• 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!

    The 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 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...
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    Euclid, the Man who invented Geometry
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    Ginger

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    Click to see my channel

    I can not believe it’s been five years since I made and posted my first video on YouTube. It has been an extraordinary time – as extraordinary as I predicted when I began. I knew the digital revolution had finally arrived and it was time to climb on board. I had an old videocassette camera which I stuck on a tripod, pointed down at my drawing paper. I pressed the record buttin and started drawing!

    MyFirstYouTubeVideo

    Click to see my first video

    I was frustrated by the lack of drawing in schools since the introduction of the National Curriculum – I still am – so I made a simple video about how to use pencils, introducing my character, the Ginger Ninja. You can see it by clicking the picture or this link.

    I think I did quite a good job! It took me a year to get a thousand views of that video. My last video reached over a thousand views overnight!

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    Click to see my NextUp video

    I knew very little about making and editing videos then – I know an awful lot more now, mainly thanks to your help and the help of my viewers who voted for me to win the prestigious YouTube NextUp Europe competition. The prize money let me buy new equipment and bought me time to try out new things.

    I also had a week at Google headquarters with the other amazing winners, learning how to make videos, edit them and run a successful channel. Click the the picture, or this link, to see the fun video I made during that week.

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    Click to see drawstuffrealeasy

    My first channel has now received nearly eleven million video views and over 50 thousand subscribers! Not content with that, I began another channel, DrawStuffRealEasy making shorter, easier videos, which now has over 5 million views and over 30 thousand subscribers.

    I’m now changing the style of those videos. I’ve gone back to basics. Each new video will be accompanied by a step-by-step downloadable sheet on my website – get the first one here! – which will eventually add up to make my first DrawStuffRealEasy how-to-draw book.

    What about the next five years? I honestly don’t know. After five years I feel it’s time to freshen things up. There are many other people doing drawing videos on YouTube now, so I need to make my channel a bit more individual. It will be more about drawing than how to draw this or that. I’ll continue doing that kind of video on Drawstuffrealeasy.

    The ShooRaynerDrawing channel will be more about drawing, drawing materials, illustration and story, because that’s what I’m most interested in. It might turn more into a video blog, who knows?

    You can see the video that starts the next five years here or by clicking the picture.

    Many thanks for all your support in the past and I hope you will stay watching for the next five years – who knows, my videos might be in 3D holographic style!

    If you think this email will be of interest to a friend, please don’t hesitate to send it on.

    Until next time, Keep drawing and reading!

    Shoo Rayner

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  • rotring800penYou know how much I love rOtring tikky graphic pens? Well, rOtring have noticed and have sent me a rOtring 800 mechanical pencil to try – and it is gorgeous! It’s the top of their range, so its for a serious artist or draughtsman or maybe a gift for the artist/draughtsman who has everything! But let’s unbox it and see what it’s like.

    First of all it’s very black! A really deep matt black with a perfect weight and balance. The tip and end are lovely, shiny gold , the end has the traditional red ring inlayed in to it. (rOtring means red ring!)

    The barrel is the same thickness and feel of a traditional wooden pencil but it just feels like… well high quality engineering in your hand – a real pleasure to hold!

    The drawing end is retracted into the barrel, so you can feel confident putting it in your pocket without stabbing yourself or ruining your clothes. A simple turn off the end of the barrel and out pops the drawing tip, in lovely, matching, shiny gold.

    I would worry that a retractable tip might feel a bit wobbly, but no, this feels rock solid when drawing. The Barrel holds spare hi polymer leads so you are unlikely to run out of graphite on a sketching trip or when making notes and designs about your latest project.

    With such high quality comes a price tag, but if you are spend half your life with the same thing in your hand, it might as well be beautiful as well as perfectly designed for the job.

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