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How to Find Your Spark - Video series & Artwork
A video series exploring the journey of creative block, to finding an unlikely spark of inspiration and turning it into a very complicated painting!
This series was an experiment all around. It all started one day when I found myself in a state of creative block. I wondered what would happen if I documented myself as I tried to get myself out of it and take people on that journey with me. Many videos on YouTube give "quick tips" for overcoming creative block, but I hadn't seen ones that show it in "real time"; videos that show the reality of art block, and the beauty of overcoming it. Over the course of the 3 part series, I had no idea what would happen next anymore than my fans watching.
By the end of the series, I had pushed my filmmaking skills far beyond anything I had done prior, and completed my largest and most complicated watercolor painting I've ever attempted.
Both artists and non-artists have told me that time flew by as they watched this series (despite each episode being over 20 minutes!), and it gave them so much insight and inspiration for what it's really like to be an artist!
This series was an experiment all around. It all started one day when I found myself in a state of creative block. I wondered what would happen if I documented myself as I tried to get myself out of it and take people on that journey with me. Many videos on YouTube give "quick tips" for overcoming creative block, but I hadn't seen ones that show it in "real time"; videos that show the reality of art block, and the beauty of overcoming it. Over the course of the 3 part series, I had no idea what would happen next anymore than my fans watching.
By the end of the series, I had pushed my filmmaking skills far beyond anything I had done prior, and completed my largest and most complicated watercolor painting I've ever attempted.
Both artists and non-artists have told me that time flew by as they watched this series (despite each episode being over 20 minutes!), and it gave them so much insight and inspiration for what it's really like to be an artist!
2025 Forest Animal Calendar
A wall calendar featuring a different forest animal for each month.
The style focus of this calendar is to call back to the nostalgic artwork of the fairy tales and fables we grew up with; such as "Peter Rabbit" (by Beatrix Potter), and "Winnie the Pooh" (by A. A. Milne). I admire the way these authors were able to keep the realism of the creatures they drew, while still giving them life and character all the same. This will be my first animal-based art collection, so far it's been a fun challenge!
Planned release date (updated): The plan was to have this calendar ready for the year 2024, but due to delays that year it's been moved to 2025! The animals are being picked from my fans suggestions on Youtube and social media.
The style focus of this calendar is to call back to the nostalgic artwork of the fairy tales and fables we grew up with; such as "Peter Rabbit" (by Beatrix Potter), and "Winnie the Pooh" (by A. A. Milne). I admire the way these authors were able to keep the realism of the creatures they drew, while still giving them life and character all the same. This will be my first animal-based art collection, so far it's been a fun challenge!
Planned release date (updated): The plan was to have this calendar ready for the year 2024, but due to delays that year it's been moved to 2025! The animals are being picked from my fans suggestions on Youtube and social media.
Animations & Emotes
Loop animations, moving illustrations, and animated Twitch emotes.
Software: Clip Studio Paint EX (main), GIMP
Software: Clip Studio Paint EX (main), GIMP
Where is my Mind?
A collection of gouache illustrations featuring characters with replaced heads/minds.
The style focus of this collection was to be clean, cartoony and quirky, with cohesive color palettes; something that almost looks graphical, but retains the texture and natural imperfections that come with traditional paint.
I tend to go with more heartfelt or nostalgic storytelling narratives in my artwork collections, but with "Where is my Mind?" I drew inspiration from the awkward, light-hearted-humor side of life. It was a fun change of pace, and a theme that I would love to continue down the road.
Most pieces where inspired by 2021 Inktober (inktober.com) prompt words, which are mentioned in the image descriptions.
The style focus of this collection was to be clean, cartoony and quirky, with cohesive color palettes; something that almost looks graphical, but retains the texture and natural imperfections that come with traditional paint.
I tend to go with more heartfelt or nostalgic storytelling narratives in my artwork collections, but with "Where is my Mind?" I drew inspiration from the awkward, light-hearted-humor side of life. It was a fun change of pace, and a theme that I would love to continue down the road.
Most pieces where inspired by 2021 Inktober (inktober.com) prompt words, which are mentioned in the image descriptions.
Magical Girl Seasons
The 4 seasons personified into "Magical Girl" characters.
The idea was to take all of the attributes of each season; Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, and turn them into 'Magical Girl' characters.
A popular character-type in anime and manga, the 'Magical Girl' is a normal girl who has the ability to transform into a powerful, feminine, baddie-fighting version of themselves.
I admittedly had a bit of fun with accentuating the clichés anime fans have come to know (and love!) from Magical Girl characters; everything from huge kawaii bows and scepters, to nostalgic 90's era fighting-move names. Both the incognito "daytime" looks and the Magical transformations are shown for each character.
