Category Archives: Caroline Gray
Caroline Gray: Video Tutorials: How to Make a Magnetic Puppet Theater
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/10/video-tutorials-how-to-make-magnetic.html
October 19, 2012 at 02:46PM
I have completed two new video tutorials this week!
The first, How to Make a Magnetic Puppet Theater, is craft project designed for children (approx. age 8 and up) or adults to complete using basic household items.
The second is a needle felting instructional video for creating magnetic puppets to go with the aforementioned puppet theater. Coming soon: how to create more basic magnetic puppets from corks and spools.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ5XYBoX4FI&feature=context-cha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H–fLfrruw&feature=plcp
Caroline Gray: Magnetic Puppet Theater
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/10/magnetic-puppet-theater.html
October 15, 2012 at 01:01PM
Below is a short video of a magnetic puppet theater I made this week using cereal boxes, paper, tape, glue, popsicle sticks and paint. It is a very easy project using readily available tools and materials. I imagine all kids could do this project with some adult assistance with cutting.
The animal characters are made with needle felted wool, and I incorporated magnets into their lower bodies to allow them to move across the stage, controlled by a magnetic wand underneath. I will post a tutorial soon for simple characters made from cork and beads (more suitable for kids to create than the needle felts).
The instructional videos to follow will be the first in a series of tutorials on crafting and needle felting. Enjoy!
Caroline Gray: Wacky Chickens
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/10/wacky-chickens.html
October 07, 2012 at 05:29PM
These are some chickens I made recently for my friend Susan Novich. Susan was after some chickens to adorn her greeting card table at the RISD alumni art sale, where she was selling her “Look Who’s Squawking!” line of greeting cards. These birds were designed to look like the wacky yellow chicken in her logo, and they were a lot of fun to make!
The chickens themselves are made from needle felted wool. Their beaks are orange polymer clay, and their bodies are constructed around a wire armature for flexible movement. I made the legs by bending wire with needle nosed pliers, and wrapping tightly with thread.
Caroline Gray: Sweet Treats
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/08/sweet-treats.html
August 08, 2012 at 06:15PM
Here are two new additions to my ‘Teeny Tiny Critters’ collection of greeting cards. Just two more left to finish before I start sending out to publishers. I have set myself the goal of sixteen cards total, and I am determined to meet this before the summer is over!
I had a particularly good time making the ice cream in the bunny scene. I mixed Sculpey clay to form vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavors, which I proceeded to roll into tiny balls approximately 1/2″ diameter. The texture was created by poking repeatedly with an x-acto blade. The entire ice cream concoction is made of Sculpey. The ice cream in the tubs is Spackle mixed with acrylic paint.
Caroline Gray: Teeny Tiny Critters
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/07/teeny-tiny-critters.html
July 31, 2012 at 11:46AM
I have a total of 12 completed designs so far – I think I will finish four more to take it up to 16. I have reformatted the text and border of the cards to enhance the photographic image.
Caroline Gray: Work in Progress: Kids’ Birthday Cards
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/07/work-in-progress-kids-birthday-cards.html
July 26, 2012 at 02:52PM
These children’s birthday cards are part of an ongoing project, and I have a few more designs to finish up before the whole line is complete. I need to do some more work on text placement and general appearance, but I have considered how these images could work as both 5″ x 7″ and 5″ x 5″ layouts.
I am also on the fence about whether to stick with a simple, classic ‘Happy Birthday’, or perhaps incorporate some lovely cheesy slogans (e.g. Pig Out on your B-day).
Caroline Gray: Poodle
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/07/poodle.html
July 15, 2012 at 09:25PM
Caroline Gray: Lion Magician
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/06/lion-magician.html
June 25, 2012 at 05:25PM
My most recent scene! I plan to incorporate text, and turn this into a birthday card image.
Caroline Gray: Self Portrait
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/06/self-portrait.html
June 15, 2012 at 10:15AM
I re-shot my self-portrait, having made some improvements to my lighting set up. I think this one came out much brighter and crisper than the previous version. I will be using this image for my next postcard mailout.
Caroline Gray: Critter of the Week 4: LION
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/06/critter-of-week-4-lion.html
June 12, 2012 at 07:28PM
I am afraid to say I have fallen a little behind on my Critter of the Week postings.. and it’s only Week 4!! Never mind. Here is a lion! His mane might need a little taming gel…
Caroline Gray: Critter of the Week 3 : It’s ME!
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/05/critter-of-week-3-its-me.html
Here is a self-portrait I created for the first page of my portfolio!
Caroline Gray: Aardvark Admires Artistic Ants
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/05/aardvark-admires-artistic-ants.html
May 09, 2012 at 12:43PM
I’ve completed the first page/scene from my Animal ABC book and wanted to share the preliminary photos. I also completed a short animation sequences to demonstrate my characters’ ‘bendability’.
I plan to complete 3 finished double page spreads from this book in the near future so that I can start sending out dummy copies to publishers.
Caroline Gray: Creature of the Week 1: Aardvark
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/05/creature-of-week-1-aardvark.html
Here are some (low quality) images of creature number one in my creature per week challenge: the aardvark. I was in a hurry to post this and I positioned him rather sloppily. As a result he looks like he is recovering from a big night out.
I’m putting the finishing touches on a full scene, which I will post this week.
Fascinating aardvark fact: they have four digits on their front limbs, and five on the back.
Caroline Gray: Creature of the Week Challenge
From: Caroline Gray Illustration
http://carolinegrayillustration.blogspot.com/2012/04/creature-of-week-challenge.html
In the spirit of setting goals and deadlines for oneself, I have decided to take up a new challenge. Spring has sprung, I am feeling unusually motivated and I intend to ride this wave as long as possible!
Many illustrators set themselves weekly goals, such as participation in Illustration Friday. It seems like a great habit to establish, especially for those times when you are in between projects and don’t have the creative energy to devise something entirely new to work on.
I have a book dummy, an animal alphabet, which has gathering dust on the shelf for quite some time. It’s high time I revisited this project, and this leads me to my challenge; a creature a week!
This will be a really useful exercise for me as I will have to tackle certain creatures that I have previously avoided because they seemed too hard, or I don’t have the right method and materials. Not looking forward to the Queenly Quail…
I’m going to proceed through the alphabet tackling each creature in order. Starting…. Monday 30th April. There. It is written down… and now it shall be done.
