Cartoons and Caricatures

There are a lot of reasons that most kids love Saturdays. Kids love Saturdays because it means they do not have to get up early and go to school. Kids love Saturdays because they usually get to relax or play with friends. Kids love Saturdays because it means they got to stay up late on Friday night. But as a kid I loved Saturdays for a totally different reason: Saturday morning cartoons.

One of the highlights of my childhood was watching Saturday morning cartoons. My siblings and I looked forward to it all week long. We made it through five long days of school, homework, going to bed early, and eating healthy breakfast foods in order to get to the next Saturday. And though the wait for Saturday felt like forever, eventually it always came. And with it came our special Saturday routine. Although Saturday is the perfect day to sleep in, we usually got up just as early as we would for school, and we did not even need alarm clocks! Whoever woke up first would run to wake up all the others and together we would go quickly to the family room and turn on the television and flip to our favorite channel: the one with the best Saturday morning cartoons.

Oh, we loved our cartoons. We kept track of what was happening in all our favorite cartoons and we waiting with anticipation for the next episode. We were glued to the television with eyes so huge we did not miss a thing. We would laugh outloud, talk to our favorite cartoon characters outloud, and get mad at the television outloud anytime the cartoons did not go like we thought they should. We were so into our favorite cartoons that only one thing could pull us away from the tube. Dad's pancakes.

Dad's special, Saturday-only pancakes were amazing. We could eat as many as we wanted and we could put anything in them we wanted: blueberries, chocolate chips or even M&M's. We looked forward to our Dad's pancakes almost as much as we looked forward to watching our favorite cartoons. Our parents even started letting us eat our pancakes in front of the television so we would not have to miss a cartoon! What a deal! Saturday was the only day the good cartoons were on, it was the only day that Dad made his signature, unhealthy pancakes, and it was definitely the only day we could eat in front of the television in the family room.

So while I liked not having to go to school on Saturdays and I liked being able to play with friends and stay up later, the real reason I loved Saturdays was not even my Dad's great pancakes. The real reason, the biggest reason that I grew up loving Saturdays was simple: Saturday morning cartoons.

Maybe that's too why I'm having so much fun now drawing caricatures and cartoons myself.

Painting Abstract Art

I want to go into a little more detail of the different ways you can approach the enigmatic task of producing an abstract. In this article we will look at the Anarchist and the Abstractist.

If you have an anarchistic attitude within you then abstract art is for you. You will never run out of ideas - in fact even if you had NO ideas then your temperament alone would find a most fundermental mood swing or dark (and maybe on more rarer occasions - light) moment to enrap you within its aggressive drama and painful colours. Wild movement mixed with vigorous aggression.

Anarchists tend to be wildly demonstrative in their approach to ... everything! They have the potential to be able to utilize almost anything at hand that might provide them with contradictory ideas and totally original materials.

However, there is a big "down" side to what might be seen as the almost perfect abstract artist. An Anarchistic attitude tends to come from a tremendous sense of lacking in many areas. So things like confidence can be a very fearful barrier to the power of a creative flow. Therefore I believe that by working on some of the practical ideas written below obstacles like shyness and fear can slowly be weakened until finally the real artist begins to rise out from the depths of darkness or light in an increasingly "louder" manner.

The Abstractist is in many ways similar to the Anarchist. The difference here is that the Abstractist mind has a colder capability of "seeing" completely non-representative imaginings. And although both the Abstractist and the Anarchist generally produce work from deep within. The Anarchist cultivates a more physical "anti" approach, whereas the Abstractist appears to have the knack of actually visualizing dots, lines, and shapes when looking at every day objects.

OK lets practice. Get yourself a large piece of paper - any paper ... even newspaper will do. You will need plenty of Red, Blue, and Yellow. Acrylics or cheap powder paints will be fine. A one fairly thin paint brush, and one fairly thick. With the first attempt do not "think" of anything other then lines. Place the paints in easy reach for you to work quickly. Ready? Thin brush first - dip it deep into any colour then quickly bring the brush into contact with the paper - do not stop moving. Move in any direction. Paint faster. Paint one continual line. As soon as the brush starts to run dry dip it into paint - any of the colours. Keep doing this until you have filled the paper with a mass of scribbles. Try this about five or six times - not caring what is produced (you can throw it away - no one needs to see it ... or you might want to frame it!).

Now repeat the above practical only this time try using what is sometimes called "short stroke" - which is precisely that. Rather than one continual line, produce lots of short lines - you decide on the length. But make sure you are still acting as though it is one continual line - you are just lifting the brush at the appropriate time. Repeat this a few times.

Next decide which you felt more at home with. Produce another image in that way only this time look for shapes. When you see one, load your brush and paint the outline of the shape - very quickly. Finally get the thick brush and load it with a colour and roughly fill in the shape. Carry on mark making - even if it runs over any painted shapes.