I also played with clichés found among the anime-art community (which I will always love for being the gateway to the artworld for so many people, myself included). The character designs are done traditionally on paper, with the hallmark "OC" tid-bits, such as personality traits, occupation, "likes and dislikes", and favorite objects listed beside the character.
The idea was to take all of the attributes of each season; Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, and turn them into 'Magical Girl' characters.
A popular character-type in anime and manga, the 'Magical Girl' is a normal girl who has the ability to transform into a powerful, feminine, baddie-fighting version of themselves.
I admittedly had a bit of fun with accentuating the clichés anime fans have come to know (and love!) from Magical Girl characters; everything from huge kawaii bows and scepters, to nostalgic 90's era fighting-move names. Both the incognito "daytime" looks and the Magical transformations are shown for each character.
I also played with clichés found among the anime-art community (which I will always love for being the gateway to the artworld for so many people, myself included). The character designs are done traditionally on paper, with the hallmark "OC" tid-bits, such as personality traits, occupation, "likes and dislikes", and favorite objects listed beside the character.
PinToberZacky
A collection of enamel pin designs. Favorite design picked by my fans and turned into an actual pin!
I love enamel pins and always thought about making my own, but the overhead cost + quantity required for manufacturing scared me off. I needed a way to know if my design would be a hit with my audience. So in October 2020 I created my own daily art challenge called #PinToberZacky. For 31 days I drew and posted a new pin design every single day on my social media, and then I asked my followers to vote for their favorites. The design with the most votes at the end of the month would become an actual product.
It was certainly a surprise for me to see that my icon, 'Whale Fly', ended up being the most loved design. How fitting for the release of my very first enamel pin!
Each week's designs followed a different theme:
Week 1: "Space and Animals"
Week 2: "OCs"
Week 3: "Plants"
Week 4: "And everything else" (AKA no theme... I was barely making it lol)
Watch the creation process of these pieces in this YouTube video:
I love enamel pins and always thought about making my own, but the overhead cost + quantity required for manufacturing scared me off. I needed a way to know if my design would be a hit with my audience. So in October 2020 I created my own daily art challenge called #PinToberZacky. For 31 days I drew and posted a new pin design every single day on my social media, and then I asked my followers to vote for their favorites. The design with the most votes at the end of the month would become an actual product.
It was certainly a surprise for me to see that my icon, 'Whale Fly', ended up being the most loved design. How fitting for the release of my very first enamel pin!
Each week's designs followed a different theme:
Week 1: "Space and Animals"
Week 2: "OCs"
Week 3: "Plants"
Week 4: "And everything else" (AKA no theme... I was barely making it lol)
Watch the creation process of these pieces in this YouTube video:
Posca Palettes
A series of illustrations using POSCA paint pens and limited color palettes.
I've owned a 15 pack of POSCA paint markers for many years, but hardly used them, thinking they were only useful for customizing things with basic colors. But with the recent boom in popularity online, I got inspired to make some art with POSCA markers! I only have a few colors, so each illustration in this series is based around a very simple, but thought through color palette; usually only 2 colors for the main concept and a few more for accents. You can read the exact color names in the description of each image.
(project is not sponsored)
I've owned a 15 pack of POSCA paint markers for many years, but hardly used them, thinking they were only useful for customizing things with basic colors. But with the recent boom in popularity online, I got inspired to make some art with POSCA markers! I only have a few colors, so each illustration in this series is based around a very simple, but thought through color palette; usually only 2 colors for the main concept and a few more for accents. You can read the exact color names in the description of each image.
(project is not sponsored)
YEAR/Monthly Character Series
A collection of characters & short stories based off of the months in a year.
About: In 2018 I took on a self-imposed challenge to create one character and one short story every single month, and share them on YouTube. Twelve months later, the project was completed and I got feedback from fans saying I should turn the youtube series into a book or calendar, so I did both!
It took another year to put everything together, but by the end of 2019-start of 2020, I launched my first wall calendar, and self-published my second book (titled YEAR: A Collection of Short Stories), which contains the original twelve illustrations + over seventy new sketch spot-illustrations throughout the book.
Currently the book is still available through the Shop tab of this website.
Synopsis: "What do you do if your best friend is about to drown, but you can't swim? How do you choose between caring for a sick kid, and getting food on the table? And who can you trust when it's revealed your whole life was a lie?
From conquering fears and self-doubt, to surviving family drama, to simply finding time in the race of life to take a breath and look up at the clouds. YEAR is a collection of twelve
short stories about everyday people facing not-so-everyday
happenings.
Morals, warm fuzzies, and over seventy
illustrations bringing these stories to life."
