNS

It's a new day.

I'd better get my ninja on.

And my clothes.

'Welcome back to my channel.'

-What's that noise?

-'I'm outside the Art Ninja flat.'

-Sounds like Gavin.

-'I'm just going to knock on Ricky's door.

'Doesn't feel much like a door.'

-Ow! What are you doing?

-I'm making a vlog.

I've got 50,000 subscribers.

What's it about?

It's about my life as the annoying best mate of the Art Ninja.

So you're telling me people watch you...

-..watching me?

-He's the Art Ninja.

So what exactly are you filming?

Behind the scenes.

It's behind the scenes, people.

-Let's go.

-Well, Gav, I've got art to do.

So if you don't mind, wait in the kitchen and stop filming.

He doesn't mean it.

I do.

There'll be no behind the scenes

if I don't do some in front of the scenes.

So I'm going to get on with some art.

Gavin's busy posting his vlog,

so I'm going to make something you can literally post on to.

It's the Art Ninja Graffiti Pin Board.

I've got a couple of large pieces of card.

Both the same size.

And I'm going to stick them together with a bit of PVA glue.

It doesn't need to be neat here.

It's just needs to be sticky.

Now, if you're doing this at home,

you need to put newspaper down to protect your table.

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

And the reason I'm doubling up the card

is so it's thick enough to stick pins to.

Now, as I'm going to hang this up, I need to make some holes,

so I can put some string through it.

Get a pencil to poke the hole,

and a bit of modelling clay to protect the table.

And I'm punching four holes, two on each side.

One there.

One there.

One there.

And one there.

So I cut a length of string.

Snip that off. Thread that through.

And then tie it to itself.

And we'll do the same on the other side.

Now that bit's done, I've got myself a big dish here.

Some white paint. Using a sponge, I'm just going to dab on the paint.

And this white is going to be the mortar

that we'll be able to see through between the bricks.

I'm just dabbing it on to get a nice texture.

I want it to look kind of rough.

While that's drying, I'm going to make my bricks.

So I've got a couple of pieces of pre-cut card.

I'm going to squeeze out a little bit of brown paint.

Get my sponge.

I'm going to use the same technique with these bits of cardboard.

Just dabbing it on like this.

Do the same to the other one.

Now, as bricks come in lots of different colours and tones,

I'm going to make this one slightly darker

and add a little bit of black.

And then I'm going to add a couple of accents,

slightly darker areas on it.

You can get some really nice effects

layering up different colours.

But if I'm going to make a wall, I'm going to need a ton of these,

so I'll ninja some more.

Sweet. That's a good amount of bricks.

Now, with the PVA glue, I'm going to start sticking them on.

I'm putting this one down here with a little bit of a gap in between,

because that's, of course, the mortar showing through.

Don't worry if you get a bit of PVA glue on the front of the bricks,

because, of course, it dries clear.

Now, I'm sticking these down in a brickwork pattern.

The bricks are offset.

I'm also mixing up different colours

to make it look like an authentic wall.

I'm just letting them overhang the edges.

And when it's finished,

it will look like a piece of wall has been removed.

Right, I think that's looking really good.

It's time for me to give it my own personal tag.

I've got some nice colour paints here.

Here's some shapes that I cut out from a sponge.

And I'm going to paint my name.

But on your wall, you can do whatever you like.

I'm going to start with purple.

These tapered ends of the sponges

kind of make it look like

you lift away the spray can at the end.

When I change letters, I'm going to change colours.

I'm using a different colour for each letter,

but you can use any colours you like.

Getting creative with my colours.

Yeah, looking good.

Now, I want something with a similar theme to hold my pens.

So I'm going to make a spray can.

So for that, I've got an old gravy pot,

and I've cut the top off an old drinks top here.

So I'm going to stuff it with a bit of newspaper...

..which is going to help it stick and not slide around

as I glue it to the lid of my gravy pot.

Stick it on.

I'm using strong glue.

And now for some finishing touches, I'm going to use my ninja skills.

So I've wrapped the gravy tube in orange,

the top's painted silver like a real spray can.

I've added an Art Ninja sticker.

On the back, I've put a little bit of hook and loop tape,

sticky side out here

so I can stick it to my wall.

That means I can pop it off.

But it's got a place it will always stick back on.

And now I can stick in my pens and pencils.

There we go. I've always said I had good board skills.

Now, I've swapped the skateboard for a pin board.

Not only does he do art, he does jokes, as well.

Now, to add some pictures.

There's one of Gavin when he got set on fire by our animation dragon.

Michelle on a deck chair.

And our clown juice art.

I think that looks awesome.

Now all I need to do is hang it up.

There are all kinds of ways to personalise your pin board.

