Exhumed: FEAR

Here we have explorations of an older sketch for a fear logo.  Whereas most of the other Exhumed pieces have been about simply adding color to develop the image further, here I've taken the idea from the original sketch and constructed an entirely new design. 

{8x5.33,  Created in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: The Collapse

This piece was originally done to simulate a woodcut but in the color version I kind of left all that behind.  I wanted to accentuate the dying of the light with this piece.  However, as I finished this I realized there is a quality of discovery here as  well.  The uncovered ancient corpse.  eep.

{8x6.59,  created in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: The Old Blue Man

Here we have an old blue man.  The color here is a little closer to my original vision for this piece.  Although I enjoy the roughness of his face in the original drawing, I feel that the softer edges of the color piece make him more "celestial".  Also the color gives the piece a greater visual depth.  Maybe it is merely comparison, but with them side by side the black and white looks very flat.

{8x5.437,  Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: The Visitors

Here we have another image that was originally posted at Trail of Breadcrumbs, but I feel like this one is just creepy enough to fit in here at Zombie Bites.  I don't know if it's because I've watched The Thing too many times, but there is something about a snowy landscape that fills me with an innate sense of dread and fear.  I guess it's that life is minimized in that climate.  Most everything is either asleep or dead.  So who are these figures come across the snowy wastes?  Are they the sleeping or the dead?  Who goes there?

Exhumed: Identity

I was excited to dig into this piece with color.  Originally I had imagined the energy surrounding the mask as a warm set of colors.  However, as soon as I began working with color I knew that it had to be cool blues.  I added the muted background because I wanted to develop the space within the piece more without detracting from the focus on the foreground entity.  Looking at this now, I think this may be in the same reality, the same underworld as an earlier piece.

{8x7.84,  Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: DC Comics Manhunter

I'm angling more and more of work towards comic book themes and imagery with the Saturday Sketch and other future posts.  Although this piece does not specifically have a horror theme or imagery, I wanted to share it for the coloring aspect.  I promise next time we will return to our previously scheduled horror.  :-)

{8x6.2,  Sharpie with zippotone and color added in Adobe Photoshop}

I claim no copyright to this DC Comics character.  This is presented for portfolio purposes and appreciation only.

New Gallery: OTHER FEATURES

I've added a new gallery, Other Features, to give a clearer pathway to viewing my older work in From the Archives and to put a spotlight on my new features Exhumed and Saturday Sketch.  Each section has selected pieces as examples of style and content as well as a main link to all my artwork under those individual headers.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  Enjoy!

Exhumed: Dark Magus

This piece was originally posted on EXP3 back when I was still posting artwork there.  In the original sketch the character was a villain from a fantasy story.  In the color rework, I feel like he has taken on a more mythic quality.  Now he seems more like the dark magus of the plains of sorrow or some such title.  For this rework, I added elements from another older sketch that this seemed to echo in tone. 

{8x5.33,  Graphite with Color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: Searching The Stars

This piece was always about vastness and immensity, so with the color, I tried to push the depth of the space within the piece further.  Also I feel that with the color I was able to give the figure in the foreground a bit more substance and form as opposed to the heavily designed shapes in the black and white version.  I apologize for the lack of darkness or horror here.  Exhumed is about previous posts and as much as I try to keep Zombie Bites completely dark, sometimes the light just slips in.

{11x14,  Ink and white acrylic with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: If Flesh Could Crawl

The original piece was part of larger set, but didn't necessarily match up stylistically.  Working in color, I wanted to move the piece more towards my original vision: A molten figure singing in a pit of fire.  The fiery emotions here have built up to a point where they are consuming everything.

Exhumed: The Black Sun

This image was originally posted on my other art blog, Trail of Breadcrumbs, but I feel that its tone and meaning work better here at Zombie Bites.  Here we have a personification of the Black Sun, an Occult as well as Alchemical symbol.  When coloring this piece, I felt like the image needed some moody lighting to set off the brooding aspect of the piece.  I wanted to give the piece the feeling of a much larger space so I added a mist effect by layering a series of soft gradients throughout the image.

{8x7.28, Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: Partial Skull

Following along with Halloween and All Saints Day, here's a skull I dug up for this weeks Exhumed.  This Partial Skull was one of the first pieces I began playing with when I began exhuming my older works.  As I played with the color and transparency in this piece, I began to realize that a lot more was possible and just let the Photoshop paintbrush guide me.  Once I added the yellow highlights on the right side, the lightbulb went off in my head and I knew I had to explore this style further!  In working on this piece, I also realized that I am a total geek for color effects.  :-)

{8.33x8.38  Sharpie and Ballpoint Pen with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: Autumn Winds

With the style of the original image for Autumn Winds I was alluding to antique Halloween images.  Keeping that impetus in mind for the color version, I used a muted color palette to make the final image look aged.

{8x6.05  Sharpie with tones and colors added in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: Reexamining the Dead

This week I'm beginning one of the new features I mentioned previously in the Featured Creature Last Bites for 2012-2013.  With Exhumed posts, I'll be digging up older pieces and exploring them with fresh color and tones.  I'll be pulling from the backlog of images I've posted on Zombie Bites, ranging from older From the Archives posts to older Featured Creature posts.  Exhumed posts will focus mainly on the process of taking a drawn image and bringing it to the next level with tones and color.  The posts will be generally infrequent, but I'll try to keep them as regular as possible.  Exhumed will be appearing on Fridays.