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Interview with Zombie Portrait Artist: Rob Sacchetto

Rob Sacchetto is a freelance illustrator, painter, and visual artist who has worked in a variety of mediums including film, television, comic books and concept design. He has 2 illustrated books out and more on the way. He also provides the artwork for the popular website www.zombieportraits.com. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

ZWN: I know you go over this on your website www.zombieportraits.com, but please briefly tell the folks out there in your own words what it is you do and what they get for their money they send you.

RS: Well, primarily what I do, are Zombie Portraits of people from all around the globe. I am emailed a JPEG head shot, and I use the photo as reference to produce a painted illustration of the subject, or subjects as zombies. These are hand painted with no computer generated imagery whatsoever. They are also not caricature zombie drawings. I try to come as close to the subject’s actual likeness as possible. Sometimes, I get sent a few pics to use for reference… the hairdo in this, the face in that one, etc, although I prefer to work with a really clear head shot. I generally use watercolour, ink, and pencil crayon for the colour paintings. I am just launching a service where I do a super detailed black and white portrait in ink as well. A single’s portrait is 9” by 11”, while a couple’s is 12” by 15”. Although, I do get requests for special orders, and can do as large as a 20” x 30” inch size… That’s the biggest size the watercolour paper I use comes in. I use high quality watercolour paper and the customer gets both a digital copy of the scanned painting, so they know it’s done, and of course the original painting which I mail flat, in a bubble wrap envelope, reinforced with foam board so it doesn’t get damaged. I can manage to fill an order within a week maximum. Usually within a matter of days. And we always offer rush shipping if someone wants to pay the extra S&H costs to get it extra fast.

ZWN: Do you keep your prices for zombie portraits relatively fixed? Or is it like the price of gas and goes up each year?

RS: The price has always reflected the cost of materials, the hours put in and the sheer uniqueness of the item. When you order a Zombie Portrait, it isn’t something that I can simply pull off of a shelf and ship out. It is an organic, one of a kind piece of art designed specifically with the likeness of the recipient in mind. It’s not a computer print out, but the actual one of a kind original painting. I love when someone gets the original and they say they love it even more ‘in person’ so to speak. I don’t even have premixed paints tor use templates of any kind. So even if I did the same person’s Zombie Portrait 10 times in a row, all of them would be unique and different in many ways. Also the price reflects my overall experience. As of this writing I’ve done over 900 to Portraits among many other living dead projects. The price has been fixed since we started in late 2006, but this year it will finally edge up slightly. It’s pretty weird when our own customers tell us we should be charging more.

ZWN: So, on your website www.zombieportraits.com you take people’s photos (headshots) and turn them into zombies. You also do couples too. Have you ever had any weird requests?

RS: Yeah, like I said, people send me their pics and I turn them into zombies. I think at this point I may have even done more couples portraits than single ones in fact.  A lot of wedding/anniversary presents. Family portraits, etc. As for weird requests, so far nothing has been too weird for me to do. I’ve been zombifying pets, like dogs and cats, I did a dolphin once for a couple who got their photo taken at SeaWorld, full frontal nudity, toddlers, babies, and I once did a guy holding a chicken! They’ve all been a wonderful challenge!

ZWN: Do you have a name for the process? Are you ‘zombifying’ or ‘Zombizing’ people?

RS: We’ve always called it zombification or zombifying. It seems to be the appropriate word. I think that the first time I heard that phrase it was in “The Serpent and the Rainbow”.

ZWN: Have you ever done any celebrities?

RS: Yes, quite a few actually. I think that it was our first Christmas season that Scott Ian from Anthrax got himself and 10 of his friends done including Brian Posehn and Kirk Hammond from Metallica. I’ve done many others since then. Too many to mention, some big celebrities and many many minor ones as well. Some I’ve done just for fun, like the Zombie Spock I did for fun. Other than Spock, those have been orders through Zombie Portraits, and then of course, all the celebs I chose to parody in Zombiewood.

ZWN: Have you ever had anybody that might’ve looked better after you ‘zombified’ them?

RS: Courtney Love.

ZWN: You also sell t-shirts, greeting cards, posters, and mini posters. I particularly like the Deadface (parody of Scarface) poster. Have you ever thought of doing more parodies like that? Maybe like Zombatar (parody of Avatar) or Twilight Zombies (parody of the Twilight Saga)?

RS: Basically it’s like this; if people request to see it I’ll do it.  I require very little motivation when it comes to drawing zombies… even you just mentioning those two has got me thinking…  I’ll probably do those now… Although, I did do the three leads from Twilight for the Zombiewood book.

