Zak Kinsella

Gathering of the Clouds Shirts

2012-02-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

Hey, so if you're a local to the Denver area you can buy my shirts and enjoy some kick ass music at the end of February at the 2012 Gathering of the Clouds!

The band Overcasters hired me on to do some tshirts for their kick ass band to debut at The Gathering of the Clouds happening here in Denver on Feb. 23-25th. So like I said, if you're local come on down and get trashed, listen to some great music and buy some shirts! I know you want my sexy skulls on your chest... mmmm sexy.

My buddy Nick's band Glass Homes is the ONLY band that was chosen to return this year so yeah - get on down and see them too!

So here's the goods!

Instagram O Rama vol. 1

2012-01-31T03:46:00.001-08:00

So anyone who follows me on the twitter (@zakkinsella oh you didn't know?!) knows I love that Instagram! If you're a user it's pretty easy to find me - my handle is ZakKinsella. Incredible I know. Right, so here's a bunch of Instagram pics of works in progress and stuff I never post on the site here. It'll be fun like that. I've grown a bit of a following from the Suicide Girls on there so you may see a few familiar faces if you're familiar with the site. I also did a gang of Royal Rumble sketches this past weekend... So enjoy and like I said feel free to look me up if you use Instagram!
Zak

Dawned on Me

2012-01-28T00:56:00.000-08:00

Wilco - Dawned on Me my buddies and I saw Wilco last week & we proceeded to get into a crazy adventure afterwards. That's beyond the point - their new video is done in the old Max Fliescher studios Popeye cartoons. SO AWESOME! That style is one of my huge influences - don't ever get me talking about Fliescher Studios' Superman cartoons... oh manzies!

So I've updated a few things on here. I'm in the middle of designing an actual portfolio site (God help me, please!) but for now I like having a blogfolio. ANYCRAP... a couple of different things:

To your right you'll see a new portfolio button. She's part of a series I haven't had the time to color yet - but they'll be part of my cheeky little flip book I plan on printing this year. Here's the bigger version:

And this is an updated cover for In The Land Of Lunatics. I recolored it from the ground up and I can't wait to see it printed. It's done! I so can't wait to have this published! It's gonna be a really fun book - Shane is writing up some great ideas and I get to go nuts with creating a whole post apocalyptic world on my own. YEAH!

Anyways, I hope the world is treating y'all well!
Much love.

Zak

One Last Zombie

2012-01-24T05:16:00.000-08:00

Yacht - Psychic City (Voodoo City)

Anyone who has known me for a decent amount of time knows I draw a kick ass zombie. Anyone who has been around me also knows that I've gotten amazingly bored with it as the entirety of pop culture won't shut the hell up about them. So this year I decided to forego my typical seasonal undead commissions... except for one. It was for an old friend who wanted her son to be zombiefied and well, I can't resist the kind of fun of goring up a 10 year old! So here ya go - I liked how it came out in black & white too so I posted that as well.

Itchy. Tasty.

Zak

Today's the day to say "Hands off our Internet" to the entertainment industry!

2012-01-18T00:56:00.000-08:00

Since I'm no HTML master I'm just gonna lay it out for ya through some links and put out my honest feelings on SOPA and PIPA for the blackout today.

A guy whom I admire greatly, Matthew Inman from The Oatmeal did it up http://theoatmeal.com/sopa and it's a great example.

Wikipedia among many other sites are down today in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills. They're broad bills which in the long run will have the opposite effect what what they're trying to accomplish. When companies like Google, Mozilla, The Huffington Post, and Wikipedia stand up against these bills I tend to listen. I listen even more when none of it is uttered on Fox News, CNN or a lot of other major media outlets.

With that in mind this will irrevocably change our internet, and it's exactly what our Congress rails against when a country like China or Egypt put out legislation like this. But it's bought Congress running this legislation through via companies like the MPAA and RIAA using lobbies to push this through so they can have the control. And when it's lobbied hard you know Congress LOVES to roll over. And that's just wrong in my eyes. I don't advocate piracy, but this is a huge over reaction from these companies. Companies that tried to sue for the first VCR and MP3 players. Companies that pull down YouTube videos of a child playing because there was a song playing in the background on the tv. And you want these people in control of EVERYTHING posted on the Internet? Really? This is madness, and I'm about to show you exactly why.

I have an excellent link that will break it down for you here; more eloquently than I can:

The Problem with SOPA

And here's a quick look at how this will effect the comics community:
Comics Alliance - The Danger of SOPA to Comic Books and You.

And finally just an interesting read From Whil Wheaton's blog:
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has looked at tomorrow’s “Internet blackout” in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)—and it sees only a “gimmick,” a “stunt,” “hyperbole,” “a dangerous and troubling development,” an “irresponsible response,” and an “abuse of power.”

“Wikipedia, reddit, and others are going dark to protest the legislation, while sites like Scribd and Google will also protest. In response, MPAA chief Chris Dodd wheeled out the big guns and started firing the rhetoric machine-gun style.

“Only days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parties to work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging.”

To which Wheaton replies:

Can I interrupt for a moment? Thanks. When you complain that opponents didn’t “come to the table to find solutions”, do you mean that we didn’t give NINETY-FOUR MILLION DOLLARS to congress like the MPAA? Or do you mean that we didn’t come to the one hearing that Lamar Smith held, where opponents of SOPA were refused an opportunity to comment? Help me out, here, Chris Dodd, because I’m really trying hard to understand you.

That's the gist of their corruption. 94 Million dollars from just the MPAA to push this through and bar opponents speaking during the ONLY hearing. That's not democracy, that's blatant thug tactics. That's China and North Korea. You can read more on his blog and I think it's an excellent call out of these over reaching thugs posing as corporations, lobbies and government.

So in conclusion here's some great links that I think will help inform and help you to get in contact with Congress to show your disapproval of this bill.

A list of companies supporting it.

A huge list of companies that oppose this bill.

Congressmen who support SOPA and how much money in donations they received to support it:

Sopa Infographic

First Amendment Legal Analysis and Implications of SOPA

Stanford Law Professors React to SOPA and PIPA

Infographic: What SOPA Means for Business and Innovation

FAQ: How SOPA Would Affect You

Video: What is PIPA and how will it affect you?

So after all that? Get involved!
Take Action Checklist to Stop Censorship

Wikipedia's Instructions How to Contact Your Congressman.

Yeah, I'm vehemently against this bill. As an artist and an American this is another step to trashing my civil liberties. I'm sorry if you don't see this for the corporate grab that this is, so feel free to disagree, but I don't feel right about this and I'm saying so. This isn't an end to piracy, this just the entertainment industry forcing their hand and I won't have it.

Thank you for your time, and understanding!

HANDS OFF MY INTERNET.

Way Busy

2012-01-02T02:24:00.000-08:00

The Black Keys - Run Right Back - I can't stop playing this album! SO FRESH!

I'm going to be ridiculously busy in the coming months. I am working on three different books in addition to my freelance work. Like right now I'm working on 60 t-shirt designs for a California shirt company... I'll sleep in August, maybe.

I also made an actual resolution of sorts this year... I'm going to Paris come hell or high water. It's been way too long since I've been out of the country & it was either that or Tokyo. So hopefully by this time next year I'll have a sketchbook full of beautiful women I've drawn at a bunch of different cafes. Romantic and crap!

Anyways, I can't post those yet so here's the banner I did for my timeline banner thing on FB. I had just seen The Adventures of Tin Tin and man I LOVE Herge's work. So I wanted to go back to doing stuff with those heavy blacks again.

I also did another one of me being lazy and NEVER defending the castle from a dragon but I didn't like the background as much. Plus I finally trimmed up so I don't look like a Medieval ruffian anymore. Just a modern day ruffian.

Yeah, I enjoyed drawing weird crap for my FB profile. It's a nice break from everything else on my plate... which you'll be hearing more about quite soon!

I hope everyone had a great New Years and Christmas. I was drunk off cake. So much cake....

Much love!
Zak

Ever Lasts Forever.

2011-12-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

I miss having music titles for my blog - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Soft Shock

Here's a little freelance work I did for a local company. Pretty rad gig, and it was a lot of fun. I did three different backgrounds and I think they all came out quite well! Plus the client was happy so nothing wrong with that! I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season.

peace
zak

TShirt Designs at Threadless

2011-12-01T15:24:00.001-08:00

SO, you hopefully know the drill by now! I've submitted TWO designs into Threadless and YOU can vote on it to make it a reality! So click the links below, hit a five and click on the notify me box on the right... I will love you forever if you do! And don't be shy, let me know what you think!

And here is the full design. Clicken to Embiggen.

Here's the second one!

Space Splatter

2011-12-01T11:01:00.001-08:00

Another violent space girl picture. I'm thinking of collecting all of these into a Cowgirls and Spacegirls illustration booklet.

Arthas The Lich King

2011-11-30T09:20:00.001-08:00

Black and White with ink wash commission of The Lich King from the World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3 series. Easily one of WOW's best villains.

Some "In the Land of Lunatics" Pages

2011-10-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a book pitch with the awesome Shane Houghton of Reed Gunther fame for the past month and I thought I would show you guys some of the promo material I have going into it! These are a few random pages and a promo image/future cover. I think you'll dig it when we get to release it!

So yeah I've been a busy bee! There's quite a few more pages but... well... spoilers as River likes to say!

God bless,

Zak

Working on a book...

2011-09-08T14:12:00.001-07:00

So just a quick update.... I've been incognito because I'm working on a book. A secret sexy book. But anyways here's a little preview. More to come soon!

