Day of the Dummy Art Ninja

I'm Ricky.

I live in Bristol.

I work as an animator, which is lucky, because 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, Rich and Sarah.

SHE SCREAMS

Most importantly, I make ninja moves.

Some people call me the...

Today, I'll show you how to make art that's got bags of potential.

You can maximise your memories if you're feeling forgetful,

and we transform scrap into art-ificial intelligence.

Because today it's...

HE YAWNS

It's a new day.

I better get my ninja on...

..and my clothes.

Mm-mm!

Mmm?

HE SIGHS

Wow, what a mess!

I don't know where I'm going to put all of this.

Maybe in there.

What's this? I forgot I had this.

I think I was planning to do some art with it.

Hey, Ricky, you want to play?

Yeah, sure, but first, let's give you a new hairstyle.

Yeah, wow!

It looks just like my mate, Ella.

Whoa!

Ella and the dummy look like they could've been separated at birth.

I found these old photos in the pile of mess.

There's one of me and Sarah.

There's Rich with our woodland art.

Lovely landscape.

These photos would make a great montage

or a brilliant design for something like a bag.

Excellent idea, Ricky.

-Who are you?

-Peter Blake. I'm famous for making collages like this one.

I'm also well known for designing record sleeves,

including some for the Beatles, Oasis and Live Aid,

and was a big part of the British pop art scene

in the swinging '60s.

That's probably why you popped up on this picture.

Talking of which, I must get going.

Oh, he's popped off.

Right, so we've got a little piece of card here.

I'm just going to draw a square 6.5cm by 6.5cm.

Because I'm going to make a collage bag inspired by Peter Blake.

Lovely.

You can make your squares any size you like.

This is going to be my template so that every picture I now cut out

will be the same size.

And when all the pictures are put together,

they'll make the fabric of my bag.

That's the first of my many squares.

I'm going to need a lot of these so I'm going to use my ninja skills.

Oh, yes. There we go.

Pop those down here. Right, I've got some sticky back plastic here and

I'm going to roll it out onto my table and just hold in place

with bit of sticky tack.

It's going to peel off the backing paper.

Now I get to position all of my squares in a grid

which will be 13 squares down by five squares across.

I'm using lots of bright colours just like Peter Blake.

These pictures can come from anywhere.

They can come from newspapers, postcards, magazines,

anywhere you like.

Moving onto the back.

I'm putting the pictures on facing the other way.

Now I'm going to the add the sides to my bag.

So we're going to count down here. One, two, three, four, five.

That's where I'm going to start building my sides.

And I'm going to add five squares along here.

And the same the other side.

I'm going to put another layer of sticky back plastic over this.

I'm pulling away the backing paper and as I do,

I'm smoothing down the plastic to make sure there's no bubbles.

You might need to get someone to give you a hand

because it is pretty tricky.

This is the fabric of my bag.

So, just cutting off the excess plastic here.

Around the edges.

Now I'm just going to fold it up into the shape of a satchel.

With the sides, I'm going to fold them in half to give it that

authentic satchel look.

I'm holding the sides together with sticky tape.

Taking my time to make sure the edges line-up.

I've also made a strap using exactly the same technique.

I folded it in half just to make sure it's strong and I'm sticking it

to the inside with plenty of tape or, you could use staples.

There we go. I'm happy with that.

It's perfect for my sketchbook and tablet.

OK, then, er, Ella.

I'll just get this other stuff put away.

Wow! I forgot I had this.

Seriously old school.

I wonder if it still works?

Whoa, cool!

# Waiting for a star to fall... #

And tune!

Weird power surge.

# That's where you belong

# In my arms baby, yeah. #

Ella! What are you doing here?

You scared the life out of me.

-Who's Ella?

-Don't be a dummy.

Uh-oh, she is the dummy, but she's alive.

This is weird.

OK, why don't you hang out over there?

She doesn't know who I am.

I guess it's because she's a mannequin with no memory.

That's why I'm going to make...

The Art Ninja brain box memory keeper.

It's a thinking person's time capsule.

Got myself a confectionary box and I'm going to cut-off the lid.

Now going to cut around this top bit, here, just so I've got nice,

flush sides.

The ends of mine are coming apart so I'm going to hold it in place

with a little bit of masking tape.

Right, I've got a lot of memories, so I'm going to need two of these,

so I'll ninja another.

