A few words on: Email, Messages and Requests

Just wanted to touch base with those who write me about this blog and with those who make requests for me to create things for them.

• First, thank you for visiting my blog and having an interest in what I do here.
• Second, I don't allow comments on my posts for one major reason: I cannot police or control comments every waking hour of the day. I hope to someday create more picture books for children; I cannot afford to have people cursing, arguing, or making crude comments on this blog.
• Third, this blog's software doesn't have a good messaging system. But everyone is more than welcome to continue sending me questions and comments. I do eventually read comments/emails sent to me from this blog, but... please don't expect quick turnaround responses.

Finally, please do not send me requests. That is not why I have this blog. This is a blog of my random thoughts and sketches. It's a public diary — even I don't know what I'm going to post next.

I often get requests to post more images of what I do for a living, which is product design. There are too many legal reasons why that's not going to happen. It would be unprofessional for me to show designs that are exclusive to any client. Occasionally, I will post work-related designs, but those are usually either out-of-date or they no longer have any legal restrictions.

And finally, to those still scraping my images, posting them as your own and selling my images — I've taken off my best finished works from this blog. Fortunately, I've seen you people quickly disappear with the growth of AI. Probably time for you to steal something else.

Again, thanks to all visiting this blog.

Christmas Toon - My Santa for 2024

This year's 2024 Santa image was created via physical pencil sketch, into Procreate for some "pencil setting" inking, and then under-colored and text added using Photoshop. ("BWAAH!" created using AI generating Ideogram.com.)

My wife and I enjoy watching Kathleen Madigan's weekly podcast; she's one of our favorite comedians. She often talks about her touring, including places she visits, foods she discovers, and gifts fans give her at shows. On one particular show, she mentioned a place called The Fainting Goat, where she purchased a small plastic goat figurine that makes that hilarious screaming sound we've all heard in videos. It never fails to be funny, and she uses it in nearly every podcast.

My 2024 Christmas Cartoon

When I do a Christmas cartoon, I want it to be unique. It's too easy to do the usual Christmas gags, puns or traditional jokes. So the goat scream was my influence in this image. Hopefully you can hear that goat scream in your head, (I certainly did as I was drawing it. Never not funny.) 

The original sketch

Adventure Time Thoughts

I miss seeing new Adventure Time cartoons.

There don't seem to be as many original shows out there that push the imagination envelope. (Yes, there are shows like Rick and Morty, Hilda, and a handful of other great cartoon series out there. But to me there seems to be a void with new original content from the past 2 years.) As an illustrator and character designer, I'm not watching as many cartoons anymore - we need more Adventure Time-like, Steven Universe and Hilda shows to bring back true imaginative storytelling.

Digital Sketch of a slightly small and young Finn from Adventure Time
using Adobe Fresco and a charcoal crayon setting, with a limited color pallet

I enjoyed the sequel post-shows and the Fiona and Cake series on Netflix, and feel there is so much more possible with the characters and history of the original. So, I started imagining a prequel series for Adventure Time. We have seen Finn as a baby, and were given several alternative reality versions of Finn. But I was thinking, what about Finn as a young kid, say 8 years old? That's a perfect age where he is becoming aware of the world, but is still not quite prepared to go out and bravely adventure.

I was thinking he'd be younger, smaller, and more immature. The series could explore the origins of Finn and Jake meeting characters for the first time. It could explain the gear Finn found and uses, such as his backpack and iconic bunny hood. (I know some of Finn's past has been explained, but there is still much left untold. At least, I believe there is... MORE ADVENTURE TIME!... please...)

Santa Design 2023 (AKA Is Adobe Fresco good?)

Merry Christmas! . . . and a Happy New Year!

Santa character for 2023

Every year, I draw a Santa (or a few). This is my personal annual challenge: to draw Santa differently each year, never repeating the drawings from any previous year.

This year, I created a Santa for the first time using Fresco, Adobe's competitor to Procreate on the iPad. Like Procreate, Fresco boasts an ideal interface and excellent control over drawing lines with a stylus like Apple's Magic Pencil, or on a Wacom screen. Note: Unlike Procreate, which is currently only available on iPad, most Adobe products, including Fresco, are available on all platforms, including Windows.

I would almost say my line control feels even better with Fresco. Depending on the smoothness settings, Procreate can sometimes alter a line's path, especially near the end of a brush stroke when lifting off the tablet.

