Send Zach Fischer to Blizzcon!
Hello everyone! If you have chosen to visit my page here, I already thank you whether you decide to assist my in achieving my goal or not. By coming here, you have at very minimum given me the opportunity to share with you the story of how and why attending Blizzcon 2014 is in a way a fulfillment of a dream of mine, and quite possibly, a huge step in the direction of acheiving one of the greatest goals in my life, earning a place on the Blizzard art staff, but more on that in a bit.
Firstly, a little basic info about myself. My name is Zach Fischer. I am 29 years old. I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but now reside in Portland, Oregon. I have a degree from the Cleveland Institute of art where my focus was game art and design. I am currently a freelance comics artist and illustrator. An ink brush for hire. Over the past four or so years, I have done pretty much anything and everything with my art abilities to pay the bills. Background inking on major comics titles, coloring for comics, logo design, album cover art, commission portraiture, tattoo flash art, concept art, illustration for fliers and advertisements, and most recently, custom costume design. The point is, I work very very hard, sometimes 80+ hours a week, and often take jobs I don't necessarily love in order to keep myself afloat. I earn enough to make a living, but that's about it. Indulgences, emergencies, and unexpected expenses are very difficult for me to handle. I earn my wages in chunks and have to be very careful about how I spend it. Even with careful planning, it is ridiculously difficult to save any money for anything but basic survival. I have an Etsy store to sell prints of my work and some original artwork, and I do my best to engage and cultivate a relationship with those who enjoy following my work online either on Facebook or on DeviantArt. Normally, it's a slow crawl towards the light at the end of the tunnel, but lately, there has been a lot happening to make me very excited for the future, and with your help, I may be able to take a huge leap towards it!
I have never been to Blizzcon before, but this year is the year! There are many reasons why a journey to Blizzcon 2014 is much more than just a fun experience for me. It's a chance to take my art to the very people able to tell me what I need to know to attain my dream of working for Blizzard Entertainment. I've already reached out to a few of them and had a great deal of meaningful dialogue, and after having visited Blizzard campus in Irvine earlier this summer, I felt even more motivated to work hard and prove that I have what it takes to belong there. I regularly have several applications active on their career site and am constantly scanning for new openings. Blizzcon will give me an opportunity to put my work PHYSICALLY in front of Blizzard artists.
In addition to all of that, I have a more recent reason luring me there. I have been working with a number of talented cosplayers recently and have had the opportunity to work with Lightning Cosplay (Last years Blizzcon costume contest winner) designing a custom version of two Warcraft characters. She will be crafting them for herself and her husband Ralf to wear and compete in at the con, and it would be great to get to see her translation of my designs in person.
Additionally, I have been working on a series of cosplay trading cards and am currently in the process of finishing a Blizzard themed set of five featuring five very talented Blizzard cosplayers, a few of whom are also Blizzard employees.
When I visited Blizzard earlier this year, I was able to deliver the original inked drawings to a few of the cosplayers (part of my way of thanking them for being involved in my projects) It was wonderful talking to them and they both stated they would like to see me again at Blizzcon! I will not disappoint them! (Especially not René. He's huge and can probably throw me with one hand hahahaha)
Now, I won't be going alone. My girlfriend, London, who better than anyone, knows how hard I have been working towards this goal, will be coming with me. For her, seeing me meet my goal of going to Blizzcon and get closer to my dream job is like watching BOTH of us get closer to our future. A future living in Southern California and getting the rest of our lives started. I couldn't imagine going without her, and I want her to be there at my side to share any and all incredible moments that happen while there. It DOES make things a bit more challenging though, as she is a student and only works a few days a week. She will be assisting me financially where possible, but I essentially will need to be paying for two.
The good news is that the money for my tickets to Blizzcon itself is already accounted for (which was no easy task, mind you!) but I still have a number of expenses to tackle that would be challenging unassisted. They are as follows
-Airline tickets from Portland, OR. to Orange County, CA. for two
-Hotel accommodations for three nights in an area hotel
-Car rental, insurance, and gas while in town
-Food and drink for two for three and a half days in southern California
-various incidentals (sunscreen, water, parking, etc.)
So this is where you can help me out! ANY assistance helps get me closer to my goal. The closer I am to my goal, the less I need to stress and the more I can focus on creating more artwork to show Blizzard. I have created several funding levels with rewards. Hopefully they sound inticing. As an extra, since I can't seem to find a place to set it up here I guess I'll just announce it, IF I meet my goal by October 31st, I will immediately put into place a MASSIVE sale on my Etsy store that will last until the end of November. Contributors will be given a coupon code for an unprecedented 70% off of EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING in my Etsy store. Basically, that means that I really won't be making a profit on the sales, but that won't matter since I will have met my goal! So let's make it happen! I cannot tell you all in advance how much I appreciate your kindness, generosity, and support while I inch closer to my dreams!
For most of you, reading this far will be more than far enough, however, if you are at all interested in the journey that brought me to this point, and even more information about my past, and why this is so crucial to me, then read on but be warned that the following is lengthy and full of nerdiness!
