Category Archives: Sumico Net Blog

Art with Kids, Books, Sumico Net Blog

Making Japanese Paper Doll Puppets

Japanese Dolls
Japanese Paper Hina Dolls (Sumico Net Original)

March 3 is Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival or Girls’ Festival) in Japan, when people pray for the happiness and healthy growth of girls.

The family who has daughters place the doll set for this festival.

Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (雛人形, hina-ningyō) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.  (from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinamatsuri)

I made these dolls for my son’s class (year 1) and I will show the kids how to make Japanese dolls next week.  I thought that it would be a good post for people who are interested in Japanese culture.

You can download the template and try to make ones.

>>Download Japanese Doll Template (Note: Sorry, but  it is not the best resolution)

It is hard to buy the Chiyogami (Japanese paper with patterns) here in Australia, so I used the patterns from the book called “Kyochiyogami to Wa no Monyo Selection” (ISBN978-4-8843-2522-2 by Impress Japan Corporation.

Materials for Hina dolls
Materials: Download the template, coloured papers, sticks
Hina Dolls Parts
Cut out of the Hina Dolls parts, and glue the hair on the face
Hina Doll assemble 1
Fold left side of Kimono
Hina Doll assemble 2
Fold the right side of the kimono
Hina Doll Assemble 3
Fold the bottom parts to the back and finish!
Wano Monyo Collection
Book by Impress Japan ISBN978-4-8443-2522-2

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Read another popular kids activity -Marbling with Shaving Cream

Arts, Sumico Net Blog, Web Design

Web Review: Art Project powered by Google

Google Art ProjectArt Project powered by Google
 http://www.googleartproject.com/

Google recently launched the Art Project which allows you to visit museums and art galleries in the world online.

You can see the details of art works.  I was looking at the Gogh’s work and I was amazed to see how Gogh uses paints and brushes!

The website offers a function like Google Map street’ view. It allows you to see the inside of the museums or art galleries as you feel like you are walking inside and viewing the artworks.

It contains information of facilities, floor plans, locations, history, and description of the artworks. The floor plan shows you which art works are in the particular gallery room, etc. I was so impressed how much details this project displays.

Sleeping GypsyI like the way that I can zoom into the art work and can see the details of the brush stroke, paints, and colours.  It is a fantastic website.

This is one of my favourite art work “Sleeping Gypsy” by Henri Rousseau at MoMa in NY.  I have seen the real one in NY once and I really loved it. I am very happy to be able to see it online and zooming in to see the details.

I can see those wonderful art works any time when I want it.

Isn’t it great?

Google’s Art project will be an excellent way of showing the greatest arts to adults and kids.

Art with Kids, Light Art, Photography, Sumico Net Blog

Light Arts by LED Colour Lights

I would like to share my experiments about the light arts. I have been trying using different kind of lights.

In the last post, we used Fire Sparkles. This time, I would like to show you the effects by LED colour lights.

The first image was used blue, red and white LED lights.  My son moved the lights and I took the photo with slow shutter.

I found these colour LED lights at $2 for three at the shop near my home.

My son wanted to buy them to put on his fingers to be like a super hero.

I wondered what kind of effects that we can see using different colours of lights with slow shutter shot and you can see the effects below.

Camera Setting:  Manual Setting – Speed – Slowest with my camera 8 sec.  F6.4. Self timer.

Red Light ArtRed Light Art HeartBlue Light ArtLED lights, red, blue, white

Graphic Design, Sumico Net Blog, Sumico Net News

Graphic Design: Free Valentine’s Card

I illustrated the heart for the Valentine’s Day.

I used the Swirls from the book called “Flowers Materials by Haut Dessins”.

This Valentine’s card is free to download. Click here to download (pdf file).

The size of this artwork is 182x129mm.  It can fit into the A4. I drew the outline of the size of the card, so you can cut off along the line.

The card should be folded in the half, so a half of the heart on the front and other half should be at the back.

Enjoy!

Art with Kids, Light Art, Photography, Sumico Net Blog

Light Arts : LED White light

I would like to show the light art using a LED flash light.

You may have better effects if you cover your flashlight with a bubble wrap. It helps to make the light’s line clearer and sharper.

I took these photos and wrote the letters by myself.  I took the photos for each letter and put the letters together later.

Light Art Sad Face I tried to draw smiley face, however, it came out as a sad face….

I should have turned the light off when I finish one line and turn the light on again for a new line.

I had only 8 seconds to draw because it was the maximum time that I could set with my compact camera. I did not have enough time to draw something more complex.

If you can set the shutter speed slower like 15 seconds or something, you can draw something more interesting.

Materials: Flashlight, Bubble Wrap, and Camera

Camera Setting:  Manual Setting – Speed – Slowest with my camera 8 sec.  F6.4. Self timer.

I asked kids to draw letters. It should be read as “Earth”.  It was a bit difficult for little kids to draw  mirror letters.  It would be much easier for kids over 10 year old.

Have fun!

Art with Kids, Sumico Net Blog

Kids Art: Marbling with Shaving Cream

Art with Kids, Shaving Cream Swirl I would like to share some ideas of the arts with kids.

