gone crazy

This time of year is literally driving me crazy. Shopping is done and over with, has been for nearly a week, and we didn't go overboard. Simple items that should last a while, not too many toys ... mostly sensible and practical stuff.

BUT ... family gatherings, house cleaning, SNOW, christmas concerts, school christmas parties, SNOW, sickness, soreness, SNOW, getting bundled up to survive the -35 windchill just to drive to a store and buy cottage cheese, SNOW, walking the dog, lights, wrapping paper, and more ****ing snow!

I'm wiped. Here's a doodle that Allison colored.

Not much happening here until after the holidays ... and then its going to go lightspeed.

take home dinner

In this season of overspending and soon to be massively over indulging, not to mention gatherings, concerts, caroling and door to door home invasions I am finding it a trifle hard to update daily. Sorry about that. None the less, here's a zombie with a take home snack. 2011 is just around the corner? Have you made your resolutions yet?

bring on the horde

The zombie horde, when small, can easily be dispatched by careful and clear headed zombie hunters. But when the horde grows to large, it becomes a herd. Sometimes there are thousands in a herd, and then no one is safe. This horde will become a herd if not stopped soon. Are you up for the challenge?

4x6 ink and watercolor image that is now making its way to a good friend of mine, but he doesn't know it. Please don't tell him.

trenchcoat zombie

This was supposed to go online yesterday, but it's December, and in December the real world goes and gets itself in a big damn hurry. Anyways ... its a sketchbook doodle that I colored ... might even get used as a graphic for some web video somewhere. Or not. Who knows ... crazy times.

the arrival of the zombie horde ...

in my mail box ... zombie prints, christmas cards, some magnets and one big ass banner. It's 3 feet long!! Going to set up shop this weekend. Who wants one?



There's also a zombie car magnet which isn't shown because its on my truck.

skull of flower

sometimes you just have to deviate away from grim and gritty just to recharge. My girl likes this one so its going in her room.

sally was here

and now she's dead ... probably.

This was done a month or so ago in preparation for the art show I was doing but it wasn't quite good enough to get in. It's a little sub image for today because this month is a crazy month run by crazy people demanding we crazily spend our money on crazy shit we don't need to give to crazy people we are crazy about because they are going to give us a crazy gift that we would be crazy to refuse, all in a vain and crazy effort to show our love or appreciation for each other. Why not just go for coffee and talk about it.

monday night droolings ...

... or drawings, or doodles, or whatevers ... just playing around with light pencils, heavy colors and a touch of ink to seal the deal. I'm kind of liking this way of doing things and I am going to keep exploring it, and I think I am going to start working bigger.

In other news ... my prints are selling slowly but steadily, and the new ones are due to arrive next week, including my 3 foot tall banner for when I finally attend a convention.

inverted zombie

Took the weekend off to spend some time with family and just let my mind declutter itself. Didn't really work out very well and I ended my weekend with a dream that involved me in a small car getting driven over by a huge combine. I survived it and its back to drawing undead things, like this image which looks better inverted.
strange but true

hairy zombie

Playing around with paints today - trying to get things done without laying down ink lines. This one was a couple of light pencil lines to offer some foundation and the rest is all paint.

snow santa zombie ... now in color

nuff said?

the rest of yesterday

Just a quick update to a doodle i had started yesterday, and spent a few minutes finishing today. Going to try to go line free on my next one as per Jeremy's suggestion.

blowing off steam

I don't know what to think about this image or this style but it was fun to do and made me feel better when it was all over. Sometimes its great not to think and just let loose. What do you think? Style worth exploring or not?

tomorrow is December

Today is the last day of November ... tomorrow is December ... blah blah blah. For the next month I will hear too much Christmas music and happy holiday wishes from companies I have never heard of ... and the imagery ... I don't even want to start talking about it. ITS TOO MUCH!!!!!

I won't whine ... I will just draw images like this:

shadow of the zombie

I don't really have much to say ... the weekend was rough and this week has started out even rougher. Snow storm today continuing into tomorrow with no end in sight for this winter and its not even officially winter yet. I shall survive, I always do. The only good thing about winter ... it slows the zombies down to a crawl.

