I’ve been having a lot of fun with these mini canvases lately. Here’s one I did with my class at Jerry’s Artarama. These things are great.
Our theme for the last class was Under the Sea (I thought it would be fun to do a snail). We used acrylic paint, sharpie markers, acrylic gel medium, sand and glitter.
It’s a great little project. Super fun and super affordable…and I’m hooked. Here how it works. First we sketch our drawing onto the mini-canvas (the one shown here is 4″X5″ and goes for about 3 bucks). The next step is to paint in the image using acrylic paint. Once you’ve finished that it’s time to add some texture.
I added clear gel medium to the bottom of this little canvas. Everywhere where I wanted the to be sand I covered with gel. The trick is to really lay it on thick. Once I had it coated I took some beach sand and sprinkled it over the top of the canvas. Then I shook it over a garbage can. Anywhere there was gel the sand stuck everywhere else it shook off.
My students did the same thing. Some of them used sand, some used glitter, some used both. The gel starts out a translucent white but dries clear so its easy to see what you’re doing. Once everything is dried we outlined our characters using a sharpie permanent marker. They all looked fantastic.
You can really get creative with a project like this. I highly recommend it for kids 5 and up. Just one word of caution. Acrylic paint and sharpie marker does not wash out of clothing so make sure you wear something old or cover up with a smock. Good luck can’t wait to see what you come up with.
This was a video I shot last summer at Burning Oak Studios. I posted a link to it earlier but I don’t think I ever actually posted the video itself…. so in case you missed it here you go. Have fun.
Click here to view the embedded video.
If you draw along with me please email me a copy of your drawing so I can post it on my fan art page. Have fun happy cartooning.
It’s 2010 and time to post the new class schedule. Looks like another busy year. I’ve scheduled a whole bunch of kids classes with Jerry’s Artarama in Raleigh again this year and am really looking forward to those.
Classes:
- January 6th – 4-6pm For Kids ages 5-9
- February 10th - 4-6pm For Kids ages 5-9
- March 17th – 4-6pm For Kids ages 5-9
- April 14th – 4-6pm For Kids ages 5-9
For more info on the classes at Jerry’s please check out their website
Appearances: As of the moment my schedule is full. I will be adding appearances later in the year.
Videos: I am doing some more videos with the fabulous group of folks down at Burning Oak Studios this year. There are a few in production right now and we are in the process of scheduling another shoot. If you haven’t seen any of the vids yet please check them out at the Jerry’s Artarama site or you can find them on Youtube.
Ustream: For those of you who do not live in the area or would prefer to watch me on line…I’ve also added a Ustream channel. Yep, now you can watch me live on my very own Ustream channel. If you’ve ever wanted to see how a professional naps at his desk…..er works then you’re in luck…. this is the place for you.
What’s coming up: For those of you who are super-serious about learning art I’ve been working on a series of courses just for you.
Later this year I am planning to open up a subscription site with advanced classes and tutorials. These classes will not be free but they will be filled to the brim with amazing amounts of Bob Ostrom Studio artistic know how. You won’t want to miss them. I’ll have more about these at a later date.
I work in Adobe Photoshop almost every day and my swatch pallet is a mess. I tend to add my swatches as I go, randomly and in no particular order. I’ve always wanted to put my pallet in better order but just wasn’t sure how. I know it would help speed things up but it always seemed like a good idea for the next time.
Today I finally stopped what I was doing, put my project aside for five minutes and did a little research. Now my colors are in perfect order and I’m twice as fast as I was ten minutes ago. Turns out that rearranging your color palette in CS4 is quite easy. Who knew?
Here’s a quick tutorial on how it works…
Just click on the images below to enlarge or begin a slide show.
I was finally able to set up my Ustream site this week, so grab your pens and papers kids, because I’ll be cranking out new shows before you know it. I’m hoping to get my first episode up sometime very soon and I’ve got the perfect project in mind. I think you guys are going to love it. I’ll give you a hint….it’s going to have something to do with that image over there to the left.
I’ll be posting my Ustream schedule on this site to start with. Once I’ve got everything set up and running I will also try to list on a brand new fantastic website brought to you by the very talented Dani Jones from Dani Draws. She’s gone ahead and put together a new website featuring artists Ustream listings. It’s a great collection of super artists. I’ve seen a few of the artists listed there and they are all extremely talented as well. Great collection. Please check them out if you can.
I’d also like to thank Dani for the handy Ustream tutorial she put together. It explains in simple terms how to set up a Ustream show and even has pics to help you with everything you need to know…. Thanks Dani.
For future reference you can find my broadcast here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bobostromstudio
By: admin,
on 12/4/2009
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You’re probably thinking… Hey, what’s this guy know about hair, he has less hair then a naked mole rat . Well that may be true but you don’t have to have great hair to draw great hair. In this lesson I’ll show you some simple ways to make the hair on your cartoon really shine…. okay enough bad hair puns for one article. Here’s another free art lesson from Bob Ostrom Studio, Burning Oaks Studio and Jerry’s Artarama. Click here to view the embedded video.
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on 11/30/2009
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I’ve been working on this site for a little while now and decided it was time for a new logo. All I’ve really had until now is the Potato-Boy header with the How to Draw Stuff type. Although I kind of like that little guy he’s hardly a logo.
The other day as I was jotting down some reminder notes an idea popped into my head. Luckily I was sitting at my computer so I decided to work it up in Adobe Illustrator while everything was still fresh in my mind.
I took a few snap shots as I went to show you how I typically work through the development stage and added my some of my thoughts to the captions. Unfortunately a few of the shots are a little on the small side so the notes below don’t read as well as they could, but I think you’ll get the idea as you go through them… I’ll try to fix those later. Note to self- zoom in, enlarge art, and leave a little white space before taking snapshots.
I’m pretty happy with the look of this one so far but I’ll probably revisit it at a later date and make a few tweaks. Sometimes the ideas go quick (like this one) other times I need to let them rattle around inside my head a little bit before they come out. I’d think I’ll add something a little more cartoon-ish to that space above the type on the right so it looks more like it belongs to the Bob Ostrom Studio family, but that’ll have to wait until I’m finished with my next set of deadlines.
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on 11/20/2009
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You can really get creative with a project like this. I highly recommend it for kids 5 and up. Just one word of caution. Acrylic paint and sharpie marker does not wash out of clothing so make sure you wear something old or cover up with a smock. Good luck can’t wait to see what you come up with.
