Tag Archives: ibooks

Drawing the Ginger Ninja

It is almost five years since I made my first Video on YouTube. I set up a camera on a tripod and stuck a couple of lights onto it, hoping to increase the light levels, but the lights fell off half way through, much to everyone’s amusement. It never crossed my mind to edit or reshoot!. I’ve learned a lot about lighting and white balance since then!

GingerBlockAdThe video was about how to use pencils and I showed how to draw the Ginger Ninja.It took me a year to gain 1000 views on that video. Now I sometimes do that in a day. Ginger is still the book that people remember me for best. If you have an iPad, you can get the first three books on the ibooks store and you can also get a free Ginger Ninja story if you sign up for my newsletter – add your name an email on the box on the left hand side of the page.

If you click the image below, you will be taken to the original 1999 Flash animated website – it’s still a lot of fun!

I was asked once to give a talk in assembly at a school. As an afterthought, the head mentioned that it was Maths week. I had just come across Godel’s incompleteness theory which star (putting it simply) you can’t get all the answers using one mathematical system. It made me think about the way I draw Ginger and Tiddles. They are such different characters. Ginger is simple and based on Euclidian Geometry he is all circles, ellipses and tangents and angles. His fur pattern is simple because he combs it every day! His character is nice and happy and uncomplicated too.

Tiddles, on the other hand is a wild, mixed-up bully. I draw him entirely differently. He could be created out of Chaos Theory! I also draw him a lot faster.

As with all things, there is a middle way. When Ginger and Tiddles become friends (What!? Spoiler Alert!) Tiddles calms down. He’s still drawn quickly but in a less hectic sort of way.

I think that session in the school assembly confused a lot of people! But is made me think more about Euclid and how learning geometry has changed – children don’t get to construct complex shapes because health and safety worries over the sharp point od compasses. This led be directly to making my Euclid videos and eventually the book and iPad iBook.

More info...

More info…

Euclid, the Man who invented Geometry
[add_to_cart item=”euclid” quantity=”user:1″ ]

Ginger

Fabulous review for Euclid – ipad edition

I had a Fabulous review for euclid yesterday, from Ginny Steele, a teacher in Ontario, I just had to share it with you! You can get the ipad version here or you can get the paper book version here

Intro to geometry for primary kids

I was so impressed with the sample pages I bought this book immediately and whizzed through it. This book helps refresh those of us who did geometry a LONG time ago, and puts everything simply enough that you can use it to help your kids learn it too.

The videos are superb instruction in how to construct shapes using a pencil, compass and ruler and bisect lines and angles. All of which is coming for your child in school, so it helps if YOU know how to do it. The great thing about the videos is that your child can select the chapter relevant to their current topic of study, use the video to follow step by step, pause, play and go again as necessary.

The jokes are enjoyably cheesy, perfect for a primary school audience, the comic-book character illustrations and simple animations attractively add to the text and I enjoyed the overall look of the book, which does NOT feel at all ‘textbookish’, but instead manages to get across all the important stuff in a fun story style. At the end of each short chapter is a 3-question quiz designed to point children to the right answers, and if they get it wrong, they can keep checking till they find the right answer. It feels very low pressure and I think children will enjoy it.

Cleverly done, and thank you for creating this book, Mr Rayner.

I highly recommend this book

iTunes Front Page

I’m indebted to writer and illustrator, Mark Burgess, for noticing that The Ginger Ninja is on the front page of the iTunes store today!

What a thrill and an honour! And look at the company that he’s keeping! Charlie and Lola, Harry and his dinosaurs and Elmer – that’s a pretty great list to be along side. If you would like to get a copy for your iPad, then here’s the link http://bit.ly/TheGingerNinja