Category Archives: Artwork

Drawings for Sale

My need for glasses(edited as my first comment pointed out I spelled classes, oops9-14) has been verified. I have an astigmatism in both eyes brought on by age. The right eye is significantly worse than the left. I am looking forward to getting a pair so I can see again!

During my blurry time I have drawn a couple of small pieces, trading card size. New work for my etsy shops, Biology Class and Critters. Can you tell which goes to which shop?

Quote Quiz: mouthed behind a folder “what is that?”


currently watching: Mad Men Season 3 ep 3

Trying Out All Lanes

Hello September! Time to start back up with the blog and a new schedule. This week my son started preschool Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which means I have 6 hours two days a week where I can work during the day. So far I have just done some cleaning and catching up. There were many emails that had lingered in my inbox for weeks and papers had gathered since I had design work that took up the last two weeks of August.

August was a strange month with new plans for moving forward. One of my directions is writing YA. I am not surprised this has poured out of me, I have always read YA and been inspired by the authors I have heard speak on the subject. Another direction is making full illustrations with sculpey. My first approach is very detailed models of my current characters, the three boys. Here are pictures of them so far.



After the first character I was asked to take pictures of the process. Here are three pictures of the process for boy 2.

When I had reached this point with boy 2 I lost part of my vision. I can see but my right eye is very blurred to the extent of causing mild double vision. I am able to work but it makes small details frustrating. Thankfully my left eye is unharmed. My right eye problems are due to a chalayzion which, should go away with time. For now it is causing an astigmatism. My next appointment is Tuesday to see where I am at and if I will need glasses. No matter what happens my vision should be fully restored soon. I am looking forward to working with both eyes again.

I did finish boy 2 during the eye problems; it doesn’t keep me from working.


However, I did take a break from creating more illustrations. Two weeks of design work showed up just as my eye was reaching a peak in blurriness and it gave me a good chance to rest my eye to help it heal.

Now that my eye is on the mend and I have new time I am picking up where I left off. The third part of my plans from August was to fully explore the three methods I use to illustrate, trying out all the lanes and picking one. Whatever I pick will help me build a new portfolio. I am excited to see how my art grows from this exercise.


Quote Quiz: “You are always preparing, just go!”

currently reading: friend’s manuscript
currently watching: Mad Men: Season 2 ep. 4

Black and White

It’s long overdue that I added some black and white art to my portfolio. I have been trying to get to a couple of black and white follow up pieces to my cover of The Dark is Rising from the NESCBWI Poster Showcase, since May. Any repeat viewers notice a change to my cover? I finally got two down. Although, I am probably going to make a quick change to the image of the rider, hopefully tomorrow before I fly to LA. (If you see my portfolio page after 3pm tomorrow the change is most likely made.)

Drawing in black & white turns out to be a source of joy. I had so much fun working on this that I lost all track of time and stayed awake much too late. I point the finger at the brush pen for opening up this new love. Once I am back from LA I am planning to draw more.

Yes I am going to the SCBWI National LA conference. I can’t believe it, I am so nervous. Well, I’m not nervous of being there. I am looking forward to being at a conference just as myself and not responsible for planning or presenters. This is not a complaint about working a conference, I do love that too. However, for this big conference I appreciate not having that added pressure. So, the nervousness I am wrangling is my travel anxiety. I don’t know if others of you out there get this but, I get it bad. I had a terrible time eating dinner and that was a full 24 hours before I even leave to get on my flight. I’m not afraid of flying; I worry about missing my flight or delays or the general discomfort of being too much in other people’s space for hours. I wouldn’t want to miss out on the grand adventure of LA so, I do what I can to get past it. Hopefully as I continue to challenge myself by traveling it will get better and better.

LA should be a blast! I love that a meet and greet is planned with us all in comfy pajamas. I am looking forward to meeting all the people I have only spoken with online. Be sure to come up and say hi!

—

I feel like mixing things up! I always loved playing the quote game (guess what movie this quote is from) in the car with my Dad on car trips. We watched a lot of movies so it was fun trying to find the most obscure quote possible to try to stump each other. I still love to play so I’m bringing it to the blog. For the people that come back regularly. Over the course of a season, every three months, you can earn points via a guessing game. I will leave a movie quote at the end of my blog posts and whoever leaves a comment with the correct movie title first gets 5pts. After three months I will tally the points and whoever has the most gets a free print. First quote:

“Why are you wearing these clothes?”
“Because I’ve lost my clothes”
“But why are you wearing these clothes?”
“Because I just went gay all of a sudden!”


Currently Reading: Standard Hero Behavior by John David Anderson
Currently Watching: Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Flying Bike

I am trying to juggle a lot of projects right now. Somehow this week got very busy! I love busy, it keeps me on my toes and sometimes I think it actually helps me to be more productive. However, it is putting my timing off for the blog, as you regular readers probably noticed yesterday!

A piece of kids is still owed but I thought I would throw in something a little different first. A friend of mine, eHawk was making an awesome piece of art for a fundraiser with the theme Flying Bikes. It sounded like such a fun theme and I like the cause so I offered to donate a piece of art too.

currently watching : Make it or Break it season 1
currently reading: Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings

Boys Being Silly

I am working on a new promo piece. I finished the final image for the front and I started a sketch for the back of the card. The back of the card unfortunately really doesn’t match the front or story. But, why else have a blog! To show the failures that are still fun.

