When badass meets business...cards.

Just finished a commission business card design.  Thought I'd share!! It's a little different style for me, but I learned a lot about inking and coloring in a more comic book / caricature-ish style.  Lesson here - even after 9 years of art education, there is always WAY more to learn.  I hope you enjoy!

How I've been spending my free time...

Hey all!  I'm excited to say I have gotten back into watercolor painting. :)  Here are some of my new little paintings/experiments.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

I wanted to start experimenting more with quaint-ish looking buildings.  So far, I have this cottage...

...and this Irish stone building.  Next step is pushing the shapes and making it look more wonky, which I have a lot of fun doing with paper cut outs.  So that will be happening in the near future. 

And the next 2 quick paintings are of one of my favorite treats - MACAROONS!!  Since I won't let myself eat them 24/7, I figure the next best thing is to paint them.  These were a lot of fun to do and I think it's safe to say that I will be painting more soon.  They're too cute not to!! <3

MY STUDENT FILM IS ONLINE!!

Apologies for the delay, but I finally uploaded my student film "A Rescue on Planet Earth" to Vimeo.  So we can all watch it! Yay!!  It took 2 semesters to complete, but I did it and I'm super proud of it.  So what are you waiting for!  Watch it now!! And tell your friends! And Enjoy!! :)  Click here: A Rescue On Planet Earth

24 Hour Animation Contest Submission

Below is the stop-motion animation my team (Shout out to the Warriors!) and I did for the 24 Hour Animation Contest.  It was our explanation of why the Rover only sent back photos of rocks when it landed on Mars. ;)

Maya Walk Cycle

Here is a walk cycle I did for my computer animation class.  I am pretty proud of this one even though it's only a few seconds long because it was the first thing I had ever animated in Maya.  :D

More art!!

Here are some of the stills from my Computer Animation class -

 Above are stills from my midterm project - which was to create a space or still life in Maya.  I chose to do my version of Tinker Bell's home.  The clock she lives in is modeled after Big Ben in London (obviously it's a lot smaller here), there are bells, a Peter Pan Peanut Butter labeled can, a Tiger Lilly flower, an acorn and thimble (kiss), and curtains made out of a map of Neverland. In the end... after the challenges and late nights... I had a lot of fun with this project.

Below are stills from my final short film where we had to bring an inanimate object to life and have it overcome an obstacle to reach a goal.  My umbrella (modeled after Mary Poppins' umbrella) wants to save the tricycle from getting rusty.  The umbrella must battle the wind in order to get to its friend.  I will post the video soon.  :)

Hey!! Everyone!!  I'm happy to say that I can finally post some artwork!! Some of these are school assignments, some are commissions or gifts, and others are just me having some fun.  Enjoy!

Recently I got into creating paper compositions, taking them into photoshop, and adding some effects and line-work.  No matter what I draw, I always default to my favorite place - the beach. <3

The series below was a study on simplified compositions, and a focus on patterns, line work, and color.  Needless to say, it was a lot of fun!

"A Rescue on Planet Earth"

Below is some of the concept work for my short, "A Rescue on Planet Earth."  I elected to do a film for my senior project as opposed to a special studies in storyboarding or concept art - because I love every aspect of the animation process and wanted to challenge myself.  I will be posting my film as well very soon!

Here is a Mary Blair inspired painting of my alien character creeping into Timmy's bedroom.

Some character development and final turn-arounds for my alien (who's name is too hard for humans to pronounce).

The design page for "Timmy" (named after my dad), along with some poses.

Character development for "Nemesis" the Robot Toy. 

PROPS!

These are just some fun paper designs.. 

Vehicles!

Trees!

Environments!

Now we can dive a little deeper into what I learned from the CSULB Illustration/Animation department...

Biomedical Rendering

The skull was done with only a black colored pencil. The Jellyfish and Abalone Shells were done using grey-scale markers and colored pencil. 

Self Portraits

Using oil, charcoal, and watercolor..

Acrylic painting of my muse..

Gestures... So many gestures..

These are just a few of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of gestures I've done for class.

Life Drawing

This drawing is one of my personal favorites.  I missed the first day of this pose and knew I would have to find a spot in back of the class.  Imagine my surprise when I came into class and this was the pose and lighting.  Not typical for a life drawing class..

Anatomy

Apologies for the low quality and poor lighting.  The photos of these life-sized skeleton/muscle drawings were taken during critique from a friends cell phone.   

Character Design

These characters were my first ever attempt at character design.  It was definitely a struggle going from years of life drawing classes to try and make something original and not anatomically correct.  This is where I first started using cut-paper as a main source for design... and was my first real break-through in figuring out a personal style for my artwork.

CSULB Annual 24 Hour Animation Contest

I took the lead in my group when it came to designing a "Rover" puppet for our animation.  We ("The Warriors") were the only group who took on the challenge of doing an experimental paper cut out animation for the contest.  I will post this video as well!

Illustration B

Mash-Up: Lady Gaga / Lautrec Moulin Rouge Poster

A few more illustrations.. 

Wedding Invitation!

The original painting for my brother's beach-themed wedding invitation.. And yes they were expecting!  

Watercolor

Lighting studies - morning, afternoon and night

Still-Life and In-Class paintings.

Illustrations

Some homework assignments..

"Scissors" Series - Probably the biggest challenge for me in this class.  We had to take one inanimate object (draw them unaltered in the place of characters and backgrounds) and tell a story in five frames.

"Pied Piper" - The assignment was to tell the story in three frames, and we could do ANYTHING we wanted.  What better place to show the massive amounts of children, and then the absence of massive amounts of children, than Disneyland - where they are everywhere!

Almost ready

Well, I did it!! DONE with school! And now that I've had a little free time, I have had a chance to edit some of my work.  So hold tight, my art will be posted within the week!!

The Dawning of a New Era..

Hey world!

This is my first blog post... ever.  And although I have no artwork to share with you yet (because I need to photograph my work), I thought I could introduce myself.  So here it goes..

My name is Sarah Clayton-Rico and I am graduating from CSULB this Spring with a BFA in Animation.  I have been happily married for almost 2 years now to a wonderful man who makes me laugh every day.  I currently work for a web series on YouTube called WellCast doing animation and story boarding, I have been teaching kids art classes for the past 5 years, and work at the Torrance YMCA.  These jobs have been amazing and have taught me a lot throughout the years, but my dream job would be to work for Disney or Dreamworks.  So that is my plan - to work my booty off to make the best artwork possible, and impress some people.

So I guess we will see what happens....