Up!
A bit higher
A little higher
And very high!
These are Matt’s heros, Parkour. I am sure most of you have seen this style of stunts at least once in the James Bond film with Daniel Craig, Casino Royale. Like them he takes all necessary precautions before performing any of these stunts, they are dangerous, he does get hurt from time to time, so, DO NOT TRY ON YOUR OWN!
For more fun watching this is his current favorite video of Parkour acrobatics.
A year to catch our breaths and calm down. Last year was rough, so many hardships came down upon people I know and love. I am hoping with the start of this year we can all heal from these trials, grow, and find balance.
My plans for myself are to simply stay on track. I have developed a great work routine over the past 6 months and I don’t want to loose it. As I continue to develop my illustration I am mainly spending time on my own ideas. To keep me on track I have signed up for some online group projects. You can see on the right of this post widgets for them, 250 words a day from Inky Girl and the Picture Book Dummy Challenge (that’s really a twibbon, I also put on my site). I am very excited to be participating!
Also keeping me on track are my weekly post themes, today, Animal Wednesday! I always like to illustrate the animal of the year. However, this is the first year I am happy with and willing to share my drawing. My year of the Rat image defied gravity, literally my rat was standing on air because of a bad perspective. Anyway, this is my rabbit, I am selling this piece on my etsy store too.
Playing along with the other holidays I am planning on making 3 or 4 Valentine’s Critters. Here is my first one:
Happy Year of the Rabbit I wish you all well for this year!
The whole story (I am pulling from old posts; so, there will be repeats but, even on those pages some changes have been made):
And in case you miss the comment from Sean: Anyone interested in some more details of the story might be interested in the blog post I wrote shortly afterwards:
and if you want to go Dr. House, here is a post with some X-Rays:
Last night I found myself free of responsibility. All deadlines met and no pressing holiday needs. I had been at the computer for the better part of the day, hubby was asleep so, no chance to watch him play Fable 3, and therefore was free to sit at my studio desk. For the first night in a month the clay did not call me, my watercolors did. I knew I should paint an animal since today is Wednesday but, I am finally watching a show I have been told I would love since it started, Pushing Daisies. It is just as perfect a show for me as everyone said, morbid but, completely adorable. The vibrant colors dazzle me and the characters are precious! If I had gotten her right you would be seeing Olive today but, she is my favorite and must be perfect.
And not to back out on my animal Wednesday I drew one today. If you know the show, based on my animal of choice, perhaps you can guess what episode I am on. Of course it takes me an episode and a half to finish a little watercolor. . . so I’m now past the episode that sparked my choice.
Well after the holidays, good news from family, and a huge snow storm I almost forgot it was Tuesday! Time for a couple more pages of the story. The third image is not finished but, I think you get the jist.
Page that goes in between these two
Thank you to all my followers here and on twitter. I always appreciate your kind words and suggestions for improvement. Wishing you and yours a very Happy Holiday Season!
For the next pages in my sketchbook project I am going to work on stories Matt has told me. Most involve hospital trips in the end.
This story has been told to me, to others while I listened, and by me(because I have heard it so many times at this point). The story has grown and taken on new stories after it’s telling. It ends with two significant view points and is unbelievable. I love this story, I hope I do it justice.
First is the night before. Ridiculous antics in the hotel room at the ski slope. It all started with climbing the balcony in whatever ways seemed impossible:
It’s been a busy season for my hands.
Sometimes I am left with lots of pain in my hands and forearms. Working clay is not only hard work, it is physical labor. It’s important to find ways to aid your tendons from becoming over stretched or strained. And now starts my tips for working with sculpey!
#1 When working with sculpey you are usually working small batches; so, it’s awkward to use your full hand and your shoulders to soften or prepare the clay. Which is what you do with large batches of clay, such as for throwing, which helps the creator to evenly spread the force required for kneading. Also exacerbating the problem, clay dries out, like with this fox’s orange. Making it even harder to get to a malleable stage.
Helper: Warm it up, give it to someone with really warm hands (my hubby is great for this) (a method I haven’t used – pop it in the microwave for a minute) or the best solution I have found get one of the acrylic rolling pins. You can use it’s size to give you enough space to use your full hand and shoulders to apply the necessary force. It also helps greatly when you need to add sculpey softener to repurpose the clay. Roll the clay out flat, as best you can. Apply drops along the length then fold it over on itself until you have a mound and roll it back out. Do this over and over until that softener is totally worked in. Then reapply softener until the sculpey is at the workable stage you prefer.
#2 Sculpey that is pre-colored bleeds. The richer the color the more it gets all over your hands. This is not obvious until you touch another color and you notice traces of the last color you were using. The biggest offenders, reds, dark blues, black, and pure white, although not the light weight white.
Helper: Always have a rag or paper towel on hand to wipe your hands clean between each color.
#3 The longer you have been working with your clay the softer it tends to become, easily denting or knicking from your nails or fingers left in one spot for too long.