Ninja skills.

Right, now I need a big bit of card and using one of my boxes,

I'm going to draw a brain shape around it and a brain shape

is kind of like a hoof shape.

Drew a small one to begin with.

And a slightly larger one.

And then, a bigger one again.

Now, I'm going to cut those out.

OK. Taking the largest and the smallest template,

I'm going to masking tape the boxes to them.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

So we're going to cover this over later.

Here we are. Now I need to flesh out my brain a little bit.

And we can do that with some newspaper that I'm going to roll

into sausages.

And I'm going to hold it down with some masking tape.

I'll keep going until the paper reaches the edges of the cardboard.

There we are. I've tried to keep it as flat as possible on top.

Now I move onto the little one.

OK, now onto the top.

So, using more sausages, we're going to give it a kind of outline.

Then up through the middle.

Right, now I'm going to grab some more newspaper,

going to make a patty shape, kind of a long one.

This is going to work as one of the separate sides of the brain.

These are called hemispheres.

Do the same for both sides.

Right, now I'm going to give this a layer of papier-mache.

So I've got some glue and water mix.

That's two parts glue, one part water.

You know the score, the papier-mache will give it a neat,

smooth finish.

Now moving on to the top one.

Now if you're doing this at home,

you'll need to put some newspaper down to protect your table.

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

I should wait for this to dry, before I paint it.

But I'm going to use...

..Ninja skills.

There we go. I've even painted the insides too.

Right, now using some wool, I'm going to give it

some nice brain texture, like all the curly bits you see in pictures.

I've got some glue, undiluted.

A tip here is to be quite sparing with the glue.

So I'm going to start with a swirl.

And then on this bit, I'm going to do a kind of zigzag.

You can use any patterns you like here to make it look like an

authentic brain.

Do another swirl.

MUSIC PLAYS

That's looking pretty good.

Now for the other two.

Last little bit.

Now it's time to put it together...

..and get some memories on the inside.

Got some trinkets here.

Those tiny instruments I once ordered. Whoops!

Oh, yeah, a little skateboard.

Yes! Skills.

And some pictures of my friends.

One of Ella, great.

And there we go, the Art Ninja brain box memory keeper.

You don't have to make a brain to keep your memories in.

Why not try a delicious apple memory keeper?

Or, how about a globe that's out of this world?

CRASHING SOUND

I'd better stop Ella before she destroys the kitchen.

What are you doing?

That's not even human.

No, no, no. If you're hungry, I'll make you something tasty to eat.

Ricks, did you have a power surge here earlier?

Hey, Gav, come and meet new Ella.

New Ella? What happened to old, real Ella?

-That's a dummy.

-Don't be mean.

Come on and say, "Hi." No, wait, she was just...

I must be the only one that can see this dummy alive.

-What?

-Hang on, how did you hear that?

I thought I said it in my head.

-Sure,

-Ricky. Here, let me feed you some beans.

Do you like baked beans, Ella?

Hey, Ricks, she's not very talkative for a human bean!

Do you get it, Ella? Sorry, Ella.

Come on, Gav, take your jokes,

new Ella is definitely not an annoying best friend.

Mate, she moves less than that picture.

That's because it's animated.

Who are you?

I'm you from the future.

And I've come here because I've got something really,

really serious to tell...

Wow, is that a retro game?

You don't get those in the future.

Can I have a go? No man, it's mine. Oh, go on. No. Go on.

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

What was the really important thing?

To make this animation, you'll need...

..some sweets, a tablet with animation app

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

Ninja move number one.

Research.

Right, I'm making an animation that looks like an old retro game,

so I've be watching some old clips on the internet.

I'm going to use some retro sweets but you can use anything.

Literally anything.

Ninja move number two.

Time to start shooting.

What I'm doing here is moving my sweets along to their next position

and taking a new frame of animation.

Ninja move number three.

The thing that really sells these objects and their new roles isn't

just the way that they move, it's the sounds that they make,

so I'm going to need some good, old-fashioned retro sounds.

I'm going to have a go at recording these myself.

HE MAKES COMPUTER GAME SOUNDS

OK, I've shot all of my frames and I've added my awesome

home-made sound effects.

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

Oh, yeah, hey, that's wicked.

Just came back for the sweets.

Hey!

No-one else can see you moving.

-Weird.

-You're weird.

Wow, now you're alive again, we can have a right laugh.