ZWN: What’s this Zombiewood Weekly: The Celebrity Dead Exposed?

RS: That was a whole lot of fun to do! I was basically given free rein to zombify tons of celebrities for a parody of those horrible entertainment mags. It was quite a challenge. I referenced tons of pics out there, like I do with the portraits and took the best/worst elements of each to use for likeness. The end result was just fantastic. It’s been available for pre-order for some time now and should be in stores by the end of July.

ZWN: Care to tell us a little about some of the other zombie or non zombie stuff you’ve worked on?

RS: Wow, well, I’ve got lot of fun products that are in Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million stores. Stuff likes zombie puzzles, bookmarks and journals. There’s my Zombie Handbook that came out last year and is still going strong. I still draw a new zombie image every day for my blog. I’ve got about four hundred tattoo designs and counting on Tattoofinder.com which include a mix of zombies, animals, babes and monsters. I was just included as an actual character in fellow zombie aficionado Jonathan Maberry’s book Rot and Ruin, as, what else, an ‘erosion artist’, and did some character ‘zombie chase cards’ for the book as well. I’m also working, albeit slowly, on a large anthology zombie comic with some great writers, like D.G. Chichester. But I’m sure I left tons of stuff out…

ZWN: I ran across portraits you did of George A. Romero and Tom Savini, what was that all about?

RS: Those were, among others including myself, done for a zombie documentary called Zombiemania which runs on the Space channel here in Canada and on Starz in the U. S. We, meaning Romero, Savini, Greg Nicotero, Max brooks and others that are interviewed at one point all end up in a freeze frame on the screen and we each morph into our zombie counterparts in the sequences. I basically illustrated each interviewee as zombies. It’s really very neat to watch.

ZWN: Stupid question, but is there any relation to Dardano Sacchetti the Italian screenwriter known for his work in the horror and zombie genre and he also worked with Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci (Italian horror and zombie film Directors)?

RS: No, but I imagine he and my dad came from the same region in Italy.  They may have even shared a glass of wine when they were four or five years old.

ZWN: What’s the first piece of art that you truly felt proud over?

RS: Years ago, before I was doing zombies fulltime, I wrote and illustrated my own comic concept in its entirety. It was, or is called, Rob Sacchetto’s Cape Fear. It has never been published. I very much want it to see the light of day at some point. I’m very proud of it because it’s still really looks good even after all these years. It was an astonishing amount of work. Definitely a work of passion. I’m very proud of it.

ZWN: Who’s influenced you in your art?

RS: Well, there are the obvious guys, Bernie Wrightson, William Stout, just about anyone from the EC horror comics’ era. The late, incredibly great Frank Frazetta was a very early influence, also Jack Kirby and John Romita, Neal Adams and John Buscema. I love a lot of the impressionists and well gee, it there’s more fantasy and comic book guys too. Let’s say I’ve got many influences. Some you can see readily in my art and some are great inspiration.

ZWN: Who’s your favourite artist?
RS: Forget it. No way can I answer that one in just one name.

ZWN: How would you describe your general creative process?

RS: I generally regard any piece of art as a story, a message that I am trying to convey to an audience. Even in the Zombie Portraits. As much as I could just do a straight cut and dry likeness of the subjects as zombies, I tried to instil a certain character, be it stoic, humorous, bizarre or whatnot.  Again, even with so many portraits done, I feel each one deserves its own brand of unique care and handling to see it shine. With any image comes a background story. Why does the image need to be drawn? Every drawing I have ever done comes with its own back-story I’ve created in my mind in order to exist. Then, it’s easier to breathe life into it.

ZWN: Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your art?

RS: Yes, finding the finishing point. Knowing when to let go. Because I’ve done hundreds of images in the last few years, I’m getting better at this.  You don’t want your work to be overdone or overworked. Also, even after so many zombie portraits done, I still feel a little nervous or anxious. I still treat each one like it’s one of the first. And because each photo you get is so radically different from the last, you can’t just blast through them, or work on autopilot. They each require 100% of your concentration.

ZWN: Do you have any advice for other artists?

RS: Yes… practice, practice, practice. And learn to draw from life.

ZWN: You did the writing and the art for The Zombie Handbook: How to Identify the Living Dead and Survive the Coming Zombie Apocalypse. It’s a great book full of your gruesomely fantastic art. How did you come up with it?

RS: That too was a labour of love. I was given a blank check to discuss and draw many aspects of the zombie’s life or death or living death. And to produce a guide outlining all of the different types of zombies. It was a lot of work that again was very rewarding in the end. I only wish I could have had 200 or 300 more pages to fill.