Hope everyone is well!
Zak

Coloring a Balrog

2011-06-20T00:51:00.000-07:00

So after a bit of time my colors of the Lord of the Rings illustrations I was hired to do have been approved and as I finish them out I'll be posting them here. I'll be posting both b&w and color versions so you can see how it all went down.

Smote His Ruin Colors by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Smote his Ruin by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Remembering the Macho Man

2011-05-29T00:55:00.000-07:00

Macho Man Randy Savage by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

No music cue for this entry. I just thought I would reminisce a little about one of my favorite wrestlers of all time; The Macho Man Randy Savage aka Randy Poffo. He passed away from a heart attack last Friday & thinking back on it all this week I can definitely say I lost a big part of my childhood. I just wanted to draw something that would give an adequate homage to one of my favorites. I did the color as just his famous pink that he'd wear to the ring. Almost did the whites in the yellow he wore with it but decided against it.

For as long as I can remember I've loved wrestling. I've had my years of drifting in and out of it but I always remember Savage's era fondly as watching it with my Dad and brother. Then getting worked up and wrestling with Dad in the living room or on the bed. Much to Mom's chagrin. I was 6 years old when the first Wrestlemania happened and the same age when Randy debuted in the WWF. I'm trying to pick out all the stuff I concretely remember because I also have a lot of nerdy stuff like GI Joe, Transformers and Voltron clogging up those memories.

It's funny, with my Dad we always watched WWF. And when I went down to visit my uncles in Lubbock we always watched NWA. I got more figure four leg locks there than I care to remember!

But getting back to Randy I just really remember him standing out sooooo well. Throughout his entire career the man stood out. But especially in the 80s. That insane voice. How he opened so many promos with his back to the camera. The weird color choices that no other wrestler would run with (well aside from Flair and maybe Valentine. Oh and Rick Martell... maybe). Plus I just remember Savage being quick! In the era of the big, lumbering slow men Randy brought the speed. And of course Ms. Elizabeth. Oh manzies... it was so insane that he had a female manager. I loved that they built up to her with all the male managers courting Randy. That was just an awesome angle! Just the intensity... so amazing, slightly making no sense but amazing intensity. Time distortion anyone?

What I think really made me actually bummed out & sad about all of this is the fact that Savage was so engrained in my childhood. I mean, these days you just get numb to the fact that wrestlers die way too often. I don't even want to think about how many of these guys have died due to substance abuse - mainly from issues stemming from back pain. Falling on your back often most days of the year no matter if there is a mat or not is going to make your back hurt a lot. I know, I've seen it - especially when we used to run Fusion here in Colorado. You'd see how guys would walk after that adrenaline wears off. So sadly you kind of get used to it. But with Randy it's different... I was just reading how his brother was saying that he was happy, newly remarried and how he'd never return to the ring again. But man was I ever hoping to see him one last time at a Hall of Fame induction or something along those lines. So hearing that he's happy and living his own life after this amazing career... it's kinda just nice to hear about something finally ending nicely for a wrestler.

But no one really walks off into the sunset, and life is tough like that. But what I can say is that I was always entertained by Randy and will continue to. The day I heard he died I came home and watched hours of videos of his on YouTube and his WWE dvd. It was great then, and it's still great today. He's had amazing runs with virtually all of my favorite wrestlers and I can faithfully say that I was entertained by every one of those feuds. Especially the big Flair feud. And the amazing Michaels match that followed after the Wrestlemania finish. I could go on and on, but I think I'll let what I've said above be the extent of it.

Heartbreaking.

R.I.P. Macho Man Randy Savage and thank you. Check out the WWE video below if you haven't seen it and you'll know what I mean.

We're Gonna Burn This City!

2011-05-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

I thought a little Franz Ferdinand was only appropriate for this post. I come to you this week with a four page short story I did for my boy Dave Hendrick for an anthology comic he'll have printed up for your lovely consumption at Heroes Con weekend after this one! I was really super stoked and flattered that he asked me to put my work in on one of his stories. And I'm especially excited that it involved carnage in the form of SPACE BUGS! Man, I love drawing two things... shit from space and robots from the future.

Also The Macho Man Randy Savage (R.I.P. Macho!)

SO without any more rambling here are my four pages. Get ready for carnage! Glorious glorious carnage!!

The Look PG 1 by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

1st page... The only page I took a more subtle tone to. I wanted it to stand a part from the other three.

The Look PG 2 by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

The Look PG 3 by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

The Look PG 4 by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Mmmmm... love those blood splatters! I found some pretty amazing zipatone splatter brushes and I was pretty stoked for that. I think using that with my toned down colors really made the reds pop! And therefore making the carnage oh so much more awesome! What can I say? I love the gore... I like that a lot of people don't expect it when they see a style like mine and I find that super awesome. When Dave first saw the alien taking out one guy's jaw he said "WOW! You weren't kidding when you said you were going all out with the gore!" hahaha nope! Rock n' roll baby!!

What can I say? This was a lot of fun & I really hope to do more in the future. But for now I'm finally going to be able to focus on my webcomic, Tokens Only. You'll be seeing a lot more of that in the next couple of months!

Hope all is well & God Bless!
Zak

Get yourself to bed, blow out that cherry bomb!

2011-05-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

I could listen to Spoon's You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb all night tonight.

Music always makes my mind swim. I love drawing to it, and I thought I'd do more sketchbook crap to post. Kept this to the entirety of the above song, and I love being scribbly. I loves the motion, you see.

Anyways, I got nothing else. Just wanted to say I love Spoon and drawing way too much.
God bless
zak

I Wonder If She Fancies Me, Yeah.

2011-05-11T23:42:00.000-07:00

At The Indie Disco! That's my song lyric/ blog title of the night for ya... nothing wrong with a little brit pop from one of my favorites; The Divine Comedy. Always love Neil's songs, oh yes.

No City Page 9 by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

So there's that! It's a page from NO CITY that I was hired on to draw late last year. I got the ok to post one page since, ya know, it's yet to be published. I believe the book will be published by October of this year. Radical! There's no colors to this even though I did color it. I honestly hate putting out anything older than, well, a few minutes really but I wanted to put up some actual comic work. Man I love comics!

Um, so in other news I have decided to hook up with Hire an Illustrator! to help promote my work. And it's been working pretty well so far! I don't think I have to tell a lot of you that self promotion on top of doing the work and a full time job is a relentless onslaught. I've been working myself to the bone so I decided to finally get a helping hand. So hopefully this will lead to more time drawing and drinking beer on patios. More so the latter if I have my way! Oh beer, I do love you. Uh... yeah so you can see My Page and if you'd be so kind as to click like I'd love you forever.

Trust!
God keep ya
Zak

When I live in the newer places I'll make sure I'm further from you.

2011-05-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

As always, starting off with a song lyric for the title. Toro Y Moi - Minors I got to see them at the end of last year. Awesome band... fitting mood music for how I'm feeling these days. Give'em a listen.

So I don't often post sketches... I dunno, my sketchbook is kind of my own personal idiot mess. And no, it's not full of naked women and creepy things... Just a place for ten ideas that I like and a hundred thousand more that I don't. Plus I go there when I'm mad or sad and no one wants to see sad bastard art. Cause really, there's enough of that bullshit in galleries out there.

Anyways, personal sketchbook rant aside, when I went to the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco I had a little change in heart about my sketchbook material being public. To me it's super cool to see people who I consider my betters to be throwing their unstructured work out there. The original sketches for Mickey Mouse and the Snow White movie are amazing to see up close. So maybe I can update this more, and when I don't feel like they suck - post some sketches. I said earlier this year that any good artist is full of self loathing, and my sketchbook is a lot of that. But what the hell, people have asked me before so here ya go. I didn't doctor or clean anything up so this is just raw crap from the book.

I've been watching the new Avenger cartoon, and I gotta say it's pretty cool. I may come back to this idea later, but you get the idea. It's the Bruce Banner / Hulk thing. I really like Edward Norton Banner so that's what he looks like. And hopefully not Hulk giving him an awkward poke... I really don't do a lot of superhero stuff because I've lost a lot of love for that genre. I just want to be able to do my own stories, but this show is great & it's brought back a little bit of that love. Plus the style is akin to my own so that's quite nice indeed.

The next couple of sketches are redesigns of my Tokens Only characters. Still sorta messing around with his hair.

I was trying something new with the main character while still trying to keep the John Cusack look to him. He kinda looks too smug for the style I've laid out for the character. But I kinda do like the hair. Mmmmmmm 80s Mullet.

I'm definitely finishing this one up! I LOVE Akira... and I've always wanted to do an Akira piece. If you've never seen the movie or read the books you're an idiot. Just kidding, I love you, but do see the movie. It's, well, weird but still awesome. Our buddy Tetsuo here is one of the main characters. Not sure if I like how his big robo arm blob is coming along tho.

The next couple of images are all Star Wars : The Clone Wars style. I'm a little obsessed with the show and I put my portfolio in with LucasArts recently cause I would kill to work on this show.

LUKE. He looks a little like the Anakin from the Clone Wars... but I think they should totally do a post JEDI series about the continuing adventures of Luke, Han, Chewie and Leia. Because honestly Clone Wars is pretty damn good... way better than the prequel movies IMO. His proportions are a little wonky... I was focusing more on the style.

Another Luke Skywalker. I wanted to make him more individual and well I fell on my fat face doing it. He looks a little too femme here. But I like his pissed off Return of the Jedi look the best.

And if I get my way there will be a Sam Elliot : Western Jedi. Yes that is the Great State of Texas on his Lightsaber, why do you ask? Tell me this wouldn't be badass!? "Draw yer saber, ya sumbitch!"

