Forest

Some visual development work. 

Coffee Shop Sketches

                                                     

Trying to simplify my color studies and get better at blocking in color. 

Some Characters

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I drew the zombie girl for my good friend who was dumped on Valentines Day.

Sketch Group

                                                    

Every week my artist buddies from Rochester meet at a coffee shop and sketch. Feel free to join us if your in the area!

Character Doodle Steps

Light

Quickish warm up. Used photo reference.

Coffee Shop

I started a sketch group in Rochester. Me and some friends from work meet at coffee shops and just doodle! So much Fun! P.S heres a video from my ipad of one of my sketches.

Very Basic Ideas of Character Design

A couple people asked so I figured I would make a post about it :) Steps I take in creating a character for 3D, illustration, animation...
-Just focus on one thing at a time. For example start with drawing your characters in b/w with just line thinking about anatomy and how a human body moves naturally. How will your character stand, does he stand up strait or slouch over?Once you feel like you understand the basics of line and human anatomy in your character, then focus on values. 
-Paint your characters in just b/w wile studying realistic light and shadow and how it effects the form. 
-Then move on to color. Study from life and look at color zones of the human body.
Study color schemes and be smart about how colors react with each other. Mood is very important here. Is your character happy, sad, depressed, evil, sweet...? If you are drawing a happy character his colors will probably be more saturated, bright, warm. Apposed to a depressed character - darker, less saturated, cooler.
Very simple ideas but I hope this is helpful.

A lot of the work I do deals with color and giving a modeler a good colored/believable design model from.
Chris Oatley goes into more detail with emotion, and creating a "real" character. Check it out!
chrisoatley-character-design

Sculls

Quick Ipad sketches.

Corey from Grojband

Girly Sketch

A Memory

                                         

Personal work. I also posted some of my process, color/composition exploration, and my steps.

Studies from life. 

Commercial Work

For http://omaracosta.tv/

Work For Fun

Christmas Yeti, done for American Booksellers Foundation.

Character/Color study

Study from photo

Sketch

A Spirit

Personal work, trying some new stuff. I also have prints available.

society6.com/ZacRetz

Color/Character Study

Studies From Life

Study

Studies From Life

Digital Painting Class

Last week I taught an online class with Will Terry, Kevin Keele, Jake Parker, Brooke Boynton Hughes. Very honored that I could be part of this with such talented artists! This is the painting I did durring the demo, (most of it). The videos are available and will stay 25% off for another week!http://willterry.blogspot.com/2013/10/photoshop-power-day-videos-now-available.html

Cloud Study

Did this over the course of a couple lunch breaks at work.

Sketches

Doodles

ipad

Going though my brushes to get ready for a demo I'm doing with Brooke Boynton Hughes, Will Terry, and Kevin Keele. Sign up here:

http://schoolofvisualstorytelling.bigcartel.com/