ZWN: What’s coming up next for you? Do you have any big upcoming projects?

RS: Well, as I mentioned earlier, a huge comic anthology. That is going to take some time. I love comics that doing them is very difficult. I have the greatest respect for comic book artists. It’s a hard job. Of course Zombie Portraits and Zombie Daily keep me quite busy. I’m currently over 560 posts on Zombie Daily, and counting. My wife/agent and I are soon to be pitching a new zombie book and gee, once again I’m sure that I’m leaving some stuff out…

ZWN: Time for the standard ZWN questions.

ZWN: Tell us about your first zombie experience.

RS: I saw Night of the Living Dead one night when I was really young. I was already into big monster movies like Godzilla and things like that, but NOTLD really freaked me out. It was creepy, truly horrific. Even in black and white it was gory and unsettling. I was definitely hooked from that moment on.

ZWN: Do you have a favorite zombie book or movie?

RS: I think the favourite on the movie has to be Return of the Living Dead, followed closely by Dead and Buried. Of course, Zombieland was as fun as it was gory… I could almost get my total zombie movie fix just watching the opening credits of that flick! As far as on the books go, I’m a fan of Jonathan Maberry’s many zombie books for sure.

ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so, would you care to share?

RS: Yes, I certainly do, doesn’t everybody? Well, not to go into too much detail, but let me just say there is a map. Several hiding places and base camp staked out. Some weapons and transportation secured. That’s all I can say…

ZWN: In dealing with zombies, what would be your weapon of choice?

RS: I would definitely want to carry a variety of weapons. A baseball bat adorned with lug nuts, an automatic weapon of some sort and a slingshot, believe it or not. Those three I call the unholy Trinity. Of course, the more weapons, the merrier.

ZWN: Do you think zombies are overdone, or is there still room for growth there?

RS: Oh my goodness, we haven’t even scratched the surface!  How many good zombie movies, I mean really good zombie movies have there been?  Be honest. The only thing that can kill zombies is repeating the same old stuff. Or mainstreaming them to death. There are so many areas that the living dead can populate that have never been explored. I could write a 700 page essay on the subject.

ZWN: Who (or what) do you think is the best zombie hunter? They could be alive or dead?

RS: Hmmm, I would love to see Zombies vs. Aliens, or Zombies vs. Predators, or even Zombies vs. Terminators. But I think that the best zombie hunter killer would be another intelligent zombie with lots of guns and the ability to regenerate. Yeah, he could pull weapons out of his own body. I am doing this for a comic story.

ZWN: If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?

RS: My wife, so that we could be together in the afterlife.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?

RS: Yummy!!

Check out Rob’s artwork at: http://www.zombieportraits.com/

Also, be sure to pick up his illustrated books at your local bookstore or online.

The Zombie Handbook: How to Identify the Living Dead and Survive the Coming Zombie Apocalypse

Product Description:
A few years ago, building an acid pit and stocking skull-splitting machetes would have been seen as an overreaction to the zombie threat. No longer! To survive the coming zombie apocalypse–and it is coming–you need to know everything about zombies and how to kill them.
Thoroughly illustrated, this book is the definitive guide to zombies and all their blood-soaked traits, from feeding habits and dietary needs to sexual practices and political activities. The Zombie Handbook lays out your step-by-step plan of attack to now only survive the zombies’ assault, but to counter it and obliterate the army of the undead, including tips for:
·         Zombie-proofing your home
·         Setting lures and traps
·         Choosing the best weapons
·         Exploding their brains
http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Handbook-Identify-Survive-Apocalypse/dp/1569757054/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236949033&sr=8-3

Zombiewood Weekly: The Celebrity Undead Exposed
Synopsis:
What’s it like when the public’s insatiable lust for gossip turns its focus on the grotesque, flesh-eating habits of celebrities? Hilarious mayhem, that’s what. In this paparazzi-inspired collection of images, America’s bad and beautiful are revealed as never before — in their undisguised, flesh-rotting, zombified, day-to-day existence. Fans of TMZ, US Weekly, and other star-chasing rags will love the imaginative presentation of their favorite subjects — including undead versions of Brangelina, Lindsay Lohan, Kanye West, Michael Phelps, and even Glenn Beck (yes, he gets even scarier!). The vivid full-color portraits pair the smiling faces of today’s most famous stars with the horrid features of their true zombie forms. Laugh-out-loud descriptions deliver detailed information on these flesh-feasting personalities, including their favorite eats and secret haunts.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Zombiewood-Weekly/Rob-Sacchetto/e/9781569757802/?itm=1&USRI=Zombiewood+Weekly

Tags: art, illustrations, zombies