James Cassettari's Blog of Art and Other Stuff

The Divine Comedy: Dante's Inferno

2011-12-09T09:57:00.001-08:00

Just finished up 3 illustrations based on Dante's Inferno marking the end of fall semester. These pieces are inspired by the amazing Robin Joseph. Now to relax for about a month before things start up again.

The elusive Chickensaurus Rex

2011-10-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a design I just finished up.

More stuff to come soon, like... A bunch of sketchbook pages!

A painting for you!

2011-08-21T11:02:00.001-07:00

So with school starting tomorrow I figured I'd make the most out of the final days of summer and do a Photoshop painting. I am really excited in how it came out but the web destroyed the quality, so I decided to share the print file with you guys. You can download it and see how the full 10x30 uncompressed image looks right here.

life by james cassettari is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.megaupload.com.

2011-07-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

Ooooh summer... It's been a doozy. I've been home without any of my art supplies aside from my sketchbook, some markers, and a few pencils, so I've just been doing a lot of visual experimenting I guess. Here are some of my favorite sketches out of my moleskine from the past month.

I really miss my wacom tablet...

summer time

2011-06-02T18:38:00.001-07:00

Whoa, I haven't been here in a while. Here is a bunch of stuff that I've been meaning to put up.

First. I decided to do a little tribute to Hunter S Thompson

Here's a patriotic boomer

And finally some recent digital paintings, mostly experimenting with different styles and color.

Observation shmobservation

2011-03-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here are two digital paintings I did recently for my representational painting class...

annnnd Hurley from Lost

Some sketches

2011-03-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

It looks like I took a month off! Here are some recent sketchbook doodles.

I'll be back...

trying some new stuff

2011-02-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

In the woods
ink wash on illustration board

"This damn thing won't hold a damn charge!"

2011-02-01T16:38:00.001-08:00

I sketched this out in my moleskine last night while denying my body from it's desperate need for sleep... I love 80's cell phones. In my spare time I really want to do a series of characters lugging around their mastodon sized cellphones.

BONUS!

I got scanner happy so here are some extra sketchbook doodles

Should

Pay

Attention

some new sketches...

2011-01-30T18:08:00.001-08:00

Just two sketches I did over the weekend. The second one is my first stab at a 100% digital illustration and it was pretty fun to do.

psst, over here!

2011-01-19T23:16:00.000-08:00

Having trouble getting to sleep, tossed together some recent sketches. I've been having a good couple weeks back at school.

Babez from Mars...

This too...

woof?

"where my arm?"

"WHERE?!"

2011-01-12T13:51:00.000-08:00

Well hello there!

So, here is a sketch I had a lot of fun doing last night, just a teenage witch at a prom.

Whoa, it's been a while! Winter break was fun, saw my family, friends, snow, all that fun stuff. Regardless, I'm happy to get back to work. Also, after a bunch of debating back and forth I switched my major from Computer Animation to Illustration. I'm so excited, I've had a few classes so far and I feel it will be the right move for me and where I ultimately want to go with my art/career.

Also I'll be posting new art and designs in here a lot more, check back soon!

quick post

2010-12-03T23:37:00.000-08:00

Watched The Town tonight. Great movie, but to be fair any Boston crime film is gold in my book. I sketched this guy out while I was watching.

Long time no see

2010-11-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

Things have been wicked busy at Ringling this semester so I haven't been able to really update this thing. Here's some stuff from concept class...

and a sketch..

The Man in Black

2010-07-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

wallstreet cyclops

2010-07-07T16:11:00.000-07:00

So last night/this morning I was pleased to find out that tonight Nate Wragg (pixar character designer/illustrator) will be interviewed by Bobby Chiu for his site Sketchoholic. This is some really great news as Nate Wragg's work is a big inspiration for me. Long story short the viewers are encouraged to create some art based on the guest speakers prompt and tonight it will be "Wall Street Cyclops." I had a blast working on this all day today and I am very happy with how it turned out.

by the way the interviews at midnight tonight EST you should watch it

bunch o stuff

2010-07-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

Some sketches I liked from this past weekend... There's nothing more fun to draw than folks and their cars.

This last guy is my contribution to the "ineffective superhero" prompt over at the Character Design Bi-weekly blog.

"No one at Shady Trees Retirement home knows exactly where Dr. Incredibly Old came from, just that he wasTHE HERO of his time (whenever that was). He patrols the dark empty halls at night bringing justice to security guards, reflective objects, and bedpans. While not an official resident of the Shady Trees facility, it is thought that he resides somewhere in the darkest depths of the pharmaceutical closet. He tends to leave a trail of rabbit droppings wherever he goes, this calling card evokes fear in the hearts of his adversaries and hope in the helpless elderly that depend on him most."

2010-06-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

So here is a fun little sketch i did last night, summer is the best! ART ALL DAY.

Oh yeah, if you haven't seen Toy Story 3 do yourself a favor and go see it NOW! Also Don't miss the Teddy Newton short Day and Night either, he is a true genius.

nightmare

2010-06-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

Right here is a contribution I did for the Character Design Bi-weekly blog. Basically the idea was to re-design a character, either animated or live action.

I love Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elmstreet and I had a blast watching it for the millionth time and sketching Mr. Krueger. (click the picture for decent quality)

by the way this song is amazing...

run to the hills

2010-06-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to putting this run cycle on Vimeo. Overall I was pretty happy with it, the butt could use a little more snap though.

Untitled from James Cassettari on Vimeo.

2010-06-08T09:41:00.001-07:00

boo.

"the colors duke, the colors"

2010-06-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

Keeping busy this summer.
Having fun with a bunch of old crusty markers.

2010-05-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

The summer is finally here and freshman year is done, what a crazy learning experience this past semester was! A LOT of new posts to come this summer. I'm driving back up to Boston from Sarasota this week and I'm looking at that as a perfect opportunity to fill up a sketchbook.

A satire piece I did focusing on the Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno feud.
"hhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyeeaaaAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

2010-04-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

Freshman year is winding down, and things are getting tougher and tougher. My animation classes are going awesome and I can't wait to really dive into sophomore year's focused curriculum. Above is a guy I will probably be animating in a sneak walk this week, a lot of work but it should be fun.

Here is my first character animation for Traditional Animation I. Unfortunately the blogger video compression really makes it look like crap but you get the idea.

2010-03-05T14:29:00.000-08:00

It's been way to long since I made a post, I'm going to try and update this thing a bit more often. These are some character designs for an upcoming project in traditional animation. I'm hoping to squeeze a lot of expression outta this guy when I start animating him. I'm planning to post the final animation once it's all finished up.

Ringling!

2009-09-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to start an art blog that I'll actually update.

My name is James and I'm a freshman at Ringling College of Art and Design studying computer animation. Hopefully I'll be putting personal and school work on here on a regular basis.

School so far is better than I could have ever imagined, I'm really really really looking forward to taking some actual animation classes next semester. Anyway, here are some characters I've done so far outside of school in the past two weeks.

Pirate!

Pedomonster?

Scary