Day of the Invisibility Art Ninja

'I'm Ricky.

'I live in Bristol.

'I work as an animator, which is lucky, because 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...' ALL:

-Go Art Ninja!

'Gavin, Michelle,

-'Rich, and Sarah.'

-It's me!

'Most importantly, I make ninja moves.

'Some people call me the...'

Art Ninja!

'Today, I'll show you how to make something pretty fly.

'We'll be soaring with this stained glass picture.

'And we get our guy ropes in a twist with some superhero art.

'Because today it's...'

HE YAWNS

It's a new day.

I'd better get my ninja on.

And my clothes!

I love my ninja skills,

but wouldn't it be great to have other superpowers?

KNOCK AT DOOR

I'll try one now. I predict that that is going to be Gavin.

Oh. Hi, Gavin.

You're having a good hair day!

Hi, Ricky. Check this out!

-Check what out?

-It's my invisibility onesie.

I got it online.

They saw you coming!

-There's nothing there.

-If you don't believe me, I'll try it on.

I'll just zip this up.

Invisible! I am here.

-Where?

-Here!

Well, that's not at all annoying, is it?!

Well, if you don't mind, Sarah, I need to do some art.

I'm just going to sit over here.

If I could have a superpower, it wouldn't be invisibility.

It would be to fly.

So, I'm going to make the Art Ninja superhero kite.

Pants worn over trousers optional.

I'm going to start by getting some old plastic bags.

With a pair of scissors, just going to cut off the handle.

Throw away that bit.

I'm just going to cut off the side seam, here.

Don't need that, either.

And now I'm going to cut this into strips.

Two thin strips, I'd say about two centimetres.

And some wider ones about four centimetres in width.

Now, in order to make the fabric for my kite,

I need to cut these other coloured bags into strips, too.

So, I'm going to use my ninja skills.

There we go. Lovely. So I'm going to take one of these strips and,

using masking tape, we're going to hold it onto the table.

And I'm going to take another colour and stick this one down

and try and make sure that they're butted up against each other

without any gaps. I'm using different widths.

And I haven't really got a system with the colours,

I'm just going to put them down in a random order.

But I'm making sure that the same colour doesn't meet.

Now I'm going to stick these together with some

long strips of Sellotape.

If you find it tricky using one long piece of sticky tape,

you can always cut it and use a few shorter pieces.

I'm going to peel it up.

There we go, my lovely piece of material ready for my kite.

Now, for the kite's frame, I'm using some skewers.

I've chopped the sharp end off. Don't need that.

I'm going to tape pairs of them together to make longer sticks.

I want to make sure they're stuck together tightly

and give the kite strength.

Now, I'm just laying them down on top of my fabric

and I'm going to put my second length

about a quarter of the way along the first.

Now, with a pen, just going to mark where the skewers' ends are.

Little dot. Get this out the way for now.

And using a ruler, I'm going to join up those dots.

And I can cut out my kite shape.

I want to take my time here, because I don't want to ruin my fabric.

There we go. Throw away this bit.

Now I've got this wonderful kite shape.

Put my frame back onto it. Like that.

And with a little bit of sticky tape,

going to tape down the frame to the corners.

I'm just folding round the edges to make it nice and tidy.

And there we go, that is the main body of my kite.

HE IMITATES KITE FLYING

You're so funny when you think you're on your own!

Sarah!

Now I need to add some string in order to fly my kite,

so, for that, I'm just using some cotton thread

and a large lolly stick.

Just going to tape one end onto the lolly stick,

then I'm going to wrap the thread round.

There we go. That should do it for length.

Just take that off.

So. I'm going to thread it onto a needle.

If you're going to try this at home,

you might want to get an adult to help you.

I'm going to stitch this where the skewers cross.

Just making a little X pattern, there, for strength.

Now just tie it off.

There's one last thing I want to do, and that is to add a tail.

This will keep it stable when it's in the air.

'I've taped lots of pieces of plastic together

'to make a long strip.

'It's six times the length of the kite, which will help it fly.'

