"Red Shoes" Animation Test

Red Shoes Animation Test from Dax Schaffer on Vimeo.


Never did post this. A short animation clip for a collaborative project with a singer named Zana Messiah. More on this later :)

On a Hill

My friend Steven's character Elle, from the story he's currently working on. A warm up drawing that I kind of got carried away with today. It's been so long since I just did a fun drawing though, so I had to keep going.

Doris Sketches

More sketches of Doris!

Character Sketches for "Nomadic"

Some sketches for the main character in my story, tentatively titled "Nomadic." Still fleshing out the layouts when I have the time and I feel like it's finally getting there. Been very enamored by the looseness of Miyazaki's character sketches recently, so I'm trying to keep that in mind for stuff like this (not just in the penciling, but the coloring as well).

Two on a Bench

It's been seven years ago this past week and I'm still mad as hell about you Erika.

Snake Based Logo Design

For my good friend Grayson's new reptile company "Rock & Roll Reptiles." Go ask him all the questions about Tegus you'd ever want to ask. It was fun doing a logo like this, I don't always have the opportunity to play around with font styles like that.

A Kind Gesture

"Such a kind young man, taking me across the street."

Backpacks

Phileas being silly. Really did not originally intend on coloring this one so intensely, but it gives it a nice feeling.

Beaver Knitting A Sweater

Don't have much to say about this one, it's pretty much what it is.

Gregor (Colored)

Went back and added color to this. His name is Gregor and he's a fairly important character in my current story. I'll post some drawings of ancillary characters from his species a little later on.

Freeloader

         
         I feel like I'm finally trying to see this idea through to completion with these paintings and animations. Once I find a good stretch of time, I'll be able to post the stuff from my comic. This was originally a small drawing, but it felt like it deserved more attention as a painting. The original sketch had a nice charm to it, so I tried to keep the feeling of it intact in the final product.

Sleepy Phileas

I was finally able to go back and finish this. Just a short vignette of a character from one of my stories.

Animation and Music - Dax Schaffer
Swamp Sounds by klankbeeld: freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/151236/
Swamp Frogs by Tomlija: freesound.org/people/Tomlija/sounds/99193/

Viscachas

Shanti and Phileas on a trip through some Andean landscape. Might end up being a cover somewhere down the line.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! Watercolor picture for my mom. Stupid camera, didn't take a very good picture of it. Hope mothers everywhere had a wonderful day (and everybody else too, I guess).

Doris Ermantrude Jenkins

My sculpt for Doris! This will really help me out with the animation I'm going to be doing of her. Her character has changed quite a bit since the first design, but all for the better, I think. Below are some story sketches for the opening sequence.

Sunken Robot

Might do a short film with some artistic acquaintances. My friend Ryan drew an image of a robot trapped at the bottom of the ocean and it inspired me to do my own take on it. Will our piece be about technology stranded in an aquatic wasteland...or something else? Nobody knows, the possibilities excite me.

Be at Peace Coco

My dearest cat, Coco Loco (primarily known as Fatty and sometimes Queen of Sheeba) just passed away after 18 long years. I really cannot even begin to state how struck I am by the fact that she is no longer here. When an animal has been there to comfort you and be by your side throughout most of your life, it's basically the same feeling to me as having lost a dear relative. She was a kind cat, never caused any problems and fought hard against kidney failure until the very end of her life. She even stayed alive for three months longer than any vets were estimating her to. I know that I really should be happy that she lived such a long and uninterrupted life, but I still can't help but feel an incredible emptiness from her now being gone. She was well loved, will be dearly missed, and will never be forgotten for the rest of my life. Be at peace old girl.

Farm Fresh - Series 1

So....this started probably about 6 months ago. Erika had been scribbling some pictures of birds while we were talking about another project. I said to her that the bird looked like a carrot, to which she responded "....It's a carrot-chicken!" (Or chicken carrot, I really don't remember). Little did she know what that simple comment was about to yield. I immediately sat down and drew the line-art for said carrot chicken in my own style and colored it later that night. This piece has been haunting me for some time, because it has periodically been called one of the best things I've ever done by all the people I've shown it to. A representative for Disney even told me that I probably shouldn't show it to anyone, because she thought it was such a good idea (I'm not sure about that, but it was a huge complement). It recently occurred to me that I may have been on to something and that it truly deserved some companions. So here are the humble beginnings of whatever madness I have started. More of these soon to come.

Strike 3 Character Designs

Here are some character designs I've been working on for a story called "Strike 3." Still a work in progress, there are going to be a number of characters in a prison lineup for the final image. Below, I've included a work process line for the character on the right to show a little more on how I go about creating images. The first one was an initial sketch, followed by a new (and more complete) rough that matched more clearly what my client was thinking. Since the sketch was digital, I then printed it out so that I could properly ink it, which became the following image. I then scanned it back in and colored it digitally, which gives you the finished version.

Colored Starblaster Studios Header

Finally got around to coloring my header. I had forgotten how much of this image was going to be in the coloring. I sort of just kept seeing the line art as a finished version, without realizing that my mind was automatically filling in the rest of the impact. Pretty happy with how it came out.

It occurred to me while looking through Buck Rogers comics and old space men images, that in the 1930s, when people were trying to visualize the concept of an astronaut, they basically just latched onto the look of aviation pilots at the time. I guess it was only logical that if pilots dressed like that while flying planes, then they would dress similarly while flying space ships. Fairly ingenious actually, I'm now led to wonder what our image of astronauts would be if Nasa had garbed our men and women in brown, old aviation colored space suits.

Owl Sketching Time

I was obsessed with Snowy Owls over the weekend for some reason. Came up with a bunch of different designs and I'm fairly happy with the more finished one on top. Really love it when an animal's eye color stands out over everything else.

The Wild Bitchen

"The Wild Bitchen" is a majestic beast, often found fluttering one foot off of the ground in a slightly listing-manner. It does this as a desperate attempt to escape the reach of its many predators. Its name comes from the distinctive cry it makes at all hours of the day, "Biieeeoooootch Beotch, Bitch-Bitch."

In The Papers!

Extra, extra! Best friend of mine gets drawn unwittingly!
Shameful secrets discovered by all who knew him.

Gypsy Lady

Done from a charming old photo of a gypsy lady I found.
Turned out sort of Hobbit-ish. Had a lot of fun with her expression.

Father and Daughter

Finally did something for myself recently. I found this very charming image of a father holding his daughter in a documentary I was watching, so I was compelled to re-create it. Thought I might share.

Erika's Blip-Blop Adventures, Part 1

Kitty Warm Ups!

Nice to wake up to some sleeping kitties, perfectly posing for you.

There's something very serene about a sleeping cat, makes you wonder sometimes about why you're bothering to wake up at all, they look so content.

I've had Fatty (to the right) for about 18 years of my life, and she's getting very old now. I have no idea how much longer she'll be around for.



Well, at least she's here for now, still posing for some silly drawings.

Dejo is also lazy.... I find it interesting how different cats can be in behavior. I never see Dejo sleeping the way Fatty does, he's more like a mountain lion or something. A majestic beast.