Liberation

Thursday I decided to take a stand for myself.
After countless arguments and being scolded like a child and treated worse at my job I decided to quit.
I left.
I'm not going back.
I felt like I had to keep trying for some reason. Like I had to put myself through it.
And I don't. I don't have to put up with abuse, verbal and mental, from anyone.
It's not like the job was bad, it's just the management has no grasp on how to treat employees or handle situations that come up with people who work and interact with each other on a daily basis.
I liberated myself from a terrible situation.
I am free.
Free to do what I choose. Move, run, hide, plant myself some where else, blossom, be human, live and be happy.
I am terrified right now.
I have seriously $0. I usually have a back up plan but for the first time in my life I'm just winging it.
I keep thinking about what to say but honestly I have nothing.
I cant think of anything nice to say. I'm just not going to say anything at all.
Keep letting that guy, Eric, think that he's some kind of good dude, when really he's not.
The situation just got out of hand recently and I was basically forced to walk away because it would end up with me blowing up and spending time in prison.
No one should talk to someone else like he talked to me.
Freedom is a scary thing.

I finished the Lion.
He looks like he can hang out with the other animals.

I should really color them. Or maybe make a coloring book? I don't know.
Maybe I should work on making furry art. Get some commissions and work on Patreon. Start my porn empire.

I sent a couple of fans of the stream a sticker for Christmas. I got some pictures of them so far. I'm excited they liked them.

Pizza Ghost!!! Let him take over the world!
How exciting. =)

In the meantime I have no idea what to do.
I'm just kind of in limbo.
I guess I should work on stuff.

Zachy used Struggle. It's not very effective.

You ever feel like even though you're taking steps forward, you actually aren't making any progress at all?
Like you're on a treadmill.
I drew a robot guy walking his dog a while ago and posted it on Intsagram.
Figured I would push it to the next level.

I just had a lot of things to work out as far as style and stuff went.

So I just did a rough layer of drawing on top to kind of figure out what shapes and shit I wanted to do.

It's not finished, but it's most of the way there.
Looking to color it and texture it soon.

Also, adding another character to my hipster animals.

A lion, smoking a j and eating some pizza.

I did a little bit more drawing to add some style to him. Looking at adding Pizza Ghost to him some how, like a patch on his pants or just a reference to him on the t shirt.

There's the progress without the shit line work behind it.
I think he fits with the realm.
Thinking about coloring the whole crew and I want to do some other animals.

Adventure Shark!

Hey guys. If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen this shark picture before, if not! Here it is! It was a cool little thing I just doodled with marker on receipt paper.
Figured I would work on it a bit more and see what comes of it.

Started thinking about what it would be in, since it's a shark wearing this domed helmet.

So of course he's some kind of space traveling shark adventurer. With a cool gun.

Duh!

So I was like, what kind of gun? Harpoon gun! DUH!!!
Hahah. Exploring what this guy should be and what he is, was pretty damn fun.
I liked working out the rough ideas and figuring out what could make this guy pretty cool overall.
Give him an aesthetic that is super appealing to my sci-fi side. Since it's so unique I was feeling that crazy Lost in Space robot with crazy noodle arms. Clamp fingers and stuff. Just old school vibes.

All we did was clean up some lines and get the overall thing looking unified.

Then we explored color and textures.

It looks pretty damn cool. Glad to mess around with stuff. Hope you enjoy it as well.

Buy it right here on all kinds of stuff!!!

Thoughts and Feelings since the last post.

