We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Casey Robin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Casey below.

Hi Casey, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Early on in my career I wanted so badly to be recognized, to have my name attached to a big, shiny project or some legacy studio. I chased that vision of success until it started to morph into something ugly, something I didn’t want. For a time I felt like I didn’t know what I wanted. Then I met a wonderful friend, Jericca Cleland. I was a little intimidated by her at first because she was so talented. She was brilliant, confident, and had worked on some of my very favorite movies. After we connected on an animators’ panel she sent me an email. “Would you like to work on my movie?” I responded with an enthusiastic “Yes.” In the space of about two years, we have done beautiful, meaningful work together. It’s all still under NDA, so I can’t discuss it just yet, but I am finally painting the kinds of genuinely lovely Visual Development art I have always dreamed of. I am getting to work directly with key characters and influence the direction of the look – even of the storytelling in some areas. It’s a story that I really believe in, one I haven’t seen done in animation before. More than that, on this project I feel respected and valued in ways that I simply hadn’t been when I was at a big studio. No matter how big or small this film turns out to be, I will love it forever as the project that let me stretch my wings.

Casey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Casey Robin. It’s a nickname my grandma gave me and it stuck. I create character-centered art that is warm, accessible, and designed with elegant simplicity at the forefront. I work both digitally and traditionally, depending on the needs of the project. My call to art came through the book The Art of Animation, which I stumbled upon when I was fourteen. Leafing through page after page of character sketches and production design, I was awestruck. “That’s what I want to do!” And after fifteen or so years of hard work, that’ is what I do.

In the course of my career I have worn a lot of hats, from Story Associate for Walt Disney Animation to illustrator, to toy designer, to my current role as Art Director of a gorgeous augmented reality game and VisDev Artist on an unannounced animated feature. Throughout this time, I have also built a rich independent career creating original illustrations – from fairies and mermaids to pinup witches – and selling prints of my work all around the world. I believe that everyone deserves kindness, warmth, and wonder in their lives. In a world that can often be cold and alienating, I want my art to feel like a hug.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being an artist is hard work. There’s the initial work, sure. You have to put in your ten thousand hours in the life drawing studio. You have to “get good.” But then there’s the day-to-day challenge of always reaching, always giving your best, usually trying to do too many things at once. There’s the constant pressure to impress, to sell yourself. Social media has made this pressure more acute, even as it helps us to share and connect. It can all be a bit much, even things are going very, very well.

Why do it then? Why push through the anxiety, the exhaustion, the disappointments? Well, for me it’s a few things. There is such rich satisfaction in doing a job really, really well in a way that only you could do. It makes you feel a bit magical. Even sweeter is the moment when you see someone really connect with your work. Sometimes they even cry. It’s not that your work is the most intricate or the most impressive, but that it was what they needed and no one had made it for them before. Sharing my gift with others reminds me why I worked so hard to develop it in the first place.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I decided I wanted to go into animation, my goal was clear: I want to be a Disney animator because I love fairy tales and I want to make the world a better place. When I got to Disney, though, new ambitions started to creep in. They lurked in the air, the water. “Be the best,” they said. “Get ahead.” Naive, I asked them, “What do you mean, ‘get ahead?” They taught me to worry about status, to look at my fellow artists not as partners in dreaming, but as threats. What’s worse, the people on our team who did unjust or selfish things did seem to get ahead. The system often rewarded self-serving ambition. I became deeply anxious, deeply sad. I had built my castle on sand, and if felt more and more like a pit of quicksand.

After some time away, I examined my original dream. Why did I want to be a Disney animator? Well, because I loved The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella – beautiful fairy tales. But fairy tales are older and richer than what my childhood favorites had taught me. Maybe I should be a little more curious about what I meant by “fairy tales,” what I meant by “beautiful.” Little by little, I broadened my scope, learning to appreciate a wider array of art and storytelling. I looked at Miyazaki, how fresh and personal his films felt, and Guillermo del Toro, with his elegant blend of wonder and terror. I returned to books, began to write, to spend time in nature. I found a passion for repainting dolls, something I never would have allowed myself to indulge in at the height of my career-chasing. In short, I defined a new view of success.

I knew now that my previous ambition carried the very real danger of turning me into someone I didn’t want to be. I would have to step on people to get what I wanted, and I would not be able to live with that. So I stepped away. I reevaluated my motives and allowed myself to grow. I have since found my own voice. I have built a happy life and I am fully engaged in creating many beautiful things.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.caseyrobin.com
• Instagram: @caseyrobin
• Facebook: @caseyrobinart
• Linkedin: @caseyrobinart
• Other: You can support my art directly via my Etsy shop: etsy.com/shop/caseyrobinart

Image Credits
Art by: Casey Robin