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 deviantART
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
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
While you try to find the lines to speak your mind...
Continuing my string of angry/miserable musicians streak, this is from a Fiona Apple song.
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 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...
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
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Pioneer to the Falls
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 deviantART
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 deviantART
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
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 deviantART
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 deviantART
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
Thursday, February 3, 2011
I just wanna walk away.
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 deviantART
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
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 deviantART
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
Sunday, January 30, 2011
And There You Are.
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 deviantART
Courtney by ~spicypeanut on deviantART
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 deviantART
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
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 deviantART
Courtney by ~spicypeanut on deviantART
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 deviantART
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
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tshirt Design
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
Monday, November 1, 2010
I've been ignoring you!
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 deviantART
and #3
Tokens Only Page 3 by ~spicypeanut on deviantART
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
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 deviantART
and #3
Tokens Only Page 3 by ~spicypeanut on deviantART
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
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