scurvy sea dog

remember like a billion years ago when i posted thumbnails of future part-time werewolf stuff i was working on and said would post eventually? didn't think so. anyway here is one i finished today. part-time as ahab trying to keep his sea leg while hunting the elusive white whale. i played around with some digital painting type stuff which i never do and i think it turned out halfway decent or at least fun. i've got another couple of these started and a few projects to post soon as well. also a post of the bizarre stuff that gets doodled at work which should be fun. side note, if you need to feel like a billion times better, go find the video of the muppets singing lullaby of broadway, it is one of my favorites.

later, 

-z

puppy love

sometimes i look next to me on the couch and see this wrinkly dummy and have to pinch his jowls to make sure he's real. 
growing up we always had a cat but never a dog. when we moved to the country in 2nd or 3rd grade i begged for a dog. i checked books out from the library looked in to training classes and everything. and then after being shot down over and over and over and over and over again i gave up on the dog thing. and then promptly forgot everything i learned about them. 
fast forward a couple months and a puppy shows up at the house. 
guess how well an unprepared 10 year old does with a hyper puppy and little outside support in training him. that dog chapter ended sadly after he ran away for like the 3rd time and the decision was made that maybe he didn't want to come home. 
fast forward 5 years and i find myself begging my mom to let me get a bulldog. she says i can have one but its either the bulldog or the car I was saving up for. the mazda got better gas mileage than the bulldog so it was put on hold again for a while. 
then i tricked a cute girl into liking me and then tricked her into liking bulldogs and presto! bulldog! 
we've had this little scrumfer for a little over 2 years now and i still can't believe how awesome he is. as such, i draw him a lot. plus he's goofy looking too. so since i haven't blogged in a while and was feeling guilty about it and since i was having a shitty morning and abedog was being extra cute and cuddly here's a pup-stravaganza of art and pics of the boy.
i'll be posting more soon and what not.
later
-z

teasers!

as i find myself somewhat busy at present finishing up a commission or 2 and starting a couple new ones, here's a quick teaser post of some future part-time werewolf covers. i also have one of those aforementioned series of block prints carved and proofed only needing a little more tweaking before they are ready for their unveiling and perhaps going-on-saling. i will share these commissions as they wind down as well including the one that was requested quite drunkenly, but was actually a project i have been meaning to do for myself for awhile so i am working on it anyway. (the pencils on that turned out real nice). also since i thought of it, a monkey drawing i did last week. you're welcome. also maybe a wrassler sketch i never finished up. lucky you! i will post again when i remember to and/or have something new and/or exciting(probably not) to share. 
later
-z

papa pump

father's day has come and gone and i created another parental appreciation day card which i thoroughly enjoy. we took my papa to a pro wrestling show in madison for father's day. myself and 3 buddies bought front row(ish) tickets and then amanda said she wanted to go but didn't want to spend that much money so she and my brother and pops got tickets together. it was a super awesome show and we marked out big time when the main event spilled out of the ring and almost literally in to our laps. (we touched greasy wrestler!) so then came the themed father's day card. as mentioned in a previous father day project my dad is notorious for rocking the bathrobe pretty much anytime before 10 am and after 8 pm so i decided to spin that as his entrance attire. i went for super stylized, bombastic cartoon art on this one and printed it huge! the opened card was 12 by 18 and i rather like it. 

don't be fooled by the calm demeanor, this wiry farm boy is taking on all comers trying to take his belt! ha.

coming soon! (probably) 2 series of block prints! both of which i like a lot, at least in the drawing stages. i will keep you posted. they will probably be the first pieces i put up for sale. maybe on etsy?

we'll see.

later
-z

where wolf?

some 50 or 60 odd years ago i started drawing comic book covers featuring part-time werewolf, a character i thought up in my cubicle at work. the idea came from all the old pulp comics where a robot or monster or alien would carry off a damsel after scaring her unconscious. i thought it would be funny if one of those monsters went about it like a gentleman and went on a blind date. so i did a mock up cover of a werewolf on a blind date with a couple bad puns on there and an "in this issue" blurb. it made me laugh so i did a handful more of these covers with him in various odd jobs. in retrospect the concepts are funny but the execution (though definitely sketches) was pretty bad. after several decades on indefinite hiatus, part-time has returned! i had the idea of a western cover because the two jokes 'home on the mange' and 'who shot my paw?!' after many sketches i did one i liked and behold, a finished cover! complete with new title design and faux comic book brand badge in the upper left. and don't worry, i have 4 more covers already drawn ready for some inks and colors coming soon(ish?). anyway here is part-time werewolf in 'home on the mange'

also, the second line comes from the funniest joke that i didn't get for years. when i was 7 someone told it to me and i laughed until i almost peed myself but didn't actually get it or think about what the joke meant for years later and had an "ooooohhhhhhhh….. i get it" moment which only made me like it more. the punchline is a staple of family bullshit sessions.