And now we get to my favorite part of what I need to work on. Women. I am pretty particular about the women I draw. I don't like fan service (dem big ol' titays) because honestly there's enough horned up dudes drawing crazy huge boobs for other horned up dudes. And I guess I'm just numb to it really. Gerhard and I were talking about this tonight... I just think -personally- women are more attractive how I manage to see them day to day, and I tend to take notice of more subtle things. I know that sounds arrogant as hell, but I'm alright with it. So with that in mind here are some of the lady sketches I've actually liked lately.

I will admit I like the hair in the face thing a lot. The uneven look is not only fun to draw but literally makes my willpower go to 0% ... I've also been working more with the eyes... I'll admit it, eyes are what grab me.

I was more so messing around with the hands on this one. She kinda has that Mary Jane from the Spider-Man books thing down. Lips when people smile drive me a little nuts. I dunno why... but for some reason I like to save that for special occasions.

I caught this girl in a quick sketch at a cafe last week eyeing some dude. I like catching moments like that. And PROTIP: when you're out and about drawing people a) have another sketch ready to cover it up b/c some people do NOT like being drawn haha and b) because of that you get usually just one glance to get the sketch down. It's a fun challenge and keeps your work loose.

And this is a sketch of a lifetime of one of my Tokens characters. I need to start drawing different noses too... I'm getting a little too similar in this sketchbook... anyhoo... I hate two out of the five sketches here. But for weird little reasons. I hate her chin in the last one, and the second one has a way too typical 'hawk for a punker gal. I wanna make her a little more original. But I think I got the early 30s female look alright in the last one.

So there's some sketches for you. I really can't believe you read all of it, so if you did I owe you a dum dum lollipop. Man, I love the mystery ones!

Anyway, I need to go do that sleep thing. Hope you're all well!

God keep ya.

Zak

You saw that only my blood lust could tear us apart.

2011-04-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

Electric Six - Watching Evil Empires Fall Apart
This might be one of my favorite Electric Six songs. I had been listening to them for two months before Nick and I saw them live. And ever since they're on a majority of the time... this is one of their rare, well, semi-serious songs. Usually it's all about nuclear war on the dance floor! See For Yourself! It sure beats listening to Skeletor McHorseface... I mean, Lady Gaga.

Uh, so anyways...

Awhile back I was asked to do a pinup for Moon Girl which you can read about here. It's a pretty fresh little comic book limited series and it's only available online from Comixology & Red 5 comics.

Moon Girl by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

It's been a little while since I did any superhero style comic work, but this is more so 50s crusader stuff so I'm pretty happy how it turned out. She kinda reminds me of The Rocketeer so that was cool. I kept it to three colors. The cream for the highlights works pretty well with blue. Blue's my favorite color and I kinda use it way lots. I actually almost went with light shades of pink, but I didn't want it to come off as girlie girl. The character is a strong female lead, not a Disney Princess. And don't get all salty at me with that comment... they're just two different styles. Both have their merits.

I zipped the blues in the background to create a sense of space and add a little texture. I do love me my zipatone brush in photoshop. Speaking of, photoshop was being a supreme pain in the ass on this one. I used a new brush with a dissolve setting for the colors on the figure and ladder. I literally had to save every couple of minutes because it kept crashing photoshop. >:( I probably need to upgrade to a not so old version of it I guess.

Regardless I'm happy with how it came out. I spent my Easter afternoon finishing her off and it's been raining all day so it's been a good day. Love the rain. I also got to see my Mom for Easter since I spent all of a whole week with Pops in San Francisco. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and talked a lot about conspiracy theories. Haha I love talking about crazy stuff with my mom. She's the best!

Anyways, I hope your Easter was nice and that life is good.
God Keep Ya.
Zak

No Games, No Drama!

2011-04-17T01:18:00.000-07:00

Look, I'm gonna be straight up and just say this post is gonna be mad offensive. So family, friends, impressionable children (really?) just be warned before you roll down this alleyway.

Ok, disclaimer over, let's get to the damn goods! I was hired by the gentlemen that have brought me literally to tears laughing when I listen to their podcast to make some images for their live show in Los Angeles last week. This was kind of a huge honor for me as they're just so on point. Their show is now being produced by some pretty high up big wigs... I don't wanna jinx their jam but it was the biggest thing I've ever been involved in! The podcast is called Uhh Yeah Dude and you should really get on it! It's hilarious... here's a clip:

Ok, so going from there I did 6 out of 18 bumpers for their show. Like I said I was super flattered and these are those bumpers which are like title cards for the segments of their show.

What's Ailing Seth by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Who is Parenting Harder by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Monsterweb by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Jah and his Poetry by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

This Week in Florida by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

I swear, I'm not exaggerating ANYTHING that happened in Florida.

Things Dudes Say Whilst Boning by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Yeah dudes really have been caught saying these things...

I really would go into describing these... but I think they speak for themselves. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and how they were received. As always you can click on the images to see larger versions AND read my comments on each one. The only thing I really wanted to say about them is that I've taken a lot of people's advice and muted my color palette. I went back to classic children's book illustration (haha I know, kind of ironic considering the subject matter) and just kinda had fun with it all.

Anyways, yes offensive images galore but I had fun (even on quick turn around) and I hope to do more with these guys. Their podcast is definitely worth it so give it a listen!

I also just got back from San Francisco, and man I had a blast! I took some much needed time off from, well, everything. I went out with my pops cause I really don't get to see him all that much and we had a pretty awesome time out there. I got stop by both Lucasfilm and Pixar while I was out there and that was fantastic! Loved both places out there, and will definitely be pursuing both of those venues. I'll leave you with one bit of advice if you're in SF soon - go to the Walt Disney Family Museum. It's an AMAZING museum and they have the very first sketches of Mickey Mouse housed there. They also have work from two of my favorite Disney Artsits : Mary Blair and Gustaf Tenggren - seeing their original work was staggering and inspiring. Amaaaaazing work! So seriously, go check that place out if you're out there. Then you can walk to Lucasfilm (!) and go see the Yoda Fountain. Nerdy goodness ;)

That's all I got right now!
Much love
zak

Tokens Only aka I Could Be Happy On My Own

2011-04-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

Franz Ferdinand - Live Alone

I'll be talking a little bit about my comic, Tokens Only, today. It's something I've wanted to get back into for awhile, and I wanted to give a little explanation on it's hiatus.

Tokens Only Strikes Back by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

So here you can see the new promo image from the series. High contrast, muted tones, it's what my art is morphing into. It's weird when you steer your work into new territory. It's actually frightening to venture into unknown places with yourself, and get amazingly overwhelming responses from it. I've been getting a lot of thumbs up approvals from peers and editors. And more work as well & that's the important part. But I've been feeling I wanted a change in my art for awhile, and while it was a little scary to take that dip into the deep end, I'm glad I did. Risk is a good thing kids. Take your chances.

A couple of things: When I started Tokens Only I originally wanted to write something that was akin to Scrubs. I'm not gonna lie, it's my favorite sitcom. It hits all my nerd and emotional buttons in one fell swoop, and it made for a lot of comfort nights when I was going through some rough shit. I still watch the seasons when I get depressed over something. It's literally my comfort food. But the more and more I watch it I realize that while I love it, I want my own book to be it's own thing. I am very much a guy who has gone his own way in life, and I want my work to reflect that. Just look at my work - I could easily conform to making superhero stuff (which is totally fine, I still love me some Batman!) but it's just not me. And that's all I know how to be. But enough wearing my heart on my sleeve...

So I got a great book from my pal Zach called Story and it's helped my writing tremendously. We sat down with the story and he walked me through the story points I had. One of the greatest compliments I've received from him is that I'm a naturally gifted storyteller... man that's awesome! So anyways, when we took these story points down I started to realize I wanted to go deeper and add elements of classic literature character development to my story. While broad comedy with good character development is a great approach (Scrubs) I find myself wanting more.

Tokens Only will still be a Webcomic and free online. The goal will always be for it to be a finite story, and collected into book format though. I have other stories I want to tell, but this is the one I wanted to do first. It's closest to my heart right now. I also will be veering away from traditional webcomic traditions. I'll be on a consistent schedule when work allows, but it's going to be a long form comic. Not in strip form or short arc format. Much love to my webcomic brothers and sisters out there, but the story I wanna tell just doesn't fit into the typical webcomic mold.

A lot of that is what has led to the hiatus. I did have all intentions of launching and updating consistently after NYCC last year but the opportunities I got from that convention were too good to pass up. In that time I've done work for Threadless, Lord of the Rings, Uhh Yeah Dude, 3 independent comic anthologies and I'm working on a short story with my pal Dave Hendrick. But what it really came down to was that I got into a story that wasn't feeling quite right and even though I wrote it out before hand I wasn't happy with it. I refuse to churn out crap just to be productive. Like I've said before... Tokens Only is my heart comic. It's me talking about life through my characters & a lot of my experiences are in this book. I'm not one to really wear my heart on my sleeve all that much, so it's been a challenge but it's what I want to do.

So that's what it is. My goal is to have the book back and going by June and I'm excited to be working on this again finally.

God keep ya,
Zak

I Wish Things Had Started Before They Finished.

2011-03-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

This lyric is from Good Shoes - Wait. They're really everything I want from a band... light pop/punk music with really dark lyrics. It's beautiful, but kinda fucked up ya know? More and more people have been describing my artwork like that... and I LOVE it! What a great compliment! Anyways, give the song a listen: Good Shoes : Wait

Anyways, here's the next Lord of the Rings piece.

This is from the Second movie/ book where Gandalf smotes the ruin of the Balrog on the mountainside. There is a distinct lack of the word "smote" in most things this day. Use it next time you watch a UFC event! But did you know that the Balrog here in particular was the last of it's kind? Yep. I read the Silmarillion and while it was dryer than 20 crackers at once... it was interesting to get some Middle Earth history. Yeah, so I do love me some Tolkien.

