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}

From the Archives: Rock Rage

Here is an older unfinished sketch portrait of an angry stone faced creature.  With this piece I was specifically trying to give the face the texture of a lava flow that has begun to cool and turn to stone.  I can't remember if my intent for this piece was a rock like race of people or a single creature.

{8x5.64 Sharpie}

From the Archives: RPG Sci-Fi Versus

Here is another piece the previously mentioned  RPG portfolio.  This is one of my few Sci-Fi pieces.

{8x6.14,  Sharpie}

From the Archives: RPG Demon

A demonic figure from my older RPG portfolio.

{8x6.08,  Sharpie}

From this post forward, From the Archives posts will be moving to Fridays.

Exhumed: The Door

This piece was originally part of the Interior Life set.  With the Interior Life set I tried to find a middle ground between my more emotive works and my sequential art.  That set held some of the ideas and thought processes that would grow into much of my intent here at Zombie Bites.  I had imagined this hungry door as fiery from the moment I drew it.  With the color reinvestigation I wanted to bring that feeling of furnace / fireplace to the fore.

{8x6.503,  Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

From the Archives: Devil Head

Here is a quick sketch of a devil's head.  I've always been fond of the design quality of light emitting from within the eyes and mouth of a dark face.

{Sharpie}

From the Archives: Tornado of Self

Ahhh, stress!  I had been struggling for years to get this idea down on paper.  When I drew this, I felt at the time that I had finally correctly displayed what my stress felt like.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

SpartCon Post Con Part II: Zombie Bite Con Sketches

In addition to the flyers for SPARTANCON, I decided to create sketches for those who wanted them.  Here are some of the freebie zombie bite sketch business cards I was doing at the con.  I didn't have the time or cash to get printed cards so I figured I would try these to have something to give out.  There are a few missing though.  I didn't think to take photos of them until about 4 or 5 were gone.  I figured these would be a cool way to get the Zombie Bites name out there and to offer a piece of art to go with it.  Enjoy!

Exhumed: Open Skull

Here we have a quick sketch of a strange skull.  With the color reinvestiagtion I wanted to give it an environment to inhabit.  I figured the skull has been sitting about for quite a long time collecting dust in some dark dungeon corner. 

{Sharpie with colors added in Adobe Photoshop}

From the Archives: Dance of Death and Life

Here is a sharpie sketch from long ago.  I don't remember my exact inspiration for this piece but it is one of the few feminine/female nudes I've done.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

From the Archives: The Narrator

I had an plan for this guy to narrate an ongoing series of dark comic book stories.  I may still use him for such, but I think he's gonna have to have a make over.  I'm not sure what I was thinking of with the strange and severe butt cut hairdo.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

From the Archives: Shadowed Face

Here we have an overworked sharpie sketch.  I think the original inspiration for this was an image of Robert Plant from back in the day.  I enjoy the shadows here, but I feel like it would have been more successful if it were a bit looser.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

From the Archives: Thauros

This is a character design sketch for an ongoing dark comic series I've had for some time.  I'm not sure if it will ever see print, but here's a taste at least.  This is the dark prince of Unter, Thauros.  I couldn't seem to get a good scan without the mark making showing up.  My scanner just sees right through the sharpie on that particular kind of paper.  I tweaked the scanned image in Photoshop to get it a bit closer to what the original image looks like.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

From the Archives: Burning

An older sharpie and marker sketch.  When I first discovered color sharpies I was so in love.  Here we have the beginnings of some of my more psychedelic coloring but on one my standard angry faces.

{8x11,  Sharpie and various markers}

From the Archives: Chained

From long ago, an image of anxiety and fear.  Looking back, I'm not sure what all the odd patterning is about.  I recognize the symbolism of some of it, but from this end it seems more visually disruptive than effective.  At the time, I do recall being very preoccupied with neon Prismacolor pencils because of the intensity they brought.  I'm sure that was part of this.

{Sharpie and Prismacolor pencils}

From the Archives: Baba Yaga's Gift

Two different sharpie sketches from long ago of the flaming skull from a Russian folktale about Vasilisa and Baba Yaga.  I first read a version of this story in Women Who Run with the Wolves.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

From the Archives: Devil and Angel

Here is a sharpie sketch exploring ideas for a flyer advertising a heaven and hell themed party.

{8.5x11,  Sharpie}

Exhumed: Nightboy

Here I've exhumed a portrait of the Nightboy.  With this reinvestigation, I chose to remove the black sketchy blot in the background and replace it with some scenery to give the image greater depth.  I also chose a very dark muted palette to reflect nighttime lighting.  I tried to soften the image a bit with the muted colors. However, my original drawing is so stiff I never quite got beyond it.

{8x6.02,  Sharpie with color added in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: Grahtennas

Here is the color version of a previous sketch of the demonic arch duke Grahtennas.  In the first portrait of Grahtennas I posted the intensity of color was much greater, but that piece was more of a depiction of the essence of Grahtennas.  Here, I toned down the intensity of the color to lend it a more atmospheric sense of space. 

{8x5.33,  Sharpie with color added 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}