Greenlander

Things i enjoy: giant forearms, tiny feet, beards.

Yet Another Self Portrait

New self portrait sketch I drew up today. This one's going to get some touching up and go on my website as the header in the top left corner. I think the hazyness of this picture really pushes the ambiance...

A Long Overdue Hello

*wipes the sleep from eyes* Oh hello there! How long have I been out for? That long? Really? Holy crap! Well thank you for still having the urge to visit here! Heres what happened during the past six odd months:

November: Started working at Big Huge Games as an Assistant Artist doing textures.
November-March: Worked over 40 hours a week doing textures.
March: Got laid off during massive cuts in staff.
April-Current: Drawing/painting bunches. Also looking for a new job

The following is a whole load of sketches I've been doing since the last real update.

There you go! I'll hopefully be posting very regularly again from now on. New stuff soon!

Also, zachariahbauer.com has now gone into version 2.0. Its full of oodles of new stuff, including a lot of the work I did while at Big Huge Games. Go and check it out, and feel free to leave a comment here on what you think. I'd like to know.

-Zachariah Bauer

Sketch Explosion!

Hello! Its good to see you here! Its about that time that I post something on here to prove to myself that I havn't been sitting around doing nothing since my summer classes got out. One thing that I have been doing a fair amount of is sketching! The images that follow are just that. Hooray!
This is one of the many spreads I filled in my sketch book of Lobster Johnson drawings while I was trying to figure out just how I wanted him to look. This is the drawing that pretty much set it in concrete, as you can hopefully tell by the speech bubble.



This here is one of the sketches I did recently for Hercules. I'm planning out another painting to do based more on the story this time. We'll all have to wait and see when that piece gets its turn at being painted.



My favorite cowboy monster hunter, Willem Lockhammer! I'm going working a lot more on him and his story in the coming months. I also have a friend thats going to be helping me blast out some stories for to be made into comics. Yeah, I'm pretty pumped about that. A full line of character concepts will be blasted out before that happens though. They should be around in the somewhat near future, after I get some other things done.



This is just a Viking that decided to stop by and remind me that I had to watch Good Will Hunting for class the last weekend. Worry not, it was watched, and a paper was written on it. He was pretty fun to draw, and he, just like every other sketch in this post, isn't really finished due to my terrible judgement as to placement on the page. Moleskins are officially too small for me.



And lastly, a little sneak peak as to what piece I'm cooking up right now. This is just a detail sketch I did for the glove that this wild man is wearing. It looks way cooler in the painting. I still enjoy the sketch though. It's the only part of the painting done not on the computer. I'm enjoying Photoshop more and more now. Maybe it's due to my lack of room to paint, maybe it's because I like not having to spend so much time cleaning up afterwards. Or maybe it's because I finally feel like I got the hang of my tablet. Only time will tell.

I'll be posting the finished Lobster Johnson piece and something completely new, but related to that glove, some time at the end of next week. Untill then, stay gold.


-Zachariah Bauer



p.s. I almost forgot! Here's the finished version of that Superman sketch that I was working on before.

There's the Claw!

So I entered the Comicon Challenge over at gameartisans.org, my entry can be viewed here. I chose Lobster Johnson as the character I'd be redesigning/having fun with. For those that don't know hes a pulp crime fighter/paranormal investigator from the Hellboy/B.P.R.D. comics. He pretty much rules school. This is a cropping of the turnaround I'm working on. I have a bunch of sketches in my sketchbook that need scanning, but I'm currently on Karoline's laptop in the UMBC library and away from any sort of scanner. I'll post some of my Lobster sketches when I get near one.

Also, I've been working on the Hercules model a bit more when I have some free time from classes, their subsequent homework, drawing, and the ultimate time vacuum of night time video game relaxation. I'll post that also when I get back home. Until next time.

-Z Bauer

Keep on keepin on

Hey everybody. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still working on stuff, and not just 3d. I had been thinking about this eskimo-type character for the Guild of Huntsmen comic for a while. I did some drawings, all of which were either bad, or worse. But during my art history class yesterday I noticed these two small ovals that had made it onto the page of my sketchbook some how and thought, "Hm that would be a sweet head to beard ratio." Exact words, i swear. And it turned into the head and goatee of the small guy on the top left. I finally did something i liked for this guy. I'm probably going to settle with the look on the right, or something close to it. A complete drawing will be posted whenever i get around to doing character mock-ups for everyone. I have someone thats going to help me write a story for a complete series. Its going to be epic. Yetis will probably be involved in some way.


This next drawing i did while sitting at the laundromat today. I was pretty upset with myself for not working on something for the project rooftop "Superman: Man of Style" challenge. So this is a quick, half hour in my sketch book drawing i did. Maybe I'll finish it? what do you think? The bottom of the drawing is the bottom of my sketch book, so it'll have to be finished digitally. Which would be sweet because I'd then have a good reason to get some digital painting time in. Yeah?

And lastly, an update on the Hercules model. The head is actually almost done again after a crash i had. It always seems to crash when i get into a modeling trance and forget the whole "saving your work" idea. Anywhoo, its a bit further along than this, but i don't have a more recent screen grab so this'll have to do for now. More to come later in the week, time for some literature class writing. Hooray!

Z Bauer out!

Energy Drink

I realized I never posted anything about this energy drink I designed the packaging for last semester. So here it is! Its called Brain Booze, a Russian coffee flavored alchoholic energy drink with enough caffeine and sugar to make your head pop.

here's the sketch:


Everything was looking pretty good in the sketch, so the final was a pretty easy process:


It was finished entirely in illustrator. I don't really use illustrator that often, but when I do it usually works out pretty well. Its a tedious process, but the great thing is that i can print this at 20 feet tall if I wanted, and nothing would get lost. Totally great!