About: In 2018 I took on a self-imposed challenge to create one character and one short story every single month, and share them on YouTube. Twelve months later, the project was completed and I got feedback from fans saying I should turn the youtube series into a book or calendar, so I did both!
It took another year to put everything together, but by the end of 2019-start of 2020, I launched my first wall calendar, and self-published my second book (titled YEAR: A Collection of Short Stories), which contains the original twelve illustrations + over seventy new sketch spot-illustrations throughout the book.
Currently the book is still available through the Shop tab of this website.
Synopsis: "What do you do if your best friend is about to drown, but you can't swim? How do you choose between caring for a sick kid, and getting food on the table? And who can you trust when it's revealed your whole life was a lie?
From conquering fears and self-doubt, to surviving family drama, to simply finding time in the race of life to take a breath and look up at the clouds. YEAR is a collection of twelve
short stories about everyday people facing not-so-everyday
happenings.
Morals, warm fuzzies, and over seventy
illustrations bringing these stories to life."
MerMay 2019
31 days, 31 mermaids!
My 2019 take on the popular 'MerMay' challenge (originally created by Tom Bancroft). I created a different theme for each week of the month, which dictated the style and medium I used.
-Week 1: "Inky Mergals" | Traditionally painted mermaids with colored inks.
-Week 2: "It's a big big world" | Digital paintings featuring mermaids in large environments.
-Week 3: "Refreshing" | Traditionally drawn mermaids inside drinks, drawn with Copic alcohol markers.
-Week 4: "Sketchy Sirens" | Final three days drawn with pencil.
My 2019 take on the popular 'MerMay' challenge (originally created by Tom Bancroft). I created a different theme for each week of the month, which dictated the style and medium I used.
-Week 1: "Inky Mergals" | Traditionally painted mermaids with colored inks.
-Week 2: "It's a big big world" | Digital paintings featuring mermaids in large environments.
-Week 3: "Refreshing" | Traditionally drawn mermaids inside drinks, drawn with Copic alcohol markers.
-Week 4: "Sketchy Sirens" | Final three days drawn with pencil.
Zig's Journey
A hand-written & traditionally illustrated storybook by Zaccura.
About: This book started out as a self-imposed 31 day challenge to write and illustrate 1 page a day for a month. I got so much positive feedback that I decided to self-publish it as an actual hard-cover book. In November 2018, Zig's Journey was successfully crowdfunded on IndieGoGo, and is currently available for purchase through the Shop tab of this website. Each page was hand-written and illustrated traditionally with colored Inks.
Synopsis: "Zig is a 13-year-old mute boy who has just embarked on a journey heading north. And along the way he’s keeping a journal where he’ll record everything he sees and experiences on his one-month trek. From discovering new animals, plants, and people; to stuffed toys that grow into giant beasts, to the everyday struggles living as an odd voiceless kid in an even odder world… Zig is in for one heck of a long month."
About: This book started out as a self-imposed 31 day challenge to write and illustrate 1 page a day for a month. I got so much positive feedback that I decided to self-publish it as an actual hard-cover book. In November 2018, Zig's Journey was successfully crowdfunded on IndieGoGo, and is currently available for purchase through the Shop tab of this website. Each page was hand-written and illustrated traditionally with colored Inks.
Synopsis: "Zig is a 13-year-old mute boy who has just embarked on a journey heading north. And along the way he’s keeping a journal where he’ll record everything he sees and experiences on his one-month trek. From discovering new animals, plants, and people; to stuffed toys that grow into giant beasts, to the everyday struggles living as an odd voiceless kid in an even odder world… Zig is in for one heck of a long month."
String to the Other Side
A story told through illustration. No words.
In 2017 I decided to take on the Inktober (inktober.com) challenge for my 2nd year in a row, and this time I tried to string all 31 illustrations together to tell a wordless story. The story follows a young girl named Willow, who finds a strange red balloon, goes to sleep, and wakes up in an odd new world. While I do attempt to loosely drive the narrative of the story through the image titles, I wanted to leave the meanings up for each viewer's interpretation, as a story without words should be.
There is a video compilation on my YouTube channel, which shows all the images in a slideshow fashion, put to music. You can find that here:
In 2017 I decided to take on the Inktober (inktober.com) challenge for my 2nd year in a row, and this time I tried to string all 31 illustrations together to tell a wordless story. The story follows a young girl named Willow, who finds a strange red balloon, goes to sleep, and wakes up in an odd new world. While I do attempt to loosely drive the narrative of the story through the image titles, I wanted to leave the meanings up for each viewer's interpretation, as a story without words should be.
There is a video compilation on my YouTube channel, which shows all the images in a slideshow fashion, put to music. You can find that here:
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