In 2005, I was in my second year of art school at the Cleveland Institute of Art. I hadn't yet chosen a major and actually had no idea of what direction I wanted to take my art education and career. One brisk fall morning, a friend of mine asked "Hey, do you remember playing Warcraft?" "Of course, I loved those games!" I said. "Well the company that made it came out with this new game called WORLD of Warcraft. It's an MMO like Everquest but set in the Warcraft universe and it's awesome!" my friend said. "Cool, let me see it!" I said. She queued up the opening cinematic on her computer. "Four years have passed..." as the cinematic played, every hair on my body began to stand on end. My eyes widened. My heart rushed. My face lit up. The music, the artistry...it was intoxicating. When it ended, I stood silent for a few moments before turning to my friend and saying "This is it. This is what I'm doing with the rest of my life. I'm going to be part of creating something that can make people feel exactly how I just felt." From that moment on, I started down a path of indeterminate length. One full of its own epic challenges, battles, and hopefully one day, triumphs. A path with a single end goal...Blizzard Entertainment.
My art school had no game design major at the time that I was enrolled there, so with the help of a new professor who was trying to get one built, I set out fleshing out a cirriculum aimed towards game design and game art. It was not easy, and not taken seriously by many at the school who saw it as a frivilous misuse of a fine art degree. I didn't care...I knew my path, and I knew I would have to often walk it alone. In 2008, in conjunction with the very friend who introduced me to the world of Azeroth, I offered my final college thesis. We put forth the notion that video games were quickly becoming a new and exciting vehicle for incredible narratives. Narratives that unlike their predecessors, WE had the ability to become an active part of as a character in the story itself, not just a third party witness. In that spirit, we created a space in which to tell our own story, set within Azeroth, and recounted through a series of hand written and illustrated leatherbound journals. 
The imagery within the journals was aided by numerous hand-crafted props, jars, vials, exotic dusts, runestones, scrap metal, scavenged armor and weaponry, plant samples, quest inquiries, crystals, illustrations, and even a hand drawn map. All actual physical objects that we meticulously crafted ourselves.
The room was decorated to resemble the interior of an explorer's field tent. It was a sort of "exhibit" to some, but for others who sought out the true meaning behind the project, it became a portal into another world. One in which their experience, much like the game it was based upon, was dependent on how involved they wished to get. The more time they spent reading the journal entries, the more their surroundings began to make sense and the more intriguing the props and other items in the room became. The point of the project was to mirror the experience of gameplay within the World of Warcraft. 
The visitors who gave the books a light glance and then explored the rest of the room, didn't get very much out of the experience. On the other hand, the ones who sat and read for even a few moments became engrossed in the tale told from the perspectives of three different adventurers as they first set out into the mysterious and uncharted realm of Outland for the very first time. The message was that for those willing to engage with the story and lore of a game like World of Warcraft got much much more out of the experience of playing than those who did not. The exhibit itself received mixed reviews. Some enjoyed it thoroughly while others scoffed and turned up their noses at it in true "art snob" fashion. In the end it did not matter. We were proud of what we had created and were graduating soon It was time to begin the NEXT leg of the journey, job hunting.
What they don't tell you in college is that finding a job afterwards can be extremely challenging. An art degree can be a difficult degree to utilize, especially in a way that generates any form of financial stability. In my view there's really only two types of artists, the "gallery" artist and the "commercial" artist. Now these two types can be classified a number of different ways; The "thinking" artist and the "drone", the "starving" artist and the "sellout", the "soulful" and the "souless". No matter how other people seem to see it, for me it comes down to this: The artist who creates art for themselves, and the artist who creates art for others. Now that's not to say that those concepts are always mutually exclusive, but for the most part, the gallery artists creates art to express themselves, and the commercial artists create art to get paid. Now sometimes, the gallery artist can find other people who enjoy their self-expression so much that they are willing to pay well for it. Inversely, sometimes the commercial artist can find well-paid work creating something they actually enjoy. I tend to consider myself a bit more of that last type. I get paid to draw things I enjoy drawing. It's a blessing in many ways, but at the same time, it is exhausting! If you don't have a regular gig as a source of stable income, you are forced to freelance it. You have to hustle and kick open doors and take big chances to find any bit of paid work you can. Eventually, your work might get noticed and appreciated by enough people that the jobs begin to come to you. What they DON'T tell you in art school is that pretty much, for MOST art school graduates, that point may take as many as TEN years of constant uphill struggle to attain. It takes on average between six and ten years for a working professional artist to find stable work. Obviously there are exceptions for the extremely talented and the extremely fortunate, but for the most part, it's one hell of a challenge and many never ride it out. They can't handle the constant hunting and self-promotion. The constant no-sleep weekend work binges. The hand cramps. The back aches. The sleepless nights worrying where the next gig will come from and whether or not it will come in time to pay the rent. So they break down and find a part time job somewhere for the sake of stability. There's nothing wrong with this at all. However, in my experience, it's the end for many artists art careers. Once you stop moving forward in this game, you begin to lose momentum and roll backwards. You lose inspiration. You lack free time. You just don't see the point after a while. You become one of the many faceless former artists out there who see other artists working at a coffee shop and come up to say "I used to draw too." as you wax nostalgically for hours about your past life. I don't want to become that, and seeing as I graduated in '08...this is year six. It's time to get to where I'm going.