So, just going to tie it to the bottom bit, here.

There you go.

Check it out!

You don't have to make a kite this shape.

How about a stripy snake?

Or a floaty butterfly?

And they really do work!

If I was super, I could go forward in time and show you.

# I believe I can fly... #

Now for some more super art.

Ow! Mind where you're going!

Sorry, Sarah. Didn't see you there.

Seeing as Sarah's invisible, here's a quick art tip -

how to draw an invisible person.

So, I'm going to start with the hat.

As we can't see the person, the clothes suggest where they are.

There's the little hat. Pair of sunglasses.

Here's their coat. And, as they're invisible,

you'll be able to see the back of it.

There's a tie. Appearance is everything.

And trousers.

The shoes, but no socks or ankles in between.

And gloves, but invisible wrists.

And this invisible person has an invisible pet.

A dog.

Out for walkies!

There we go, another quick art tip.

HE WHISTLES

DOG PANTS

CAT MEWS Oh, no!

DOG BARKS

Oh, hey, Gavin!

-What have you got there?

-I've been doing an online diploma

-in balloon modelling.

-Oh, cool! Show us something, then.

-Ta-dah!

-What's that?

-A snake?

-Yeah.

Wait, that sounded like Sarah.

Oh, no, I've just got a little bit of the sniffles, mate.

-Here you go.

-Oh, thank you.

Anyway, I'm going to get on with some art.

Sarah's invisibility onesie has inspired me.

Thanks, Ricky!

I'm over here!

Thank you. Yeah.

I'm going to create some powerful art you can see straight through.

It's going to be a stained glass rocket.

I'm going to start by just drawing myself a guide image.

So, I'm just going to draw around a pot, here,

to get a nice, round shape for the planet.

Some rings round the planet, it's going to be like Saturn.

Don't need to be too neat, here. This is just going to be a guide.

Draw the rocket up here.

Like an eye shape. A couple of boosters.

A little flame trail. All the way round to the rings.

I'll pop a star down here.

Using a ruler, I'm going to give the star a nice starburst.

Here we go.

I've got an old picture frame.

I'm going to take out the back bit, won't be needing that.

I'll hang on to the actual frame itself,

and then this bit of plastic is going to be my stained glass window.

I still need to be careful here,

because the plastic can still be a little bit sharp.

Pop it down on top of my paper and just tack it in place,

so it doesn't move.

I've got a little bit of paper now to slide underneath,

just to keep my table nice and clean,

because we're about to do some paint.

'I've got black acrylic paint to go over the lines

'as it sticks to the plastic.'

I'm going to take my time with this,

so that the lines are all the same width,

and this black is going to be like the leading

between the colours on a real stained glass window.

OK, and that needs to dry, so I'm going to mix up some colour.

I'm going to mix the paint with some glue.

A lot more glue than paint.

This is PVA glue I'm using, because it sticks to the plastic better,

and PVA dries clear,

so it looks like an authentic stained glass window.

The PVA does make the paint look a little bit lighter,

but it will dry darker.

There we go. Now I move on to my next colour.

A little bit thirsty, though. Oh, no!

The coffee nearly stained my stained-glass picture.

Oh, hi, Ricky.

-Who are you?

-I'm Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

I'm a designer and architect famous for Art Nouveau,

which is highly decorative.

I also designed furniture and stained-glass windows.

What do you think of my stained-glass picture?

Since I added an A to my surname, "MckIntosh",

I'll give you an A plus.

Anyway, I need to wipe you up now. Don't want you to stain my picture.

Here you go.

Thank you. Look out, Charles,

here comes a damp cloth.

Right, I'm off. Bye!

Well, that cleaned that up. There you go, Sarah.

She's gone. OK, now I'm going to bring in some more colours.

A little bit for the fire.

Now for the rings. A nice pinky colour.

Of course, it will dry red.

I'm going to paint the starburst alternating between blue and purple.

Right, now I need for that to dry,

but I'm going to use my ninja skills.

There we go.

