Randy Moss

Acrylic on board, 11" x 14"

As part of a New Year's resolution that will be heavily focused on finishing what I start (preferably in a timely fashion), this is the beginning of a series I'd like to call "Better Late Than Never: Finishing Projects From The Back-burner."

Anyone who knows who this is won't need me to explain his story, but this painting was started the same week the Vikings (namely Brad Childress) mysteriously released Moss after he rejoined the team for only 4 weeks.

Needless to say, this would have been a bit more topical had it been executed the same week it was started, hence the title of this series.

Happy Birthday Ray Nitschke

Acrylic on board, 11" x 14". He would have turned 74 today.

Prints for sale! Email me at zack@zackwallenfang.com.

Happy Birthday Steve Buscemi

This is a painting I posted earlier this year, but what the hey, he turned 53 today.

Leslie Nielsen

Played around with acrylic on chipboard for the first time in a year last night. Finished this morning as The Naked Gun played on Comedy Central. I'd like to think they'd be playing it even if Leslie Nielsen didn't pass away only two days ago. It must have been at least the 50th time I've seen them air it this year.

Bela Lugosi

This is acrylic on water color paper, 8.5" x 11".

Tony Dungy

Here is another case of me feeling like I had a good direction/vision in the beginning but kind of got lost along the way. This got much thicker and layered than I intended and I am not pleased with the process!

With many of my recent posts being NFL stars, I thought Tony Dungy (former head coach of the Colts and current sports analyst) would be a good segway into some more Halloweeny type of stuff for the month, as he kind of has that Nosferatu appeal.

This is acrylic on 8.5" x 11" on some kind of blotter paper.

Michael Vick

Considering my last couple posts have had a sort of "bad boys of football" theme, I figured everything works best in threes. This is acrylic on board, 11"x14".

On the usual self-loathing technical note, I need to paint hands more often. They get too sloppy and I get bored too fast and give up too easily, taking on the mindset of "oh well, there's always next time". Not the best attitude for an intended portfolio piece.

O.J. Simpson

Now that we're into week 3 of the NFL season, I guess I'm on a football kick. This is 8.5" x 11" on illustration board.

Ben Roethlisberger

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback "Big Ben" Roethlisberger, or as I like to call him, "Rapistburger" (get it?!) has had 2 sexual assault allegations against him within a year. Although there wasn't enough evidence to prove him guilty, he was suspended for the first 6 games this season for violating the NFL's personal code of conduct policy. He has recently been reduced to 4 games for "good behavior".

This is acrylic on hot press illustration board, 11" x 14".

FAVRE VADER

Here is my latest "theme park wall sample". This is an idea that might have been a tad more relevant and funny had I executed a year ago. I sketched it several times back then, hated it, and put it on the backburner. Something prompted me to give it another stab. I'm still not 100% happy with the likenesses, but I'm sure any and/or all football fan patrons at the Mall of America will still get a cheap laugh at the idea when they see it.

This is marker and airbrush.