Zombie Fatigue

Just in time for Halloween, I finished this one today. It’s pretty much a metaphor for how I feel about the zombie genre overall. I think the moment I saw the trailer for the film Warm Bodies was when I decided that the whole zombie thing had gotten out of hand (I don’t suppose it bothered anyone that the protagonist’s status as a zombie technically made his love interest a necrophiliac, but whatever). Hopefully this illustration gets across the idea of the saturation of zombies in pop culture leading to a feeling of being overwhelmed or just tired of the whole damn thing.

As a side note, and to crystallize that jaded feeling, I finally saw the movie World War Z. I resisted for a long time, because the trailer looked like an utterly disappointing departure from the book. If you read the paperback, you’ll find my artwork inside the front cover. It was the first time my artwork saw a major publication, so needless to say I have a particular attachment to Max Brooks’ source material. I thought the movie was sterile, PG-13 garbage. Absolute drivel. I didn’t expect it to be 100% faithful to the book, but a zombie movie should at least have its share of blood and gore. When the hero brains a zombie with the curved end of a crowbar, not only do we see it off-camera, but he dislodges the weapon and we see there’s not a drop of blood on it. I audibly yelled “Oh, bullshit!” to my empty apartment. I almost didn’t make it through the entire film. I didn’t care about any of these characters, least of all the protagonist (fabulous scarf, by the way). I didn't care if he made it back to his family, or if his family even survived.

Perhaps one day they’ll do justice to the book and call do-over, making it into a miniseries (the scope is just too vast for even a 3-hour movie), but for now I think I’m just over zombies.

Zombie Fatigue - line art finished (mostly)

Christ, the line art took forever on this one.

Drawing crowds is difficult, especially if you want to maintain any level of detail in the faces and clothing. That’s the problem I ran into with this one; it took a long time to finish the line art. I also incorporated several faculty and students from the Illustration Master Class, which meant I had to at least try to capture their likenesses as best as I could. Again, quite difficult because I don’t exactly have a lot of photographic reference of my colleagues shuffling around slack-jawed from an overhead angle. But I’m a sucker for detail, and have always been a fan of Geof Darrow’s work. That said, an entire urban landscape with buildings and hundreds of windows would have been easier; geometric perspective is all you need for that.

At any rate, I’m ready to start coloring this. I realize there are a couple of places that need some fixing, and some legs that need to be drawn, and perhaps a few embellishments, but I’ll get to that. The good news is that the hard part is mostly finished; this thing is going to be a snap to color.

Inktober - Scout Mech

Well, this one didn't take nearly as long as Saturday's portrait. Just a concept sketch of a scout mech.

Inktober - Olenna Tyrell

I might be a few days late for Inktober, but here's my first offering. A slightly caricaturized portrait of Olenna Tyrell (played by Diana Rigg), one of my favorite characters from Game of Thrones. They gave her a lot more personality and attention in the show than she received in the books.