Smote his Ruin by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Anyways, Inks and inkwash. I'm going to use some very subtle colors on this one. Which is going to be hard but I really want to get across that they're in the snow and even the fire in these scenes was muted.

So wish me luck!
Zak

While you try to find the lines to speak your mind...

2011-03-08T00:37:00.000-08:00

Continuing my string of angry/miserable musicians streak, this is from a Fiona Apple song.

So anyways, I've been hired on to do Lord of the Rings illustrations as of late. They're progressing well and I got back in touch with an old love of mine : inkwash. Oh man, how great is that stuff?! Seriously, I love it, and coloring over it has given me more freedom to make textures with the pieces I make. Nothing wrong with that. The art director I have seriously likes the work I'm doing and hopefully that'll mean more work from them in the future. So here's the first piece...

Great they have a Cave Troll by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

This is a scene from "The Fellowship of the Ring." In probably the second best scene of the movie a cave troll bursts into The Chamber of Mazarbul which is in the Mines of Moria. Yeah, Tolkien wrote some crazy stuff right? The title of the piece is one of Boromir's best lines in the movie version. So here you have the troll wrecking shit like no one's business and chasing Frodo there. Boromir and Legolas are doing their best to help out. Putting the entire fellowship and the billions of goblins/orcs in there would have made my brain explode. So I concentrated on one hot minute and went with it.

I used a lot of white to really weigh in the impact of the big f'n mace the Troll carries. The inkwash helped with the strong light, and the contrast of the characters and the white hopefully stands out well.

Getting this gig came at a pretty fortunate time because it's kept my mind off of a lot of things. A friend of mine, Dwayne McDuffie passed away on February 21st & he was really the guy who convinced me to go my own way to get into the art industry. He once told me in San Diego that he could tell my heart wasn't into all the superhero stories, but that it also wasn't into the slice of life scene either. He said I have too much fun drawing monsters, aliens and the goofy stuff you see on here. He then told me that I didn't have to bend to the ways of our industry and I could tell my own stories if I really really want it. I never even said a word during all of this - he was just a smart guy and we formed a friendship over the years of me coming to San Diego. So it really sucks losing someone super awesome like that.

And literally right before he died something I was pretty excited about fell apart right out of nowhere. I'm still super confused about it and really don't have any idea what to do about it. The less said, the better... it just really sucks that this & Dwayne passing happened at the same time. That was a rough rough weekend for me.

Finally someone came back into my life... well tried to at least, and as hard as it was I had to keep that door shut. I really can't deal with this person being around me. Too much to ask.

So when they say everything hits at once, they're damn well telling you the truth. Good & bad.

But I'm fortunate enough to have great friends to get my back. Steering this back to the art blog, I was out with my buddy Zach Howard on Friday night. Over way too many beers we got into a long talk about being good artists. All good artists hate themselves and their work. It sounds absolutely insane from someone's point of view that's not an artist - because when you see us create in a way it's like a magic show. We make something out of nothing. But all we see are faults & mistakes. Mind you, there's a great amount of confidence in the work I do. I know I don't suck and I'm on the right road. But when you sit there & look at what you're doing you always see improvement to be made. And it screws with your head. You can be super confident and still hate yourself.

Trust me I've screwed up more than I like to think about. Blown a lot of good opportunities ya know? But being resentful and hating yourself isn't the awful depressing state that it sounds like. The idea is to take that hate for yourself and turn it into productivity. Like, I hate that I draw lines so unevenly - I suck super bad at it & I really hate that I'm super bad at it! So what do I work on? Line quality. Anyways, we just sat around for hours drinking and talking about how self loathing brings out the best in artists. I guess I'm a little more inclined towards that line of thinking right now, but I don't really think it's a bad thing. It was a really motivating discussion & really something I haven't seen eye to eye on with a lot of people. Gerhard and I have talked about being our most productive when we're depressed but I've never talked about how hating myself has always motivated me to do better. Zach and I see eye to eye on that & it was good getting it out. I know it sounds really weird, but it's really the truth of it all. I've been training with him to get into better shape because I hate my body. And always will. I've been becoming a better artist because I hate my art and I want it to be better. But that's the sign of a good artist, so there ya go.

This is a long rant, but a lot has happened to me and my blog has to be good for something.

I hope you're doing well.

Zak

Pioneer to the Falls

2011-02-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

I have been on a serious Interpol kick lately. Don't worry - I'm not going to kill myself or anything. I just seem to want to work a lot harder and get much better when I listen to them while I draw. It's kind of one of those things - their subtlety and sense of foreboding gets me into a mood to really knock it out of the park. So that's what today's stupid blog title is all about. It's the first track off of their third album.

On with it then:

I have a few dope things to show off... mostly in black & white. The first is another zombie commission. I'm planning on closing these off in the future because I'm kind of bored to death of gore & guts (!!) and I just want to move onto different things. Some dudes love drawing this shit - I like a more light hearted feel to my stuff. BUT if I'm getting paid I won't complain too much... haha so anyways they wanted their dogs in this picture as a "family unit" kind of thing. I drew the dogs as I saw them as a kid - utterly terrifying! Man I had the WORST fear of dogs when I was a kid up until, well just a few years back when I got my Basset Hound. She was a great dog... gotta get another one sometime soon. Anyways, so here you go. Dillion, Allison and their three demon dogs from the bowels of hell. For kids!

Allison and Dillon by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

The next item is a b&w version of a pinup I'm doing for a book. Awhile back I did a few pages for my buddy Richard Carbonneau's webcomic Zoroaster. I was the first artist to interpret his character "Atreus" and I grew a bit of a sentimental attachment to the big guy. Being a big guy who gets dicked over kinda sounded way too familiar... Anycrap I jumped the gun a little bit and put together a dope ass pinup for the collected edition that will be coming out... sometime. I dunno when but I wanted to make sure I got to do something for it while my schedule was open. So here he is before I color him:

Atreus Black and White by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

As always you can see bigger versions by clicking the pieces and heading over to my DeviantArt site.

That's probably it for now. I was hired over the weekend to do three Lord of the Rings illustrations for the official website so that will most likely take up the rest of my week and I'll post those as soon as I can.

I hope you're all well!
Zak

I just wanna walk away.

2011-02-03T21:40:00.000-08:00

Most always my blog is titled from some dumb song I'm listening to at the time. This time it's "Fired" by Ben Folds. Oh oh oh oh Fired!! Great song. I used to listen to Ben Folds like a full on mad addict - his songs really described the way I felt throughout my 20s. A lot of that changed when I turned 30 and I just kind of left it behind. They weren't easy years... but it's nice to listen to him now and again. Like reading an old book you love but have out grown. I still respect his storytelling and quirkiness. Like I said, it reminds me a lot of my 20s and all the awful ex girlfriends I've had. Maybe that's why we don't kick it so much anymore.

Anyways, stupid music rant aside, I've been finagling with how I do things in my art universe. I've decided I like black again and well... here's the result.

My Space Picture by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

I had wanted to radically change some things that have been bugging me for a long time. Mostly saturation (by that I mean how pure the color is... IE: solid red) and how it had been dominating the image. I had been using bold lines to counter act that and it had been working well. But dammit if it ain't been bothering me, and I really just wanted a change.

I have learned a lot, and worked a lot this year. So much that it's changed the way I work and do things. I've also been taking more nods from classic illustrators... like H.A. Rey and an old favorite Charles Addams. Plus working with fellow pros helps a lot, especially Zach. He's been the man...

So a quick word about the process - I used a TON of black ink. None of the black is digital - I do that because honestly it makes me feel a bit more accomplished when it's done. Ya gotta want it. The white splatter in the corner was done with ye olde toothbrush flicking technique with white ink. The only thing done digitally is the color. I used an off white - kind of a cream color and a much less saturated blue. Space is always something I've had a love affair with. I stargaze, I watch The Universe on History Channel too much and I'd give up everything to travel into it. But space often feels cold to me, so I chose blue. The white splatter came out looking great as a reflected light source from some unseen star. I ALMOST did a bunch of white dot stars in the background but looking at it now it would have ruined the piece.

I've wanted to also bring back classic magazine illustration and I'm slowly making a little career out of it. I've made some pretty awesome deals out of it for the next year and you'll just have to wait until I can talk more about that in the future.

I've probably blathered on long enough. I just kinda miss using my blog, and I have a huge change coming to it so you won't have to read my rants in long paragraphs... more so in comic format.

God keep ya,
zak

And There You Are.

2011-01-30T17:59:00.000-08:00

I haven't been using my personal site a whole lot because honestly I've been too busy to really get anything up and out there. Most everything I've been working on I can't show off just yet - but everything I'm doing will actually be published by year's end so there's that.

But I can keep you up to date on the things going on in the next few months: Tokens Only will be relaunching as I've decided to dedicate most of my year to that. I'll also be working on some short stories with my friend Dave Hendrick. I've also been talking with a local printer to start making my own designs into tshirts. So yeah, I've been busy and I'll stay busy it looks like.

As for things to show off, I don't have much but there are two Zombie commissions I was able to do during the holidays that I never posted up. There of two coworkers, Valerie and Courtney. Both of which I've owed a zombie shot for some time now.

So I do hope you enjoy!

Val by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Courtney by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

I also don't think I ever posted this, but here's my bowling pin I created for the Luxe DeVil art show this past summer.

Bowwwwwwling Pin by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

As always if you want to know more about the pieces you can head over to http://spicypeanut.deviantart.com where I rant about whatever artistic process I go through. And in all honesty I do hope to start using this site more often. I am planning to start using it expressly as a sketch diary. So I can at least rant creatively and not look like one of those people who uses their social sites way too much.