And here is the final for the front:

Matt’s Choice

Every night my husband tells me “make more art that you are proud of”. I find as an artist I am the cliché, never completely happy with my own work. Always wanting it to be better, too close to the situation to see the continuity. This is not to say I don’t believe in my work or think it is marketable, I just am constantly wanting improvement. However, I have recently been happy with my work!

I sunk into a routine of spending any moment free making art. Apart from the large number of sculpey creatures I made, I also completed a series of pieces from The Life of Pi. The first two pieces can be seen here. Now, here is the third.

I am very happy to be able to add this series to my portfolio. Just in time for the NESCBWI conference this coming weekend. Ready for my portfolio review Friday and my web critique Sunday. The website critique is through the Advanced Illustrator Academy. I am happy to have helped organize this Academy which, will include illustrators Dani Jones and John Lechner, designer Kerry Martin, and agentNicole Tugeau. It should be a stupendous session! I look forward to seeing friends and meeting people that I have been talking with through twitter. Make sure you stop and say hi!

Re-cap — Somerville Open Studios

What a weekend and then week following. Nothing happened this week but, I have felt burnt out and all over the place. Honestly I still feel like I am out of sorts but, it’s time to reign this in and get back to a normal schedule.

What did I do this week? I gardened: prepping my seedlings for life outside, potted some yard violets, and went shopping at Mahoney’s as my Mother’s Day gift to myself. I purchased a plant that I am going to try to bonsai and I got information on how to take care of my venus fly trap; since, it has taken a hit on its new growth.

Then I spent the rest of my time watching How I Met Your Mother and perusing etsy. It has been ridiculous, I didn’t even update my shop! Today that stops. Back on the blog ready to update and get back to work.

Although, one last silly thought, I have gotten from How I Met Your Mother. If you had a tape/cd stuck in your car and it only played one song over and over,  what song could you handle that being? I choose Parklife by Blur.

Anyway, Somerville Open Studios went excellently! Thank you to everyone who came by and supported me and Seth! We had a wonderful turn out and many of our items found new homes. In fact to celebrate the success, spring and, being back I am going to do a give away! One of my critters from the drawers will be the item up for grabs. I need to post new pictures of which critters are left; once I have that I will make an official post about the giveaway.

Until then, a fun thing that happened while I sat awaiting visitors last weekend was a I started filling a sketchbook with brush pen drawings of my critters. The style is different from how I have usually draw but, I like that inspiration is coming to my sketchbook from my sculpting. I don’t know that I will take this style to a portfolio level but, I certainly enjoy it and it helps to fuel me creatively for my usual drawing style. There is a part of me that dreams of making a side B to my portfolio filled with items like these.



For those of you coming to my blog from the kidlitart tweet chat last night you remember our discussion was on style, how you develop/find your own style. I agree that it takes years of practice, drawing enough that a consistent look comes out of you. What do you think of this? A totally different technique has sprouted out of me. Do I make side B? If I leave this on the level of my etsy shop, would you prefer me to have a separate shop for my critters verses having them together with my letter and animal paintings? Or as it was mentioned am I too close to myself and don’t see how these relate to my other work? Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated! Of course these questions are also directed at myself, this is me letting you all in on my current thoughts.

Hope you all enjoy hearing about my silly week, thank you for stopping by!

Work for Somerville Open Studios

With just a few days left before open studios I am wrapping up my final preparations. I unfortunately caught a flu; so, I lost out on some work time but, I am catching back up and should be totally well by the weekend.

I will be at 45 Laurel St. Apt #2 Somerville, MA – #69 on the SOS map

Here is a preview of some of the pieces I will be selling this weekend. If you can’t make it anything not sold will be posted to my etsy shop.

 

Then, another downloadable coloring page. The whole coloring book will be available at SOS.

The Pacific

Lately there has been a focus on the Pacific in the world and at my home. The weekend the Quake and Tsunami hit Japan, Matt and I were listening to the Life of Pi on our drive to Rochester. This was my second time listening to it and I was taken away again. The Life of Pi is on my favorite books list; it blew me away. I had no idea what was coming. If you decide to read it I highly recommend the audio book, thanks Melinda for recommending that to me.

Upon my second listening I decided to move forward with my decision to illustrate 3 scenes that stuck in my mind. This is also my Husband’s Choice for the present as I have a show and a conference coming up in May. With his encouragement I am working to make new work to sale or donate and to update my portfolio. (yes there are only 2 of 3, the third composition is too similar to the first. it’s still in sketch stage)

With the many things happening across the world, I’m glad to say there are many groups sending whatever help they can including Kidlit4Japan There are some wonderful items up for auction. Check it out and bid as generously as you can. We are thinking and hoping for the people of Japan. Let there be more people this brave.

New Shop!

All right, things have been going on in my life and I have to admit they are completely disrupting my regular scheduling. I am still getting things done and am making work; it is just all coming out on it’s own time. Hopefully next week will be a bit more normal and there will begin a new series of Husband’s Choice. I apologize for the break in the usual programming.

However, new things are here! I had a wonderful commission from a friend, 6 of my specimens! As it was left completely up to me on what to make I wanted to give her options to choose from. This left me with 7 new cuddlies to sale.

For a while I have been thinking of making the step to have a separate shop for my specimens. I believe these cuddlies don’t fit in well with my CaseyGirard etsy store. I think when the letters or even the other cuddlies are what brings you the shop and then you see the specimens they are off putting. So, to give them some proper space I have opened up Biology Class my new shop just for the specimens and any other strange creations that come about.

Here are the others that will be going up for sale throughout the week:

Yes the two not in vials are now and will sell in vials.