Noble Hospital Ball - Rock Star Art

Earlier this year I was contacted by a representative from Noble Hospital (a non-profit organization) in Springfield, MA. Every year Noble Hospital has a themed ball fundraiser to help raise money for something the hospital desperately needs.

Somehow, they found my blog and came across my Family Rock Star piece. They then reached out to me and inquired if I would be willing to contribute a piece to their ball being held in November 2014.

I was honored they asked me to be apart of something like this. Since this year's theme was Noble Hospital ROCKS The Noble Ball 2014 I decided to look close to Springfield, MA for inspiration.

I knew I wanted my "Rock Star" piece to come Massachusetts (specifically Boston) since that is close to home for the hospital that contacted me. After doing some research the three finalists were; The Cars, Aerosmith, and (of course) Boston.

I got into Aerosmith in high school and during the design faze I really enjoyed working with their characters. After further exploration and nostalgic enjoyment I focused the design towards Aerosmith.

Here is the piece I submitted to this year's Noble Ball. It is a digital painting but I had it printed on a wrapped textured canvas. I really enjoyed working on this and I hope it does well in their auction. You can see the piece in their auction page HERE. When Meg sent me this link it was fun to see it amongst their other auction pieces!

 

For more information about Noble Hospital Ball check out these links. 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nobleball
Website: http://www.noblehospital.org/news-and-events/noble-ball.html
Auction: https://qtego.net/qlink/noblehealth

Rocket Racoon

Wanted to keep practicing my traditional skills and enjoyed the character, so why not do something fun with both?! Rock-et-Roll!

Tyler Kakac - Rocket Racoon from Tyler Kakac on Vimeo.

Splinter Shot Progression

I put together the progression of a shot I got to animate of Splinter from Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is the first shot I got to animate of a TMNT main character when I first started at Nick. Enjoy!

Storyboard by the talented Byron Penaranda.

Tyler Kakac - TMNT Splinter Shot Progression from Tyler Kakac on Vimeo.

Updated Demo Reel!

Got some personal and work animation together and the result is an updated demo reel! The personal work is from the time I spent at AnimSquad. Follow the link to learn more. It was an amazing learning experience and inspirational to my growth as an artist. I'm planning a separate post about my time spent at AnimSquad but for now here's what I've been working on.

 

Tyler Kakac - Character Animation Reel from Tyler Kakac on Vimeo.

SpongeBob Bounce About

Since working at Nickelodeon, I haven't had the opportunity to work with SpongeBob or the Bikini Bottom crew. It's hard to see a 3 foot LEGO statue of SpongeBob at work and not want to help out on the show. So I decided to try it on my own and have a little fun at the same time. Plus practice is always a plus. Here is a short, simple, and, hopefully, sweet test I did. Enjoy!



I do have other SpongeBob related tales from my time and Nickelodeon that I am eager to share. Hopefully soon!

TMNT: 2nd Season Poster

The second season of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kicked off today. I had the opportunity to work on this press piece for the launch of the second season. One day a co-worker showed me the poster had appeared on Nickelodeon's twitter feed.

These assignments are fun but we aren't always sure how they are intended to be used. I can't believe one season has already passed. Be sure to keep watching!

Here's an article that IGN produced covering season two's premier. There is even a sneak peak with Casey Jones.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/26/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-season-2-premiere-date-announced-by-nickelodeon

The Adventures of Miles and Doug

Not too long ago some good friends of ours welcomed a new member into their family: a baby boy titled by the name Miles. Miles father and I go back to the early days of high school and I couldn't be happier for him, his wonderful wife, and their two pugs.

This project was an absolute blast. My friend's sister, my wife, and I worked together to come up with a unique and special gift for their growing family. We were imagining adventures a little boy and his dog would have that is unique to my friend and his family. We knew one of their dogs, Doug the Pug, had to have quite an influential role in our designs. After we came up with the four themes for the canvases, I threw open my sketchbook. Here is a page from my sketchbook where I thumbnailed ideas for the fishing, Star Wars, biking, and the music designs.

When I had locked down my ideas the painting process began. I loved putting my paint brushes to work again and I really enjoyed doing this project traditionally. Thanks goes out to my wife for all the great pictures you took to document this gift. Please feel free to check out more of her work here. ~ ElahTree ~

 

 

The final paintings. I am truly blessed to know this family and am excited to see all the continued adventures of Miles and Doug the Pug.

Rest well Miles and Doug. Many more adventures await.