Tattoo: Krampus as Mescalito

Originally drawn for a Featured Creature post, here were have an image of Krampus transformed into the consciousness expanding Mescalito.  When I started adding color to this piece, I began with red skin.  I didn't care for that direction and wasn't sure where to head next, but when I accidentally inverted the red layer to green in Photoshop it set me on the right path.  I'm very satisfied with the intensity of the finished image here and will probably be creating more Mescalito images soon.  :-)

New Abstract: Descend to Begin

The path to truth always begins with a descent. Beneath the world of illusion, an underworld lurks.  The doorway can take many forms, a pit trapdoor, a dark stairwell, or a even a mouth, but always it leads away from the mundane, the known, the assumed.

Tattoo: Skull worm

Strange Factories Trailer

Strange Factories from Foolish People and Weaponized.

Tattoo: Valknut

I was attracted to drawing the the Valknut initially because of the design aspects, but I've always had an interest in Norse imagery and mythology.  I also enjoy celtic knotwork so that was how I approached this piece.  However, looking at some of the history of this symbol, I may do another piece of the Valknut as the Borromean rings.

From the Archives: Vampire

Several portrait sketches for a vampire character from a comic book fiction I was working on in the early 90's.  At the time I was very much into the giant hair.  Here though I see the beginning of some of my later more chiaroscuro visuals.

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Tattoo: Batman Throwing Star

Here's a tattoo I created for a friend last year.  He wanted to reproduce one of Batman's throwing stars from the Christian Bale Batman movies.  He wasn't sure about the size he wanted the finished image to be, so I created it in Adobe illustrator for lossless scaling.

Featured Creature: Devil's Square, Scratch

Excerpt from Liam Hofstadter's report for the Department of Extranormal Phenomena (DEP), Superhuman and Supernatural Threats in the New Millennium:

"Of the super villain quartet known as the Devil's Square, the pygmy creature Scratch is considered the most physically dangerous.  Often seen collared and escorted on a chain by his group, this creature's numerous escapes give clear reason for his restraint.    Despite his small stature, Scratch is lethally violent and has caused hundreds of casualties during his few encounters with humans.

Tattoo: Man in the Moon

Drawn in 2001, here is a man in the moon image refurbished and toned for a tattoo design.  This piece was Originally posted on Trail of Breadcrumbs.  I removed the background for a cleaner more easily reproducible image.  When I was adding tones, I had initially given the image a cast of color, but upon reflection I chose to use only the black and white tones.  With only the black and white tones, if anyone wanted to add color later a variety of color choices could be made.  With each of the Tattoo images I am posting this week, I'm including the original line drawing so that tones or color can be addressed separately from line work in the tattoo process, if necessary.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: The Horse of Time

Across vast deserts of time, the message comes.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: Griffin and the Rebirth of Self

In the library of experiences, we see the first signs of movement as the protective cocoon begins to split.  The complex and continual process of re-imagining the self reaches a critical stage.  Through the separating membranes of the chrysalis we observe a mysterious figure.  Shedding the vestiges of the old identity, soon the new self will emerge.

2nd Annual Asheville Tattoo Festival, March 14-17

Later next week, the city of Asheville, North Carolina will be celebrating it's Second Annual Tattoo Festival.  Check out their website for a full listing of the festivities and information on the cool guests coming.

From the Archives: An Origin of Grahtennas

Here is an earlier drawing of the Arch Duke  Grahtennas.  At the time I drew this piece,  Grahtennas had a vastly different appearance and aspect.  He was more of a toad like goblin than an actual demon, but even then he was a type of royalty.  This is the second drawing I created of him.

Featured Creature: Connection

In the dream, the room was dark.  I kept mumbling a phrase I did not understand.  My voice was strange, garbled and echoing.  I felt like I was dancing.  I raised my arms and returned them to my sides several times.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: Vision of the Lion

Deep within the matrices of the temporal continuum, a burning eternal consciousness is revealed.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: Adjustment

Even in a dysphoric landscape, the delicate process of balance must be maintained.