Heres a self portrait i did in illustrator as a sketch one day:Expect more later in the week! Now I'm off to get my portfolio printed for my seminar presentation tomorrow. Wish me luck!

PROFESSIONAL! HERCULES!

I ordered my website, business cards, and post cards today. I feel like I'm finally becoming a little more legit. hooray! I'll post the link and images when everything goes through.

but for now, heres a sketch from the ol' hercules sketchbook:



This is a sketch i did a while back really quick. I didn't think much of it at the time, but its become one of my more favorite little drawings in the sketchbook. I'm going to be doing a painting similar to it in the upcoming weeks. It's depicting Hercules at the beginning of his last day of work right before the zombies attack. As you can tell, hes really excited about his job. The sign won't say pandora.com; that was just a note last semester to remind me to go there. His real sign will say something about burgers. Delicious, zombie makin' burgers.

These knives were some weapon concepts i did for the Hydra. I looked at a lot of pacific island weaponry before I did these. He may use them if ever I make a real image of them fighting. It'll be intense, as thats the scene when Hercules has the Five Fingers of Olympus bestowed upon him. And there's also a huge number of the Hydra attacking him. I can't wait to have the time to paint it, it will be glorious.

In the upcoming weeks expect the Hercules v. Zombies painting that I took forever to finish to be posted. Along with sketches for a new comic including: A little kid, Hercules, Serpents, A boar monster, Some other monsters, and evil King Eurystheus. I'll also be posting more progress on my 3d character class model, and some progress shots of the Hercules sculpt I'm working on. AND lastly sketches for 3 new paintings to be finished before the end of the semester: One is Hercules relaxin' with a sign, another is Hercules v. the Erymanthian Boar, and lastly will be Camulus fighting a bunch of sea moss/fungus men. Phew. lots to do! You better bet that comic will be done before the end too.

booyah!

-Zachariah

GUILD OF HUNTSMEN sketch

So I'm working on a mock cover for my comic "Guild of Huntsmen." It follows a real cowboy named Willem Lockhammer and a Tibetan monk named Jampa Phosha as they attempt to rid a region of Tibet of it's Yeti problem. Right now its a quick 5 pages, which is a page more then what was needed for my sequential class, but it could easily be expanded to a full series. Jampa is never really introduced, he just kind of appears on the first page, I like him though, I would love to go into his background, and tell more of his special abilities.
Willem Lockhammer is a mysterious dude that rolls in old west style. Complete with two massive revolvers, which hes pretty good with, a bandanna around his neck, leather boots, and a sweet poncho, hes all you could want from the type of character he is. He doesn't wear a hat though, I had him with one for a good while, but then realized it would get lost pretty easy with all the monster fighting he'll be doing, so that got the nix and I gave him sweet goggles instead. Why does he have goggles you ask? Only he knows that. Maybe one day they'll come off, but that would mean something really bad happening. Like a town in Colorado being vaporized, or something along those lines.
Anyway you can see a snip-it of the comic on the left hand of that crappy picture taken from my cell phone. That bottom panel is super sweet, you just can't tell yet. but it is. I've started inking the cover already, All thats left is to finish that up, add some sweet hand lettered text, and color, and then it'll be done and everyone can read it. The whole maybe 100 words it is. There is a lot of panels though. And that makes me happy. Oh by the way, this is that first comic I was telling you about. In case you can't tell, I'm enjoying making comics.
The next one is about me when I was a little boy, pretending I was a mighty warrior- doing what you ask? you guessed it, fighting monsters and the like. I can't wait to draw it. It's going to involve some sort of shingle-horned nymph demon and maybe a golden apple and maybe a 100 headed dragon. We'll see how that goes.
I have a great deal of work to do leading up to Commencement. Besides this cover, the next comic, and my 3d character I've been continuously doing. Theres also another huge Hercules painting in which he will be fighting the Erymanthian Boar. Another Hercules painting which might turn into a cover image for the next comic. And a painting of Camulus fighting a bunch of swamp monsters. Thats just the studio work... But if I do a comic page a week, and a painting a week, I should be able to do it. Cheer me on, I'm going to need it.

its been a while...

I havn't scanned anything in a while, nor have i posted. so heres some more sketches from the vault of last semester. these are a couple of early drawings of hercules, right after i took a bunch of reference photos of my friend kyle.

an this is a sweet knight i drew for part of a poster for the young playwright's festival.

And this is that same guy I did in the last post, but for a different project in digital illustration. It was about the backgrounds of nursery rhymes, can you guess which one it is? Now I'm working with him for my 3d Character Modeling class, and hes way more bad ass. He just keeps getting better! more on that later.

-zachariah

Celtic War God

Update! Heres a sketch for a piece I'm working on for the final in my digital illustration class. Its based off of Frank Frazetta's first Conan cover.I then lightboxed the small sketch onto a bigger piece of paper. (Still in progress.)
Scanned in the drawing and went to work with my poor-mans photoshop skills. (still in progress)
More updates to come as it reaches completion!


-Zachariah Bauer

First real post! hooray! I thought I should finally post some of the stuff I've been working on this semester up on this blog o' mine. So here goes.


Here is the first two spreads in my sketchbook for Thesis. I started thinking about how I wanted the art for my project to look.



This is the turnaround for the main character in my senior thesis, Herculese. (spelling intentional, and coloring in process)


A sketch I did for the Hydra character. I had a lot of fun coming up with a look that wasn't just a serpent. I wanted it to be a sort of underwater human. So i combined a squid, a large-mouth bass, and a slight samurai armor feel to come up with the look for him. When herculese fights him in the story. Instead of growing more heads, he makes mirror images of his body. So herculese is eventually fighting a small army of fish people.


I'll post some more things soon. After i get the good stuff scanned in.

-Zachariah Bauer