How about this wrecking ball wall?

Gavin. What are you doing now?

People love a prank.

Give me that phone right...

And they love seeing you fall over.

Give it here. Give me that phone, Gavin.

Keep this going, Ricky.

This is great. We're going to go viral.

Did that picture just move?

Yeah, that's because it's animated.

No. No, no, no.

-SHE LAUGHS

-You...

-Yeah.

-What is Anna doing?

So, I mean, what can you do?

Nothing.

Hey, guys. Have you met my friend Bill?

-BOTH:

-No.

-Go on, shake his hand.

Hi, Bill.

Don't worry, Bill's fine, and he's not real.

And you can make this cool flour animation with a glass dish,

a bag of flour, and a tablet with animation app installed.

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

Ninja move number one.

Right, so the first thing you need to do...

-Right, I'm off.

-Why?

I don't want to get covered in flour.

Oh, well, the first thing you need to do

is make sure you've got permission to use the flour.

Normally, this animation is done with sand

and called sand animation.

But flour works just as well.

Use a glass dish or any cooking dish,

just to keep the animation nice and tidy.

Ninja move number two.

You need to make sure you've got the right depth of flour.

Too much, you won't get a defined line.

Too little, you won't be able to draw in it at all.

Ninja move number three.

Now, it's time to start shooting.

With this kind of animation,

it's great to let your imagination run wild,

continually let each line evolve into a new shape,

a new character or a new object.

And what's real fun here is tagging in your mates

so that they'll have a go, too.

You'll need to add lines and erase lines as you go.

Each time you do this, grab a frame on your device.

OK, so we've shot all of our frames.

Added some cool sound effects.

We've stroked Stanley.

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

Wow! I'm really impressed with that.

-Mm. Delicious.

-What are you doing now?

Here, try this refreshing cumquat

and quinoa-ade drink for the vlog.

LIQUID BUBBLES

That's disgusting.

Why are you drinking that?

The drinks people sponsored the vlog.

Well, can I sponsor you

to leave me alone, please?

Gavin's been making a splash with his vlog.

An artist that made a bigger splash was Andy Warhol.

Hi, Ricky.

Is that you, Andy? I didn't recognise you with the big shades.

Yes, I'm incognito.

I thought you were in Pop Art Periodical.

I was one of the leading artists of pop art.

And when I'm not on magazines, I was publishing my own.

I started an art studio called The Factory.

Here's some of my work now.

I was also the person who coined the phrase "15 minutes of fame."

I notice you're on series three,

so you're having more than your fair share.

Thanks, Andy. Didn't you once make a film

that featured a friend of yours

sleeping for six hours?

ANDY SNORES

Charming. Andy Warhol was known for his colourful prints.

So I'm going to have a crack at one now.

So I've got some old scrap bits of paper here.

And I'm going to position them in a way that I like.

These bits of paper can be leftovers from other art projects.

I'm going to do a picture of a camera.

So I'm going to arrange these in a way that suggests that.

Andy Warhol is known for making art that's not quite perfect.

So using scraps is great for this art.

This green bit here for the lens.

And another one up here for the flash.

Going to pop that to one side for a second.

Now, I've got a plain piece of A4.

I'm using this dark oil pastel

to fill in an area on this paper.

I want this to have quite a thick coverage

because I'm going to use it for printing.

You don't have to colour in the whole piece of paper,

just an area that would be the size of the picture.

Use any colour you like.

I think that's pretty good.

I'm going to lay this on top of my coloured paper.

And with a normal ballpoint pen, draw my picture on the back.

I want to have a nice, crisp, clean print,

so I'm just doing a line drawing.

A flash up here.

If you think the paper's going to move,

tack it or stick it down to keep it still.

This one for the lens.

I'm drawing a camera.

You can draw anything you like.

OK. Now I can take it off and reveal my print.

Oh, look at that. Lovely crisp, black lines.

The great thing about this technique

is I can use my print paper again and again.

To make my work of art more like Andy Warhol's,

I'm going to need some more colourful prints.

So I'll use my ninja skills.

There we go. Now, I'm going to arrange them like Andy would have.

Now, the great thing about this technique is,

although they kind of all look very, very similar,

there's these lovely little imperfections

that sets each one apart.

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

A colourful print worthy of Andy Warhol himself.

Dare I ask?

I'm doing a challenge video.

I've got to keep my hand in the ice and stand on one leg

-for as long as possible.

-TELEPHONE RINGS

Oh, Gav, could you get that?

I can't, Ricky. I'm a bit busy, mate.

-ANSWERING MACHINE:

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

'If you see Gavin, can you tell him I've given his blog a like?

'I also like what's still to come.'

'Striking art by a striking character.'

