Secret City; 101

Oh. Hi welcome to the secret city. This is a place of fun and fantasy and adventure. I'm Commander Mark. Now today we're going to take in a square and put it on its side. This is called the foreshortened Square. This is one of the magic words will be learning today. I'll tell you more about that little while. We'll take a foreshortened square and turn it into a simple table. And then later we'll add a couple more layers beneath that and it'll turn into a cake. Well add this simple basic idea to our secrets that will make a really intricate secret city building Zip drives here today. And you think it's a basic shapes from around the house and building a three dimensional sculpture some kind of secret building for himself. Also tell you how you can join the Secret City Club today. I knew you wanted to join so I have that information ready for you. And here is what you need for today's show. If you're drawing pad you're drawing pencil in and out to the notebooks you can take some notes on the activity for today. Get those things together and I'll be right back.

Right. So you all fueled up and ready to conquer this flat piece of paper and draw in 3D while loose your hands up and get ready we're going to blast across the paper. You should have your pencils off fueled up and ready to go. Now we're going draw a foreshortened square so take your pencil and put two dots straight across from each other. Right up here and we're going to use your finger as a guide point your finger all loosened up. All right. You can just your whole hand if you want to get ready for this. Take your finger. You ready. OK I'll hand it right in the middle

likely and then put a dot above your finger. Put a dot below your finger. This is how we draw our foreshortened square square lined up taking aim and neatly draw your foreshortened Square. Now let's do one more to warm up with two dots straight across from each other. These are really good warm up activities so whenever you want to start neurons a good idea to do some of these or shorten squares just to get your pencil loose enough in your mind move and get in that creative mode. Connect the dots right here make that for short and square. OK now really just take this for short and square and make a really simple object into a little more complicated one which is the simple table to dive straight across from each other. Put your finger in the middle is a good guide pointed out above and below your finger with your finger and then taking a between the dots. Sure sometimes like making sound effects to make it more exciting for me when I'm drawing these two lines down the side the middle lines longer

slant this to the right. So you match the top line right here slant that to the right match the top line to the left and slant this now this is your table top. When it come in halfway and draw a simple table draw a line there. Draw a line there in the middle line has to come just a little bit lower to make a near corner look closer to you. Make sure the middle line is lower. Connect the bottom here and connect the bottom this is what we call a simple table. This is a super good activity this circle right here. That's a good activity to try to see if you can't complete that 30 seconds. Are you right here because that's super important to get that 30 seconds. As I'm sure many are left so you're Mark. Also John how are you today. I am fine Commander Mark. I have been watching you as you draw your cubes and your squares and I noticed that in my personal space I also have similar shapes. This will give me an idea. Do you mind. Not at all Commander Mark take a look at this. I put these together is it just boxes you have around you painted and that's really creative.

You take these together take a look at that it is built in about two seconds a simple table we drew and I forgot to add shading on the left side all the way down you see how those put together really simple shapes you put them together you can make a complicated one like this. And that reminds me you know on the do's of Trump I'm a see if I can do that in 30 seconds do you mind if you tie me your computer time right. I will tell you Commander Mark Sure is no problem for you. No problem you can use a nice day you know you do draw a square right here. Now you can see if I can do in 30 seconds. Watch you see if you can do in 30 seconds to get your pencil ready. Try to do that simple table in 30 seconds. All right tell us when to go it's only listen up here. All right. Getting nervous the pressure's on. Now I want to hear you tell me when you go if you wait just like here. You never see. OK get ready. Wait a minute are you ready are you sure you're ready. All right I think they're ready. Get ready get set go. OK Don straight across from each other to my finger. Should I panic yet you tell me when I have 10 seconds left so I know right when to start