Also I wanted to mention that a friend passed away this week. Clement Sauvé at the age of 33 lost his life to cancer. He was a brilliant artist, a funny guy and most importantly he was a good friend. For the short part that I knew him he was always kind and we had a very good rapport. I'm honestly saddened beyond all words - and none will ever make up for his loss - but I wanted to mention him as I type this. So raise your glass to one spectacular gentlemen we will be counting amongst absent friends from now on.

Anyways, hope everyone is well
Zak

Tshirt Design

2010-12-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

Alright! So this is my first design for Threadless and I am super pumped! So if you're seeing this do me a favor & click the link above. Scoot your shoes over there and vote for my design! I'll love you for life if you do!

Zak

I've been ignoring you!

2010-11-01T23:28:00.000-07:00

Oh my poor little blog... I've been ignoring you. Mostly because I've been blogging away over on My Deviant Art Account and rattling on with other artists a lot on there post NYC.

I'll give a run down of our days at the New York City Comic Con here real quick:

Thursday Night: Met up with Sean Murphy and partied at his place with his wonderful girlfriend Colleen. We also got to meet his buddy Rob Paolucci and he's one hell of a guy! So all five of us went out to a diner, had a few beers then went 8 stories up to sit on Sean's roof. You could look right out and see The Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan. I wish I had my camera! haha.

Friday: Day one of the Con, coincidentally included the launch of my Web Comic - Tokens Only! I've had some pretty favorable reactions and we had a generally awesome time. Nick and I went out with some of the Eclectic Micks and ended up at another super fresh bar where we met a lot of cool people from Marvel. Great night - stumbled into Times Square around 330 am and had cart food. Then got a cab back to Brooklyn. FINALLY met Richard Carbonneau - and you couldn't find a better writer out there! I was super stoked to see him that night as well!

Saturday: I handed out a metric crap ton of cards and promo stuff for this site and Tokens Only. Hopefully people will be rockin' on that! Actually my Google Analytics says they have so hurrah! Anyways, it was a long day full of sketches and commissions. I talked to a lot of other colorists and swapped tips with them. All around an excellent day. Zach, Nick and I then kinda roamed around NYC - had some great Chinese food and then we ended up spending a few hours in Times Square just cause we were doing the tourist thing. That was cool. Met up with Sean and Rob and went back to Brooklyn afterwards.

Sunday: More of the same at the con. Had a great chat with Tom Fiester and we talked for a long time about my work and what I'm doing right & wrong. Working professionally and still learning - always learning! Heads up on that... keep your mind open. Sunday night? Exhausted from the con we had dinner and just hung out in Brooklyn again most of the night. Great time.

Monday, Nick, Sean and I went to Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. That was great - and we had a good time for most of the afternoon. After that I dropped Nick off at LaGuardia airport & I decided to head into Manhattan by myself. I went to the top of Rockefeller Center and had an amazing look around the city. I also met a wonderful young German woman named Caroline. So hey, Caroline if you're reading this it was a great night! Hope you're well :) So I wandered around the city for awhile after that, got rained on, spent some time at Midtown Comics and then headed back to Queens. Flew back to Denver Tuesday morning.

And here we are. Tokens Only has updated twice since then and here's two of those pieces:

Tokens Only Page 2 by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

and #3

Tokens Only Page 3 by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

The story is progressing quite well. Anyways - hopefully soon you'll be seeing more of my illustration and even more comics work. Hopefully I won't be leaving this site too unguarded! Haha - what I'll be doing is posting more DA blogs on here and so on.

Anyways, thanks and I hope everyone is doing well!
God Bless
zak

The calm before the blog.

2010-10-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

Why hello - glad you could make it back. I barely did after my trip to New York, but I'm more talking about how bloody exhausted I am than anything else. Man I'm wiped - so much that as I tried penciling new pages of Tokens Only I just had to quit about half way through. Ridiculous, I know, but I'm absolutely wiped out. I doubt I got even 10 hours of sleep the whole weekend.

Seriously though I have a lot of sketches and art I did while I was at NYCC and I'll post those tomorrow or the next day along with some tales of my experiences. Manhattan is never a let down, and I even got to troll around there the last day all by myself. Brilliant city to be in! Anyways, I have to go back to penciling Tokens Only and try not to pass out.

But hey, for anyone who didn't get to check out http://Tokens-Only.com here's a preview of the first page anyways!

Hope all is well & God Bless!
Zak

Tokens Only Page 1 by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Tokens Only Launches October 8th!

2010-10-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

Howdy y'all! All sorts of new stuffs going on! Tokens Only goes live on October 8th right in time for NYCC! I'll be at the con promoting the crap out of it and meeting all you lovely people at the con.

Hope this finds you all well, and you may notice a snazzy new header! Enjoy it!

Zak!

Tokens Only Promo by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Coloring Work

2010-09-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

So, a few months back I met up with Zach Howard here in Denver and since we've become fast friends. Great guy, and we've been having a lot of fun over the past few months. I'll be heading to NYC for the New York City Comic Con with him so if you're going stop by our table! We'll be the dueling Zachs whoring our work out! haha anyhoo... I've been working on improving my coloring skills and we came together to do some color work on some pieces. These first two pieces are the product of that coloring madness.

The first is for IDW's Motel Hell.

Motel Hell Cover Colors by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Pretty f'n cool right?! This is the first piece I did for him, and he was pretty impressed with it. I'm not gonna lie, I had a ton of fun with this and it definitely pushed me to go a lot farther as an artist. I'm always happy for those challenges and I'm pretty stoked to be getting even more to do in the future!

The second one was a commission... a little Batgirl if you will!

Batgirl Commission Colors by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

What can I say, this was a hoot to work on!

So with that there will be more of these to come. I have about 10 more pieces to mess around on, and that'll lead to some more work in the coloring field. Hurrah!

Enjoy & God Bless
Zak

Tokens Only... Finally!

2010-09-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

So a few of you have known I've been trying to work on a webcomic. I've wanted to launch it a few times over the past year but I have had a lot of amazing opportunities with my freelance illustration and fine art gallery shows.

I also wanted to take some time to refine the story and put more of myself in it so to speak. As much as this is definitely a story that everyone can read and take something away from - I really wanted it to be for myself as well. I wanted to pour in a lot of the influences I've had in my life and that's going to be the fun part.

Tokens Only is a love letter to the 1980s arcades of yore that I grew up in. That's where it all starts, and it will go on and on beyond that. I chose the webcomics medium because I knew I could be free to express whatever the hell I wanted, and I could steer the story in the direction it's taken me. You see I'm kind of a stubborn little bastard and I really wanted to tell a story the way I wanted to tell it. And in the format I wanted to as well. Tokens isn't a strip based comic at all - it'll be in the traditional comic format because that's what I love. I mean don't get me wrong - I love the hell out of a lot of webcomics out there, but like with everything down to my facial hair, I want to stand out.

I would love to blab about it more and more but I don't want to spoil it beyond that. I also want it to speak for itself. So what I'm posting tonight is a preview of page one. I've had it in the can for a bit of time now, but I wanted to give you a little taste before I launch it in a few weeks for NYCC. When launch comes it will be in color and I'll just be starting off at a once a week posting schedule.

I have an anthology I'm working on for Jolly Rogue Studios and I'll be working on a book with my buddy Gerhard in the coming months. So pulling triple comic duty on top of a full time job is gonna be killer for me in October... but y'all will reap some dope ass rewards out of it! TRUST.

Anyhoo... I really hope you all will enjoy this and I'm in it for the long haul. The website will be launching in the next few weeks & I'll be sure to be blabbing about it long before then. So until then, enjoy the b&w preview.

-zak

Tokens Only Preview by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Nan Desu Kan 2010

2010-09-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

I am currently appearing at Colorado's very own Nan Desu Kan ( http://NDKdenver.org ) which is a pretty decent sized anime con. Lots of people dressed up with big ass swords and crap. Trust me on that. Anyways, I just wanted to show off my newest sort of Buck Rogers inspired anime pin up I did for the show. Simple stuff, but the bewbs do sell at this show quite a bit. So anyhoo, let me know what you think or you can just fav it on Deviant art!

NDK Print Colors by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

Barb Wire Anthology

2010-08-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Just a quick update. I will be taking part in an anthology (actually I'm already knee deep in the penciling process) and while it won't be out for a bit I thought I'd just throw it on out there. In addition to all my freelance work it's going to be a bit of a load but I'm looking forward to it!

I'll be working for Jolly Rogue Studios

I'm pretty pumped for the opportunity and you'll be seeing more of my stuff for this book in the coming weeks!

God Bless
Zak

Postcards!

2010-08-04T00:13:00.001-07:00

They're here and they look smashing! I'm so stoked these came out well!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New Title Banner

2010-07-29T22:26:00.001-07:00

As I've been working on this blog it's more and more becoming the main hub for my work. Since they've added a few improvements I'm more than happy to use it as a website for the time being.

I'm trying to use this more often as well to show the creative process in whatever I'm working on at the time.

So here's what's going on at the mo... I'm working on a new header for this & a few other places. I'm going all evil robots on this one and I like it a lot!

In the coming days & weeks I'll be posting up progresses on an anthology I'm working on & my webcomic.

That's all for me today. Hope all is well & God Bless!
Zak

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New Postcards Are On The Way!

2010-07-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

Good news everyone!

I hope all is well with everyone these days. In addition to working my tail off on my webcomic *finally* I made up a new image for my illustration postcards. What I do is send these out to art directors and they hit me back and we do work on a freelance basis. It works great for me, and I'm pretty stoked to see these come in the mail this week!