Finally try again with line and shapes, and this time adding something else - you decide. If you really cannot think of anything try choosing any of the following: Screwing up the whole paper, then unfolding it and carrying on painting; rip or cut holes into the paper - and carry on painting; spatter (a well used favourite) paint onto the paper; find rice, spagetti, sand, earth, dust ... anything - pour it or sprinkle it - then carry on painting ... the list is endless.

Of course you might not be at home with this ... too messy you might say. Then, perhaps you might be a Surrealist - or maybe a Visionary...

Drawing Tips for Beginners

When you are producing flower landscape oil paintings, keep in mind the short canvas blend life of oil paints. If you are producing an oil painting of a flower landscape and you need to make a change that isn't immediately effective, the best thing to do is wipe it off with your paint rag and start over. This will work for the first 24 hours after your painting, as oil paintings take this long to dry. In fact, it's important not to make too thick a first coat or you'll never get your oil paints to dry.

One important piece of oil painting advice is to clean your paint brushes each time you change colors. You do this by first wiping as much paint off the brush with a rag as you possibly can and then inserting the brush into the paint thinner. Not only will this get more oil paints off your brush, but will extend the life of your thinner as well. Swish your paint brush around in the container of paint thinner, then dry it with your clean paint rag.

When the first layer of your flower landscape oil painting creation is finished, wait 48 hours before you start on your second paint application or you're going to end up smearing the work you already did. In the meantime don't leave your oil painting somewhere hot or humid. Make sure that its location will protect it from getting accidently scraped, smooshed, smeared, or touched at all.

Should you have a lot of paint left on the palette and you want to use it when you start your flower landscape oil paintings again, scrape the paint together with your knife. Next put a small amount of paint thinner on a cleam paint rage and use it to clean the rest of your paint palette. Plastic wrap is great for covering the paint that is leftover. Make sure you wrap it tightly though.

It's important as well, that until you start again with your flower landscape oil paintings, that you replace the lid on the container of paint thinner and set it aside, no matter how cloudy it looks. The paint thinner will settle and the pigment that is part of the paint will drop to the bottom of the container.

Clean thinner will settle at the top. The next time you go back to your flower landscape oil paintings you'll only need to pour that top layer of clean paint thinner into a new and clean thinner container, and wipe the pigment off the bottom. You then pour the good paint thinner back into its original thinner container and you're ready to start your flower landscape oil painting project once again.

Oil Paintings Can Flower

When you are producing flower landscape oil paintings, keep in mind the short canvas blend life of oil paints. If you are producing an oil painting of a flower landscape and you need to make a change that isn't immediately effective, the best thing to do is wipe it off with your paint rag and start over. This will work for the first 24 hours after your painting, as oil paintings take this long to dry. In fact, it's important not to make too thick a first coat or you'll never get your oil paints to dry.

One important piece of oil painting advice is to clean your paint brushes each time you change colors. You do this by first wiping as much paint off the brush with a rag as you possibly can and then inserting the brush into the paint thinner. Not only will this get more oil paints off your brush, but will extend the life of your thinner as well. Swish your paint brush around in the container of paint thinner, then dry it with your clean paint rag.

When the first layer of your flower landscape oil painting creation is finished, wait 48 hours before you start on your second paint application or you're going to end up smearing the work you already did. In the meantime don't leave your oil painting somewhere hot or humid. Make sure that its location will protect it from getting accidently scraped, smooshed, smeared, or touched at all.

Should you have a lot of paint left on the palette and you want to use it when you start your flower landscape oil paintings again, scrape the paint together with your knife. Next put a small amount of paint thinner on a cleam paint rage and use it to clean the rest of your paint palette. Plastic wrap is great for covering the paint that is leftover. Make sure you wrap it tightly though.

It's important as well, that until you start again with your flower landscape oil paintings, that you replace the lid on the container of paint thinner and set it aside, no matter how cloudy it looks. The paint thinner will settle and the pigment that is part of the paint will drop to the bottom of the container.

Clean thinner will settle at the top. The next time you go back to your flower landscape oil paintings you'll only need to pour that top layer of clean paint thinner into a new and clean thinner container, and wipe the pigment off the bottom. You then pour the good paint thinner back into its original thinner container and you're ready to start your flower landscape oil painting project once again.

Painting in Oils

If you've thought about doing oil paintings, here are some basics to get you started.

The first step in your production of oil paintings is to make sure that the area in which you are going to paint is well ventilated. You need a window or door that can be opened as you work, a good fan and a space that is fairly open so air is able to circulate.

If you are going to work on your oil paintings outside you'll have to be able to secure everything so the wind doesn't end up blowing things all over. Keep in mind that bees, and various other insects will flock to your citrus thinner. The first thing to do is put down your drop cloth, your tarp, your plastic bag and so forth. Secure the edges of each by using masking tape. This will keep it from getting bunched up. You're going to set up your oil paintings work area on the drop cloth so make sure the area is roomy enough for your comfort. If you are going to work on your oil paintings with a table easel set up on a table, you'll want to cover the floor below the table top and the place where you will stand or sit.

