Featured Creature: World Without End

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

 

 

Featured Creature: Hobgoblin

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}
 

Featured Creature: He's Sownh Art

interior full

moonlight reflected

reveals nothing on the outs
but the house rumbles and shakes
from the earthquakes

the sadness madness 

can't must run away 

can't must defeat it 

bury swallow it 

tear shred chew 

the wet sucking sounds 

of never never never ever 

again

in the darkness 

he eats his own heart

in the light 
the werewolf walks like a man

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}
 

Recommended Listening:

Tamino

Habibi

from Amir

Exhumed: Werewolf By Night

For my Werewolf by Night piece, I did several sketches in preparation.  One of my favorites caught my eye again recently, so I brought it into Photoshop to explore.  I like the werewolf face here opposed to the one in the finished piece.  This one has a more expressive quality that the other lacks.  The color and lighting focus in this one is simply nighttime.
 
{11.111x9.861,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: Pumpkin Headed Scarecrow Jack

This piece was originally created to be used as the background of an invitation for an annual halloween party.  This is one of the first images I ever drew of the flaming jack o lantern headed the spirit of Halloween, Jack.

{7.98 x 5.03, Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

From the Archives: Father's Day

Here we have the Zombie Bites header from the month of June 2014, Father's Day.  Who knows what happened outside to cause the cook out to go horribly awry.  What dread horror in the backyard made Daddy this way?  Mother and child are safe and hiding within the house, but for how long?  Daddy sure looks hungry.

I apologize that I am unable to post the header without the logo.  I had a computer crash back in August of 2014 and lost access to some of my files and data.  I do not currently have access to the logo-less version of this image, but as soon as I do, I will post it here.

~

During 2014, I began creating a new header each month depicting a scene associated with the dominate holiday for that month but with a zombie twist.  I'll be posting the headers here in From the Archives to give them a nice dark corner to fester in.  I'll also be posting the images with and without the logo so you can see the parts of the background image that were covered by the logo.  Thanks for viewing and reading!

If you like what you see here, be sure to check out Valentine's Day, Saint Patrick's Day, Easter, and Mother's Day.

{8x2.81,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: Tornado of Self

An older piece depicting a disturbed emotive state.  With the color reinvestigation, I wanted to add a stronger sense of motion within the piece to indicate that the individual distortion had begun to effect the surrounding environment.  I also chose to confine my palette to "body" colors: light flesh, blood, excretions.  With the use of these body specific colors, my intent was to give the image a subtle disturbing quality that intimated the visceral aspects of the black and white sketch with further graphic representation.

{8.5x11, Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: Lich

Here we've exhumed a sketch of a Lich from a fantasy story I was working on.  In the color reinvestigation I digitally inked the image then added a background doorway for this creepy guy to have just walked through.  I kept the lighting dim to add to the ambiance and surrounded him in a cloud of noxious fog to keep him ghostly despite his black cloak.

{8x6.2,  Graphite with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Featured Creature: Whisperers

Excerpted From Marge Hollander's Digest of Demons and Devils: 

"Whisperers are dire phantoms that will lead humans psychically and emotionally astray even unto death.  A Whisperer will seek out a victim that is already emotionally agitated or distraught and begin to misdirect their emotions towards the goals of the Whisperer.  It is unknown exactly how the phantoms control their victims, but those who have survived the persuasions of these demonic ghosts claim to have heard whispering voices and to have encountered vaporous apparitions.

The Parade: Part II, Under the Mason Bridge

Continued from The Parade: Part I, Skipping School

The Parade
Part II

Under the Mason Bridge

Jackie sat on a bench at the edge of the park and watched the cars move through downtown Rivercross.  They zigzagged like confused ants, disappearing behind trees and buildings then reappearing moments later in a new direction.  A breeze knocked bright orange leaves loose from nearby trees.  They danced across her field of vision like bits of flame and floated away down the hillside.

Her tears had finally passed.  She held the brown bag tightly in her grip.  She had shoved the test stick in with the packaging.  She almost threw it all in the trashcan nearby but found that as she approached she couldn't release the bag.  She still had not decided if she was going to tell Sam.  She didn't know what she was going to do at all.  Jackie watched the clouds stretch themselves across the sky like cotton candy.

The Parade: Part I, Skipping School

The Parade 
Part I

October 30th, Skipping School

Jackie pedaled her bike out of the parking lot and away from school.  She glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one had seen her leave.  Her last class was a free period and she wouldn't be missed, but she didn't want to take any chances.  Rivercross High disappeared behind a bank of trees as she rounded the curve and sped towards downtown. She turned at the next intersection to avoid Main street.  She didn't want to be seen by anyone who might tell her dad.  Doris over at the Style Shop had ratted her out when she had skipped class before and she just couldn't deal with that extra stress today.

She bought the test from Maureen at Norris grocery on her way to school.  She knew that Maureen would keep her secret.  She sold Jackie cigarettes sometimes.  The test was wrapped in a brown paper bag deep in her backpack.  She would go to the park for some privacy and then she would know.  If she got to the park before three she could get home before four-thirty and her mom and dad wouldn't be suspicious.  She angled her bike onto Myers boulevard and towards the Mason bridge.