Power On by ~spicypeanut on deviant ART

As always you can click on the link to take a look on my Deviant Art and if you want a print you can get it from there, or email me for one!

I hope all is well with everyone here!
God Bless
Zak

Back in the saddle.

2010-07-21T17:07:00.001-07:00

The flow is starting up again! All obligations are cleared and it's time to get back to work! New illustration promo is in the works and the webcomic is coming along just fine!!

Feels good to be back on it!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Taking a Break

2010-07-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry to not have updated y'all in awhile - it's been a tough month for me. Nothing horrid or vastly terrible. No nothing like that, I've just been taking some time to tie up some loose ends and help my family out. Family first kids!

BUT in good news I have a sweet secret project that when I'm done with will definitely blow your minds. And all the while I've been scripting and laying out Tokens Only. While it's been pushed back a good year - I'm happy to report it's coming together in ways I never thought possible. So keep your eyes out because I'll be back to posting my illustration work here and Tokens Only will be launching shortly.

God Bless
Zak

Painting a pin.

2010-05-29T10:30:00.001-07:00

My latest (and probably last for right now) gallery project was to paint a bowling pin for Luxe DeVil's show on first Friday of June. It's a Pins for Pups silent auction and will take place Friday June 4th at 3pm. You can find all the info at http://luxedevilsalon.com

Anyways - here's a stream of images as I prepared & painted the pin.

How it started out - scratched and scuffed all to hell!

Freshly sanded down and primed for painting.

I had a different idea in the first place but the execution wasn't quite working out for me.

And so this is the final concept. I think she came out quite well!

And another shot of her. I'm not quite sure whether or not to finish the top of the pin. I kinda like it like this.

So anyhoo if you're local come on down to Luxe DeVil and see the rest of the pins. I'm sure there'll be some other dope designs as well!

Thanks & God Bless
Zak

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Comicfest's Aftermath!

2010-04-22T23:12:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to thank everyone that stopped by and said hello during Comicfest this year! It was a lot of fun and another great opportunity to hang out with my fellow cartoonists. It was really inspiring as well - a mad motivator to get the ball rolling on this webcomic I've been writing for the past few months. So after this next gallery show at Luxe De Vil I will be shirking off all other requests and commissions to work on my comic, Tokens Only. I've been really successful with my freelance career in illustration and fine art in galleries, but it's time to get back to rockin' the comics scene!

Again, just a great time meeting new people and hanging out with good friends. Thanks again to everyone who came out and got some commissions from me!!

Here's a few sketches:

That final one is a sketch of Utako the Knife Thrower from a previous print series. The guy liked that one so much that he wanted a sketch! Awesome!

Well, that's that! Thanks again and God Bless!

Zak

Posted using BlogPress from
my iPhone

ComicFest is Here!

2010-04-15T22:35:00.001-07:00

Ahoy hoy!

So Denver's very own ComicFest is this very weekend and I will be exhibiting at the Sherman Graphics table with my boy Gerhard Kaaihue!

I'll be selling prints, and doing live art. So if you've ever wanted to get yourself immortalized as a Zombie well here's your chance to do it in person! This is my first go around at Comicfest here in Denver and I'm pretty stoked! I'd love it if you stopped by and said hi!

I have two exclusive prints that I will be selling at the Con this weekend as well. Here's a look at the two of them!

I was maaaaybe watching a little too much Madmen with that first piece. It's kind of an important one though because it's starting my revival of my proposed coffee table book of Alien satire. BAM!

And this one is my Steampunk Monochromatic Pinup Girl. I think she looks pretty fresh!

So each print will be 20 bucks at the show, but if you would like one now feel free to email me at spicypeanut[at]gmail[dot]com and I will gladly put aside one for you!

Hope to see some of you there and I'll be live blogging and tweeting from the Con! Just in case you forgot or dunno yet: http://twitter.com/Zaktastic

God Bless!
Zak

New Business Cards!

2010-04-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

So I felt it was finally freakin' time for a new business card. The skinny ones from last year were awesome, but I got some feedback that they get a little lost. So I went back to large style and I'm pretty dang stoked to see how they came out! They should be in the mail here in just a week or so. Right in time for COMICFEST! I am so super pumped it's not even funny! Getting to be in artist's alley at a Comic book convention is so much fun. Can't wait!

Anyways, here's the image I used for my business card design! I hope you all like it!

As always you can see the full image at My Deviant Art Site
A lot of people are already loving it, and I'm sure it's gonna get some good laughs!

I also recently took on a freelance gig for a good friend of mine to help him promote his online fantasy novel Spiderfingers which you can find at that link! The first image is of Alice, and she's definitely going to be a pain in the ass for some of the book's Gods here.

and here are some of the character designs that I did for her:

And like I said, I have full images available to see at My Deviant art Site

So that's it for me tonight!
I hope you all are doing wonderful and here's to good times!
God Bless,
Zak

Cowgirl Takes on Nazi

2010-03-12T19:15:00.000-08:00

Hey all!

Sunday The Fool's Gold Theatre will be having an auction to save up money for their trip to Ireland. I was asked to donate a piece, and I was more than happy to lend a hand to some friends!

So here's the goods! I was asked to follow an adventure theme and to me nothing speaks adventure like Indiana Jones! So I took that theme, added a little Texas love & continued on my streak of getting better with drawing women.

A Couple Of New Projects

2010-03-01T16:44:00.001-08:00

Hi!

So "Tokens Only" is being written and I've started laying the comic out! I'm super pumped to get it out and get my story told! Hopefully it'll be the first of many!

Also keep in mind that I'll be at ComicFest in artist's alley this year in Denver. More about that here: http://starland.com/wp/?page_id=572

And I will be participating in an auction to benefit at friend's acting troupe's trip to Ireland. Here's the piece I'm working on for that:

- Cowgirl vs. Nazi Goon! Woo! Love it!

So that's what I'm on right now. Still working hard to print out this sketchbook & I am currently open for Commissions so if you want just let me know!

Peace
Zak

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sketching Away

2010-02-18T19:37:00.001-08:00

I have a sketchbook I'll be printing in the next couple of months! So in preperation for that I'll be posting some of those images as I go!

More to come soon!
Peace
Zak
Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:W Las Colinas Blvd,Irving,United States

Show This Friday Night!

2010-02-03T20:39:00.001-08:00

Hey all! Just to let you know my next gallery show will be Friday night at http://Luxedevilsalon.com

Here's a preview! Come on down!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Those pieces for my new show!

2010-02-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

So I've got a double wide post today! I've finished up all the pieces for my Luxe De Vil show for February. The theme is the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and I went all out with the blood and gore! Something I'm getting increasingly good at it would seem! So with that in mind here are the new pieces:

And here's the first piece, I've just titled: Space Gore!
Link to the full piece here!

Link to the full piece here!
And as we pull out we get to see the reason for such horrific distress! BAM! Right through the guts!

Link to the full piece here!

Finally we see the cause of the catastrophe and the doofus letting it happen. No one can really hear you scream in space... in the most ironic of ways. I had the worst time thinking of fresh stuff to do for this show, and finally my inspiration hit me as I was (suprise) playing some video games. More specifically Dead Space. That game is freakin' awesome! Go get it. Anyways, so there are the new pieces!

I hope you enjoy!
Zak

Full inks for the February art show

2010-01-25T18:20:00.001-08:00

Hi! So I've taken the weekend to work hardcore on the pieces for my February art show. I've been really sick so it's been pretty consistent for me to take time away from the drawing board to rest. Regardless I at least got to finish up my inks on these pieces and I like how they've come out!

So I'm not 100% sure on how to go about the colors but it's supposed to be bloody. So get ready for the blood on the next post!

Peace
Zak

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:S Federal Blvd,Littleton,United States

February Art Show

2010-01-21T23:04:00.001-08:00

So yeah it's been a bit o' time! I do apologize for that my friends! I've been working on some kinda super secret stuff here! Anyways I will be having an art show at the Luxe De Vil salon & gallery in February. So I figured I would show off what I've been doing here!!

-

The finished ones will be up soon! Until then...

Peace
Zak

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:W Centennial Dr,Littleton,United States

Art Show At Luxe De Vil Tonight!

2009-12-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

The kind ladies at Luxe De Vil Salon were kind enough to invite me to their December first Friday gallery opening as an exhibitor! I think I'll be there kinda late - not feeling too well tonight but I really wanna check out everyone else's work and see some people I haven't seen in awhile.

ANYHOO - The show is from 6pm until 9pm tonight and you can get directions from the link provided above. If you can't come here's a sweet photo they nabbed for me of the two pieces I contributed for tonight's show!

The theme was Alice in Winter Wonderland by the by.

Finally free of obligation

2009-12-02T15:26:00.001-08:00

Ok so December is an open slate for me as far as artwork goes! So with that being said I am opening up for commissions and any upcoming jobs anyone wishes to hire me for. I really want to focus on comic work again so if you have anything in that vein please forward it along to my email spicypeanut at gmail dot com.

In other fresh news I have a show at Luxe De Vil Salon this Friday night on the Santa Fe artwalk!

They're at 657 Santa Fe dr. Which is in between 6th and 7th street on the west side. Usually lasts from around 6pm up to 930 or 10pm!

If you want to attend more info can be found at http://luxedevilsalon.com/ Hope to see you there!

Peace
Zak

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Forgoing the last piece.

2009-11-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

So the last piece is giving me some issues so I'm moving on for the moment.

I got inspired after seeing Regina Spektor live in concert last night to go back to a concept I had way before this show idea. I've always wanted to remake the Queen of Hearts. This is the culmination of that idea and probably the fourth of the pieces.