really panicking and then and then I draw a line here. All right sorry about that. Panic when the pressure is on. It's kind of exciting like a sports event has of Tron 10 more seconds. We don't have a lot to make me more nervous as in cigs. OK it's time for a deal already done here too. One more second time up time up. I'm up. I'm up it's. Can I have one more second thing that this is unfair Commander Mark. Well look at I didn't make it in 30 seconds I bet you if I keep practicing it though if I drop more more I'll be able to do this in 30 seconds. I bet you will too you probably didn't make it the first time so make it the second or third time. You no longer doing it take a simple shape and I can add onto it just like we did for the boxes and put them together. I'm going to add some layers on here I'm going to add a three layer wedding cake. Going to put a dot right below the center right here so you below the corner slanted to the right in this direction. Matching this line and matching this line of I took my pencil line up I slant up in this way. Same thing. Don't rip your paper that I get kind of over excited about when I start

growing like push real hard. Now slanted to the right. Matches this line back here with your pencil you can even line up if you want to dot to the corner behind the corner. Straight down. This is a really good idea for your secret city building right here. Nice and dark. Put a dot right below the middle. Leave a little space not dot super important ifs if you don't put the dot there. Sometimes I even show you right here an example. You know put the dot there sometimes you start too low and you go like this and see how it's kind of distorted it doesn't look like it's for short in the name of the foreshortening So we're trying to learn how to control the day. So I put the dot right below the middle right here. This is an intriguing idea commander. I'm going to go and play with my sheaves. OK. Go and you can put them together and boom together do something really exciting with that sculpture idea. Now bring the two sides down the middle lines longer slant this to the right slant this to the left and we're going to add shading to these eventually put a dot below the center. In fact you know you do that you shade the last two

sections down here by yourself and see if you remember how to shade just the left side foreshortening is that important word to learn today. On the left side all the way across. Left side. Now leave this right here so you can shade the rest. You know when there's an overhang right here try making us a little bit darker and that makes it even look like you regenerate there and really have that recent shot in fact I can even go on the other side over here and do it. And if you have extra time you can put a dot here and add another layer all the way out and back in. Connect the bottom add shading. These are really good layers to practice you can make one about 30 or 40 layers high if you want you'd spend all day on that. Now draw draw draw practice is much you can try drawing it out twenty or thirty minutes a day if you practice that much you'd be really really good. OK the magic or to keep in mind when you're drawing 20 or 30 minutes a day is for shorts. On.

He. I have put all of the shapes in graduated sizes. I have even reversed the whole process. I have put the shapes side by side. John you look so stressed out. Take a deep breath. You're almost OK. This is supposed to be fun as an activity. So now what are you trying to do here. Commander Mark I have been putting these shapes in different locations but Commander Mark I do not know. The most correct way of doing this you know what is a drum the first thing you have to understand this is neat I like that red color as you. There's no right or wrong way to do the sculpture you're trying to do there's no no right or wrong way commanders really not. You just use your imagination the sky is the

limit you can do whatever you want with this. I like that commander. But what do I do. Why don't you try it. OK first of all you only have three shapes there why don't you just get some more shapes put them together and you can even try drawing on the outside or something that is a good idea commander to give you some more ideas. Yes it does commander here where you gather some more shapes together. I'm going to go over here and get everybody how they can join a secret city club. Each week we have a drawing and activity to for you to do. After you complete the activity or the drawing I want you to mail in to me and when you mail the drawing to me you become an automatic member of the Secret City Club. This week's activity is a really practice that simple table draw simple table 10 or 15 times until you can do in 30 seconds and then take that 30 second sample table and add onto it build onto that simple structure. Some wedges or doorways or pipes

or tubes and make it into a secret building and I'll be drawing one later on and put it on the mural and you'll see what a secret building really looks like after it's added on to the picture. I have some samples here of what some students did. They completed the secret city already Thomas for MLA look at he did really elaborate shapes for shortening is used a lot in this one and this is the one he completed for the club activity. I want to show you another one right here. Now this is how Jessica started drawing your house right here. That's how she started her simple secret building before she learned that magic word for short. Take a look at this you see with the next one is. This is Jessica's drawing after she learned for shorts really putting it together. Now the reason I have this drawing club is I want everybody out there who likes to draw he likes using their imagination to put it all together and to join the club. All right so you take this drawing and mail it in to me and become an automatic member of the secrecy club I want to give you