Before you start painting your oils, don your paint attire - gloves included. You'll need one container that has paint thinner and one container that holds a combination of two parts paint thinner and one part walnut oil. These containers should be about three inches high and two inches around. Each should be filled to the half way mark. You'll need a comfortable set up with an easy reach for your paint palette and knife, your brushes, the two containers, as well as paint rags and tubes.

Now set up the paints you'll use for your oil paintings. If you have a variety of colors, you don't need all of them squeezed out onto your paint palette. Start with just two or three colors. If your choices are only primary colors, then squeeze out onto your palette a dime size spot of cadmium red, yellow and blue. Space them as far from each other on the palette as possible, as if you are putting dots on the three points of a triangle. In the center of this paint triangle squeeze a nickel-size spot of Titanium white oil paint. Next use your knife to mix these colors.

Now you're ready to really start creating your oil paintings.

Tips for Professional Quality Face Painting

Kids of all ages love to have their faces painted (especially the younger ones!), so it's the perfect thing to learn how to do if you have young kids� or you're planning to have a birthday party for your children.

With this in mind, I've prepared a few tips for people just starting out in face painting. Here they are:

1) If you're painting a design that needs a large area to be covered with paint, use a sponge instead of a brush. Why? Because applying the paint with a sponge means it will dry quicker. It's a good idea to have a few sponges set aside if you need to use different colors, because this means you won't have to try and clean the sponge for each color�which would take time.

2) Always let the first color dry before you start painting on a second! If you forget to wait for it to dry, they colors will most likely mix and you're going to have to start from scratch again.

3) Make sure you know what you want the finished face to look like. Don't mak it up as you go along. You need to be able to paint faces rather quickly, as if you have children, you already know that kids aren't always very patient�and they may get bored or restless if you're thinking on what to paint next.

4) If you're not good at painting freehand yet, don't be afraid to use a stencil. You can get stencils of stars, hearts, flowers, and all sorts of things. These are perfect for stencilling onto a cheek. You'll need stencils of different sizes to accommodate different face sizes.

5) If you want something faster than stencilling, why not try temporary tattoos? Make sure the person's skin doesn't react badly to it first, by asking them (or their parents)�or testing it on a small area first.

6) If you have a line of kids ready to have their faces painted, ask them to be thinking about what they would like a few minutes before its actually their turn. You don't want to be delayed while each kid thinks of what he or she would like painted on their face.

7) Remember to have a mirror with you at all times so you can show the person what you have painted, and to make sure they're happy with your work.

8) Professional face paint and stage makeup can be quite expensive, especially if you're planning to paint a lot of faces. You can make your own simple face paint with cheaper ingredients. A quick search on Google will find you plenty of ideas that you can use to make your own face paint with. Bear in mind this won't be as good as the professional face paint, so if you can afford it� I would advice you to get the professional stuff.

These are 8 tips for professional face painting!

Children's Face Painting Designs

Face painting designs are becoming more and more popular these days. It is not only an activity for adults but also for young children. You can have a great time with your friends and other family members by doing face painting. If you want to learn face painting, you should practice often and while you're at it, you should practice on designs that everyone else likes, especially you and your child.

Quarreling and teasing is ordinary among children. If you teach your child to do face painting designs which are not that popular, other children may tease him or her. So to avoid this circumstance, you have to research on the most requested and most popular designs for children face painting.

It would take experience and extensive research to know the different designs that you can use for face painting among children. But that was years ago. Now, you will simply type the keywords that you want to research and you'll get instant results. For instance, you type 'children's face painting designs'. After several seconds, the results will be displayed and you will simply choose a link that will lead you to a certain website that dabbles with the designs you need. By researching online, you will be able to find out the popular designs amongst children and not only that; you can also find designs that suit adults and teens.

You're quite lucky because you don't have to go through extensive research just to find out about the different designs that are available. For little girls, you can do designs like butterfly, princess, fantasy, fairy, bunny rabbit, lady bug, flowers, rainbow, witch, and cat. For little boys, you can do a spider design, monster, tribal, robot, skull, pirate, reptile, tiger, bat, and puppy dog.

Those are just some of the designs that you can use. It may be hard at first because children can't paint accurately. It would greatly help if you can get a copy of the design online. You see, trying to imagine what the design would look like is hard for children. But if they have a reference or basis, they will surely be able to get the detailed features of the design.

There are some websites that allow free downloads of the pictures of the designs and there are also those that charge a small fee. Oftentimes, you can get the best pictures and designs on paid websites rather than the free sites. But if you try to scour the free sites, you might be able to find a design that your child will like. It would also be best if you conduct your research together with your child so that he or she can join in the selection of the design. This will serve as your bonding time and who knows, you can create happy memories together that your child will remember for a lifetime.

The interests of children can change easily so be ready with other beautiful and eye catching designs. But if you're just starting out, you can concentrate first in the first ten most requested designs. If your child can't paint the design alone, you can help him or her. As parents, you should also practice face painting because you can't possibly teach your child something that you don't know yet.

The key to making great face painting designs is practice. So keep practicing and one day, you and your child will be an expert in face painting.