The idea for them goes as follows.
Alice follows the White Rabbit.
Alice encounters the dead flowers frozen in winter.
Alice finds her way to the tree shortcut to the Queen's kingdom.
And finally the unforgiving Queen herself.

So without further adieu, the Queen herself in pencils.

I'm flirting with the idea of doing some tattoos on her arm to modern her up. Not sure what I'll do with that negative space at the top there.

That's all for now!
Peace
Zak

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Roughs of the new piece.

2009-11-05T22:06:00.001-08:00

As promised I update this when I update my feed. The 2nd piece for Alice's Winter Wonderland show will be Alice surrounded by the faces in the flowers. Except since it's winter they're all dead and she is astonished - if not horrified.

I got the composition idea from my friend and former coworker Lauren Michaels. My model for this piece is my dear friend Ann Flynn. A talented actress and singer whose talent I can't describe in words.

So here's the two images - the first being the reference. The second being the rough of the image. Hope you enjoy!

So as you can see it's nowhere near being done or polished but you get the idea. I may mess with the facial expression a bit too.

Anyhoo that's it for me!
Zak
-- Posted from my iPhone

Finally the scan!

2009-11-02T21:33:00.001-08:00

Ok so here's the scan of the full completed piece! The first of four and I actually quite like this one. The first one of "Alice's Winter Wonderland" theme for December. I'm really excited for this show - we had a great time at the last one, and this one should rock too! If you're curious about the progress of this one or the ideas behind it I posted a blog earlier today so feel free to scroll down and dig it out!

These will be hanging up at Luxe De Vil Salon in the heart of Denver! My friends over there have done a smashing job of combining great art and amaaaazing hair stylings. Talented ladies to say the least and I'm flattered to be included in this show, and hopefully many others as they're right on the Santa Fe Art Walk downtown.

Their next show will be "X-Ray Sex." this Friday night Hosted by Sid Pink, X-Ray Sex will feature artworks by Michael Payne, with music provided by DJ Rockstar Aaron. I'll be down there throwing down with the cool kids - hope to see you there!

The next night we go to see Regina Spektor at the Fillmore. I think it's fair to say we're super stoked! Hope everyone out there is doing well!

zak

Keeping with this being constant.

2009-11-02T21:18:00.001-08:00

I had the same issue as fellow creator Skottie Young has been describing on his blog - being quite busy we don't have the drive to constantly update our blogs with the indepth stuffs that we'd like to describe our work with. A quick blurb about a cover I did here. A few sentences about this page or that. Whatever right?

So here's my remedy. I keep my facebook feed constantly updated so whenever I feed into that it'll go here as long as it's an image with a description. Whenever I have a major project come out I'll do a few posts oriented around it so I can be a little more in depth. So that's what I'm doing in regards to this blog.

My schedule for the next few months is going to be quite hectic so I will be breaking it down for you here:

I have a gallery show at Luxe De Vil running the month of December. I'm doing 4 pieces for them and it revolves around "Alice in Winter Wonderland" as the theme.

I have one last page that I need to uplaod for the Zoroaster series. I'm sure Richard wants to kill me by now cause of that!

December will be the point where I start pencilling the series I've written this past year called "Tokens Only." I am also hoping to start work on "Squared Circle" that same month. I believe I'll be working with Mike Hance on his publishing venture sometime in the next 2 - 3 months as well.

During the month of January I'll be taking a little time off. I'm trying to go see my brother in Texas for a bit. Or I'll just hang around here and do whatever. Out usual downtown tomfoolery.

February sees me in another show at Luxe De Vil which will be centered around a "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" theme. I may go politically motivated on that one - not sp sure yet.

March I will be heading to Seattle for the first time to attend and exhibit at Emerald City Con. Matt, Gerhard, Rod and I are getting some artist's alley booths! Ann & Austin may come along.

Nothing for April - yet. I am hoping it'll be an all comic book drawing month.

May will see a sequel to our October show Til Death. And as far as I know we'll be at San Diego again this year doing our thing at the Squidworks booth. I got a great reaction from Oni Press last year and have been in contact since. They're great folks there.

So that's a look at things to come, God willing. I'm super stoked and hopefully you are too! If you're at either of those shows this year make sure you stop by!

Anyways so I need to do some of that work I was on about.

Much love!
Zak

-- Posted from my iPhone

The Anatomy of My New Piece

2009-11-02T18:34:00.001-08:00

So coming off my "Til Death" show I was invited to a couple of other shows. I have one in December themed off of Alice in Winter Wonderland. This is my first piece for that show - Alice looking for her white rabbit.

Pencils up first. I got my reference on Sunday for this. I got to use my friend Ann as my model - one of the most fantastic friends I've ever had. You'll get to see a little more of her influence in further pieces.

Inks are up next. I use a Windsor Newton Sable series #3 brush & Windsor Newton waterproof black ink. This is my favorite part and goes by waaay too quick!

Starting the coloring process. Since I'm using traditional media I've gone with my personal favorite - the Copic Marker. I have tons of blues and grays so I decided to play up the winter theme through those colors.

And I'm done! I kept Alice's hair blonde as the only warm color in the piece so the eye would be drawn in. Hopefully it comes across well! Let me know what you think! I'll have a scan up of the piece very soon here!

Peace
Zak

-- Posted from my iPhone

Til' Death

2009-10-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

The time has come to show off my new digs for the art show I'll be a part of and announce the wheres and whens of said show! So without further adieu...

Yeah I know the scan isn't all vegan kosher cause it was being a bit ornery - but you get the gist of it! The only change is that it's only $5 not $6 if you come in costume!

So here's the deal:

Denver's finest comic artists, illustrators and lowbrow artists are all coming together for the first part of three shows! It's going to be Denver's only Halloween & Art show. Not only will it be a celebration for John & Maxine's engagement but we're also donating a portion of what we make to the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers and Sox Place. Two amazingly great places that do so much for our community here!

Personally I'll be set up to do live Zombie portraits of people in attendance, selling prints and displaying my own framed pieces. And I'll be leaving you with an idea of what will be coming!

First up: My four prints I'll be selling. If you're not in attendance and want a set or individual print let me know asap and we'll work something out real quick for you!

And finally the three pieces I'll be showing at the show! This will also give you an idea of the zombie portraits I'll be doing!

If you want prints of any of these please let me know! There will be tons of Denver's best artists at the event so I can guarantee it'll be a spectacular show! As always feel free to email me or hit me up on Facebook if you have questions!

Much love,
Zak

Gearing up

2009-10-12T12:21:00.001-07:00

So I'm finishing inks for the projects I have going on for this show. It should be a lot of fun! The first two will be inkwashed and the final one there is part of the print series! Enjoy - zak

-- Posted from my iPhone

Final print

2009-10-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

So I started the inks for my final print. This is Celia the Flamethrower and I'm excited to get her finished up!

-- Posted from my iPhone

Some of the pieces for this show.

2009-10-07T21:42:00.001-07:00

Hi all - sorry I have been busy busy busy! Anyhoo .... I have a monsterous art show coming up on October 24th with some of Denver's best artists! It will be at The Bar Standard on Broadway downtown Denver!

Here's some of the pieces I have. Prints will be available as well!

--

And that's all for now! Take care peeps!
Posted from my iPhone

Updated pieces

2009-09-16T10:26:00.001-07:00

I've been increasingly busy, but that's allowed me the chance to crank out new pieces and polish up some older ones I wanted to finish. The two pieces are nearly done in inks and will a part of my show in October. I'm super stoked it!

This first one will be done in inkwash. The second will be a color print. The first of four.

That's all for now!
Zak
-- Posted from my iPhone

Some new digs in the making.

2009-09-11T19:26:00.001-07:00

So during the lull (a behind the scenes storm for me really) I'm posting up some in progress stuff for y'all. Hope ya enjoy and feel free to let me know what ya think!

And the final image there is from when I got bored at work. Draw everywhere at anytime, kids!!

Until next time...
Zak
-- Posted from my iPhone

Zoroaster In Aethiopia Pages Are A Go!

2009-08-30T16:25:00.001-07:00

So for the past few months I have been hard at work with my partner R.S. Carbonneau on his web comic: Zoroaster of Aeithiopia. It's an awesome concept about the world's first Monotheist that's coming together quite well if I say so myself. I think Richard really has a great idea and I'm more than honored to have been asked to be a part of it!

So without further adieu, I'd like for you to check out the comic: Zoroaster in Aethiopia

And I'll be posting the individual unlettered pages here once the run is finished. I don't want to spoil it for anyone!

My run starts on this page for anyone who wants to cut to the chase. But for continuity's (and your own enjoyment's!) sake, start at the beginning. It's a fun series to read!

Promo cards are in!

2009-08-14T22:28:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody! So super sweet news - my promo postcards are in and they'll be sent out to the artworld in a matter of no time!

-- Post From My iPhone

A Little Cheesecake

2009-08-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

HEY! Back again and rocking something not in my usual vein - Cheesecake! I've not done a lot of pinup work so this is new for me. But I really enjoyed it and it will be available for purchase in two different ways. You can pick up the cheesecake pinup book from Squidworks at Colorado's very own Nan Desu Kon OR you can sport a print of this bad girl at my Deviant Art site.

It's the first official piece I've submitted as print. Curious to see where that'll take me here! So let me know what you think if you'd be so kind as to take the time!

Peace
zak

edit: Fixed a few things that I missed. NOW she's finished!

Thank You!