Featured Creature UPDATE: The Night Thing Part IV

The following is the conclusion of the short fiction presented for the Featured Creature piece, The Night Thing.  I will be posting the update to the original post also If you would like to read the pieces as a continuous whole.

The Night Thing Part IV

"STOP!"  The man in the circle raised his hand flatly towards Ricky but did not look towards him.  Ricky looked at him wide eyed, questioning.  "It has not left us.  Stay inside.  Lock the door."  Ricky slowly closed the door and locked it once again.  He slumped to the floor. He and the ragged man sat in silence for a long while.  The ragged man had assumed a meditative stance and had closed his eyes.  Ricky scanned the darkness beyond for any sign of movement.  His jaw was tight and his teeth chattered lightly like he were cold.

"Whu-What is that thing?" Ricky finally asked.

From the Archives: Dream Sequence Pages

Featured Creature: Lover's Tongue

From Marge Hollander's Digest of Demons and Devils:

"Approximately three to four feet in length, the Erasti el Isnan, or Lover's Tongue, are considered one of the lesser Chimera.  In Die Tür Des Bösen, this creature is referred to also as one of the Hungry, a class of cruel rapacious demons that manipulate bodily appetites.  Reputed as petty demons of sexual obsession and jealousy, Erasti are often considered more pests than an actual demonic threat.  Erasmus Möller's account of his encounter with the Arch Duke Grahtennas, gives an indication of the Erasti el Isnan as pets of the greater demons due to the delicate erotic pain of their stings.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: History Set VI, Within the Garden of Integrations

The further neutralization of the conflict of opposites bridges the gap between imagination and mundane reality.  The landscape literally comes to life as the elements give themselves over to the process of the creation of the new. The more they give of themselves, the more fertile and resplendent the landscape becomes.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: History Set V, First Meeting

Fire and Water are thrust together at the borderline with chaos and violence as the fruit of their first interaction.  As they struggle to separate they blend together and transmute each other.  Their struggle cools the Fire with rising steam and impregnates the Water with the seeds of life.  The Athame plunges into the Chalice.

Featured Creature UPDATE: The Night Thing Part III

The following is the continuation of the short fiction presented for the Featured Creature piece, The Night Thing.  I will be posting each update to the original post as I go If you would like to read the pieces as a continuous whole.

The Night Thing Part III

"What the hell was that?!?" Ricky asked, but the man was gone, moved back under the covered area in front of the doors.  The man turned in a circle several times and poured the salt around him until one whole container was empty.  He tossed the container away and closing his eyes, began chanting.  It might have been Latin or maybe Spanish, but Ricky wasn't sure.  The howl came again.  Closer.  This time it extended into what sounded like a bird call, but deeper and almost clicking.

From the Archives: Ghoul

Here is a portrait of a ghoul at night.  Suddenly revealed in torchlight, perhaps disturbed during his grisly meal.

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UPDATE 011415:

This piece was Exhumed and reinvestigated with color in October 2014.  Check out the Exhumed image here.

Featured Creature: Girl in the Shadow

"Franklin and I found the missing girl at the graveyard near Hadley Heights.  A faint mist had moved in after sunset and it danced around the gravestones as we searched.  At our approach, the girl seemed to be floating in mid air.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: History Set IV, Border Guard

This piece has been particularly challenging to bring to any kind of completion.  It has gone through four distinct phases where I thought it was finished, yet each time when I moved to post it, it felt wrong or incomplete in some way.  Each time I went back and re-explored it until it felt finished again.  This is the most final it has felt thus far.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: History Set III, Dionysus at Sunrise

Today is the eighth anniversary of my first posts on Zombie Bites.  Although for many of those years this blog has lain fallow in terms of posts, since 2011 there has been a maelstrom of activity.  I suppose that the past two years have been more about playing catch up and getting things up to speed, but there has also been a dramatic change in the attitude and direction of my art.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: History Set II, A Bright and Distant Plain

"In the dream, I emerged from a deep pool.