Strike.

'Eye-catching stuff with the ninja apprentices...

'..and memorable art with memo notes.'

We're getting some great comments on this.

'Right, need to do my status update.

'Lol. And that doesn't mean lots of love, Ricky, lol.'

I know. Hey, Gav, I'm going to do some art.

-Want to come and help?

-I can't.

I'm trying to finish this challenge video.

Here's a quick art tip,

how to draw a Japanese-style cartoon character.

Now, I'm going to start with her head.

That's going to be quite a bit bigger than the body.

Nice, big round face.

And I'm going to add some hair.

Little spiky fringe.

And as these characters are always quite cutesy,

I'm going to add some bows and a couple of bunches.

Now onto the eyes.

And characteristically, they're quite big on the face.

Like that. And then nice, big pupils,

with reflections.

And I'm just doing a couple of circles and half moons.

Colour those bits in black, leaving the reflections blank.

And just little flicks for eyelashes.

Little button nose.

Happy mouth. Now, as I said, a smaller body,

definitely not in proportion with the head.

Little thumbs up.

And another one.

Going to give her a skirt with pleats,

so they are overlapping lines like this.

Then her legs, down like this.

And little feet turning in.

There we go.

Another quick art tip.

Gav, are you still doing that challenge?

Yeah, and I got nearly 1,000 likes. Look!

Wow. Impressive.

It is quite painful, though.

I imagine it is. It's a shame you are too busy to film this guy.

Ummmmmmm.

He'd be great for the vlog.

-Ummm.

-CRASH!

I'm OK, man.

Greetings, dude.

Ah, the Grandmaster.

With stunts like that, you could go viral.

Sure.

Step number 1989 to enlightenment.

Facing bowling with a smile.

Emoji skittles.

That's right, dude.

Pour PVA glue into a cup.

Then, add some paint.

Yellow for emojis.

Mix them together.

This is half paint and half glue, dudes.

Get a plastic drinks bottle.

Pour in some glue and paint mixture.

Put the lid on tight, guys.

Then shake it

until it's all yellow.

Take the lid off.

And let it dry.

Put the lid back on.

Now, stick on emoji features.

Any expression you like, dudes.

You can make a whole set of skittles.

Yeah.

Guess my emotion, dude.

Happy?

Sad?

Constipated?

Lesson 1989 complete.

Time to bowl.

Strike.

Thank you, Grandmaster.

I am bowled over.

And enlightened.

You are most welcome.

Ummmmm.

BOTH: Ricky, Ricky, Ricky.

You did that without moving your lips.

It wasn't me, I think it was the ninja apprentices.

Can you make art with an alarm clock?

Sorry, haven't got time for that one now.

-BOTH:

-Aw.

-Hi, Ricky.

-Hey! It's Billie from Dixie.

I was hoping you could help me make something out of this old keyboard.

You must have your wires crossed.

-Aw.

-Sorry, but I think it's time to log off from this one.

Hey, what have these guys got?

Ricky, can you make art from a cereal box?

It's about time I was less flaky.

All right, I choose you.

Yay.

So what are your names?

-Nathanial.

-Isabella.

-And where are you guys from? BOTH:

-Bradford.

So art with a cereal box is a great suggestion.

But I'm going to need something else from you, as well.

Isabella, can you come up to the screen?

I need to take a picture of your eye.

That's it, closer. Closer.

OK. And got it, thank you.

And now, close the eye.

Got that one as well. Just going to go and print those out.

I've got the two lovely pictures of your eye.

One open,

and one closed. And I've got myself...

..a trusty cereal box.

I'm going to start by just cutting off the front panel,

the bottom and the back.

Gavin's popping up vlogging all over the place today.

If you were to do a vlog, what would you do a vlog about?

Computer games?

How about you, Nathanial?

How many backflips I can do in five minutes.

That's a good idea, a challenge vlog.

Right, so just got your eyes here.

And I'm going to use a ruler.

I'm going to draw lines along it the same width as the ruler.

I guess if I did a vlog, I would do an art-based vlog.

Or maybe like a ninja vlog.

Now, I'm just going to draw the same lines,

the width of the ruler on the other eye.

So do you guys have a favourite artist?

-David Hockney.

-I was kind of hoping you'd say me.

Equal to you, too.

Yes. I'm just going to cut your eye into strips now.

So the open one, I'm going to cut along these lines.

And its important when I organise them

that I keep them in the right order.

Because it's kind of hard to see

what they are when they are in strips.

And with this technique, you don't have to use pictures of eyes.

You can use anything you like.

I've finished with the open eye now.

And I'm moving on to the closed one.

Your eyelashes on your closed eye look really strange zoomed in.