2009-08-05T00:05:00.001-07:00

UPDATED WITH HOT NEW ILLUSTRATION ACTION! (in other words I didn't dig the old one much)

I just wanted to say a very special thank you to everyone who took some time to sit down with me at Comic Con in San Diego this year! I've gotten some great positive feedback and a lot of excellent critiques as well. I'm hitting the ground running with a few projects I had lined up before the con and some super fresh possibilities afterwards as well!

I'd also like to take some time to extend a super awesome thank you to all of you who have supported me through the years and continue to do so to this day. I hope my future endeavors will keep you a fan of the cartooning and illustration I've been doing. I aim to always improve and I hope it's been showing!

So again, thank you very much - you all are super awesome! And if you're just meeting me or discovering my art well don't be shy!

You can always follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/spicypeanut
and on facebook at http://facebook.com/zaktastic

Any other inquiries (like if you want a super sweet commission!) can be made at Spicypeanut[at]gmail[dot]com

Thank you once again!
Zak Kinsella

Well It's About Bloody Time, Eh?

2009-07-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

SUP?

So let's just launch right into this post. The first five pages are from the Oni Press talent search. I did the story entitled "Medicine Show" by Frank Beaton. I got to meet with him after my interview with James Lucas Jones, and I'm pretty happy to report both guys were super cool, and I think things went pretty well. I tried to soak up as much info as I could with James, and I enjoyed that a lot. Everyone at Oni was very welcoming and it kinda sorta rocks my socks to be treated so nicely. Being that I'm mostly from an illustration background coming into comics didn't phase anyone and it was a nice time! Anyways - I'll let the art speak for itself here.

Alright kids. So the second batch of images are a Spider-Man/Ambush Bug story I decided to pencil out after Ron Perazza recommended I just submit what I do best. Personally I like to say I do it all - but honestly I just draw pencils the best. So here's that's the love with them!

As always you can click on them to make them nice and big if you wear glasses or want that sweet sweet detail.

And in other news I'm FINALLY posting from my computer. The fact that it was a simply ridiculous connection issue with my scanner has made me want to smash brains. But I kinda always wanna smash brains - so what else is new right?

Right.

So I'm back from San Diego Comic Con 2009 and I had a pretty rad time. Everyone I met with there was super fresh, and thank you thank you a hundred times over if you're reading this and took your time with me! For some reason I feel like this con was a billion times more productive than any other one I've been to. People really genuinely liked what I've been up to, I scored some good job ops and saw old friends I haven't seen all year. I call that a successful con, wouldn't you?

So with that in mind - I'm going to get back to working, and again, if you came by or if I got to talk to you in person while wandering the Con - thank you. It's nice to be back home, but I had a great time networking and meeting everyone there!

Peace
Zak

p.s. Remember you can always find more stuff at my deviant site in the links on the side. You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/spicypeanut if you wish to inquire about commissions / jobs or just want to shoot the breeze. I'm more than happy to take some time with ya!

Waiting for the plane

2009-07-27T19:20:00.001-07:00

And here I sit by myself waiting for my flight back to Denver. I had a great time at The San Diego Comic Con. I have a metric ton of work to get done when I get home. I'll be finishing and finally posting my pages for Zoroaster in the next week or so, then I start work on Squared Circle. During that time I have my contributions to the Squidworks "Cheesecake" book and and bunch of other one offs that I'm excited about.

Buuuuut unfortunately we're being evacuated from the San Diego airport so I cannot blather on about upcoming stuffs for a bit. Yeah.... Just get me out of this airport already! Ok more art coming up soon. Oh! Someone wanted a commission of the Sniper from Team Fortress 2 - I don't think I have your card from the Con, so get at me and we'll do it. Sorry somehow it got lost in the shuffle. Anycrap - peace

Zak

-- Post From My iPhone

FYI

2009-07-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

I coulda sworn I posted this but oh well. I'll be posting from my iPhone until I can get the comp back in sweet working order. So until then (in a few days) life will be iPhone tastic!

But here's my view at Tara McPherson's booth of awesome! Nice lady and a half!

-- Post From My iPhone

2009-07-23T10:30:00.001-07:00

These are the pages I'll have with me while I'm here in San Diego for Comic Con!

Those were for the Oni Press submission.

And these are some subs I'll be handing out at the con!

Wish me luck!
Zak

Sketchy Goblin

2009-07-06T13:36:00.001-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

During lunch I decided to sketch out a sweet Goblin. Sort of an old school Bakshi/Bluth looking thing. He kinda looks like he needs to take a dump though.

I draw comics

2009-07-02T17:36:00.001-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

So it's been awhile so I figured I'd post. The above images are from a comic submission I'm working on for Oni Press. So unfortunately due to that and one other totally awesome projects I have not done a ton of illustration. But he'll - it's COMICS!!!!

I also have pics from my Zoroaster stint but I'd rather toss those up all at once. So for now enjoy these and let me know what you think!

Peace
Zak

The Stockstills - A Portrait of Zombie Horror

2009-06-16T22:36:00.001-07:00

And one more zombie commission down! This was for some friends of mine that wanted their wedding picture immortalized in the undead style. I was flattered to be paid to do such a thing! I was under a pretty stiff deadline to get this done before father's day with Zoroaster pages and the passing of a great man, Jeremy Mullins, weighing on my mind this weekend. I'll be posting my own tribute to the man called Sweetwater in the next few days. But until then, enjoy another journey into the macabre!

Inks of Sargeras

2009-06-13T23:45:00.001-07:00

So I got around to inking this Sargeras picture. I left out some of the detail in the sky because I really wanted to crack my digital fingers - painting wise - when I color this bad boy. So here he is in all his black and white glory!

Sargeras

2009-06-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

First off - this is Sargeras - or rather the Avatar of Sargeras. Done for Sketchyscribbles blog round 6 in the Deities category. He's a super badass from The World of Warcraft. The only other deities I really give a crap about (aside from the big God man). So that was my natural choice. And yes I play WOW - I've been angling to get a job a Blizzard for awhile now actually. Anyhoo..

Sorry about that delay there folks - my life just got a little busy there. And it still is, but that's a good thing! I'm working heavily on a fill in on a web comic called Zoroaster! I have a 7 page script I'm working with and I'm doing the pencils, inks and colors. So it's a bit of a beast for me, but I'm having a lot of fun with it! But in the meanwhile I'll try to be posting up little illustrations I've done here and there for commission and what not.

ZOMBIES!

2009-05-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

My friend's birthday was Thursday so for him I did up a super sweet ZOMBIE picture. Now, just so you know I do these zombie pictures a lot as commissions. If you want a zombie portrait commission feel free to email me. I do them in two different sizes, and since I do them in traditional media I do charge a little bit more for them.

Shameless promotion aside - the pictures above are of my favorite couple in the whole wide world, Kelly & Chris. They (along with a couple of other super close friends) were really there for me during some hard times over the past couple of years so this is the least I can do in a gesture of thanks. I hope you all dig it!

Things To Come

2009-05-04T00:39:00.000-07:00

Today was extremely productive. I sat outside and did a lot of artwork - and this is what I came out with.

The first two are just for fun. More so an experiment with curve linear perspective. The following seven are all for my 50 Aliens project.

Alien Cow Girl

2009-05-02T21:22:00.001-07:00

HOLY CRAP! This one was tough. Continuing on with the 50 Aliens theme I've been working on, this is the first female: The Cow Girl. Just showing a little home state pride is all - it took me a long time to figure out the background. My goal is for these all to be very simple backgrounds with a more complex drawing in the foreground.

So I'm glad to have this done and done. I want to work on the next couple tonight as well. I think next up is my scientist - but I'm not sure. I have a couple of others I wanna do too.

Round Five and Six

2009-05-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, so over on Sketchy Scribbles I've posted a few new images. It's a collective of artists that are totally awesome and I'm honored to take part in this. They're done in rounds, and here's the first two of that most excellent venture! The first one above is the Creature From The Black Lagoon (why's it always gotta be a black lagoon!?) and a sweet femme barbarian.

The Business of Business Cards

2009-04-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

So a few days back I submitted my designs for my new business cards. Here's the back design without any logo work. I'll post scans of the finished product when I get them in here.

As always clicking on the pic will take you to the full sized version.

Sketchblog Monday

2009-04-27T23:54:00.001-07:00

So in light of getting absolutely nothing done tonight, I decided to do some sketches that would fill my need to post something online. I might even start it up as an often thing for Mondays. Who knows! Anyhoo - off to the goods:

First one is a one off of me as a scientist I was going to use for the header - but I'm not feeling my inking job is up to par. Ah well!

I usually watch Monday Night RAW as I draw... so occasionally you're gonna see a wrestler on here!

I really do love the game Mirror's Edge - so Faith here is having some fun on the run.

And finally this will be the image I'm using on the back of my business cards. I think it'll look badass once it's all finished.

And that's all I have for tonight! Peace!

Emo Alien Kid

2009-04-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

Something I've wanted to do for awhile is continue my aliens project. I'd like to do a book of 50 or so different aliens. I started off with the Hipster - and I'm continuing with the emo kid. I opted for a simple gloomy gradient because all the pattern work I tried on this background felt like too much. I also think the gloominess sets apart from the vibrant colors a lot of these kids wear. Sort of a commentary on the clothes not portraying the douche attitude that most of them come packaged with. But I know some cool ones too - so if you're an emo kid, don't get all emo on me.

As always, clicking on it will take you to the bigger picture.

First post - First Digs

2009-04-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

Hi peeps, so this is my blog - mainly about illustrations that I do. I'm in the process of making a webcomic so that will be debuting as an update here every so often. Mostly on a different site though. Anyhoo... onto the show.

SO, here's the first illo I'll post on here - it was done for the band Metric. I happen to be a huge fan of theirs and was more than happy to rock something out for them! Hope you enjoy it!