Featured Creature: Chornehbanku

Excerpted from Marge Hollander's Digest of Demons and Devils: 

"Chornehbanku are spirits of emptiness that seek out and attach themselves to judgmental and bitter humans.  They seek a rarest essence: the tears of the judgmental.  While their victims sleep, the Chornehbanku collect these lonely tears in their night jars.  The Chornehbanku will influence the moods of the victim and attempt to isolate them further from the world around them.  These wraiths will feed off a chosen victim until the person eventually dies.

Once a Chornehbanku has attached itself to a person and has begun to collect their tears there is only one method to exorcise these vampiric ghosts.  The night jar of the Chornehbanku represents its connection to the physical realm.  If the night jar can be procured and destroyed, the Chornehbanku's hold on the person can be broken and the spirit banished.  Such a task is not to be considered lightly for many have lost their lives in attempts to separate a Chornehbanku from its jar.  These dire phantoms will enact any heresy to protect their jars." 

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Featured Creature: Udushae N'yasnu

Excerpted from Marge Hollander's Digest of Demons and Devils:

"Little is known about the origins of the Udushae N'yasnu.  There is a rumored Gnostic legend that on the seventh day of creation, after God had finished his work, the Udushae were the left over flotsam.  Before God could return the unformed creatures to the void, they skittered into the darkest corners of creation and hid.  Regardless of their origins, a recorded characteristic of the Udushae is their thirst for human bodily fluids.

Over a period of days or weeks, chosen victims of the Udushae are slowly drained of vital fluids during sleep.  Often the symptoms of an Udushae assault are confused with that of a Vampyr attack.  However the Udushae feed exclusively on human fluids whereas a Vampyr will feed on any available source of blood including livestock, family pets, and local wildlife.  Also absent in an Udushae attack are the telltale puncture wounds left by a Vampyr.  It is generally assumed that the Udushae drain fluids from the body of the victim directly through existing orifices.

Exhumed: Ghoul

Here we have an exhumed Ghoul.  With this piece I wanted to get into the creepy night time atmosphere of the image while keeping the savage anger of the original sketch.  I feel like this piece and another ghoul I drew some time ago are cut from the same cloth.  Although I'm enjoying the dramatic side lighting, I'm not super excited about the overall color here.  I feel like it turned out just okay.  I may have to exhume this piece again at some point.

{7.31x5.13,  Graphite with colors added in Adobe Photoshop}

Featured Creature: The Syl'udet

Excerpted from Marge Hollander's Digest of Demons and Devils:

"The Syl'udet are a common race of parasitic demons.  Within the confines of Hell they are as prolific as rats in urban sewers.  Most humans will have contact with these dread pests at least once in their lifetimes.

Within the earth plane, the Syl'udet generally cannot be seen by the mundane eye.  They are visible briefly during twilight times and then only by those who are sensitive or psychic.  However, there are many occult devices that do allow a mundane viewer to perceive these creatures.  In two separate recorded incidents, Syl'udet have been perceived using Sheridan's Visor as well as a Veil of the Mudra.

Featured Creature: The Ushtohc

Excerpted from Marge Hollander's Digest of Demons and Devils:

"The Ushtohc are an invasive other dimensional race.  They insert a portion of their consciousness into innocuous everyday objects and remain hidden while their influence grows.  They slowly infect the immediate reality with their presence until a suitable mobile host presents itself.  Once they have invaded a mobile host, they are nearly impossible to exorcise without great psychic effort.  Luckily, their transmission into the earth realm seems to only coincide with very rare celestial alignments."

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

 

Featured Creature: Cow Demon Robot

I've been drawing alot of humans in the Featured Creature lately and this week I wanted to get more creature back into the posts.  This image however, turned out more comedic than scary.  I figure though that somebody somewhere must be afraid of cow demon robots even if they're smiling...or maybe because they are smiling. 

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Featured Creature: The Ghost

"The spirit of malevolence that had attached itself to the structure suffused everything with a suffocating aura of hopelessness, suffering, and despair."

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: Rotting Appleteeth

Rotting Appleteeth is a goblin of indulgence and decay.  Rotting is quick, selfish, and most certainly dangerous.  Legend has it that he used to have a mouth full of bright white teeth, but they decayed and fell out because of his lust for eating sweets and drinking Nog all night.  His empty heart is jealous and craves all things, especially the teeth of others.  When he sees a beautiful set of polished ivories, out comes his dagger!

Surprisingly, his breath is rather sweet, but that is only a lure to get a victim close enough to cut out a few molars.  Although he will not pass up any tooth, he is known to prefer the teeth of children.  His nighttime attacks are responsible for the innate fear of dentists that many children possess.  He is a mortal enemy of the tooth fairy and the two have warred repeatedly over a single stolen tooth.

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Featured Creature: Moonlit Were

I'm going to take a break from the Devil's Square focus for a bit and pursue some straight up creature sketches.  This week we have a more painterly were-creature.  I've been so controlled with my compositions lately, I wanted to try something a little more organic and expressive.  I also haven't been getting nearly enough practice painting in Photoshop, so I've added that to my to do list.  Expect more in this style.
 
This piece also has an element of whimsy in it that surprised me once I'd finished it.  The overwhelming darkness of the world lately has been a bit much for me so I don't mind a bit of whimsy here.

{8x5.33,  created in Adobe Photoshop}