The Walking Dead !

If you know Dinosaur Prince and me a little bit, you know one of our guilty pleasures since last year is the TV show The Walking Dead ; with the winter hiatus (and after what we SAW at the end of the last episode) we needed some compensation for the frustration and Matthew commissioned me to draw an illustration of Rick and Shane in a risky situation.  

We wondered for a second if Shane would have his normal fluffy hair or his shaved head (which would have made him more recognizable) but when he shaved his hair, he kinda symbolized the loss of his humanity and started acting like a real bastard so fluffy hair was more logical if he was supposed to actually help Rick. Matthew decided to change the position of Shane's arm so we could see his tasty abs and chest. ^^ The flower in the zombie's head comes from an illustration created by Fallen Angel (and I think we can guess the "Plants Vs. Zombies" influence here !).

Then I tried something a little different for the lineart, kind of an homage to the good old black and white spooky comics like Tales From The Crypt... just because I know The Walking Dead was a comic book before a TV show and even if I've never read it, I guess it's one hell of a creepy comic book ! ^^ 

 

However I have to admit it was completely different from what I usually draw and Matthew was disappointed because he obviously expected something more "cute" and "cartoon", in my usual style. He didn't think I'd draw such a dark picture and while I decided to try to match the zombie apocalypse atmosphere, he expected a contrast between my light and cute artwork and The Walking Dead's horror.

So here's a second version of the scene, freed from all of the black areas, in a style that is more "traditional" for me. It's a lighter atmosphere and it brings more hope (and Shane's cock is really nice, don't you think ?).

Still, we decided to show both versions because it was interesting to see the creative process and the decisions that were made for these illustrations. ^^