Ordinary Christmas Cards!

I've never made x-mas cards before and I wanted to leave a "good" first impression on my friends and family.

Some Girls

Hey there! It's the end of the month and I figured I'd post some girls I did over the past month or so. 

I've been pretty occupied with life and working on my current project, "The Whiskey Child."

I am almost entirely done with the boards/animatic and next Saturday, Shane and I will be getting into the studio to record a better quality audio track for the music.

I've very excited about this project and the people who are also working on it. I hope you understand that this is what I am currently making a priority.

Anyways, here are some girls! I was trying to a new render style as well as challenging myself on drawing some females. I usually don't!

P.S. This first one started out entirely different... but I'll admit I've been playing Pokemon a little more than I'd like (who am I kidding).

Inktober 2013

Hey there! This month, I ended up doing the Inktober challenge. I wasn't intending on doing it originally, but it just kinda happened. Honestly, I felt so-so about half of these, and the other half are mainly rough storyboards for the, now dubbed, "Whiskey Child" project.

I used markers and pens (dying ones at that!) mainly throughout this challenge because I am broke. I wish I had a well of ink, but nooope! Here are a few of the ones I enjoyed from the batch!

It's inspiring to look at what everyone else did last month too, but I did it mainly for fun.

Take a gander here to see the rules!

 
 

Mid-Metamorphosis

More concept art for my prehistoric world idea.
You may remember this guy from my first post.

I was craving to do more environment based work, so I sketched this up, scanned it in my computer and voilà!

Sorry for such a short post, but I'm not planning on doing more concept art for the project in the near future and I wanted to post this before I move onto the my main priority. I am starting to nail down some storyboards for my Outlaw project. I am hoping that I will stay more consistent and get that project on the road as soon as possible!

Morion Turtle

I guess I’m going to start doing more concept art for my prehistoric world this way… I will admit I am doing a lot of guessing on the anatomy…

This is a Morion Turtle! Nothing too fancy about this creature… just a turtle doing turtle things.

Thousand Legged Crow

It’s been awhile since I worked on any concept art for my prehistoric world idea… wow! 

I wanted to draw a weird creature really bad so I drew up this guy and tried to work out his anatomy… I’m not really sure if this is convincing or not haha.

The bones of this guy are full of holes, so it weighs significantly less than it appears. The 'Thousand Legged Crow' primarily travels via ground and can reach high speeds, due to it’s light bone mass.
It eats small rodents and fish.

Finished my Latest Puppet!

Finished my latest puppet! Now I can FINALLY start to do some animation with her! The stitching for the clothes took FOR-EEEVVVVVVERR… so glad I did it though…

Stay tuned for some animation tests in the near future!

Trying a New Digital Painting Process Out!

So... I always see other illustrators and animators doing this paper-cut/digital hybrid for concept art, and I wanted to test out the waters since it seems to be a popular style.
I think it turned out well!

Here's a look into my process!

Started traditionally and brought that into a 9x9 inch canvas in Photoshop.

Blocked in color!

Added texture and shading!

I might try to do more art similar to this style... we'll see!

'Like' my Facebook Page!

Hello everyone!

This is just a general update on things, since I have been a little busy.

I recently made a facebook page for my art (CLICK HERE),

and it'd be splendid if you joined me over there!

I had a show with RAWartists August 1st.

I met a lot of cool people! It was a lot of fun too. I had prints, posters, DVDs, and paintings for sell… as well as displaying some of the puppets I used in “Dung!” and “Byrd VS Gravity.” My girlfriend Paige really helped me out by “manning” the Laptop and Ipad (that were constantly looping my animated shorts). 

It was nice because they screen 9 minutes worth of my animation around 11 PM on the main stage as well. The girl Leigh told me it was the biggest response they’ve ever had for a filmmaker (kinda cool!). Glad I attended this event.

On a side note… I am starting to sell my art more.

I DO have DVDs for sale "Short Animations by Rob Sassi"... which can be purchased through me with Paypal or in person. $10 each.

I am also open to do some commissions, as I am going to need to make some extra money soon. I might do a post about this separately at some point… would anyone be interested in commissioning me to do some work? I can figure out styles/price ranges sometime soon if so, to show the options I can provide.

Working on a new print series, while SLOWLY, but SURELY getting my pattern sewing done on my puppet.

But really... it's not THAT bad.

The goal is to start animating in about two weeks... we'll see!

I hope you're excited like I am! I will be posting some art in the next day or so, so stay tuned and don't forget to like my FB fan page!!!

-Rob

More One Hour Paintings

Sorry I didn't post much last month... I've been really busy!

I had a show with RAWartists and I just got time to post some stuff I did last month.

I'm going to do a few posts so they can be organized better.

Here are some one hour paintings I did in July!

The one above was actually painted on a Pizza Box from John's Pizza in Edinboro!

First Girl Puppet and Trying New Things! (My work in progress so far.)

SO... I started this puppet awhile ago, but finally got around to finishing it.

Here are a bunch of progress shots leading up to the final product!

It all started out with these design sketches.
As time went on though... I had a better concept for what this character would do, so I changed her clothing entirely.
But the next step was to plan the armature.

I made slight changes to the armature to be more practical with what materials I was working with. Also, I felt the hands itself needed to be larger so the pantomimes were easier to read.

 Then I started to build out the form with aluminum foil, as well as added the placement for the wooden bead eyes.

 Here, I have added the sculpy already and baked the puppet.

 For this puppet, I wanted to try using latex, so there was no leftover armature wire to see.
I had to hot glue cotton balls in all the areas I wanted to cover, so the latex would stick.

 Here is a shot from after the latex was applied. I tinted it with acrylic paint.

A picture showing the "hair" hot glued to the strands of armature wire.

 I also had to make clothes for this puppet.
Above, I have stabled my fabric to a pattern I designed for my puppets underarmor/spandex.
Below are a couple pictures showing before and after the pattern was removed.

                       I ended up hot gluing the spandex layer to the body.

Now I had to work on the outer layer.

Started to sew the final headbands, sweatbands, and leg warmers.

 And here we stop at my current process!

It still turned out a little rough, but I was more focused on making something I could animate with, while trying out a new process.
It should look good in motion!

Also, this isn't completeld yet. I am currently adding more detail as we speak!

I'm very excited to show you the final product and to start animating! Stay tuned.

Live Wedding Painting + Some Older One Hour Paintings

I was recently commissioned to do a live painting of a couples wedding ceremony.

I had no real evidence that I could complete the task, besides showing my post of my One Hour Paintings. Luckily, it was the exact style they were looking for... and they were willing to trust me if I felt confident enough.

The final product.

 The day was June 15th, and location, Greystone Fields in Gibsonia, PA.

 Here is a picture of my set-up.

I did most of the work there, but I took it home to add a few more hours worth of painting.

The happy newily wed couple!


OKAY!

 The second half of this post is just going to be older one hour paintings I haven't posted here yet.

This one is actually a one hour painting I did digitally in Photoshop!
I gave it restrictions by only using one brush, no UNDOs, and I painted it all on one layer.

And the one below ISN'T a one hour painting... just a watercolor landscape I did one evening.