A friend and fan of my art asked me one day why I had never drawn a zombie, given that the genre is a long time guilty pleasure of mine. I couldn’t think of a reason and immediately took it as a challenge. So I set out to find inspirational reference images and started sketching.
At first, sketching went quicker than normal since jeans and a tank top are so much easier to get right than the armor and medieval garb I usually deal with. However, when I got to her face I started to realized that it would be challenging in ways I hadn’t previously considered. As with most horror, if you fail to make it scary, it just looks comical. This was my biggest worry.
I kept imagining a face with subtly unnerving, lifeless eyes, so milky opaque pupils seemed fitting. To add to the lifeless quality, I tried to make her mouth slack, without any human expression. Next came some some deep bites and the resulting smeared, dried blood.
Lastly, just the vaguest background.
Deviating form my typical genre proved challenging and enjoyable. Certainly something I need to do more often.