that address at Secret City Club post office box for four for California 9 4 5 5 6. I want you to help me make this drawing club the most popular club around I want to make a secret city club as popular as rock n roll music OK. So send in your drawings as soon as you can. I want to go over here and take a look and see how drawn they're doing on the activity he said he was in the building. You got a lot more ships going on Commander Mark. Commander Mark I have been experimenting with a variety of positions but Commander Marks it still does not look. Anything to me. Well look at your spending on the initial idea and that's the whole point right to take the idea from what we have on the drawing lesson our simple table and to build something underneath this and then you've started this just fine. You move these shapes around and build something in 3-D with it I really like that. Our commander. It does not look like anything to me except a pile of boxes. Well I have an idea you gave me I didn't want to tell you no idea. Not at all going under your creative project though.

But you don't mind if I do something to it. You know Commander I brought a pin with me and this is what I was thinking what if you took one of these shapes. Let's take this yellow for instance. And what happens if you draw a doorway in a window on the side of the Xbox and you put them together and you can actually build a three dimensional secret city and you can draw a three dimensional secret city and you can hear it together somehow are glued together. Should they come in they're going to draw on can we show you here. I'm going to put it on top here so I can draw on a draw a doorway first. Right. So draw an archway. And I'll draw a thickness on the archway and you color the inside in right here. Once you take the pin and color this in right here then add some more detail. She called all that and so looks like they're out shopping or something. Or they went out to the movies tonight the inhabitants of your secret city. This will make all my boxes look like real places. OK. And you can also you can draw a window on top of you want to. Or what are some of the things you can add to it.

Use your imagination the sky is the whole idea is trying to take your imagination just expand it does matter more no less. Commander Mark. I have an idea I will create the landing platform for flying vehicles in the workshop garage. We're going to get that straight you know create a spot for the flying saucers that lands in the repaired area Lang horizon and incorrect. Once you take this pan so you can draw on it and I'm going to go over and show everybody some drawings of kids it completed All right. Now with the secrecy the gallery is a collection of all the drawings that the kids have finished now first of all I want to show you some of these simple table projects that have been turned into me take a look at this this is the big roles hard me to keep it all together. But this is what one girl did Sara. She took a piece of paper and she taped from the go see she made him by 11 piece of paper cut them into strips and she stacked up simple tables and isn't this incredible look at that took a lot of time. You think that took a lot of time. Look at this. She just goes on forever. And she did this

all her spare time and she really got this idea of alignment and shading his objects correctly isn't that nice. I even go slower so you can see the nice simple tables here nice and dark. Now if you decide to do something like this you can use edition tape out of a calculator machine or computer tape in a long roll just make sure you get permission from your parents before you some other paper I don't want to get angry at you for practicing your drawing draw draw and here's another example. This is what Paul did. Paul stack 15 simple tables in a row he started right here and he didn't really like the idea of you know he his line wasn't quite as even as this long line he'd make his middle line longer so he crossed it out I think he had a good start. But this is how he ended up doing started here at the top and he worked his way down. He started running out of room so you know he did. He said Well I'm not going to stop here I've gone too far so I'm going to curve this around in a loop around the side of the paper and that was a real creative way to get out of his problem area. Let's look at another example. Take a look at this is how a melody started drawing nice dots that put her finger in the middle a dot above and below the finger. Also she

shaded it but she didn't come in halfway and so she drew a nice simple table. I mean look at another example here. Here is what Paul did. He started right here at the top and he worked his way down. He made a cartoon character here Harry Joe and he got smaller and smaller did the same thing as the other person did. He didn't want to stop so he just may become smaller and smaller as it came down. Little cartoon there at the bottom. And there's one more this one is really elaborate take a look at what Tony Baker did or Troy Baker he started right here with a foreshortened Square. He added shady and he ran out of room too but he said Forget this I'm not going to stop I'm committed to this whole paper and like this he wound around around around and he made a really nice stack of foreshortened squares and foreshortened bottoms are here to put a dot below it. And he added this line and went around the corner. Excellent work. I want to go and see what the draw is doing on his activity Zab drawn you out of the draw and look at this this semester already. I am very proud of my secrets to see I can't this is just amazing. You just took that idea and you went to town. Commander Mark can I have my pen back.

