Zach Wagner Illustration & Design
When I was working at my terrible college (and way too long after college) job I developed a bit of a crush on my supervisor and one day she complimented a drawing I had done on the back of a slip at work. From that day on for 7 months there was a new animal drawn on the back of my slips for her. It took her more than a few weeks to realize that I was flirting with her, but we've been together ever since. Luckily she had saved all of them and for our 3rd anniversary I scanned all 164 animals and wrote and designed a book of them plus other art that was either made for her or inspired by her. I don't think there's anything more satisfying than holding a book I made entirely on my own, except maybe her reaction when she saw it.
Most of the drawings in the book have a title based on dumb word play and "ah, l'emur…" was the first one I remember coming up with and I thought it worked well for the book title.
This is the actual real book. It's a 12x12 hardcover and I think it turned out pretty great.
A sample of some interior pages. Most drawings are pencil and then the book is broken up by full color 2 page spreads every so often.
One of the full color spreads. The first Valentine I made for my lady after finding out pandas were her favorite animal.
A special chapter at the end dedicated to our wrinkly monster Abe.
I have 2 English Bulldogs at home named Abe and Enzo and I end up drawing their ridiculous faces a bunch. This is a quick sampling of some of the art that they have inspired.
comin' through!
An accurate portrayal of the energy and chaos level of our puppy Enzopolis Generico Porkchop.
An earlier illustration of Abe and his wrinkles.
The color image is a cut paper card I made for my lady's birthday and then I cleaned it up as a digital illustration as well.
a couple samples of our holiday cards featuring Abe. This year's design will be the first with Enzo in it too.
My lady likes to write letters. Like real letters. As such she wanted a postcard to send out so her assorted pen pals would know where we ended up.
I spend a lot of time drawing bulldogs and these are but a few iterations
I'm a big fan of pro-wrestling. Like big time. It's awesome guys. It really is. Anyway a while back I started a series of cute cartoony wrestler illustrations. Keep an eye out for more additions to this series since there are still a few in sketch phase and more that haven't gotten that far yet.
Oh Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh. Dig it.
The bizarre one is still one of my favorites.
Big E in his pre New Day IC championship run. 3 ain't enough man, he needs 5.
Colt Cabana is a truly entertaining wrestler with a great podcast to boot!
Can't we just take one more trip back to the hall of pain before he retires?
It's Clobbering Time!
YES! YES! YES!
In my heart and in my dreams Kane still speaks with an electronic voice box...
He break you back. Make you humble.
It's time! It's time! It's Vader time!
This is a series of illustrations I've done over the past few years for the annual Syttende Mai bar crawl in Stoughton, Wi. The request is usually a drunk troll who looks maybe less than trustworthy and then we go from there. A pretty fun project each year.
This is a collection of some fun stuff I've made over the past few years or so. Drawing is what I do when I'm bored so a lot of these came from random sketches and doodles from my cubicle or wherever I have some paper and a pencil.
The Frankenstein monster is super fun to draw and this is my favorite one I've done thus far
This was the interior illustration for my Father's Day card I made a few years ago. A big print of this hangs in my studio and makes me laugh every time I see it.
A dragon sketch I did after watching the first How to Train Your Dragon movie and those great end credits.
This illustration had been floating around half finished until I decided to use it as a wedding gift recently.
By the eye of Agamatto!
Some friends play on a softball team sponsored by the Plaza Tavern and inquired vaguely about a mascot/logo and I ran with it and this is the result. It never got used but the Plaza still has my favorite burger ever and I love how this little dude turned out.
This started as a commission piece for a custom arcade cabinet someone was building for their kid and when they decided to go with something else I finished it up for myself for fun and I love the result.
Who doesn't love an ape? Some orangutans and gorillas, a contemplative chimp and a lowly monkey that snuck in here too. The winking gorilla was my first attempt at relief printing since elementary school and he turned out pretty fun. The rest come about because these guys are fun to draw.
The Orangutan is probably my favorite non-bulldog animal. This is a fun illustration playing with some textural stuff that I recently updated and reworked a little so it could be made into a print.
My first attempt at some relief printing. Just a cheeky gorilla letting you know what's up.
This idea spiraled out of another idea that spiraled out of another idea that came from yet another totally unrelated idea. I thoroughly enjoy this illustration.
A gorilla has needs and he needs you to know about them. The title comes from Ralph Wiggum's fruit racing days.
This guy seems upset. Maybe kind of down. Or bummed out. Or maybe… blue?
This is part of a series from a school project that was titled "Truly Great Apes". There was also gorilla Caesar and chimp Shakespeare.
A series of promotional in store posters I did for a local tech repair group. Super fun stuff since I'm a huge comic nerd myself and was given mostly free reign on this one.
The first of the 3 posters I designed. Based on a couple logo concepts I had worked on.
This one is an homage to the Action Comics cover with a sneaky self-portrait of the fleeing artist.
The final poster in the series. This initially was going to be a comic panel and had some dialogue boxes on it but the client liked it better without the words and I do too.
Part-Time WereWolf was born in the cubicle of my soul destroying college job. The idea came from the old pulp covers of a monster/alien/robot carrying off an unconscious damsel. I thought it would be funny if one of these fiends tried to go about it properly and asked said damsel out on a date. The name Part-Time WereWolf came out of nowhere and made me laugh and cemented the fact that he is never not a werewolf. While in my cube I would throw off quick cover concepts based on random jobs/events or bad puns and eventually started cleaning them up digitally. Here is the basic evolution of PTWW from first pencil drawing to an inked cover to the first digital finish. Then a redesign and the latest covers. The loose outline of an actual origin comic is floating around my brain and might happen some day...
This was the first appearance of Part-Time WereWolf. He's showing up on a blind date and is more than a little nervous. Note his adorable tie and fancy hair!
It was a slow shift at work one night so I got through pencils into inks on this one.
The first cover I cleaned up digitally. Definitely a little rough still but the idea of him playing receiver like that is still very silly to me.
After not doing anything with him for a few years maybe, I came back and did a new headshot of old PTWW and then started making new cover concepts too.
One of the newer cover ideas which was spun off of another Ahab project I was working on at the time. When I started finishing the new covers I decided to do a slightly different style on each one whether on the line work or colors. This was one of the first and few digital paintings I've done.
This one is based off a joke an aunt told me when I was 6 or 7. "Three legged dog walks into a saloon and says 'Who shot my paw?!'" I laughed so hard I almost peed. I didn't actually get the joke until years later and only found it funnier.
Part-Time WereWolf, Full-Time Baller.