Check it out. And where the glue's dried, the paint looks darker.

And I'm going to pop it into my frame

with the side that I've painted facing up.

Make sure you secure it with sticky tape.

Great. I'm going to go and put that in the window.

And when you hold the picture up to the window,

the light shines through,

giving you a lovely stained-glass effect.

Where's Gavin?

Gav, if you need the toilet, it's just over there.

No, Ricks, I've thought of the superpower I would like.

The power to move things with your mind.

The only thing moving is your gurning face.

I'm still working on it!

That picture moves without the power of the mind.

That's because it's animated.

Hey, guys. Oh, can I have a go?

-Erm...

-Yeah, all right, yeah.

Oh, no! My T-shirt!

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

It doesn't look like it's coming back down, though.

-Oh!

-To make this cool animation, you'll need some old T-shirts,

thick black pens and a tablet with an animation app installed...

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

Ninja move number one...

Grab your T-shirts and your pen.

It doesn't matter if they're all the same colour or different.

I'm using the same colour, because I want it to look like there's one

T-shirt flying away.

Then you need to start drawing your frame.

A good tip when you're drawing your frames

is to put something hard and flat inside the T-shirt,

so you have a nice surface to draw on.

So, what I've done here is I have slipped the secondary T-shirt

over the first onem and it means I can see the lines of the first.

It's kind of a form of onion-skinning,

which means I can use it as a guide to draw my next frame.

And it's very important that you number them,

so you know what order the frames come in.

Ninja move number two...

It's time to dress your animation model.

But make sure you put the T-shirts on in the right order.

Ninja move number three...

So I've got my tablet device set up

and I'm going to need Rich to take off a T-shirt every time,

ready for the next frame.

That's number three, isn't it?

'And to make my T-shirt fly away,

'we're going to gradually lift it higher between frames.'

So, we've shot all of our frames.

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

-Oh, yes!

-Awesome.

I'm really happy. I think that's an amazing one.

All right, mate. Don't drone on about it.

-Come on, Ella.

-Guys?

I wonder whether that T-shirt's going to come back.

LAUGHTER

(Let's play a trick on Gav with that chalk.)

What? That chalk! I told you I've got the sniffles, mate.

-Do you want to see something amazing?

-Oh, go on.

That's...incredible!

I'm going to tell everyone that you're not just a ninja,

you're a superhero.

High five!

Missed!

PHONE RINGS

'Hi, Ricky, it's your mum!

'Sorry I've missed you.

'Sarah was round here earlier.

-'Have you seen her?'

-Not so much now.

'Here's what else to look out for.'

A soap bottle superhero.

Wow!

Chalk that looks like a lolly.

And art on a campsite that's a spectacular sight.

'Anyway, I'm off glamping with dad.

'I'm not looking forward to it. He's quite in-tents.'

Oh, in-tents!

'If you see Sarah, say hi.'

My mum says hi, Sarah.

Hi, Ricky's mum.

'Bye, Ricky!'

Ricky, Ricky, Ricky!

It's the ninja apprentices.

Ricky, can you make art with a fan?

I'll make art with anybody. They don't have to be a fan.

-BOTH:

-Oh!

-Hi, Ricky.

Hey, it's Isabelle Clifton from Hetty Feather.

I was thinking, what could Ricky make out of this bunch of keys?

Not much, I'm afraid.

Hey, what have these guys got?

Ricky, can you make art out of a soap bottle?

All right, I choose you.

-BOTH:

-Yay!

-So, what are your names?

-I'm Raisa.

-And I'm Anaya.

-So, where are you from? BOTH:

-Manchester!

Well, it's a great suggestion. I'll just go and grab my things.

Oh, so I've got some paint there.

A milk bottle.

Kitchen roll. Some modelling clay.

Some special bits I'll come to later.

And of course, the trusty soap bottle.

Now, I'm going to turn this into a superhero, or should I say,

a soaper-hero. OK, take this bit.

Won't be needing that.

Now what I'm going to do

is I'm going to carefully cut into the milk bottle.