Anyways ... this image is a sketch card that I have done ... pen and watercolor ... I particularity like the shadow.

night of the living dead :reloaded

Just as a hoot and to pass some time away from the computer I took a stab at a frame for the animated Night of the Living Dead ... a bunch of artists each do 1 frame to make a whole animation. You can learn a bit more about it on facebook. Check the videos they have to get an even better understanding. It's pretty cool.

zombie at the typewriter

It was requested 10 years ago, or a few weeks ... I can't remember. All I know is that last night I was doodling at the table while the kids ran amok and this zombie started taking shape. About that time I remembered a request for an image so I spent a few more minutes on it and turned it into the direction that I needed and here it is. See it in action over at roughridecreations.com

santa zombie

This is an image I created a little while back and I've been wanting to use it for sometime. Maybe a print or a magnet or something ... but nothing came to mind until today. Well my fiends ... today I present the Santa Zombie Shirt, available at abovethepants.com.


This santa doesn't care if you're bad or good, he just wants to find you when you're sleeping and eat your brains.

experiment in size

Been working on a website for much of today trying to finish it off and get it off my plate. I'm surprised the dude hasn't killed me yet ... just goes to show how great he is. Anyways - needed a break so I spent a small amount of time doodling and painting on a larger scale - but I have nothing big enough to scan it so i took a picture and here it is ...


I cropped it to see if you can tell it was photographed rather than scanned ... lots alright imo. I want to work bigger these days.

rejected zombie

I wasn't the most pleased with this after I made it and getting it rejected just made sense and that's okay. I won't stop the killing just because of one little rejection ... I'll kill more ... and more ... and more until the snow turns red and the holidays are ruined for all save those that see the darkness for the truth that it reveals. It's going to be a RED christmas

allisons zombie monster

I'm busier than I've ever been lately ... it feels like I'm being pulled in 8 directions at once. I'm pleased with it all, don't get me wrong, and I know there will be a time when it is slow again, but DAMN!

Thats about all I will say about that ... to help me out Allison has donated the following image for today. She is learning about construction lines and inking. She's my little prodigy.

watercolor print

Here's an experiment I tried a couple days ago ... I had a high res image scanned in of this drawing ...

I printed it out on my new handy dandy printer on to watercolor paper and then painted it. The final result is this ...



Turned out better than I thought it would. I might do more of these in the future to play around with and try new painting techniques. What do you think?

all in the undead family

This is my first family zombie portrait that I was commissioned for, and it turned out rather well considering my reference was 4 different photos of varying quality and size. It's a gift for his eldest daughter and he is very pleased with the result. This will be my last portrait going online for a while because my latest requests have asked me to not publish them because they are gifts. If you want me to zombify yourself or a special someone, let me know by email ... the deadilne for getting mail out in time for the holidays is fast approaching.

southern zombie

This undead dude is the hubby of yesterdays undead dudette ... their marriage vows obviously didn't include 'til death due us part because they're still together after death. Total dedication.

If you want to get yourself zombified, or would like to get a friend done for holidays or just because, send me an email and I'll hook you up. Until the new year 5x7's are only $25 ... so gets yours before its too late.

Winklerite gets zombified

This is one of the locals that I zombified recently. I also did her husband and I'll post it tomorrow. This is one of my most recent zombifications and one that I did right after that image where I leveled up. The coolest thing about this lady and her hubby ... besides having a love for the undead, is that their anniversary is on Halloween.

computer problems

What is worse than computer problems? Well ... probably a whole bunch of things are worse but in the heat of the moment when your computer isn't even connecting to the internet thats the only problem in the world. It's one of those frustrating problems too, the kinds that a 12 year old could probably fix in 5 minutes but some old fart like me can't resolve to save my life. Anyways - because of that I couldn't get my other 2 portraits online so here are the last of the Friesen family ... son and grandson.

Again, they look way better in person but whatcha gonna do.
New stuff tomorrow - and time is running out if you want to get your zombie portrait in time for the holidays.

zombie level up

It might not look like it, but this is the image that helped me level up in my skill set, if I can call it that. Just a lazy day doodle with a bic pen, but I did it on one of my 'low' days when I felt a bit crappy about my skills, and I pushed it further than I normally do. I colored it today to show you all what I saw a little easier. The portraits that I will post tomorrow are a direct result of pushing myself with this image. Side note ... should i post just once a day, or whenever the hell I feel like it?

portraits out the ...

As I have mentioned here and elsewhere, the Dark Art show that was held in Morden was a somewhat success. Some people loved it, others may have hated it, the turn out was less than what I hoped and closer to what I expected. Not everything was in our favor either though. There was a comic con happening close at hand as well as a cd release party, plus the ad in the paper came out a day later than it was supposed to. Still, overallit was a success and people in my area know that a zombie artist walks amongst them and I know that zombie love exists in southern manitoba. Win - Win.