The best thing about Fresco, to me, is that you can paint and draw in Vector mode. This means you can freely resize your drawing to any size without losing detail or bitmap blocking; all lines stay smooth. It's well worth a look, especially for any t-shirt designers or poster printers out there. I may find myself weaning off Procreate due to this excellent program... (Check here next year to see which program I use for 2024's Santa!)

Baby New Year 2023

Getting ready to kick in the New Year! 🎉

I've been doing variations of this image every couple of years. Each time, a slightly different look.

Kickin in the new year!!!

UPDATE C-BOT: The Smart Bot (supporting Picture Book character)

UPDATE: Color! (Originally published on Saturday, January 26, 2019)

It's been quite a long time since I stepped foot in this blog. 
Not only was the pandemic affecting everything, but this year has also been one family emergency after another. We are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, but still have a way to go.

Anyway, this is my attempt to slowly get back into this blog.

Inktober is approaching, I hope I can do some sketches during the month, but I'm not expecting to have much spare time.

The digitally colored version of the C-Bot, redrawn on an iPad Pro using Procreate

Today's quick sketch warm up. Possible support character for a fun picture book with robots. You can see the protagonist to the story here.

Original Inked Sketch of C-Bot using a Tombow brush pen

#Inktober2020 Day04 RADIO

With the prompt word "Radio", I instantly thought of the old Captain Marvel/Shazam villain, Mr. Mind. He definitely was one of the weirdest characters I remember reading as a child.

#Inktober2020 Day 03 BULKY

Good ol' King Mudsok.
Reposting an old favorite character from my story idea about the underground people,
A fair and kind-hearted leader, though one who would definitely dislike being labeled as BULKY.

#Scrawloween2020 Day03: WEREWOLF

#Scrawloween Day 3: WEREWOLF
This year for Inktober, I'm also following The Cartoon Art Museum prompt list jumping around the two lists, pulling and revising some old stuff, and of course, creating new illustrations.

#Inktober2020 Day02: WISP

#Inktober2020 Day 2: WISP
Created with Procreate on an iPad Pro.

#Inktober2020 Day02: WISP 

#Inktober2020 Day01: Cat

Well, October is here already. That means I'm about to attempt to do the month-long challenge known as Inktober for the 6th year.

This year, a slightly different approach; I'll be doing new character designs and using the prompt list of words from The Cartoon Art Museum's Scrawl-O-Ween for inspiration. (See the prompt list way down below.) 

Color version of this year's first #inktober image

The Inked version of the Day 01 image for the prompt word: Cat

The original pencil sketch of the character

2020 Prompt list for Scrawl-o-ween

B-bot: Developing another support character

This robot is a supporting character for my story, D-Bot. In the story, the main character often wishes it was another robot, B-Bot being one of them. B-Bot is a Builder Bot, hence the powerful arms.

A better color comp of one of the builder bots in D-Bot

The original color comp, which I found was too bright and McDonalds-ish

The original concept pencil sketch of B-Bot

Arrrggghhh It's Another Quick Sketch Video: Monster Dance

UPDATE: Daily Quick Sketch: Lil' Squire

In the past year, I rewrote my picture book story The Squire. At first, it was going to be a story about a little girl playing strong roles often portrayed by male characters. Then I rewrote the story to also include a stronger message about equality. That's where the twins' idea came into play. After all, twins should be pretty equal, right?

Adding more humor to the main characters of THE SQUIRE

The story became more of a dialogue between the twins. More humor was put into the characters reacting off each other. Their arguments intensified; hopefully in a seemingly funny way. I also found an ending that I feel fits perfectly with humor and hitting the key message of the story.

The original pencil sketch of Erica and Oliver, including their lovable sheepdog, Max

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Below was originally posted on 1-28-13

Been a while since I posted a daily sketch.  This one is a little girl dressed in a knight's suit of armor. I was just testing out the stylus controls again, making adjustments to the pen line.  I thought of making a strong little girl with a playful imagination of adventure and action. I came up with this quick little sketch which I immediately named "Lil' Squire."

#Mermay2020 fast approaching - aka Mer-Kat

Last year I dabbled with a character for #MerMay2019, the annual month-long mermaid illustration event on the Internet. If you use Instagram or Twitter, I'm sure you will notice a large number of mermaid illustrations being posted during May.

