Sincere Deceit Book Cover Illustration

This is the second book cover that I did for John Eidemak. A new book cover illustration for the second edition publication of his book titled Sincere Deceit was needed.

After discussing the author's wishes for the cover, I provided 3 initial thumbnail sketches.

The top one on the left was the one closest to what the author had specified that he wanted. In the end, this was the sketch chosen for me to pursue.










So I worked up a more detailed sketch for the client including some text to indicate where I intended it to be placed.








The final painting was done in acrylic on board. They chose to go with a different placement of the text than I had designed. They really should have let me know they intended to do this because the final cover has the window with missing parts to it's framing.

Book Cover for John Eidemak's Upcoming New Crime Novel

Oil painting on canvas with text added afterwards.

Author John Eidemak hired me to do the art and design for his upcoming new crime novel about a London barrister whose wife and child are murdered. His wife was a ballet dancer and he becomes involved with her sister, another dancer.

This is all I know! We shall have to wait for his book to come out to find out the rest of the story.

Detail of the two dancers.

He has now hired me to re-do the cover of his already published book titled Sincere Deceit. Check it out on Amazon:
John Eidemak on Amazon

Images of Summer from My Visual Diary Project

July 15, 2013 Moths

Well, the Summer has slipped away and I thought I would share some of my favorite pieces from My Visual Diary project that I began on July 1st of this year. The assignment: no more than 30 minutes, with no photo reference, only my memory of the day as my guide.

July 17, 2013 Fireflies

July 19, 2013 Hornets, Wasps, and Bees Everywhere

July 20, 2013 Ashes

July 25, 2013 Hugging Mom

August 5, 2013 First Time Underwater!

August 11, 2013 Our Sandcastle

August 14, 2013 Blackberries Everywhere

August 15, 2013 My Little Friend

Competition entry & Visual Diary for September 15th

This is the piece I entered for the competition.

I've been busy working on my Visual Diary every day since I started on July 1st. It's been an eye opening experience. My computer's memory is tapped out, and until it's resolved and I can again scan every painting in, I'll have to post only the especially meaningful ones. Stay in touch for a post coming soon showing the last two months' worth of highlights!

Abstract Floral 2   My Visual Diary September 15, 2013

Meanwhile, I've been on the job hunt and decided to enter a competition for a website banner for a wedding floral company on Freelancer.com. Here is my entry and it got me inspired to make one similar for my daily diary. They want something dotted and abstract/ geometric. I tried to adapt to that but still keep in mind that is was for a florist. Though now it looks like they really wanted something much more geometric than I thought they did! Oh well, at least it was fun to paint and has me thinking of pursuing this to see where it leads. A range of greeting cards perhaps?

My Visual Diary Days 3-12

July 3, 2013   Stars

Well I've managed to get through the first week and a half doing my visual diary. Already it has been really enlightening for me. I've set myself the task of no more than 30 minutes on a piece. I've been able to stay within an hour which is much better than past attempts at this!

July 4, 2013 Roald Dahl Museum

By far the most challenging aspect has been the self-imposed rule of using no photo reference for this project. The images are memories of the day, and therefore I must use only my memory as a guide. This has led to some interesting things! People only vaguely resemble who they are meant to be. This was most especially a struggle for me when I was remembering my grandmother who passed away this week. I wanted to capture her when she was younger, with long hair. I loved her hair. Even the magpies, which at the time I studied closely, were difficult to remember which parts of them were black and which were white.

I realize how far I am from being truly observant of my day.

July 5, 2013  Seagulls in Bath

July 6, 2013  Strawberry Picking

July 7, 2013  Bayswater Road Market?

July 8, 2013  Planting Lavender

July 9, 2013  A Working Printer!

July 10, 2013  Goodbye Grandma

July 11, 2013  Plum Wine

July 12, 2013  Five Magpies Sitting in a Row

More new paintings in the "Little Gems" Series

Dragonfly with Dewdrops

Yellow Fairies

Thistles on the Isle of Wight

Thisles on the Isle of Wight

Another painting to be in my Isle of Wight show, which I'm hoping to have in the fall of this year.

This is a very recently completed painting inspired by the beautiful countryside on the Isle of Wight in England where my parents-in-law live. The path is along where an old railroad used to go and is now a lovely lane to walk or bike along that takes you from the center to the edge of the island. This particular winter morning was cold and frosty, but nonetheless enchanting.