ANYWAYS - lots of zombie portraits lately, and they keep coming. These next 2 are a couple of younger than me kids ... the first one is an artist and I recieved a bit of a glam shot of her, so I had to remove a lot of her hair and tear up the part of her face I couldn't see. Jabbed a few paint brushes in her head because it was the only weapon I had close at hand. Didn't work, she's still out there searching for brains.

The second image is of a gamer guy so I imagined the government trying some sort of zombie mind control with him ... which obviously ended in tragedy for the government as he got loose and killed everyone he found.
I will post more portraits tomorrow - and I keep getting more orders. Even family portraits are getting requested. Because of all this recent interest I have decided to keep my prices where they were for October ... a full color 5 x 7 zombie portrait is going to remain just $25 and that will include shipping inside North America. Internationals will have to pay a small fee for shipping. If you are interested in getting zombified, send me an email. If you want a family portrait done, let me know the details and I'll give you a quote.

portraits

This lovely zomBie lady baked some amazingly creepy looking cupcakes for the Dark Art Exhibit that I was part of last week. As part of her zombification I made sure that part of her hobby showed through ... smashed cupcake and a spatula stuck in her head. Obviously it didn't pierce her brain so she's still out there ... looking to turn your brain into a batch of cupcakes.

This is her ... pre zombie.

And then there's this dude, who's married to the lady above. They used to live happily ever after with their son ( who you'll see later ) until the zombie appocalyspe began. They all got turned when they went out to McD's for a quick supper. They should have turned back when they saw the police cruiser crash into a group of slow walking people but it was probably shock and disbelief, or an incredible desire to play mcdonalds monopoly that kept them on course for the golden arches. Whatever it was, they no longer have a bigmac attack ... its all braAaains now.
This is the dude 2 days before the infection.

As a side note - the artwork looks terrible online. No matter what i do with the levels and colors in photoshop it doesn't look nearly as good as the real life image. Just saying

have you seen my cat

So Halloween is over for another year, nothing to do now but plan for the next one ... unless of course you go insane for that other holiday ... you know the one ... christmas. I started seeing christmas ads before Halloween and that always bums me out. For the next 2+ months we have to endure countless seasons greetings and other banalities from companies you have never heard of, or even care about.

Well not here ... I am making it my pledge to go out of my way to ruin everything that has made christmas more about selling overpriced crap to people already living beyond their means. You'll definatly feel some christmas spiROT when im finished with you.

Anyways ... the kitties were drawn at the art show for my daughter. She likes cats.

happy halloween

Happy Halloween from the Zombie Queen ... as George Romero would say ... stay scared!
Anyways, it's been a super busy last couple of days with the art show and everything. Did a whole bunch of zombie portraits, met a lot of interesting people and generally had a great time. I am now hooked on the whole idea of going to conventions and I'm starting to preplan my next year and I hope to attend at least 3 or 4 different comic and zombie conventions.

Giving away art all this month has proven to be more difficult than I originally thought. Sure it's easy enough to find people that want it, but just to keep the updates rolling on schedule is tricky. I didn't totally fail but I didn't score 100% either. To all those that won stuff, it should be at your door soon.

Today I am giving away the last prize - my current 2 prints, a magnet and a sketchcard and whatever other nifty little junk I have lying around. If you want it then you have to tell me why you want it, on this blog.

Give me a good reason, write me a poem, BEG, but just post something. If you don't post on this blog you won't win. Good luck.

october 28

the count down to halloween is in the single digits - you can count the days with 1 hand, even if you're missing some fingers. It's also the evening before my Debut show at posers gallery, and I've been working like a mad scientest trying to get everything done.

Because of that, the contests have suffered a little bit ... so what I'm giving away today is this ... to 3 people I will send a book mark, a black and sketchcard and a sticker from the people at zombies and toys ... all you HAVE to do is comment, like or retweet.

Day 26

There is no image today ... it's been a super busy day getting ready for the first ever Dark Art exhibit at Posers Gallery - my works are the featured works and it's gotten me very excited and nervous. On Friday the 29th and Saturday the 30th I will be at the gallery doing drawing demos as well as zombie portraits. If you would like to be zombified, from now until the end of October a 4 x 6 watercolored portrait is only $15. If you want to see yourself with undead eyes, send me an email and we'll make it happen.