Helpers: Let your clay rest, put it in a place where it can cool down.
Keep your finger nails short.
Hold your clay gingerly as you work on different areas. Try to never linger too long and if you have to work on something for a long time try to hold your clay in the least damaging way possible. Be prepared to do some reshaping.
#4 Clay can get overworked. Sculpey lends itself to being bubbly or rounded. The need to get things perfect can cause you to work an area with smoothing and shaping for too long, making the clay look wrong.
Helper: Don’t futz. You have to let things go. If something doesn’t come out right, realize it is your own need to grow. The next time you make it, you will get the shapes right and you won’t have to spend a half hour smoothing out a problem spot. With every ornament I make the first one is practice and never seen by people that don’t visit my house. I have never gotten an ornament right the first time and as with all crafts the more I make them the better they get.
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These are tips I sculpt by. I hope they are helpful to some of you as you play and create with sculpey. I realize some of the explanations may be confusing without pictures, especially #1. I am going go snap pictures the next time I soften some clay and give a step by step post. Look for that soon! Happy sculpting!
This frog was born during craft time with my son. He thankfully loves drawing and playing with clay. Given that I don’t really want him to mess up my clay and it is a bit too tough for him, I found a recipe for play dough. On my second try we had the perfect batch and together we made creations. He played long enough I could recreate this little froggie out of sculpey.
This continues off of the pages where Matt ran up the flight of stairs. After I caught my breath for 20 minutes we ended up walking alone. We traversed narrow ledges over the river, climbed logs that had fallen in the river, and found this pillar which we climbed and sat on.
Clay. The medium that relaxes me and makes me feel like I am refreshing my creativity while I work. Example, I worked on projects until 2am last night and didn’t notice the time at all. Over the years I have learned some tricks as well as found other artists who’s work in polymer is truly inspiring.
My relationship with clay started my Sophomore year of college after a horrible winter quarter in Rochester. I was feeling down and out, ready to quit illustration. Things had to change so, I took a quarter of electives: print making, metals/jewelery, and hand building clay (because throwing classes were full thanks goodness!). It was a revitalizing quarter. I would spend many extra hours in the ceramics studio finishing my sculptures because, having my hands wet, dirty, and kneading clay brought me back to life.
Continuing with clay that needed a kiln was outside of my realm. However, I found sculpey which, can be cooked in my oven, a satisfying replacement. This was introduced to me by dimensional illustration class and Teresa. She started out simpley and by the end of our college career she was a master at making all of her art with sculpey. It was impressive and beautiful.
These influences started me making ornaments for all of my cousins. Making over 20 ornaments every year since 2003 was how I learned the ropes of polymer clay.
The year after I left college I was jobless and watching a lot of TV when I saw a Converse commercial featuring Meredith Dittmar. Completely inspired I have been regularly checking out her guys since then. For my first date with Matt we actually got to see her work in a local gallery. A year later I bought him our favorite piece from the show as an anniversary present.
Seeing her work made me want to work beyond the ornaments but, it wasn’t until September 2009-when I signed up for a craft fair where I couldn’t sell my ornaments-that I focused and made something different. Desiring to still make something functional I made magnets. This year I again was part of the craft fair and I stepped it up again. Having gotten some small vials from a biology lab I knew I wanted to fill them with my own scientific specimens.
After two craft fairs and being on top of getting product made I started selling on etsy. I watch the feeds seeing what else comes up and yes watching to see where my pieces land in the pages of items for sale. One quiet day I came upon this shop Beastlies. These Beastlies by Leslie Levings are so completely adorable I adopted Garen. Since, he loves butter and I didn’t want him to be alone, I made him a friend named Butter. They are already pals and keep me company living on my drawing desk.
Making my own creatures has been the ultimate goal since I started expanding from ornaments. Today I have gotten started, these are my Cuddly Critters.
I have been doing a lot of work with sculpey lately, making ornaments. Wanting to change up from making loads of snowmen I decided to sculpt one of my sketches from the summer. These sketches were simplified animals drawn in chalk on our driveway for my son.
Given that I love the less lovable animals I went with the skunk.
I am really happy with how the simplification of his form came out in sculpey. I think I will continue with this and make a series of these.
Since he is still an ornament I adorned him with some Christmas elements. The candy cane was a challenge. As I was saying to some friends last night, red sculpey bleeds to everything and white is the most sensitive to other colors. However, I knew it could be done because I have seen one made by Meredith Dittmar. I figured out the trick! Use the lightweight white sculpey. It has a very different texture from normal white sculpey and as long as you don’t futz with it too much they will roll together well.
I have also decided since last nights conversation to write a blog about using pre colored sculpey. Filled with tips that I have found useful. Look for it Monday.
So, what do you think? Should I make and sell these on etsy? Let’s take a vote! Just for fun. Thanks!
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Casey Girard Illustration