Children's Book Illustrator Bob Ostrom at the Athens Drive Public Library in Raleigh

I had a great time last week visiting the Athens Drive Public Library in Raleigh. We had an enormous turn out with lots of super talented young artists attending. We had a ball drawing Big Foot, a cat, a dog named Jack and lots of other fun things. We also played a few drawing games and I even stumped the crowd with my Guess What We’re Going to Draw game.

If you missed me at Athens Drive don’t worry I will be adding lots more appearances and classes in the coming months. If you would like me to come to your school or library please let me know by filling in the handy form below and I will do my best to add you to the line up. If you are interested in taking one of my classes just check the add me to your mailing list box and I will send you my class schedule.
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It’s amazing the things you learn when you teach. Sitting down and preparing a 3 hour lesson twice a week is a much larger task then I had imagined. Running through my lessons plans I quickly realized that even with my experience I am only using a very small portion of the program. Each of my students had different requirements. Some wanted to learn design, some were interested in illustration, and I even had a few printers who wanted to learn the program. So with all these different needs I was forced to stretch a little and learn new things in order to present lesson plans that would allow each of the students to understand the program in the way they intended to use it. This was great for the students as well and allowed them a much broader view of what CS5 can really do.

Art by Neil Castle - Adobe Illustrator CS5 2 Wake Tech Community College

At the end of each session students are required to hand in a final assignment. I’ve only taught two Illustrator classes so far but I’ve been totally blown away by these projects. Here is an example of what one of my students from my Illustrator 2 class was able to produce using 3D effects and the mesh tool (along with a few other little things). I think you’ll agree that not only is he an amazingly talented artist but that Illustrator CS5 has come a mighty long way since 1996 when I first started to use it.

If you are interested in this class or my Adobe InDesign class please visit the Wake Tech website at http://wechtech.edu or use this link : http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/84e8fcea (My classes are at the Western campus).

Here’s the write up. Hope to see you there….

Children’s Book Illustration- For Adults

LOCATION: Jerry’s Artarama
Holly Park Shopping Center
3060 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh, NC 27609

TIME: 10AM-4PM
DATES: January 29th or April 9th.

Sometimes all it takes is just a little push to make great things happen. Sometimes all it takes is a class like this. It’s time to grab that old manuscript, dust off your sketches and breath some life back into that children’s book project you’ve been wanting to get to for so long. This class will focus on getting your project off the ground and leaving you with a step by step plan to help you follow your project through to completion.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: Please have a manuscript to work from.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS: Please bring in your dream project …(whatever state of completion it’s in)

CLASS CURRICULUM
Part One – Share your dream.

• Introduce yourself and your project
• Show your art/ or discuss your project
• Discuss ideas for improvement

Part Two -Action Steps

• What will it take to get your project ready for presentation
• Create a list of action step to make it happen
• Create a time line

Part Three – Getting to work

• Thumbnail sketches
• Begin work on a dummy

Bio:Bob Ostrom has been illustrating children’s books for the past 20 years. His art has been featured in over 200 children’s books and publications. He has worked with companies like Cartoon Network, Disney, Nickelodeon, Simon and Schuster, Random house to name a few. The only thing Bob enjoys more then illustrating children’s books is inspiring artists to follow their dream of becoming a children’s book illustrator.

Jerry’s Artarama
Holly Park Shopping Center
3060 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh, NC 27609




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If you haven’t heard of START yet you can find more info on them other at the START site. START stands for Stop Thinking Art is Really Tough. It’s a great way to introduce people to art. If you’ve never taken an art class before or would like to learn something new this is the place. The instructors are top notch. The classes are offered in a ton of different locations and best of all they are only 30 bucks … supplies included.

I currently have 3 classes set up in January with more on the way. I will be teaching at Jerry’s Artarama in Raleigh but hope to be adding a few new locations soon.

Here is a list of my classes:

Cartooning for Kids (ages 7-10) (Moms and Dads and invited too)
S.T.A.R.T
Location: Jerry’s Artarama
Holly Park Shopping Center
3060 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh NC, 27609
Time and Date – January 10, 2011 / 3:30pm – 5:30pm

Cartooning for Youngsters (ages 5-8)
S.T.A.R.T
Location: Jerry’s Artarama
Holly Park Shopping Center
3060 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh NC, 27609
Time and Date – January 17, 2011 3:30pm – 5:30pm

Cartooning for Big Kids (ages 12 and up)
S.T.A.R.T
Location: Jerry’s Artarama
Holly Park Shopping Center
3060 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh NC, 27609
Time and Date – January 24, 2011 / 3:30pm – 5:30pm

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, clear gel medium, sand and glitter.

It’s a great little project. Super fun, super affordable…and I’m hooked. Here how it works. First we sketch our creature 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 painting it’s time to add some texture.

I added clear gel medium to the bottom of this canvas everywhere where I wanted the sand to be . The trick is to really lay it on there 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 to remove the excess. Any where 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 translucent white but dries clear so its easy to see what you’re doing. Once it’s dried you can outline you character using a sharpie permanent marker and it looks fantastic. You can really get creative with a project like this. I highly recommend it for kids 5 and up.

One word of caution. Acrylic paint and sharpie markers do not wash out of clothing so make sure you wear something old or cover up with a smock. Have fun.

If you were (or are) an art student what topics would interest you most?

Trading cards make great holiday gifts

So have you seen these artist trading cards that have become quite the rage. All the kids are talking about them. If you’re not familiar with the  concept, here’s the idea… they are basically just a  2  1/2″ X 3  1/2″ piece of paper or board that an artist uses to create an original piece of art. Some artist sell them, others create them to trade or give away. They have become very popular lately.

Srathmore has really stepped up to the plate by offering all kinds of accessories to go with them. First of all the make the 2  1/2″ X 3  1/2″ cards in just about any kind of paper or board you can think of. They also make polypropylene sleeves you can use to protect your original art with. They make pre-cut matted frames to show off the finished cards as well as archival boxes for storage. My accessory is the 2  3/4″ by 3  3/4″ envelopes they make so you can mail them to your buds.

Since these have become so popular lately I thought I’d ask the kind folks at Jerry’s Artarama in Raleigh if I could offer a free art demo in the store featuring the cards. They agreed and so we put together a fun little demo where folks could come in, sit down with me and make their own cards . We scheduled it for November 21. The turn out was great, I met a bunch of terrific artists of all ages and we all had a blast. Here are a few of the cards by me and some of the fantastic artists who stopped by.

[View with PicLens]

If you think these cards are as cool as I do please be sure to come check out the Super official Bob Ostrom Studio Art Card Making class. It starts December 15th from 4-6pm  at Jerry’s Artarama in Raleigh where we will create a bunch more trading cards. This class is for students 5 and up. For more details please check out the Jerry’s site.

…Don’t forget artist trading cards make great holiday gifts too.