Yesterday's winner is Martin Brandt - if you want to win a sketchcard, just let me know which horror villan or hero you would like have me draw and one random winner will get their choice drawn, colored and mailed to him/her. Comment here or on facebook to enter.

Cheers .. .

day 25 - deadpool, zombie hunter

I love Deadpool. Issue 98 of the new mutants is when I first decided I was going to draw superheros ... if Rob Liefeld could do it, anyone could. Right? ( To be fair, at the time I thought his artwork was theBOMB, but as I grew in experience I started seeing all the flaws, still, he was a huge influence. ) And now I draw zombies, and Deadpool looks like a zombie without his mask, so it all ties in. I think he would have a great time killing zombies. He would probably get quite creative.

A N Y W A Y S . . .

If you want to win this card, all you need to do is comment on which comic or artist changed your life. So comment to win ... and GO!

day 24

The second image in the new series - i need to work on backgrounds much more. Tomorrows card will be heavy on the background. Yesterdays card goes to Todd Brown from May December Publications.

day 23 - a new series

Started a new page of sketch cards and this is the pre watercolor version of the first card called peek a boo - it will look stunning when its finished. To have it, or at least have a chance of having it, just comment, like or retweet this. Extra Karma points if you're following me on facebook, or at least likin' my facebook page.

Congrats to Rocky for winning the spider zombie man ... randomness looked his way this time.

day 22 - spider zombie man

Spider Zombie Man ... Spider Zombie Man
Not so friendly neighborhood Spider Zombie Man
he's got cobwebs, surrounded by flies
Eats raw brains its no surprise ... HE IS!!!
SPIDER ZOMBIE MAN

so yeah - its spiderman post infection

cthulhu thursday - day 21

Day 21 ... it's a Thursday ... now it's Cthulhu Thursday. And the above image is definately Cthulhu inspired. It could be yours if you comment, or like the image/ post on facebook.

day 20 - grumpy old man ... i mean ZOMBIE!

For all you know this could be your neighbor, or your neighbors uncle, or your neighbors uncles 2nd cousin on his wifes side. Could have been anyone but now its no one 'cept a mindless hungry zombie with a fetish for brains. And it could be yours if you leave a comment ... or 'like' on facebook.

And yesterdays prize goes to Ryan again ... the only one who guessed it right ... OPRAH! The only woman powerful enough to destroy people ... at least on daytime talk shows. Here's the reference I used to draw from http://behindblondiepark.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/oprah.jpg

day 19 - celebrity zombies

Well ... seems like I couldn't give away yesterdays prize ... nobody wanted her ... she wasn't pretty enough, or maybe not enough blood ... whatever the reason she has now been DAMNED TO HELL!!!! And the only person strong enough to damn another person to hell is shown above.

Who is she? You leave a comment with the correct guess, you're entered to win. If you guess incorrectly, you'll be damned to hell for getting it wrong. She is THAT strong. She can raise you high and make you famous, or tear you down in to a shadow of yourself. Thank goodness she's retiring ... or is she?

day 18 - dawn of the lady zombie

Drawn up this morning on a sketchcard, and watercolor bases laid down ... next up is the detailing, and the blood. Oh yes, there will be blood.

It's day 18 of the zombie a day give away from www.idrawzombies.com and todays prize is the above image, which is a current work in progress. The finished image will be a little more detialed and refined. Want to win, just comment, or find this post on facebook and comment there or LIKE it ... you know you LIKE it, why not show it too. As always, winner announced somewhere tomorrow.

Yesterdays prize goes to Niki Kelly from facebook.

day 17 - its magnetic zombie time

today's prize is a business card sized magnet shown above ... stick it on your fridge, stove, other convienently located metallic object or try to make it stick to the metal plate in your neighbors head. You know the drill - comment to win or go to facebook and give it a try. It's all random baby.

day 16 - grave rising zombie print

Today I am giving away the first print EVER! If you want me to mail it to you then just leave your comment, send an email, find the tweet and RT it or go onto facebook and comment or LIKE ... so many ways to enter its enough to melt your braAaaains ...


yeah ... that was lame ...

day 15 - zombie killer or killer zombie

Todays sketchcard was inspired partly by a twitter conversation I had with Patricia Tallman ... she is a zombie killer. The above dude ... also a zombie killer but as with most people during the zombie apocalypse - on his way to becoming a killer zombie. Such is life in the undead world.
Comment to win it ...