I wish I would have taken my own advice from last year and did some shit that's popular from Tumblr.
I would have made some money and actually sold stuff.
But I stayed true to myself and made stuff that was emotionally satisfying to me.
I was hoping more people would jump on the wagon and support me.
I guess it's a little too far fetched. Seeing other famous comic book artists not do so well at this con was kind of uplifting. But hearing it was the worst convention they've ever done was really shitty cause this is my home. So to hear my community wasn't as supportive or up to par with others was a little disheartening.
I just kept thinking to keep making stuff that I like, and someone else, even if it's one person will like it too.
I sold a lot of stuff that I personally loved making, but just not enough to cover the costs of making it.
It's fine, I'm not bitter about it. I had a great con.
It was fun hanging out, laughing, enjoying the other artists art and perspective.
I met a lot of great people.
It was 100% worth the money. I kind of felt like not doing it again though.
Skip out next year, but if I really try this year and make stuff that's middle ground I might make some headway.
The people making money this con looked like just cheap prints. $10 11x17 prints with deals for other ones, who had 40+ images done.
So they had a huge selection with cheap deals. It looked like they were making money hand over fist.
I just don't want to take that route.
We'll see how things play out.
I'm borderline at the point of just giving up on everything again.
My laptop isn't holding up for casting on Twitch at the moment.
I can make art on it. Playing games though, it's been having a rough time managing simple tasks like running a game and capturing at the same time.
I was hoping to have a new computer already but my support online is next to null lately.
It's really just pushing me away from trying it as a career avenue.
I just feel less and less capable as time goes on.
I'm going to try to make a lot of stuff that's mashing up my favorite things with other things to keep on goal with making something for RIPT, Teefury, and Yetee.
I really just feel like a failure lately.
It was cool to make a couple of bucks at Comic Con, pay for the booth and the other fees. But it's just like, that's all. Nothing to pay myself back, just that emotional satisfaction that I did something.
Which it feels good to make the art. It feels good to go live on Twitch, to broadcast my experiences and share art.
I just feel so empty right now.
I honestly just feel like giving up on everything.
When do I really ever feel different?
I feel like a broken record.
I'm definitely broken.

Stranger Things x Super Metroid

Hey there! It's Zach, again!
I'm going to talk a bit about my latest piece, Super Stranger Things.
I was browsing t-shirt designs on RedBubble, Teefury, Yetee, and Ript as per my norm, when I felt an idea come on. This idea is a conglomeration of ideas hitting around in my head over a long period of time. A friend of mine was going to enter into this Stranger Things art show that's happening here soon. I felt like I should enter too. So I started kicking around ideas. Like a character sheet for Will and his Wizard, Will the Wise. But I wasn't really feeling it. Drawing other things as well, just nothing really coming up as "the one," ya know?
Well this idea hit, and I felt like it was something cool that no one has crossed over yet. Eleven could be Samus and she could be fighting the Demogorgon like Samus fights Ridley from Metroid. Boom, the idea bridge broke loose and I was sketching all kinds of rad shit.

I went with this idea of the Super Metroid box art. I thought it was perfect. So I figured I would attempt to make it out.

Several weeks pass by and all I had was this sketch. I just kept looking at it like, "when are you going to tackle it and do it?"
I guess I was battling myself because I didn't want to attempt to make it and feel like a failure. I kept looking at successful artists with their designs and just felt like I couldn't really be up to their level. So I guess it was a lot of me mentally beating myself up and not creating it for the sake of doing it.

I finally said fuck it, I have some free time and I should just give it a go.
I got into Photoshop and got my rough drawing down pretty quickly. It was just hard t get everything in it's place.

I liked the rough though. It was really coming together and it felt legit.
Eleven totally can be the hero like Samus, I mean she was in the show, but you know? My drawing is conveying that as well.

I worked on this for a while at the tea shop and started to hit my stride when they were closing. It was rough getting home and getting back into the groove to finish it but I am glad I did. It was a blast to kick back with a beer and just bang it out.

So here it is with a dark background. I decided to stick with flat colors because I haven't quite mastered that technique of using the black spotted shading. I think I could use a few of the brushes I have to test it out to give it a texture.
But I like it flat like this, it's like a comic book cover mixed with the Super Metroid box.

It's available on RedBubble.
I think overall it's pretty cool.

Buy it right here on all kinds of stuff!!