Yeah, you're funny, Ricky, go, Ricky, go, Ricky, go, Ricky.

# And we can build this dream together

# Standing strong forever

# Nothing's gonna stop us now

# And if this world runs out of lovers

# We'll still have each other

# Nothing's gonna stop us

# Nothing's gonna stop us now. #

PHONE RINGS

Argh!

Oh.

-Hi, Mum.

-Ricky?

Of course, who else is it going to be?

Wow, I thought you'd be too busy having fun with your friends to

answer the phone to your mum.

Have you got a friend there now?

You could say that... she's a brand-new one.

She, she?

Put her on, put her on, this is exciting!

She's gone a bit shy.

OK, maybe I'll speak to her later,

after you make a wire feline with this cool cat, the ninja apprentice.

There's an art tip that tickles your funny bone.

And a magical wallet with the mystical grandmaster.

Anyway, must go, there's something wrong with the dishwasher

and by that, I mean your dad.

Bye, Mum.

LINE GOES DEAD

Oh, she's gone.

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

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

That's kind of like a round bubble at the top

and coming off the bottom of it is your jaw and that's just a little

box hanging off the bottom.

I'm going to draw two nice, big eye sockets.

Colour them in black and the nose kind of like this, an upside down Y.

Mouth, a line with a couple lines crossing.

Could do a little bump like that at the top of the neck and the ribcage

is made up of these three lines crossing a central one.

Now the pelvis, that's like a pretzel shape,

it's got three holes in it.

Now I'm going to draw his legs.

Each bone being made of two straight lines...

..two little bumps coming off them.

And the feet are just going to be two ovals like this.

And the toes are just little smaller ones coming off.

Arms very much the same as the legs.

Couple of bones making up the main body of them

and the hands, here, just a circle and then, little circles coming off

to make up the fingers.

And now the other arm. A couple of bones.

This lower one being the forearm.

Of course, his hands and little bones coming off

to make up the digits.

And there you go.

There's your quick art tip of how to draw a skeleton.

-Ricky, Ricky, Ricky.

-It's the ninja apprentices.

Can you make art with a sock?

-I could, but it might be odd.

-Oh!

-Hi, Ricky.

-It's Lily from So Awkward.

Ricky, do you think you could make art with maracas?

Yeah, I go crackers for maracas.

Can you make art with them?

-No, sorry.

-Oh!

That was so awkward.

Hey, what's she got?

Ricky, can you make art with garden wire?

I don't see wire not.

-I choose you.

-Yay!

-So what's your name?

-Ava.

-Nice to meet you, Ava.

-And where are you from?

-Bristol.

Oh, local, great stuff.

Well, it's a good suggestion, I'll just go grab my bits.

So I've got a yoghurt pot that I've painted, some modelling clay,

a couple of extra bits of wire, you never know.

And I've got some pictures of a cat.

One that's profile and one that's face on.

-Everyone likes cat pictures, right?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, man.

I'm going to start by using a piece of the wire

to follow the profile of the cat.

So I'm just holding it over the picture and bending it

round the outline.

So I can see you've got some art on the walls behind you.

Can you talk me through it?

Yeah. When I made it, my marker, it exploded.

Your pen exploded?

Yeah. I added some pink paint to make the blue

splodges, I guess, stand out more.

Nice idea. So I've got my first bit of wire bent.

That's the cat's profile without the ears.

It doesn't look like much now but it'll be great by the end.

Now I'm going to use a longer piece of wire to go round the face on the

picture of the cat. I'm going to start at the chin.

Just pushing the wire around the outside of the face.

And when I get to a feature,

I'm bending the wire in to then trace around it.

It's kind of going to be like a continuous line drawing.

Just going round one of the ears.

Ava, can you do a cat impression?

Meow!

I've got these extra bits, here.

-What do you think they're for?

-Whiskers.

-Yeah, man.

-Can you do your cat noise again?

-Meow!

Right, so, just going to bend these in half, like that,

and just slide them round the edge of the cable, there.

Pinch them so that they stick onto the wire.

Ava, have you got any pets?

No, but I want a dog.

What kind of dog would you get?

-A pug.

-A pug!

-Yes.

-There we go.

I'm going to make these 2-D images into a 3-D sculpture.

So I've got my yoghurt pot and my clay to make a stand.

I'm just going to push the clay into the bottom bit like that.