I struggled to find work in the gaming industry initially. I was fortunate to have made contact with a small start up gaming company in 2009. I was able to get relatively steady work as a concept artist with them for a couple of years before unfortunately, the project hit a wall and had to be put on hold. I am very grateful for the experiences I had with them. Without them, I would likely STILL have no professional experience in the gaming industry. My work on that game DID afford me the opportunity to save up enough money to move from my hometown of Cleveland, OH. A place where freelance artwork was not only scarce, but was often not taken seriously as a profession. I was sad to leave my friends, family, and everything I had ever known, but I knew it had to be done if I were to continue down my path. Remember, often times, it must be walked alone. With two suitcases, a backpack, and a little over $2000 to my name, I moved to Portland, OR. in the spring of 2011 after having completed an internship with Periscope studio the year prior. I had fallen head over heels for the city. It is a burgeoning artists paradise and a place where creativity is nurtured and aspired to.
Comics work was not something I was accustomed to, but I felt it was a good thing to delve into as often times, artistic disciplines do cross over well. I began learning a lot from the members of Periscope studio, not just about artistic techniques, but also about business, professionalism, and self-promotion. With their guidance, I was eventually able to gain enough momentum to get regular comics and illustration gigs. My work in comics bore unexpected fruit as I began attending conventions and was introduced to the blossoming world of cosplay. I was awestruck by some of the talent these cosplayers displayed. My experience in networking and my desire to make some friends soon had me communicating with and getting to know many cosplayers from around the world. Soon I was developing ideas on how to bridge the gap between cosplayers and comic creators. After several years and several iterations, I stumbled onto an idea that was both managable, and effective in achieving that goal. Decked Out Cosplay Trading Cards is an ongoing project in which I illustrate cosplayers in their most iconic outfits to be printed on collectable trading cards. When I released the first few cards, it was instantly a hit in the cosplay community and the list of cosplayers interested in being involved grew daily. So much so that I had to put a temporary cap on it until I could catch up! It DID however put me in contact with a few cosplayers that unknowingly began to pour fuel on the fire inside of me that still burned to work at Blizzard. I got the idea for a Blizzard diorama. A multi-piece, connecting set of cards focused on Blizzard cosplayers. I became fast friends with the cosplayers involved as they are some of the most professional, passionate, and kind people one could ever hope to work with. I debuted the card project on the con circuit at Emerald City Comic Con in April of this past year and it was exceedingly well received. The project is currently still under way with the Blizzard diorama as previously mentioned and pictured above. Emerald City Comic Con ALSO afforded me an opportunity to connect with an artist whose work I had followed and admired since college. Blizzard artist, Glenn Rane has been responsible for some of the most iconic Blizzard art ever created and he is currently the Art Director of the creative development team. I was able to meet him and talk with him and even get feedback about my work. It was incredibly helpful! He was even willing to sign the only item from my final college thesis project that I have left, one of the leather bound journals.
making it one of my most prized possessions. In discussing my work, he was impressed with the speed in which I was able to create an image. This is a common ability among comic artists who work on very tight deadlines. He said that he would enjoy seeing me do some work that is more digital painting oriented, and remarked "I'd love to see what you could do by taking just a little more time on each piece." Those words stuck with me. I immediately set out to begin doing just that. I had to force myself to slow down. Think about each composition, the structure, the lighting, the color. It took a while getting used to and a lot of trial and error, but eventually I was producing work with intricate detail, but also substance and mood. I feel confident that if I get an opportunity to see him again at Blizzcon, I will be able to show him that I took his advice to heart and as a result, my work improved. As an example, here are two pieces, both of the same character in the same general setting, but the first was done before his advice, and the other is one of my most recent creations. 
Note that both are from this year, 2014. His advice was invaluable. I hope to thank him in person the next time I see him.
A couple of months ago, I began offering my services as a costume designer. I design custom costumes for cosplayers wanting to craft a unique spin on an existing character, or a visualization of a character that has never existed before. With a few exceptions, I soon saw a pattern emerging...most customers wanted a Blizzard-related costume, and I couldn't have been more thrilled! I was getting a chance to create more Blizzard-themed artwork WHILE supporting myself financially. Kind of a miniature version of my dream come true. I can only hope that some day, these designs catch the right eye and I get to create OFFICIAL Blizzard artwork.
So that's pretty much where I am now. A man with a dream that stretches back nearly a decade. A path behind me full of difficulty, loss, struggle, but also triumph and lessons learned. However, my eyes are now deadlocked on the path ahead of me. A path with a glorious destination. A path with a HUGE next step. Blizzcon. With your kindness and generosity, I won't have to take that leap alone. Won't you walk it with me? I will be forever in your debt.
