Nature Warrior

Hello everyone! It has been a while since my last post. My apologies for the lack of posts recently.

I've been pretty busy with working on my new visual development / character design portfolio. The majority of my drawing and painting time is being focused on that. That being said, I'm very happy with the way it is coming along and I look forward to sharing it with you all when it is completed.

The exploratory character sketches below were from an idea I recently had that centres around Zara, a princess warrior of nature. Some of the design influences I wanted to infuse ranged from Amazonians, Native Indians, Egyptian to Atlanteans. It was a lot fun sketching these. Eventually I would to like further develop this concept with more characters and the environment she inhabits.

I hope you all enjoy them. Thanks for stopping by:)

1 Year!!

Jan. 17th marked the 1 year anniversary of my first blog post. What a great year it has been! I've had a blast sharing my work with you all:) It's been great getting to make some awesome connections with a lot of fantastic artists who inspire me on a daily basis. Thanks for all the kind words I've received along the way!
With that being said, I thought I'd share a monster sketch I recently did. Monsters are always fun to draw, whether they are silly or scary.
I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by:)

Space Explorer

Happy New Year everyone! I hope the holidays were good to you all:)
I thought I'd share a quick sketch of a space explorer I did the other day. Sci-Fi characters and props are a lot of fun to design.
I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by:)

Santa

Hello everyone. With the holidays around the corner, I thought it would be fun to do a quick sketch of Santa.   I really had fun drawing this Santa. He's a character that I have always found enjoyable to draw.
On a side note, I am currently working on developing a new character design/visual development portfolio. The new portfolio is going to be taking up the majority of my free time. So with that being said, I will try my best to post here as much as possible.
As always, I hope you guys enjoy my Santa sketch. Thanks for stopping by:)

Real Life Heroes

Wow! It feels like I've been away forever! I hope everyone is doing great.
I wanted to share some drawings/designs I did over the weekend.
Here are a handful of WWI soldiers/personnel designs. I definitely enjoyed drawing these characters. I purposely wanted to keep the drawings fairly loose and sketchy. As much as I love painting my designs, sometimes its nice to just sketch black and white.
The reason why I chose this subject matter was because Sunday, November 11th was Remembrance Day in Canada. I wanted to in my own way pay tribute to the brave soldiers. In doing so, I also decided that since it's Movember, I thought it'd be fun to have each one of these characters sport a mustache.
With so much history on this topic to be researched, I really hope to explore this era further and hopefully create visually engaging designs/characters that do them justice. I hope you all enjoy them. Thanks for stopping by:)

Fire Breathing Dragon

I had so much fun creating and painting the dragons from my previous post that I decided to work on another dragon. I knew when I started working on this piece I wanted the dragon to be in the air.The stormy looking clouds/sky was an extension to that idea. For the fire, I wanted it to look stylized, yet still feel like fire. Who knew drawing and painting dragons would be so much fun! I had a blast working on this. No pun intended lol. I hope you all enjoy it as well. Thanks for stopping by:)

Dragons

Here are a few dragon designs/paintings I recently created. Even though dragons are fictional, mythical creatures; I wanted the feel of the designs/posing to be rooted in animals that exist in our world. I really had a lot of fun working on these guys. I hope you all enjoy them also. Thanks for stopping by:)

Soccer: Benched

Here's a sketch of a young soccer player who isn't too thrilled about being benched.
I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by:)

Animation: In or Out?

Here is a little animation piece I created. This is just a quick play blast. The rig is a variation of the Norman Rig...which is awesome by the way. The audio clip is of Dick Van Dyke from Night at the Museum. I quickly modelled a simple desk, chair and background objects. It felt really great doing this animation. I had a lot of fun working on it. I hope to have some 2D animation up in the near future. Please click the youtube link below to view.
I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cUEB5vmXkA

80's Prom

Here is a blast from the past,... so to speak. The 1980's style and fashion had so much personality. This decade is so much fun to reference because everything felt like it had a mind of it's own. Everything from the hair to the funky colours and extra large shoulder pads lol It was a lot fun looking at photos from the 80's. I really enjoyed being silly and over the top in my design and colour choices.
I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by:)

Cable Car Ride

Here is another painting that was inspired from my visit to San Francisco earlier this summer. Riding the cable cars was such a great experience despite the long lines to hop onto them. You really get to see the city and get a feel for its unique landscape while aboard one of them. It was a lot of fun! I had a blast painting this and can't wait to visit again.
I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by:)

Isabella

Hey everyone. My god daughter Isabella is celebrating her 6th birthday this weekend so I wanted to share a portrait I did of her a few years back.
This portrait was created using coloured pencils. The paper stock I used had a slight texture to it and was one of my first portraits I attempted using coloured pencils. I had so much fun making this and learned a great amount using this medium.
Well, I hope you all enjoy this piece as much as I had creating it.
Thanks for stopping by:)

Isabella  11 x 14

Boudin Bakery Reversal

This painting was inspired by a famous bakery I visited on a recent trip to beautiful San Francisco. The Boudin Bakery is famous for their sourdough French bread; which is absolutely delicious btw! If you're in San Francisco, definitely stop by Fisherman's Wharf and check it out. Also grab a bite to eat there, you'll be happy you did.

Other than the food, what is really awesome about this bakery is that you could watch the bakers create beautiful works of art; transforming the dough into shapes of various animals. So while I was there watching this, the idea of reversing the situation to having the animals be the ones to create the bread to look like people came to me.

I can't tell you how much fun I had creating and painting this piece. I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by:)

Final Painting

Rough Sketch

Thumbnail Sketch

Mustache Cowboy

Here is a quick little sketch I did of an older cowboy sporting a mustache. I might decide to to paint him up eventually. I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by:)

Nature Paintings

Here are a handful of some quick nature paintings I did. I definitely wanted to keep them fairly loose using broad brush strokes. I had a great time playing around with different types of brushes. I hope you all enjoy them. Thanks for stopping by:)

Cowboy

Hey guys, my apologies for the lack of posts the last few weeks. I will do my best to post much more often.
So, with that being said, here is a cowboy character design I have been playing around with. I wanted him to have a graphic feel. I had a lot of fun designing him. I'm looking forward to exploring this character and the western themed world he lives in. I hope you all enjoy it.
Thanks for stopping by:)

Final Painting

Rough Sketch

Lake Como

Hey everyone, here is a piece I did a few years ago that I wanted to share with you. This is an iconic view of Lake Como that I had created using coloured pencils and some photoshop. I had a blast making it.
I hope you all enjoy it:) Thanks for stopping by!

32" x 20"

Superhero Sketches 2

Here are a couple more quick sketches/poses of my superhero character. I hope you all enjoy them.
Thanks for stopping by:)

Superhero Sketches

Here are some quick sketches of a superhero design I have been working on. Not really sure about a name for him...the stylized V is something that just happened by accident and I kinda liked how it fit on his chest so I just kept it. I had lots of fun drawing these poses. I'm looking forward to exploring this character further. Until then, I hope you all enjoy these.
Thanks for stopping by:)

Portfolio - Character Design

Hi everyone, I just wanted to invite you all to view my new Character Design Portfolio. Please feel free to stop by and check it out:)
You can follow the link below or click the Portfolio button to the right listed under Links.
Cheers!
http://vincevassallo.blogspot.ca/p/portfolio-2012_12.html