Another New "Little Gem" Painting: Dragonfly with Dewdrops

I painted this "little gem" painting, as I like to call them, while I was at the Merton Abbey Mills Art and Craft market last weekend. I'm really enjoying the opportunity to meet new people in London and start to get a little bit of time to myself again. It's been super to double task it. I'm both showing my work and making more at the same time. Right now I'm trying to decide what to work on first when I bring my oils this coming Sunday!

Etsy Gallery Up and Running Once Again & New Facebook Page!

After a two and a half year hiatus (during which I moved across the world, learned how to drive on the other side of the road, had my firstborn, and bought my first house- a serious fixer-upper which we are still working on) my Etsy Gallery is up and running and finally out of "vacation mode"! I still don't have much of an art studio, but there is enough space to work on small pieces. I'm looking forward to summer weather to enable me to paint larger oils plein-air and work on some other pieces I've had in mind for a long time now which require space to stretch out.

I've completed two more paintings in my Dancing Dandelions series, number V is shown here. This is the first painting I've listed for sale on the gallery. I get more exposure by eeking the listings out one at a time, so it will be a week or more before every new painting is up on the site.

Check it out:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CassandraSeeger

Also, more marketing hoo-haa prompted me to build a new Facebook page. Feel free to take a look:
https://www.facebook.com/CassandraSeegerArt

Two New "Little Gems"

Butterfly with Tiger Lily and White Flowers

I have been using the left-over paper from my wedding invitations (on which I did a linoleum block print) to make "little gem" paintings to sell on my Etsy gallery. They are just 4" x 5" and so can be placed into a picture frame one would normally put a 5" x 7" photograph in.

Dancing Dandelion IV

I usually like to paint bigger, but I've been using these as a way of experimenting and playing with my style. They really are studies, but perfect for my goal of the elusive "20 minute" painting. They take much longer than that, but my teacher at CCA, Robert Hunt, set me the goal of producing a 20 minute piece every day and, though I've failed to work that fast so far, I like these as a way of pushing myself a little bit.

Getting My Feet Wet

My husband and I have just bought our first house and this week I've been working on setting up my art studio in our new home!
Whenever there's been a break in art-making for me, I find I need to do a quick painting to get back into the swing of things. I painted this piece on December 3rd from a photo I took this summer on the Isle of Wight at the beach.

 Sandown Beachscape I, watercolor and ink on paper 8 1/4" (21cm) x 12" (30.5cm)

Blue Tit Landing

Well, I'm on a roll! Over the Easter holiday my parents-in-law babysat and I had the chance to paint down on the Isle of Wight while visiting them. They have several bird feeders that attract a lot of the lovely little songbirds in the area, including blue tits. The weather warmed up a couple of weeks before and the plants are starting to sprout their leaves and bud blossoms. Spring is becoming my favorite season. After the dull greys and browns of winter, seeing a little color is so wonderful!

Painting Again!!!

Wow, it's been a while. Well I'm back in the swing of painting after a hiatus to move to London, go on our delayed honeymoon, and have a baby!

My little boy is 4 months old now and FINALLY sleeping through the night. Which means, watch out world, I'm now getting enough sleep to be productive again! Of course it's slow going with fewer opportunities for now. Gone are the all-day-long painting marathons, but it is wonderful to be in the studio once more even if it is broken up into short stints at a time.

I've titled this watercolor Santorini Sunset. It is painted using photo reference that I took while on my one year anniversary/ honeymoon. (Our plans changed and we went to Greece instead of South Africa.) The land is quite dry, so I was surprised to see these flowers peeping up out of the rocky terrain. The sunsets lived up to their reputation- every night was a feast for the eyes.

This painting was begun while I was still pregnant, and finished just last week in time to display it in my booth at the Isle of Wight Garlic Festival this weekend. There's nothing like an upcoming show to give you the kick to get going again!

Dancing Dandelion III

Well I was able to paint another dandelion painting in time for the second weekend of my open studios. Now I just need to frame it. This is another little one, the same size as Dancing Dandelion I. Unframed its 5 1/4" x 8 1/4". I really like this textured background that I've been working with. On the next piece I'm going to try adding another dimension to the texture and see how it looks.

New Painting titled Dancing Dandelion II

I wanted to share this second painting in my Dancing Dandelion series which sold on the first day of my East Bay Open Studio art show this past weekend! It is a brand new piece and I was saving it as a surprise for attendees, but it sold so quickly (within hours of the show opening). I don't think many people even got to see it. I plan on creating more works along this theme as I've had a lot of positive feedback and excitement about the first two works of the series. So stay tuned. I'm going to try to get a new one done for this coming weekend and I'll be listing new works on my Etsy gallery in the future (see "My Links").