The liquid was hot and black and nearly reflectionless.  There was an olive coloured steam coming off of it in areas.  The vapor danced across the surface like flame and dissipated quickly as it rose.  The liquid flowed with a rhythm not unlike breath.  At the edges of the pool it expanded and retreated in miniature tides.  Unsettled by its motion, I moved to the edge and climbed out.  The pool was surrounded by a ring of rough white rock and as I climbed I saw the bright desert plains that extended on all sides beyond it.  

Featured Creature UPDATE: The Night Thing Part II

The following is the continuation of the short fiction presented for the Featured Creature piece, The Night Thing.  The good news bad news here is that although I am updating the story here, this isn't all of the story.  Once I got fully into editing, several plot points expanded a bit and so did the page count, which created more pages to edit.  Regardless, I will be posting each update to the original post as I go If you would like to read the pieces as a continuous whole.

The Night Thing Part II

Ricky began sweeping.  Margaret had left him a long list of cleaning duties to be done by morning.  The store was being reviewed next Wednesday and Margaret always wanted the store cleaner than a new car on review day.  That always meant more work for Ricky: clean behind the shelving units, dust every surface, reorganize the freezer, sweep and mop twice during shifts.  Margaret was generally a relaxed manager, she even let him wear his earphones on third shift, but when a review was coming around, she became a relentless bitch.

From the Archives: The Burning Dead

My vision here was of an undying creature that even fire would not destroy.  Kind of the way a burned vampire might look after an unsuccessful assassination attempt, but more of a zombie or a ghoul.  Lack of flammability would certainly makes those guys more fearsome. 

Featured Creature: The Melted Man

"I did not realize it was present until I heard the hollow groaning of its breathing.  As I turned, it made a shrill moaning noise and retreated, its skin visibly boiling at the touch of my flashlight's beam.  I felt pity for the thing's suffering and moved my light away.  I only caught a glimpse as it struggled to escape, leaving a glistening trail of itself behind as it disappeared somewhere in the depths of the cavern.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: History Set I, The Rape of Persephone

I had plans for the History Set pieces leading up to  Zombie Bites eighth year anniversary, but the universe, as usual, has other ideas.  I'm apologizing in advance for the terseness of the History Set posts.  I've run out of time and my energy over the past couple of weeks has completely bottomed out.  I think the events of this past year have taken a much greater toll than I originally thought.  I've been feeling run down lately and each new post gets harder and harder to write.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: Veiled Essence

The slow unveiling of a heart.

The Moth Diaries Trailer

Here is the trailer for The Moth Diaries.  I am fascinated by this girls face.

From the Archives: DC Comics Joker

Here we have a quick sharpie sketch portrait of DC Comics' Joker.  I was trying to bring in some elements I hadn't seen in the Joker while keeping the violent mania essential to the character.  I looked at Tim Curry as Doctor Frank n furter while drawing.

Featured Creature: Priest of the Eye

The following is a translation from Die Tür Des Bösen:

"The Svyash Chenniksglaza, or the Priests of the Eye, are an ancient fanatical sect of devotees to The Great Devourer, Mihreshibal.  As young men, the priests dedicate the entirety of their existence to the service of their master.  They undergo great personal mutilation to become initiated into the cult of the Devourer.  The priests sacrifice their physical vision as an offering to their master during their initiation by having their eyes burned out with a heated iron.  There are unsubstantiated rumors of other, greater mutilations, yet it is also claimed that their vision is replaced with the greater sight of their lord.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: Teachings of the Veiled Fire

Cernunnos in the red room
answers each question
with only a gesture or a look.
The dance of firelight is his mirror,
but there is no flame to be seen.

Zombie Bites New Abstract: Looking Within

The core ego system of the psychonaut accesses the matrices of the Information Super Infra Structure for consciousness upgrades and essence flow optimization.

Cell Count Trailer

Just read the blurb that compared this to Cabin Fever (which I loathed).  That is unfortunate, however, the trailer is compelling.

UPDATE 02.01.13: 
My apologies, I just caught that I'd posted the trailer for Two Red Eyes here. oops.   I have corrected it.  :-)