Today, I would like to show you one of my son’s favourite –  Marbling with Shaving Cream.  We have tried this when he was four.

It is very easy and effective. Kids can have lots of fun.

You can teach kids how to mix the colour to make other colour;  yellow and blue turn to green, blue and red turn to purple, yellow and red turn to orange and if you mix many colours, everything turns to brown…

Materials: Baking tray, Foil, Shaving Cream, a Bamboo stick or fine thin stick, Food colouring (I use primary colours such as blue, yellow, red but any colour would be good), A4 paper

 

Step 1.  I cover the area with a plastic table cloth which you can buy 2 dollars shop in Australia at $2.

Step2.  Cover the baking tray with foil and place in the centre of the table cloth.

Step3.  Ask kids to spray the shaving foam into the baking tray. (Kids love this) – You can do it if you think that the kid is too small.

Step4. Drop some food colouring into the tay.  Pick up the bamboo stick and stir. Ask kid to change directions.

Step 5. When you and your kid satisfied with the marbling, take a sheet of A4 copy paper and place over the top of the marbling.  Press the paper gently and take it off. You can see the marbling on the paper.

 

 
Step 6. Add another colour of food colouring and start mixing with the bamboo stick.

Step. 7 Fold A4 paper into half and place the paper on the top of marbling.  Take the paper off from the tray and fold inside to have mirror image on the paper. You can draw butterfly after it dried.

You can let kids to use their hands. Kids love it doing with the hands too.

It will take a while for the papers to dry.  After they dried, we use them for wrapping papers and greeting cards.

Enjoy :)

 

 

Fairyland I keep some marbling images for texture.

This is what I created with one of the swirl images for a fairyland.

Read another popular kids activity -Making Japanese Paper Dolls

Graphic Design, Sumico Net Blog, Sumico Net News

Graphic Design with Photography and Typography

Graphic Design with Photography and Typo Graphy
Graphic Design with Photography and Typo Graphy

I played with the photography and typography.

This is called “Identity”.  I created this one as a memory of my son’s 5-6 year old. What he likes and what he says often during this age. Click the image to see a larger image.

I cut off the image and changed to Grayscale. Then I typed the words around the image.

I merged the layer, and changed the image from greyscale to CMYK for printing purposes, then applied Gradient Overlay Layer style.

Web Design

Web Review: A4 Orikata

I was born and brought up in Japan.  I left there 20 years ago, but still I have special place for my home country Japan and its culture. I like subtle but detailed things that Japanese culture offer.

Packaging, folding papers…  Origami is one of the traditional culture in Japan.

A4 Orikata is the website which displays one of the beautiful Japanese culture. If you click the second button on the left, you can see thumbnail images, if you click one of them, you can download the papers and how to fold it.

We use these small envelopes to place the money to give, or use as a letters.

I like this web design because it is simple and minimal but you can see the details, and this website is showing the beauty of Japanese culture.

http://www.a4orikata.jp/

Books

Book Reviews: Flowers (Graphic Materials)

Flowers Maetrials by Haut DessinsI went to Japan last October.  One of the things that I miss in Japan is Book Stores.

There are some big book stores and thousand different kind of books you can find there.  I wish I could spend more time and more money there, but I had only limited time and money.

I would like to share the books which are related to design.

One of the books that I found useful was the book called “Flowers” by Haut Dessins and published by Soft Bank Creative.

It is very handy to have images that you can use for the work at hand, because it takes some time when you do hand drawing.  It comes with a DVD and images are eps, jpg or png, so you can use them for web and prints.

In Brisbane, there are very limited book stores available and I have not seen these kind of material books as yet.

You can purchase the book through amazon Japan, but it cost a bit for shipping.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4797358424

Web Design

Web Review : Manga News

In Japan, Manga, Comic books are very popular.

When you visit Japan, you would be surprised how many comic books are available at the bookshop and how many people are reading comic books in Japan.

Many publisher launched “How to” books with Manga, because those type of the books are using more friendly approach than normal text books. It appears to me those books with Manga can describe more details and help to understand the contents.

For some people like me, the news about Politics, or International affairs are little bit difficult to understand.  Now an Internet News Manga Website was launched in Japan. I have read a couple of news and I was amazed how easy to understand than reading texts news.  It may not be suitable for the news headlines, because it does not give you a strong impact that some photographic images do, however it is easy to grasp the contents.

The one that I have downloaded from the web site is a story about the Brisbane Flood.  It is surely easy to understand and help the readers to remember what is going on visually, I think.

I realised that there are more Manga workshop are held in Brisbane where I live. One day, we may see the similar thing in Australia?

Have a look at the news here http://newsmanga.com

Art with Kids, Light Art, Photography, Sumico Net Blog

Light Art: Happy New Year 2011

Hi, I would like to share an idea of Light arts with sparkles.

I have been trying and comparing the effects of the Light Arts with using different kind of lights.  I think that the Sparkles are the best so far.

I will introduce you different type of lights what I have used in the past in the near future.

You do not have to have a special camera to achieve this light art.

Camera: Fuji Film FinePix F70 (Compact Camera)

Camera Setting:  Manual Setting – Speed – Slowest with my camera 8 sec.  F6.4.

Enjoy!