"three legged dog walks into a saloon and says 'who shot my paw?!'"

genius.

later
-z

whink!

yesterday we went on an adventure to sarah's school out in fontana to take advantage of her awesome art room and all the toys within! the primary objective was to throw some pottery on the wheels there since i had never done that before. so adam and sarah and amanda and i sat down and got messy and made some pottery. well sarah made some pottery and adam and amanda did too and i was testing my patience and fighting with my stubborn perfectionist tendencies but finally turned out a little pot thing kind of i guess. then we cleaned up and made spin art using squirty paints and said pottery wheels. not my thing. then i decided to try my hand at doing a lino cut print thing since i haven't done that since elementary school art class (which was not nearly as awesome as sarah's classes are). so i threw together a sketch of a gorilla guy and then set about cutting up some speedy cut stuff with razor sharp gouges and grim determination to not make an ass of myself. after cutting and scraping and not losing any fingers we threw some ink on that pup and knocked out a couple prints. which even i was satisfied with especially given that it might as well be my first time. then, since they all wanted prints, adam and amanda and sarah took over printing and went to town making a bunch on different color paper and with different ink too. this was a super fun project and probably the first of many such prints to come once i invest in some tools and what not. maybe these will go on sale? if people want them? we'll see. anyway super fun way to produce art.
ALSO! yesterday was our baby puppy boy's second birthday. sir aberford undertaker porkchop is the light of our lives and we spoil him rotten. even if he is a weeny and sometimes he's stinky and won't leave you alone if you're trying to eat. but come on. look how cute that monkeydog is. happy birthday baby boy!

here's the prints and some puppy pics!
later

-z

the return of the troll

a little while back i did a couple illustrations for stoughton bar crawls with drunk trolls and the stoughton tower (see some of the earliest post in this very blog!). i just recently finished the latest version of the syttende mai bar crawl shirt and rather like this one. i am doing some design work for nick and he is the one who puts the bar crawl together and asked if i wanted to do the art for the shirt again and i said but of course. so i was doodling at work pretending i was anywhere but there and threw together a cute little drunk troll and the whole concept fell in place real quick. after cleaning it up a bit digitally and starting the background i decided to do a nicer version of the tower illustration and threw a beer barrel in there to stretch the design vertically. after some tweaks to make him a little more trollish i found a nice chunky font to fit the feel of the illustration and put it together. then the design was sent off to some very fine screen printers indeed and they knocked out a pretty great shirt (with great color choices might i add). so here is the process of that little project and i will post a pic of the whole shirt soon too. if you need any illustration or design work feel free to shoot me an email and we'll talk shop!
now without further ado, feast your eyeballs kids!
(also, for posterity's sake, i stole that pic of the shirt from nick)
-z

go go godzilla

what with the new godzilla flick approaching, i had the big fella floating around on the brain and thought a fat baby version of him might be fun and or cute. so i drew this guy at work the other day and played around in illustrator coloring him up and what not. the shading was quick so its not perfect but it gets the idea across. so here's the sketch, inks and some colors of him. i didn't do a finished background because perspective sounded lame right now. whatever, still cute. 

-z

swamp thang

i recently started rereading alan moore's saga of the swamp thing and once again started sketching the swamp thing. this time i actually turned out a nice little pencil drawing so i decided to play around with coloring it. here is the process from pencil to inks and colors. also if you fancy yourself a comic book fan and have not read this amazing run i would advise giving it a go. more posts to come soon.

-z

berfday cards again

oops. accidentally skipped most of april there with posting and what not. here's a quick post of a couple cards and some doodles. it was amanda's mom's birthday a couple days after mine so this year she got her very own zach brand birthday card. then a few days later it was my aunt nic's birthday so she got one too. the worst part about these cards is giving them away. sure its awesome that people get excited when they get them but man that chameleon was real hard to give up. tried some watercolor accents on him and just went for super simple and super cute on the pup. he is mostly a st. bernard since that is our puppy obsession of late. also as a b-day gift i got the manga studios software and just started playing around on it today. so here are 2 little drawings i colored up with it. it's pretty fun and i haven't even scratched the surface of it yet. probably more stuff coming from that  soon.

-z