It's kind of like a moustache, or maybe a mono brow.

Oh, yeah.

Now, I'm going to stick down the pictures of your eye

to my piece of card.

That's just with a glue stick.

And I'm going to alternate between the two piles.

So one strip of eye open, one strip of eye closed, all the way along.

There we go.

So do you guys have any hobbies?

Eating, sleeping, video games, art.

Sounds like pretty much what I do.

I'm just going to show you guys how I'm getting on,

cos I think it looks super weird.

It's like strips of your eye alternatively stuck along.

It looks really alien, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-Cut off this excess bit cos we don't need that.

Now, I'm going to use a ruler and the back of my scissors

to score a line between where the pictures meet.

This is to help it fold.

If you are scoring at home,

make sure you put a mat down to protect the table.

What's your favourite kind of art to do?

I like doing pointillism.

-Wow.

-It's like ordinary painting but then you just do dots on it.

Amazing.

Now, I'm going to fold it along my scored lines

into a zigzag shape.

So over, and then turn it over, and fold it back again.

This is called a concertina.

You guys ready to see it?

-Yeah.

-OK, there's two parts to see.

-Here's the first one. BOTH:

-Cool.

And here's the second.

-BOTH:

-Cool.

So it kind of looks like it's blinking.

-Does it work? BOTH:

-Yeah.

So can you see yourselves making this?

-BOTH:

-EYE think so.

See what they did there?

What would you score it?

-BOTH:

-We'd give it a ten.

With a massive, beautiful eye in the middle?

An EYE ten.

How about we have an EYE five?

Thanks very much, guys, great suggestion.

-BOTH:

-Bye, Ricky.

All right, Gav? You look chuffed.

We've just hit one million likes.

And that's good, why?

Well, the more likes we get, the more famous we become.

We could be internet millionaires.

I like the sound of that.

We could get more likes by doing epic art online.

You're on.

Ninja skills.

I am just going to unlock this.

I'm just going to put my work jacket on.

That's my desk over there!

Gav, who would have thought you actually would have a job

outside of being my annoying best friend?

-I know, right?

-Let's get this thing fired up.

Here we go. Ninja tunes going.

Webcam's on.

Looking good.

Gav, you've got an awful lot of memo notes around your computer.

Yeah, I am very forgetful.

You don't say.

Turn computer on?

Fair enough.

Password - Gav is Rad?

-Yeah.

-I'll be the judge of that.

Never forget you are a strong, confident man?

Give me that.

Anyway, the webcam is going, what should we do a vlog about?

-I can't think.

-Hang on a minute.

Did you see that? I thought I just saw a memo note

move entirely on its own.

And it's given me an idea for some epic art.

But first, we better

get our ninja on.

Art Ninja.

Gav, strike a pose.

Art Ninja.

So, Gav, how many of these memo notes have you got?

Ha-ha! I remembered to get loads and loads.

Wow. Oh, this is great.

We can use these little coloured squares as pixels

to make a perfect picture.

And it will get us loads of likes on our vlog.

What's our picture going to be of?

I'll give you a clue. What goes well with microchips?

-I don't know.

-I'll give you another clue.

What has a killer bite?

No idea.

Just forget it. Grab those pink ones

and get sticking them up on the wall.

You keep going along the bottom. And I'm going to go up the wall.

Done.

What? You've got to do the whole wall.

Oh, what?!

Oh, hey, Ricky, we've got loads of likes.

How many have we got?

14.

Ooh, we've got 14 likes!

While Gav is working hard,

I'm having a little look through his stuff,

trying to find out what he does for a job.

Gav's box of clever things?

Yeah, right.

CRASH!

Ha-ha-ha-ha!

Right on his sticky beak.

Hey, Ricks, we are getting some great comments on this.

Oh, yeah. Let's get on with the art.

OK, Gav, one last finishing touch right here.

Come on, then, Ricky, I can't wait to see what it is.

There you go, Gav. I told you it would go well with micro CHIPS.

Ha-ha! Very good. And it's got a killer bite.

Indeed. Right, let's see what our subscribers think.

Wow, we're racking up the likes.

Wow! We might even be millionaires.

And I won't EVER have to come back to this office.

That's pixel perfect.

Coming, Gav? Fancy a bite?

Ah!

OWL HOOTS

HE SIGHS

Finally, a bit of privacy.

Today has taught me a valuable Art Ninja lesson.

To become a star on the internet, make some art that you won't forget.

Being online constantly is exhausting.

At least I can finally switch off now.

Right, people. That's Ricky.

Actually sleeping.

In your comments, you've said you want to see more

of the Brown Paper Bag Burst Challenge.

So check this out.

BANG!

Arrrrrghhhhh!