impressionistic zombies

This time of the year always brings out many feelings. Some of frustration and annoyance, other times is sadness. To add more chaos to the mix I'm feeling rather uninspired after that mega project for google. So in an effort to burst through it all I've done some small works in a very loose style.

 This is my startled zombie kitty ...

the Ponderous Zombie

The wandering zombie

and finally ... Tundra Zombie ... because its damn cold here.

MOANa Lisa

It's still Movember and I'm still raising funds for prostate cancer awareness and mens health. You can make a donation here at my Movember page and get a tax receipt  If you do, you can also put in a request for me to zombify and draw some lady ... with a mustache. Mark made a recent donation and requested the Mona Lisa get the treatment ... so here she is ...

BADDA BING BADDA BOOM!

godzilla gone zombie

A friend on G+ and a fan of the 1000 zombies project funded GODZILLA ... and it was my job to turn him in to a zombie. I'm using and learning how to use oil paints for the next 50 zombies and while there have been some success ... lately it feels more like ... um ... not so much success. This is zombie 113 of the project. Gotta keep moving onwards or it all goes to hell. Just like Tokyo attacked by a huge mutated zombie dinosaur.

failure and fear

Last night I tried to paint up zombie #111 of the 1000 zombies art project and failed. So I tried again ... which also resulted in a failure, though not quite as dramatically.

And then I got bummed out.

2 images in a row that totally sucked as far as I was concerned. 2 images of the same guy, the same picture even. The 2nd attempt wasn't as bad and I came back to it a couple times during the remainder of the evening and tweaked it a little, even managed to salvage it come the next morning in to something that I was much more pleased with. But all night long and in to most of today I couldn't stop thinking about that failure and how it made me feel.

So this morning I went back at failure #2 and kept tweaking it and playing with it and, as I said, managed to salvage it and eventually post it.

Then I stopped working and started beating myself up again, falling in to that pit of despair that so many other artists know all to well. I didn't want to even try oils again. I doodled, surfed the web, procrastinated in other ways and overall just avoided painting for the better part of today. After a while, and a nap, I faced my fear, admitted that I don't know shit about using oil paints, and took failure #1 and started rubbing, scrubbing and scratching the hells out of it. Then I picked up my brush and started using the left over oils and just slapped things around. After a few minutes an idea started forming in my head and I took a tooth pick and painted out this image.

So yeah ... I pretty much suck at oil painting, but thats okay. I know I suck ... I know I have a lot to learn and a long journey ahead if I want to paint the images I see in my head. I'm now ready to continue that journey ... unafraid and willing to fail.

 It's just better if I know it and admit it than try to hide from it and not do anything about it.

Movember Mother Teresa Zombie with a Mustache

It's Movember and all month long I'm drawing girls and ladies, fictional, historical or otherwise, as zombies with mustaches. If you want yourself drawn, or a special lady in your life, make a donation of any size to my movember donation page http://mobro.co/idrawzombies and then send me an email to let me know who gets zombified.  

Here's a sorta step by step of my process for creating Zombified and mustachioed Mother Teresa.

As always I start by taping my paper to the board using painters tape.

The I red line main shapes and lines of what Mother Teresa looks like. This is my loose sketching stage.

After the red lines I put down the main colors. As with most of my zombies, its greens and reds. I almost forgot to take a picture at this stage. 

After the main color blocks are in I go and ink it up with black, and also use the red pen to fill in some red details. I also define the shading a little more with paint too.

And then I forgot to take any other step by step pics because I got to involved with it. Mostly its a bit more inking to define and the shapes and vary the line weights, and some highlight paints and more layers for shadows. After the tape comes off you get nice clean edges and a more finished look to the piece.

Any questions leave a comment or send me an email. Cheers!

Movember has begun

And that means ... Movember Girls!! But this year its a little different. This year its Zombified Movember Girls! First one done is my wife Monica, and the kids recognized her right away. The second is the always bright and shiny Ellen Degeneres.

I'm doing zombie mustachioed women for the whole month of Movember and if any ladies out there are interested in getting yourself drawn as a zombie with a mustache, just make a donation here: http://mobro.co/idrawzombies and send me a picture.