Zach Meyer

  1. general
  2. black and white
  3. bio
  4. work process
Zach Meyer is a California-based illustrator, with a BFA from Pratt Institute and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Zach is known for his detailed realism coupled with a conceptual, surrealist quality cultivating strong narratives using traditional and digital mediums.
Client List

Budlight
The New Public
Seattle MET
Cincinnati Magazine
Atlanta Magazine
New York Times
Playboy
Red Bull
Paul Stuart
Texas Monthly
Hawaii Business Mag
Politico
Juxtapoz
Adweek
Womens Wear Daily
Smithsonian
South By Southwest
Spoke Art
The Real Deal
The Denver Magazine
Los Angeles Times
BuzzFeed
Moleskine
Major Leauge Baseball
Funny Or Die
Harper Collins
Game Of Thrones
Local Gem Press
Hero Complex Gallery
Foreign Policy
Rockstar Games
Rae Grant Design
Fort Worth Weekly
The Washington Post
Longreads
Commercial Observer
EM DASH
Las Vegas Weekly
Cockroach Lab
PYSOP
The Howler
Entertainment Weekly
Barrons
Hill Holiday
The Baffler
Huffington Post
Faith Magazine

First I start out with loose thumbnails in pencil, roughing out ideas, then I move onto digital photo collage, building complex reference to draw from, this is the most critical stage of my process mixing sketching with digital photo manipulation. I then print that out and draw from it. It makes it easier to plan compositions out and make sure that lighting and anatomy are not off in the final. I then do a pencil underdrawings with sumi ink on top, I primarily use princeton round brushes, and flat brushes for texture, I get subtle grey areas through dry brushing, using dried ink on a brush to get a range of values. After the linework and tone is done I use a light box to do highlights mid tones on vellum and texture layers to give the drawing depth and color. This is then scanned into the computer where I layer it as if it were a silkscreen going from base color to mid tone to highlight. Photoshop allows for flexibility and rewrites, allowing me to neurotically redraw things over and over knowing that i can piece them back together in photoshop.

back to top