Episode 14 Nine Minute Ninja

Time to get my ninja on.

And my clothes.

Hiiyaa!

KA-CHING!

WOOSH!

WOOSH!

BOING!

An art ninja is particularly effective at night.

OWL HOOTS

It's still dark outside.

Only the light of the moon.

WOLF HOWLS

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 that 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 and it will 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

because if you put all your leaves down

and then pour the water in, they kind of just float 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,

because it means I get a nice cross-section

of different colours and shapes and sizes.

But you can use whatever you want.

You can 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 because they might have

more of a vivid colour on the back than they do on the front.

There you go. I think that already looks beautiful,

but it will 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.

Hiiyaa!

GONG!

Check that out. Beautiful.

Now I need to get this cup out,

and that will loosen with a little bit of warm water.

There we go.

And now 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.

ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS

Awesome! That's amazing!

Maybe I can make my own version of a photogram picture.

Don't worry, all will become clear.

Let me just grab some interesting objects.

Right. So I've got myself a watch,

some headphones,

a pen, some keys,

an old phone charger,

a banana and some cool shades.

I'm going to get some nice coloured paper

and I'm going to draw around these items.

Start with yellow.

And I'm going to start by drawing around the banana,

seeing as I've got the yellow out.

Now, a photogram is a form of art made popular by

American artist Man Ray.

Did somebody call my name?

-Hey, Man!

-Man Ray, to be precise.

I beg your pardon, Ray.

I'm actually appearing as a photogram, one of my favourite forms

of art. It's a photo made without a camera.

I put objects onto photographic paper,

and then expose them to light.

It makes a negative shadow.

Now, would you mind disappearing into the shadows so I can have a go

at making my own version?

It's becoming very transparent that I'm not needed here!

See you later, Man...Ray.

So, Man Ray liked to call his photograms Rayographs

but I'm going to have a go at my very own Rickograph.

I'm not going to be using photographic paper, though,

so I'm going full colour.

Cool, banana's done.

I think I'm going to use this cable next.

Now, remember, you can draw around whatever you like.

That's cool. Move on to the green.

The reason I'm using a mechanical pencil is because you can click the

lead out so that it's a long, thin piece and then use it to get in all

the nooks and crannies on smaller items like keys.

Once I've drawn all around these objects,

I'm going to cut them out and make a picture

that would cheer up even Man Ray.

I'm going to start by cutting out the banana.

There you go, nice banana cut-out.

Now, you'll need to cut the rest out.

But not me, because I'm a ninja.

Hiiyaa!

There we are, good stuff.

Let me grab myself a piece of black card,

because it will give the colours great contrast

and they'll really pop out.

And now I'm going to arrange them into a

composition that I'm happy with.

I want this pen pointing back into the centre.

Now I'm going to stick them down.

ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS

This is looking good, but to finish it off,

I'm going to give it a nice frame.

Awesome! My very own Rickograph!

Remember, when you do your photogram,

you can use any colour and draw around any objects you like!

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.

-GROWL! GROWL!

-Arrgh!

-SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!

-He-he-he!

Now go to the website and get your ninja on!

Art ninja!