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

self portraits of a goon

here are a few self portrait typed pieces from recently. i did this lego zach sketch at work and then came home and cleaned it up. i will probably go back again and finish it off real nice but for now this is where it stands. also thinking of a little comic strip thing maybe, but anyway the character i designed for myself and also used to break in a fresh marker. then the weirdest self portrait to date. long back story on the concept of the psychedelic toaster thing but after that was in my head the idea of jesus' face showing up in burnt toast made me laugh. so then it became zach toast. plus, let's be real, you'd rather see me at breakfast because you wouldn't feel sacrilegious eating that toast. just sacr-elicious! or zachreligious. or something. still i think its both fun AND stupid!
-z

wrassles maniac

the previously promised wrestling purge. here are the last few wrassles drawings i've got in the bag and will leave you alone about this for at least a little while then. this whole exercise of the simple, stylized, shape-based wrestler cartoons was quite fun and distracted me somewhat from my dumb job. we've got dusty rhodes the american dream (which is probably going to be abe's halloween costume this year), big e langston the current ic champ, colt "boom boom" cabana, the big red monster kane, and an iron sheik cartoony thing. if you're a fan of the wrassles and of the podcasts might i suggest colt cabana's art of wrestling podcast. its fantastic. also practically any match he is in. this guy understands what wrestling can be on so many levels and is the most entertaining wrestler you've probably not heard of. also he and cm punk are besties and trained together so watching their early stuff in the indies is amazing. two guys trying to elevate and improve their sport. also treat yourself to practically any dusty rhodes promo. probably the best mic worker ever. and that accent/slur combo is pure magic. i can't hear it without trying to mimic it. also, since i am clearly a grown up and not obsessed with childish things like pro wrestling and action figures, my new pro wrestling action figures! i like toys and hadn't bought any in a long time so i figured "treat yo'self!" plus what with punk quitting(?) i figured buy now while cheapish and available. anyhow, there is the last wrestling post on the horizon, but probably not forever. also i am posting a palette cleanser post after this too.

what you gonna do, brother, when zachamania runs out of wrassles?

later

-z

speed of lightning, roar of thunder

aforementioned potential print project post (possibly puppies). also, absurd alliteration abounds! so, about a year and a half ago i sketched up a bulldog and finished it up digitally. then found a weeny dog sketch and did likewise and any good series needs at least 3 so i drew up a great dane and put them together. the series is hanging in our house and maybe 1 or 2 other places. for a while i had thought about doing another set of 3 for one big puppy series. so here they be. i settled on the pug because i am still trying to convince amanda that they are indeed cute, the boston on account of pretty much because mark and laurie have one, and the st. bernard because i want one right now. 
seriously. 
right now. 
go get me one.
this is the original 3 (weeny, bully, dane) all of which were tweaked substantially to fit the new style of the series (and because the old ones were sloppy and not good). also the new pretty much finished pups and their sketchy pasts. there are a few nitpicky things i will be changing before they're done but this is pretty close. depending how ambitious i am i might start selling these as posters and postcards on etsy or some such interwebs art-shilling place. i'll post pics when i get them done and printed and framed and hanged on our walls and let you know the details when and if i start selling prints of my stuff.
thanks guys and gals
later
-z

shattered dreams

alright, after the excitement and quality of the previous post with the book and the romance and the awww factor it's going to be tough to match that. 
with that in mind, wrassles. 
listen. i understand. wrassles aint for everybody, but i've been enjoying this little project and the distraction it provides keeps me from murdering people at my stupid job. so here's more wrassles. this is goldust. an amazingly talented wrestler with a gimmick way ahead of its time. funny, awkward and scary all at once he recently returned to the ring better than ever. so heres the sketch, final, and a scene with him in it. classic goldie pose with modern goldie looks. i will probably do one more big wrassles post and purge myself for a while.
on a more universal note, i'm thinking of putting together some prints to put up for sale on the interwebs somewhere. no wrestlers even! cute things! funny things! other things! the one series i am working on is the second half of a series of 6 i am going to offer in extra large postcard size as a series and probably larger individual prints. if you've been to our place in the last year or so you've seen the first triptych hanging around so here are some clues (super tricky ones) as to the 2nd grouping of 3 illustrations in their early sketch form… (they're super cute too…)
anyhoozle, there's that. i'll keep you posted on new arts as i have been doing a lot lately and on the possible retail situation in the future as details arrive.
also, as it relates to that book, i do things like that so amanda will spend all day driving up to green bay with me and sam and benji to watch wrestling live! thats right. not only did we get to go see hulk hogan and the undertaker live, but she knew the chants and dances and stuff for the wrestlers that most didn't! and did them of her own accord! she also has wrestling opinions of her own! and likes goldust too! i ruined a perfectly good lady and turned her into a wrestling fan. for that i apologize. but now she's stuck with me so she has someone to talk wrestles with.
sorry if you read all of that, i owe you some minutes of your life back.
later
-z