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!

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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

All of the Top Ten

I finally finished sketch cards of all of the top ten. Last weeks episode was incredible, I loved that is ended with Lady Gaga giving Sasha, Melanie, and Sonya her shoes. My vote for America’s Favorite Dancer is with either of these ladies. They rocked the show and do so on a regular basis.


Sasha                                                      Melanie


Marko

How this works. If you want one of the cards donate $5 to The Dizzy Feet Foundation or Dance 4 Your Life Then email me at casey.girard (at) gmail.com a copy of the receipt and I will send you the card of your choice. So far no cards have been taken. Here is a link to the other cards.

Kids get the Spot

I managed to finish this up last night just before I turned into a pumpkin. Well not a pumpkin but a feverish-swollen-throated lump. I was hoping today would be super productive since plans were at a minimum however, I have had to rest and stay in bed all day. At least my sketchbook and computer can travel here with me.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow so I can continue beefing up my portfolio for the LA SCBWI National Conference. Looking forward to meeting folks out there and show off my new work.

Drawn again and again and again

Sometimes you have to draw something again. Kelly Light has recently blogged about this in a super humorous way. Her point is very true statement.

I just went through a number of bad drawings and I’m still not sure I have achieved a final I love. If you remember my first idea didn’t work, the boys with the mirror, it was a departure from the story. Starting over, I sketched the new idea many times and then finished it as a full color illustration. However, it looked terrible, the faces were all wrong, their expressions didn’t quite make sense, and the coloring was overworked. I could have argued that the piece was passable, but not anymore. I sketched all the boys again working on their expressions and then I finished it again.

I think I may still be going back to it again.

It’s important to make mistakes, how else do you learn? Check out this awesome video that is all about how much you grow when you accept mistakes.

Happy drawing bad drawings; free yourself and let yourself make bad art.

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

SYTYCD-First Choreographer Card

I am so excited for SYTYCD tonight. We are at our top ten and that means all stars are being introduced! I am hoping to draw cards of a few of them as well. In fact this week I have an all star already drawn. He was my favorite the season he danced and I was very happy to see him brought back to the show as a choreographer.
Here is Travis!

How fun was it to see him as a judge?! His outfits this season have been very dapper.

Then the dancer this week Alexander!

A refresher, how this works. If you want one of the cards donate $5 to The Dizzy Feet Foundation or Dance 4 Your Life Then email me at casey.girard (at) gmail.com a copy of the receipt and I will send you the card of your choice. So far no cards have been taken. Here is a link to the other cards.

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:

Three Boys Exploring

Well today was beyond a level of heat that I could work in so I haven’t gotten more done on my kids image. I can show work in progress. This isn’t the current stage of this piece, it is one of the first stages of how I illustrate:

I am pretty disappointed that I didn’t get to illustrate during the day. It wasn’t slacking off, I rearranged my responsibilities to work during the cooler hours. If it had been client work I would have pushed through. When work is personal, the heat and other more time sensitive responsibilities are addressed first. I’m sure this is understood when it comes to work that is just for the blog.

Sketches of Dancers

This summer I am changing up my weekly themes completely. Tuesdays are So You Think You Can Dance cards or sketches until the show is over and as I said last week Wednesdays are now Kids instead of animals.

I did break days and posted a bunch of new cards on Sunday. Since, I don’t have new cards today I want to share sketches of poses that didn’t work for the card’s size. I still think they deserve mention. I love drawing dancers, the motion and the shapes they create are joys for me to draw. I am hoping to make some separate pieces of kids dancing from what I have learned drawing the SYTYCD Dancers all summer. I can already tell how much my observations of their movements is improving my knowledge of human form.

A couple of these sketches made it to be cards, some are people that have a card, and two are sneak peaks.

 

 

 

This last one makes me think of <a href=”http://www.justinbua.com/”>Justin Bua</a>, I can tell my lines were influenced by him.

Aside from the SYTYCD cards, I am on a track of drawing more and handling emails and blogs. Therefore, twitter has been suffering. Maybe that will get my attention tomorrow. My handling of social media is to go at them in day shifts. For tonight I must go to sleep. I stayed up until 3am last night, powered by a viewing of the new A-Team Movie and a desire to draw in my studio because it was no longer 90º. I hopefully will have what I was working on done for tomorrow’s post of kids. Until then!