jeffzachowski.com » fantasy

Happy Holidays

jeff zachowski — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:22:23 +0000

Bit late in posting this – Best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year. Here’s hoping 2010 beats the heck out of 2009. Not holding my breath though…

Sketched in pencil, painted in watercolor, finished and tweaked in Painter and Photoshop.

And a detail…

metamorphosis by moonlight – REDUX

jeff zachowski — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:06:08 +0000

I really thought this was done… but I was wrong. While I really loved the rendering in the original version, stepping back for a few days I realized that I lost the “story” somewhere along the way. Hey, it happens. Here’s the new version, which I think does a much better job of conveying the protagonist’s metamorphosis.

metamorphosis by moonlight

jeff zachowski — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:51:10 +0000

This is another scene from my story The Reaper King (which incidentally has hit a major road block around the 100-page mark…). I’m calling this one “metamorphosis by moonlight.” I really like this one. I don’t use watercolors, but it has a watercolor-feel to me… if that makes sense.

Click to enlarge.

And… EMBIGGENED!

Gaia, or, bringing the portfolio up to snuff

jeff zachowski — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:09:16 +0000

It recently occurred to me that I have a lot of older work that, while amateurish to my eyes in the rearview mirror, showed a lot of potential, and I wondered, to myself, if there were some salvageable concepts in the lot. Turns out, there are quite a few, and I’m having some fun revisiting these old bits and polishing them up. Added benefit: The portfolio thickens…

I forget the impetus for this one. It’s probably long forgotten me as well.

Here’s the original, circa 2004.

And the new. Click to embiggen.

Branstock

jeff zachowski — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:30:46 +0000

I put some sweat into this one. I hope it shows.

EMBIGGEN!

Faer Game

jeff zachowski — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:06:00 +0000

Our theme this week appears to be revisions. If you’ve browsed around the site a bit, you’ll be familiar with the illustration below. It’s a scene from Chapter Two of a bit of children’s/YA fiction I’m working on. I was initially quite pleased with it, but the longer I let it sit, the more its flaws seemed to grow. In any event, I much prefer this version, and I hope you do as well.

Click to enlarge.

A detail.

Panels

jeff zachowski — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:09:14 +0000

A while back I thought this was finished. Thank goodness I came to my senses, in no small part to some valuable critique over on ConceptArt.org. I fought a lot of battles with the composition on this one. Ultimately I ended up experimenting with panels and I ended up really really liking them – Hope you don’t think I’m nuts!

Click each bit to enlarge.

The full picture – Click to enlarge.

I dig the stonework in the background, so here’s the background all by its lonesome.
Click to enlarge.

winged terrors

jeff zachowski — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:39:46 +0000

Click to enlarge.

hobgoblin WIP

jeff zachowski — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:28:00 +0000

In the past I haven’t posted any WIPs (works-in-progress) here…but there’s a first time for everything.

Below her, tiny black dots were emerging from the stone fortress, winged beasts leaving their roosts in pursuit of the escaped child. They screeched, and cawed, and violently gnawed on the rusted bits wedged between their dagger-filled jaws, gagging and bucking at each pull of the reins. A bareback rider equally horrific as his mount gripped each set of black leather reins. The riders reminded Quinn of a cavalry of albino apes with their small, watery eyes and broad, flat noses. Their teeth were thick and oversized, and their lips did not comfortably sheath them. A sparse tangle of barbed wire-like fur projected out from the chins of some, but the things were completely hairless otherwise. These were goblins, Quinn decided (hobgoblins, to be more accurate, though Quinn had no way of knowing this at that moment), and she thought, under different circumstances, they might have even been cute, if encountered in a zoo or textbook rather than at that moment, brandishing firearms with hate and fury etched on their faces.

Click to enlarge.

maleficent intent

jeff zachowski — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:51:57 +0000

A piercing shriek split though the noise of gunfire and made the feathers on Quinn’s nape quiver. She knew the voice at once, and craning her neck, her eyes confirmed the sinking feeling in her stomach. His molted boa seemed to have consumed his body, covering his legs and torso in ugly, bile-colored feathers. Wings like those of a gigantic condor had sprouted from his back, though his gangly arms and gnarled hands remained unchanged, creviced with septic-green veins and tipped by tar-black fingernails. It was as if the being could not decide if it were man or vulture, and the only thing on which it was in agreement was its malice. Even the thing’s moustache looked filled with rancor, and it soared towards her with maleficent intent, the hovering hat above the crown of its head trailing slightly behind, straining to keep up.

Click to enlarge.