Do you mind. Not at all Commander. Where did you get all these materials. Commander Mark I collected show boxes and I collected jewelry boxes. I collected food boxes and pieces of wood. I got you collected boxes and tissue paper and to show rolls. Did you get this from your house. No Commander I do not have these things in my house. I got them from your house I think going from mine outside you're going to miles to get it that's OK. Anytime you want to get on activities like this you can do that and you get them from my house the commander and I think I would like to get all those lay shapes bright colors and then I glued them. What you would hear in the guess some would use bubble gum or something to stick them together. Not just high used but I painted them with paint and brush and with spray paint and even with markers and then Commander I drew on all of my boxes. Doors and windows. I delivered and I saw some pillars right here too.

I even drew a flight commander and used for shortening that magic word we're learning today or shortening I this is just amazing. See my energy tower. NC commander my lending area and my power cut off. Now this is wood right here so you don't have to be everything you didn't have to be paper rolls or paper you can use other material tin cans tin foil you can even use glass This is an excellent idea for a three dimensional sculpture actively take a look at that. Now what do you just glue together you the different colors you get different colored construction paper cut out different shapes or I can use construction paper. I use construction paper for my orange cloud and then what else do you do. One more time. Well I painted them and then I glued all the shapes together. The committer Here is an energy bar going across right there cannot you know this is my favorite microphone at a large speaker so I can hear and talk to all the people. By having read the. Minimum of sound effects over here Commander I have a secret passageway. I know it now is a secret anymore. Do not tell

anyone Commander Mark OK what is a troll I want to know anybody. Now I want you to expand on these ideas we're doing with a drawing lesson in you create your own secret universe your own secret city. What I have here is I have a giant neural tube and I love blank pieces of paper like this actually this is a big wall that you use a piece of but your paper if you want to do something like this and I'm going to build a secret city universe I start right here with a moonscape and I'll work on this today and later on every day we learn new words we learn new words of drawing like today was for shortening and I'm use for shortening on the moonscape. Now eventually each day we learn new words and add these new words to the parts the secret city. Like right here I'm going to add a planet scape for the secret city universe and then under planted area and I'll add some material treason and Papaw And so I get all excited about the mirror because it's so much fun and I also add a lot of space station up here and there as more details the moonscape. Now take your notepad and take some notes you

know you don't want to draw along with me on some of these ideas so you can add them when you draw your own secret universe this is one of the fun as activity is to start to do. Now what I'm doing right here is I'm going to add to the bottom layer this is all just like the simple table with the three layer wedding cake and I just added doorways and I added a window and I added an air conditioning unit so the people on the moon won't get too hot. They have to cool them down a bit they have if they work hard to appear on the moon now you can either cut into a building or you can build out. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to build out right here. I'm going to build some kind of scoop so the people can get out of here and they can slide down the scoop and so I'll draw two lines lines up to the right and see they all match. All these lines. It's very important try to keep your lines lined up. Draw this vertical line down draw a line slanted up here. Now remember the sky is the limit for your imagination this is the chance for you to create your own drawing. You take your own imagination with these basic words I'm teaching you and you just go to town and just really have a good time and then draw another vertical line right here.