Now, you might need some help at home,

because it's quite tricky and you need to be safe with scissors.

Because I need this handle.

That's right. I don't need this bit.

I'm cutting right at the bottom of the handle on one end.

And then leaving two bigger pieces of plastic on the other.

There you go. Just tidy this bit up.

This is going to be an arm for my soap bottle.

I'm going to need two of these, so I will just ninja another.

-BOTH:

-Wow!

OK, I'm going to hold them to the side of my bottle

with some masking tape.

So, do you guys like to do art?

I draw cats.

I'm quite good at drawing cats.

So, did you by any chance design Anaya's T-shirt?

-No!

-No?

All right, now I'm going to stick a pencil

to the back of my soap bottle.

I'm just going to cover it in masking tape,

because it kind of works like a quick papier mache.

It means my paint will take to it better.

I'm going to make myself a stand, now,

by cutting off three centimetres of my kitchen roll tube.

There we go.

And then using some modelling clay.

I'll take a little pinch of it off,

because I'm going to use that for the hands, and the rest,

I'm going to stuff inside this little, short cylinder.

I'm just adding these little bits of clay to the ends of the arms,

just to smooth them off.

Now I'm going to stick the pencil into the stand.

Perfect.

So, I know it does not look like much yet.

How can I make it look more like a superhero?

Add some bright colours, like red, yellow.

I'm going to take that as a cue to mix the two together,

because I've got some orange paint on here.

I've mixed my paint with a bit of PVA glue just to thicken it up,

so it sticks nicely to the bottle.

So, my friend Sarah's managed to make herself invisible.

If you were invisible, what would you do?

Sneak up on people and scare them.

I love making people jump.

Awesome.

So, what I'm doing here is I'm blending the light colour orange

into the dark colour orange round the edges,

and that is just to give it a nicer finish.

OK, now I'm going to move on to do the arms.

And I want some good colour contrast,

so I'm going to do those black.

Right, I'm going to paint the stand.

I'm just painting the base now.

And, by the way, if you are painting at home like this,

I'd suggest putting some newspaper down to protect the top.

OK, guys, I would have to wait for that to dry

or you guys could give me a hand with the ninja skills.

-What do you want to do?

-Ninja skills!

Yeah? OK, go for it.

Oh, yeah, great ninja skills, perfectly dry.

I'm going to add the lid for my head and a couple of finishing touches

that really turn it into a superhero.

For that, I've got a cape that I've just cut out of some coloured paper,

and I'm attaching it

with a couple of pieces of double sided sticky tape.

I've got a special little utility belt

where this hero keeps all of his gadgets,

and also stops his trousers from falling down.

And finally, the chest emblem.

Mine's an R for Radman.

So, are you guys ready to see it?

-BOTH:

-Yes.

-Check it out.

-BOTH:

-Wow! That's amazing.

-Do you want to see its secret power? BOTH:

-Yeah.

This superhero also has the ability to look after your jewellery.

Pretty sweet. So, it's a special little jewellery tidy.

-That's good.

-What would you guys rate it?

-BOTH:

-We give it this.

Oh, I can't see anything.

It's a ten. We wrote it with invisible ink.

Oh, check them out! Nice one.

-Thanks, guys. Bye-bye. BOTH:

-Bye, Ricky.

I wonder where Sarah went?

HUMMING

Sarah, is that you making that noise?

Oh, hang on. Someone's making an appearance.

I'm OK, man!

Ah, the Grand Master.

Greetings, dude!

Another masterful entrance.

Step number 455 to enlightenment.

Writing implement for marking, not for licking.

Ah, chalk that looks like lollies.

Let's do this!

Pour some paint into a plastic cup, dudes!

Add a splash of water.

Then add some plaster of Paris.

You need about four teaspoons of this, dude.

Mix it together.

Whoa!

Stop!

Do it again, with another coloured paint.

Pour it on the top of the first colour.

Then do it with a third colour.

Pour that on top again.

Lay two lolly sticks on top of the cup.