Quick color comp of Mer-Kat "In an Octopus's Garden"

Other Links for Mer-Kat:
https://arrrggghhhink.blogspot.com/2019/05/arrrggghhh-its-another-quick-sketch.html
https://arrrggghhhink.blogspot.com/2019/05/more-mermay-with-mer-kat.html
Oh, and the original pencils and ink images of this image are two posts below.

D-Bot: Developing a Main Character for a Picture Book II

Hard to believe it's been about two years since I created this story and character while doing jury duty. The long hours waiting was the perfect environment for me to daydream this picture book story.

Character study of D-bot: focusing facial expressions

I have submitted the story many times and have received many rejections. Many just say that they don't see a market for it. Others have said they didn't like or "get" that each robot is named with a letter. I still think it is a fun story about self-worth.

Original pencil sketches of D-Bot heads

I'm hoping the main reason for the rejections is that I haven't had the time to sketch a dummy for this picture book. So I go back every once in a while. Sketching the characters. Fine-tuning. Experimenting. Learning.

Maybe one day, D-Bot. Maybe . . . 

Baby Yoda Christmas Card

That time of year when I try to create a Christmas card. After several requests for me to draw a "Baby Yoda" -- I figured this would be a the topic of this year's Christmas Card.

Digital pencils and coloring using Phtoshop

I'm still in the process of creating the card.
Once it's completed, I'll update this page to show the entire work.

Practice Inked version with some background

Original pencil sketch

D-Bot: Developing a Main Character for a Picture Book

UPDATE: New Type for Title

I'm playing around with type, trying to develop a title design for the book.

Placed the type on a lower layer behind the character artwork.
Not sure it's good for a children's picture book, but I do like it.

UPDATE: Color experiment

I'm playing around with using a very loose coloring and pencil scratchy pencil holding lines.

Not sure I want to add the rustic tones, might be too much, will have to try out several other color scheme variations. Thinking each type of robot should be a specific color, but not sure the colors should be drastically different.

Liking the look, but the rustic feel might not work for this character

Those who see my work on Instagram might recognize this character. This is D-bot, the main character in its self-titled picture book story. The look of D-Bot has changed quite a lot over time.

A pencil sketch of the latest version of D-Bot

In fact, D-Bot looks nothing like the original sketch from several months ago. As seen below, it was just too ordinary and had no striking features. The story of D-Bot is about self-confidence and self-worth, which needs to show emotions to truly work.

The original 1st sketch of D-Bot

But that first sketch did lead to the 2nd and 3rd versions of the character. Each molding towards the latest design. Take what works and drop what is weak.

2nd sketch of D-bot showed more expression

I like this 2nd version, very playful and simple . . . but I still wanted to explore the character design

Image from a video that was posted on my Instagram account

The character was merging into something I could see starring in its own story. I want a robot, but I also want the character to show emotion. If it's too robotic, it'll usually have a dead stare, and the #3 design didn't have pupils, (which doesn't help the character connect with others.)

Seen here are version #3 (left) and #4 (right) of D-Bot. #3's eyes were too dead and cold.

Below, I broke D-Bot down to all his parts to help analyze and remember how to draw the character. Now, I'm considering using a similar image as a repeat pattern inside the end pages of the book.

Anatomy of a character: breaking it down into small components

Giddy Santa 2019

THIS JUST IN:
It's that time of year when Santa is getting a little too giddy.

That time of year where I play around creating new character versions of Santa.

UPDATE: Fantasy Reading Scene (for SCBWI)

UPDATE

I was working on this illustration a while back, but I had no spare time and had to put it aside. The composition was too busy, but now I think it looks a little better. I made a few major changes, like:

• Made adjustments to light sources
• Created bolder outlines
• Got rid of the Knight reading over the dragon's shoulder

The updated version of the submitted SCBWI illustration sans the reading Knight

Originally Posted on 2/2/19
Work in progress: One of several spot images I plan to submit for consideration with the SCBWI quarterly, Bulletin magazine. 
Testing out the grays, shading, and highlights. No color since all images need to be submitted in grayscale. I still need adjustments to the tones and values. (Also, note to self . . . Make better use of the negative spacing, especially around the knight area.)

Greyscale image, still in the works

Digital pencil lines are drawn over the scan of the original pencil sketch on a separate layer

Adding some green tones on a layer under the digital pencil lines