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!!!

#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

#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.

Months Later: More #MerMay with #Mer-Kat

Back in May, I wanted to do the #mermaychallenge, an online event where artists draw and share their mermaid illustrations during the entire month of May. But I knew I had limited time, with everything happening that month (buying a new home/moving/fixing up the old home to sell), and a full-time job.

The inked version of "Octo-Pussy", using a Kuretake brush pen on Canson marker paper

I created Mer-Kat, a hybrid kitten/mermaid. I felt this was such a fun new character to explore. Life underwater with a feline-based personality.

The original pencil sketch, the background was later adjusted during inking, to create a better composition

Above is the sketch I did some time at the beginning of May. Got busy. Put the image aside, which then got grouped into other piles of papers and sketches, transferred to the new home, and pretty much was temporarily lost. So here are the original "found" pencils, and the inked version I was able to do over the weekend.

I plan to color this image sometime in the future.

Inktober 2019: Day 03 - BAIT

As mentioned in my previous post, this image is coupled with my Day#2 image. Always fun to flip the roles of the characters, now having Scare D Katt in control over mindless Mouse.

The final digitally touched-up color image, due to using the wrong markers

I was having trouble scanning the color image of this drawing. Unknowingly, I used several fluorescent markers, which don't scan very well at all. Something about the luminosity of these markers doesn't register correctly on a scanner. For example, the yellow cheese looks nice and vibrant on the original artwork, but the scanner picked up a brownish-green muddy tone. So I had to import this image into Photoshop to correct those marker colors (especially that of the hanging cheese.)

The original pencil sketch

The Inked version of the pencil sketch

Testing out the grayscale values of the image

Inktober 2019: Day 02 - MINDLESS

I decided that Mouse would be the companion of Scare D throughout Inktober. You can now see the ring from Day 1 is placed on the collar and will be part of the character from now on. (So yes, these two are engaged.) 

Day 2: Final inked image with marker coloring

At first, I had the cat simply floating mindlessly, but I wanted some interaction between the characters. That's where Day #3's prompt word, BAIT, came into play. This allowed me to tie today's word with tomorrow's word, creating a fun sequential connection between the two images.

The original sketch, working out the concept. 

I switched the layout to have the mouse take control, knowing tomorrow, I will turn the tables on Mouse.

Original final sketch images before inking

For those Inktober fanatics who insist ONLY using ink during Inktober, here you go!

The Month of Ink Cometh! INKTOBER 2019!

Yes, it's that wonderful time of year again, Inktober. This will be the 5th year I will "try" to complete the daily inking challenge during the month of October. This year I will focus on using one character, Scare D. Katt, a former Inktober character created 2 years ago.

Here's my little promo for #Inktober2019 using the original illustration from 2017

I also plan to use the prompt word list which is given by Inktober's creator, the great illustrator Jake Parker. I plan to sketch in pencil, then ink using various brush pens. I don't think I will have time to color, I don't want to over commit since work and life do get in the way.

The official Jake Parker prompt list for #Inktober 2019

More #MerMay with #Mer-Kat

Another Mer-Kat image for MerMay2019. Borrowed a fish image I did a few weeks back. Encountering the obnoxious BelchFish.

Arrrggghhh! It's Another Quick Sketch Video: Mer-Kat ( for #MerMay2019 )

So with work, moving to a new home, and many other things making May insanely busy, I still wanted to do a few #MerMay images for 2019. This little character popped into my head as a good mascot for the month-long drawing challenge. Not only do I like the character concept, but the name is a great little play on words: Mer-Kat. (I'm sure fans of actual meerkats won't find it as amusing.)

First #MerMay image of #Mer-Kat for 2019

I decided to record the 35+ minutes it took to create this image and speed it up to a more Internet consumable 4-5 minutes. (I think I still need to edit out the boring fish segment of the video . . .  just runs on too long with not much happening.) The YouTube link is embedded below.

Christmas Card 2018

This will probably only make sense to people who buy toilet paper. If you don't get the joke, go out and buy toilet paper soon.

Christmas Card concept for 2018

Ruth Vader Ginsburg

Some time ago my sister-in-law, Steph, asked me to do this image. She never mentioned why, but I had fun creating it. So now I'm sharin' . . .

Pencil sketched, then inked with a Pentel brush pen and colored
with Copic markers (on Canson marker paper.)

Inktober 2018 - Day31 Slice

Inktober 2018 - Day31 Slice
Well, time to say goodbye to Inktober. It's been fun, at times exhausting, and seeing others' line work has been truly inspiring. Thanks to all kind comments, emails, and likes; it really does mean a lot to me. Until next October . . . keep inking!

This image was inked with a Pilot brush pen on Strathmore toned tan paper,
using a Signo white pen for highlights.

Inktober 2018 - Day29 Double

Inktober 2018 - Day29 Double
As the image states, to this day, I still get the creeps from this scene in the Shining. In my college years, I was utterly blown away by Stanley Kubrick's work. I started collecting all DVDs of his movies, watching them over and over again. The man could truly capture a mood and is in my opinion, the most celebrated director of placement, framing, and composition.

He did take many liberties and altered Steven King's original story, but he definitely created something unique, horrific, and timeless.

Brush pen inked with digital coloring

Inktober 2018 - Day27 Thunder

Inktober 2018 - Day27 Thunder
Every once in a while, I really enjoy inking on toned tan paper. Something about that neutral tone that makes the black lines and white highlights pop. Mitch has inspired me to write the first draft for his own picture book story.

Inked with a brush pen on Strathmore toned tan paper;
using a Signo white pen for highlights, and adding some shading tones with cool grey Copic markers

Inktober 2018 - Day 25 Prickly

Inktober 2018 - Day 25 Prickly
I'm starting to think Todd's not going to survive Inktober.

Inktober 2018 - Day24 Chop

Inktober 2018 - Day24 Chop
Initially, I was going to use this character (Arnie Geddon) for all the Inktober images. But life and work have priorities, (especially when having to start planning product development for 2019 Halloween products this week.)

I've had this image for a while and waited for this day to post it. I thought this would be a good concept for a morbidly cute alphabet picture book -- but it would be a tough sell. But . . . I could see it as a novelty picture book for adults and possibly offer it up as a Kickstarter project to fund the printing.

This image was inked with a Pilot brush pen on Strathmore toned tan paper; using a Signo white pen for highlights.

The original artwork scan without digital text and enhancing contrast

See the original sketch of this character here.