Progress......

Werkin it...

Thangs

Here's some stuuuff. I will explain each piece in a caption below it. B-low it. Blow it.

This is a new idea I'm working out. I thought of it a while ago when I was balls deep in my conflict UFC fighter paintings and when it seemed like the world hated me and when I had black dyed hair that covered one side of my face and I was skinny and pale and listened to Bright Eyes all the time. It has it's basis in conflict, but isn't focusing so much on the negative; more on how life can toss you about and you just never know what will happen. So it's concerned with fate. There's three figures overlapping eachother. And guess what? THEY'RE NAKEY! Can you spot the dongs? A lot of pushing and pulling of paint with this piece. Still figuring both concept and execution out, but as I go I believe I'll get a handle on both.

Progress shot of "C. Kovacs." Throwing more and more paint on. Building up texture. After this layer dries I believe I'll go in and start to define features -- AND THEN MUTILATE THEM HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Progress shots of "Z. Cleve." 

I recently went to the thrifty store and got some nifty frames, some with pictures in them, like Mr. Pope here. I just want to say I have nothing against this pope, not that I kept up enough with him to have an opinion. I liked the little golden frame this was in and I thought I'd make a zombie pope. Why not? This is about 2 by 3 inches.

  

Still want to build up texture. I'll see what I can get away with at this miniature scale.

Macrodactyly

Here's what it is:

(Actually this one^^ is Elephantitis, but is equally freaky)

I just kind of stumbled upon it when I googled "hand" to try out a new more volumetric way of drawing that I thought of today. What a happy accident, I think this disorder will be a perfect addition to my zombies, and perhaps other areas of my art. Zombies with Macrodactyly, why not? Some sketches:

Miami Panoramadingdongs

I was in Miami. It was for my art show. It was cool. Here are some panoramas:

 

 

Subject 002: Z. Cleve

Another zombie portrait. You might be thinking "Zach! GODDAMMIT!!! This guy could be a lot more decomposed and zombiesque. He just kind of looks like a creepy old molester dude behind a plant." I agree with you here, you angry person you. The way I'm thinking about these drawings is as such; most of the zombification takes place in the painting of the piece, where I let the texture of paint determine how the face is decomposed. I'd like to leave the subject in their drawn form still fairly intact, so as to have more information to work from. I don't know how the piece is really going to turn out; maybe the zombie will have their jaw missing; maybe half their face will be blown off; maybe they'll have some disgusting, festering growth coming out of their forehead. That is for the paint to decide. So there you go, feel better now?

Oh and here's "Subject 001: C. Kovacs." Forgot about putting her up:

Buddha on His Banjo

This is a sketch for a painting I'm doing for my uncle. As the title of this post explains, it's Buddha on his banjo. Kind of random yes, but not without reason. Back in college (I just wanted to make myself sound really old there) I did a painting called "God Practicing his Guitar." My uncle liked the piece and the idea behind it so he commissioned me to do two more--the Buddha one and also Mohammed playing a mandolin (which I'll pose for, not because I think I'm all that and a bagga chips, but because I'm Middle Eastern-looking as shit. Don't kill me terrorists!). I've taken my sweet, succulent time getting around to them but I'm finally getting 'em on. Yay family paintings! Family Matters. Bob Saget.

Zombie Portraits

Sooo basically I wanna paint people I know as zombies, which I'm excited for on a number of levels. First of all, turning people I know into zombies is awesome. Second, I get to have fun destroying anatomy and painting blood and deformity and mutilation and so on. Third, painting zombie portraits seems like a really good fit for where I'm going with my painting technically--I want to work up layers of paint and focus on texture in a figurative context, kind of like how I did with my meat paintings. The physical qualities of a zombie, with layers of rotting, peeling flesh and gross deathly colors just seems so appropriate to this direction. Ideally I'd like people to feel nauseous when they view these paintings. Maybe I'll throw rotting meat juice on them... I'm very excited for these pieces. Here's some progress shots so far for "Subject 001: C. Kovacs":

Texture, glorious texture!

The Laboratory

Oh crap, I'm in a Zombie dance party

Continuing with the theme of "zombifying" photos, here is a sketch in the spirit of Dusk Til Dawn. You know the one scene where the main characters are hanging out in that crazy biker club and everything's cool and then BAM! Errbody's a vampire! I imagine the dude in this sketch to have been dancing with these girls believing they were, you know, regular broads only to suddenly realize he's in a damned zombie dance club. Why didn't he realize earlier? Maybe it was too dark to tell. Maybe he was on a lot of drugs. Either way, he's f'd.