And start with the profile piece.

Just going to push that through the cup and the clay.

I'm going to push my other piece of wire into the base as well.

-Now, the next bit's going to look ace.

-Oh!

I'm putting the cat's face into the base.

That rhymes! It's quite fiddly.

You might need to get someone to give you a hand.

Then, I'm bending it over the profile, matching it up

where the noses go.

-Are you ready to see it?

-Yeah.

-What do you reckon?

-Oh, it looks like a 3-D cat.

It's pretty cool, right?

So, what would you score it?

-A ten.

-Oh, a ten? That's a model score.

And the great thing about this art is it casts amazing shadows.

Thanks very much for your suggestion, Ava.

High five.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

Come on, Ella, let's have some fun.

One, two, three, four.

# Don't need money, don't take fame

# Don't need no credit card to ride this train... #

Oh, no!

-There you go, Ella.

-I'm OK, man.

-Greetings, dude!

-Hey, Grand Master.

It's great to see you and all, but you're kind of spoiling my fun day

with Ella.

Lesson 9,009 to enlightenment.

Surreptitious cash carrier.

-Magic wallet.

-Let's do it.

Grab some rectangles of card and some ribbon.

Weird.

Put two pieces of ribbon on one side and lay them out straight.

Put two pieces on the other side crossed over.

Hold them down with some sticky tape.

And fold the ribbon back the other way.

Magic!

Put another piece of card on top.

Fold the ribbon back over the top,

holding it in place with sticky tape.

Glue some patterned paper to this side.

Do the same on the other side, dude.

Ask a grown-up for some paper money and put it under the ribbons inside

the wallet.

Crossed ribbon, straight ribbon.

Watch it magically swap sides.

Magic, man.

Lesson 9,009 complete.

-Check it out.

-Thanks, Grand Master.

I am richer for the experience.

Well, kind of.

You are most welcome.

Ella, you're back.

Let's play our song again.

# That's the power of love... #

Ella, another power surge!

Noooooooo!

-Ella!

-Hi, Ricky.

You can let go of me now.

Oh, cool dummy.

-Nice hair.

-Oh, that old thing.

I was actually just about to take it to the dump.

I'll come with you. Shall we go then, Ella?

-I said I was coming, didn't I?

-Yeah, yeah.

You take that.

And let's go.

Ninja skills.

Here you go, Ella, put this on and dump the dummy

over there on the scrapheap.

That's the dummy, I'm Ella.

My mistake, here you go.

Let me give you a hand, come on.

-All right, Ricks?

-Rich, you scared me!

Some great stuff for art over here, mate.

And I've got just the idea.

Let's get some scrap and get our ninja on.

Art Ninja!

-Strike a pose.

-Like this?

Just freeze like a mannequin.

So what are we making, Ricky?

Well, I thought that this would make a pretty good body.

So can you run off and find me some more interesting bits of scrap?

On it like a car bonnet.

-What about this, Ricky?

-Oh, yes, that will make a nice ribcage.

Great.

That's it, and one the other side.

Hey, Ella, you pass me that, we could really transform her.

Hey, Rich, can you give us a hand?

How about two?

OK, guys, let's go and get some more bits.

-Rich.

-Yeah?

-Did you move those mannequins over there?

No. I thought Ella did it.

No.

Weird. I feel like they're watching me.

No, you're just imagining it, Ricky.

Guys, can you see the...?

Ah!

So what are we making, Ricky?

Let me give you a clue.

Oh, I get it, why didn't you just say it?

-Why don't you just spray it?

-I thought you'd never ask.

We need maybe some little bulbs for some eyes.

OK, we need a nose.

How about this?

Oh, yes.

A beard.

Ella, you keep knocking the eyes off.

Rich will be taking this much more seriously. Where is he?

Rich?!

Here I am, Ricky.

Let's use this as a hat.

There we go guys, great work.

I present to you, the Art Ninj-bot.

-Do you like it? BOTH:

-Affirmative.

-ROBOT:

-Ninja skills.

-The robot's alive.

No, it's just this toy I found.

Give me that.

-Let's go.

-Fair enough.

As if the robot could be alive.

How could that ever happen?

LAUGHTER

Phew. Back home safe.

It was fun having mannequin Ella come to life,

even if everyone thought I was talking to myself.

Not another power surge!

What's happened to me?!

ARGGGGGGGGGH!

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