Another vertical line another vertical line. This gives me all kinds of ideas what I'm going do on the planet scape. On the moonscape I make some craters and maybe some mountains and caves and cliffs and some maybe some moon foliage hanging down here did you know that the moon has bushes on it. And you don't believe me. Now doesn't really but on my moon on the secret universe I'm going to have some trees and some grass maybe there's a need in the oxygen to grow so you can do anything you want in your secret universes year drawing. Use your imagination and just go to town with it I'm going to show you the left side right here all the way out. Now you join along with me. You can if you want you can take this and you can just sketch the little ideas you might not be able to sketch the whole thing that I'm doing but you can maybe get this little idea of how to make a scoop out of a box and then add that onto your secrets if you will if you like the idea. Or you can add some extra detail over here to this dark line but I want to add something I don't like a blank wall. I want something different on there something unique so I'm going to put around window right here.

Another round window in and around like this. Nice and dark inside. Really dark Commander Mark was a draw on the matter. What are you doing. I'm drawing the secret city mirror. This is this is exciting. Turn around you can see the area over here this big blank area looks blank to you right. Yes commander must not be blank for very long because every day I'm going to add something more to the secrecy mirror like today look over here this way. I'm confusing you how am I going to fasten know Commander Marks. I can follow and start with some simple shapes and I'm expanding I'm making a giant secret city building on the moon a moonscape All right. And all add Windows to get to go into the building and you can build out of the building with some scoops. But under that looks just like the structure that I created with my boxes and piece of wood the same idea what you start with some simple shapes using imagination you expand with what we're learning here today. And you put things together you make a three dimensional sculpture. Same idea here's your drawing three dimensional buildings on the paper. So you

have to learn these magic words you can go in all different areas you're going to draw people and draw animals and trees and flowers and birds and fish and insects. But right now we're going to stick with the secret city building because this is so fun and easy to learn how to draw these now. Zentrum want you help me here. Do you want me to build out like right here or do I mean to cut into the building like up here right over here what should I do. Well Commander Mark. How do people get down from the opening to the ground level. That's a good idea. They jump I'm just joking. They need ramps. Commander Mark OK I'll draw around I'm going to show you draw a vertical line. Look at this this is a line slanting up to the right and all these lines line up I'm going to keep doing this throughout the whole city to make sure that my line is right now many ramps do you want I have three doors how many rounds do you want. I think we need three rounds. Commander OK sure you want more you can have 19 if you want. Well I think three will be sufficient. Sure About 20 do you know Commander Mark and I get into silly alright get serious again and get back to my drawing the rounds. I just have so much fun when I start drawing I just go

crazy and draw these lines up here. See I'm making these ramps all lined up and going in the same direction does not look neat when you add on to the side of the building you make a nice corner right here and it comes out. It really looks like a ramp commander. Draw a vertical line. You know what I put a window here so you know put a window there to see his idea a small little window. See I don't like leaving any of these spots empty. Put a window there eventually and I'm going to shade up here. All the way up like this all the way across and down. Then I draw another ramp. See this line right here lines up with all these others slant this down. See it gets smaller and smaller as they go away so I make this part of the ramp a little bit thinner and you can imagine what this is going to look like after awhile Hi-Fi got this elaborate just with the moonscape look how much room I get a fill up is exciting every day and I add something more to the secret city building and then add shading here.

I'm all yours if you're a star I don't need to get distracted you know you're a fun person to draw is a draw on. Thank you Commander. You were also fun. You do such a good state you pick up all these ideas real fast. Now remember to draw draw draw practice sure draw and memorize said Try drawing 20 or 30 minutes every day and pretty soon your secret universe a look even better than mine. OK remember the magic word foreshortening and I'll see you next time. I have tried to take this right here what you tried to do. Commander Marks says anyone can learn how to draw and Maryland Public Television now offers a 72 page book learning to draw with Commander Mark. It's full of drawings and illustrations of the seven magic words of the 22 special aren't words and tells how to

start a local secret city drawing club. The kid also has three nontoxic commander markers a secret city drawing pad drawing pencil commander eradicator and official secret city club membership card sent eleven ninety five check or a money order payable to Secret City kit. Post office box for four for Morocco California 9 4 5 5 6. California residents add 6 percent sales tax. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.