Grab another lolly stick and wrap an elastic band

about half the way along it.

Stick one end into the mixture between the lolly sticks.

This will keep it still, dude.

Wait for it to dry.

Carefully, pull it out of the cup and take off the elastic band.

Writing implement for marking, not licking.

Cool! Lesson 455 complete.

Wow, thanks, Grand Master.

I am enlightened.

You are most welcome.

He always leaves his mark.

Ricky, you're sitting on me.

-Get off!

-Sarah, can you please take the invisibility onesie off now?

You're going to have to catch me first.

Ha, missed me!

Sarah? I'm going to get you.

PHONE RINGS Oh, I'd better get this first.

-Hi, Ricky.

-Hi, Dad.

I'm camping with your mum,

and I've got into a bit of a predicament with the guy ropes.

-Can you help?

-I'll be there in a flash.

Here's my opportunity to be an actual superhero and save Dad.

Super Ricky to the rescue.

Wait for me!

Come on, Sarah, keep up.

I'm doing my best, Ricky, but I've never skateboarded invisibly before.

-Ninja skills!

-Invisible skills!

-Who said that?

-Hi, Michelle.

It's me, Sarah. I've got my invisible onesie on.

Oh, like that's normal! Anyway, Ricks,

we've got the tent set up. Let's go glamping.

As much as you put the glam into camping

first, we must save my father,

for he has his guy ropes in a twist and needs our help.

That hardly sounds urgent.

No, you're right, actually. Let's use the guy ropes to make some art.

First, we'd better get our ninja on.

Art ninja! Strike a pose.

Ow, that's my foot!

Sorry, Sarah!

Seeing as we're in this great campsite,

we're going to be using guy ropes,

mallets and tent pegs to make super art with a heroic twist.

Now, Sarah, I can see your invisibility being a slight issue,

because you might trip over all the guy ropes.

So, do you mind changing into something a little bit more

-acceptable, please?

-Oh, typical Ricky, always spoiling my fun.

I might not be able to see you, but I can still hear you.

OK, guys, spread yourselves out

and I'll show you where to hammer them in.

-Hiya.

-Hello, long time no see.

-Right, get yourself over there. Let's get to it.

-OK.

Time to get our peg on.

Whoa, Gavin, that's not the right place.

OK, I'll reposition it here and when I give you the thumbs up,

you hit it.

OK?

One, two, three.

Oh, Oh, my, Gavin!

Oh, you Gavin! Oh, you utter Gavin!

That's it, Michelle, want a nice line down here,

-right angle across to that.

-OK.

Well, we've got a whole load of pegs here, Ricky.

-Now what?

-Now we're going to wrap it in rope,

which is finally something which is safe for Gavin.

Ricky? CORD you check I'm doing this right?

Doesn't have to be a perfect pattern.

-Keep it quite random.

-OK.

OK, this will make a good skyline.

All we need to do is fill in this whole area and I want nice, long,

-ups and downs.

-OK.

This dark colour's going to act like a bit of a silhouette.

-Intriguing.

-So, you're going to make some nice windows.

-We've got a few pegs in there.

-Right.

Make a square round them and then an X in the middle

to really fill it in, a nice, vibrant yellow.

Ricky, I'm getting in a right pickle.

-Am I doing this right?

-You should be in a right pickle,

because that's going to be a giant gherkin.

Good work, Michelle. Loop it round two of them and back to the centre.

This is fun. I'm making a nice little pattern here.

Last little bit.

There we go. Check out our tent peg art.

Wow! You made a cityscape in the countryside.

I like the superhero touch.

Thanks! It's actually a super-ninja.

I think I'll call her...

Peggy! Because of the tent pegs, Peggy!

I see what you did there.

CHURCH BELL DONGS

Today has taught me a valuable art ninja lesson.

The difference between glamping and camping is only in the diction,

but invisibility is not science fiction.

I'm glad I don't have superpowers.

They come with too much responsibility.

And as if superheroes can really fly.

Argh!

I don't like flying!

A-a-a-rgh!