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

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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."

Throwback Thursday: Golf Dad Mug Design

REPOST DUE TO SO CORRUPT AND/OR LOST IMAGE FILE WITH BLOGGER:
Originally posted on 2/4/16

This one goes back many years ago when I worked for a giftware company designing novelty products. They wanted a humorous Father's Day mug related to golf. I wrote as many insults and oddities about a typical Dad playing golf.

The mug sold well on the market, so someone asked me to create 3 more for the following year. I remember the three follow-up mugs were, Fisherman, BBQ Chef and Couch Potato -- but this original Golf mug outsold the other mugs combined.

One thing I remember while creating this design was that I did a spotless vector version, which looked very polished with solid clean lines. But this rough and loose style seemed to work much better with the text humor.

Daily Quick Sketch: Fox on the Run

Not sure why I sketched this image. Maybe it's because I need a fox character for a picture book manuscript I'm working on, or it's because I was watching Guardians of the Galaxy II again (which has the song Foxon the Run by Sweet in its soundtrack.)

Fox on the Run digitally colored using flat colors

I'll be using some of the features of this fox character for my picture book based on the famous pangram, The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog. 

Original pencil sketch which angle was changed to show more speed and movement

Inktober 2017 • day 26 • Trick or Treatin' Monster

Inktober 2017: Day26
Trick or Treatin' Monsta

I felt like doing a big goofy monster trick or treating on Halloween day.

I have to admit, I think a lot of this goofy walking stance (and definitely its feet) is inspired by Mad Magazine's Don Martin. Don Martin was the king of goofy drawing when I was a kid. It was Martin's cartoons, Sergio Aragonés randomly gutter placed doodles, and Antonio Prohías' Spy vs. Spy that were the must-read pages whenever I bought Mad Magazine.

#Inktober Day 26: Wrong Toes, the friendly neighborhood gremlin.

Inktober 2017 • day 19 • Ghost Doodles

Inktober 2017: Day19
Halloween Ghost Doodles

Today's Inktober is just a bunch of ghost doodles (with a pumpkin basket thrown in.)
I used a very soft pen brush, hence the more shaky, sketchy and varying lines.

Inktober Day 19: Various Ghost and pumpkin basket doodles

Inktober 2017 • day 18 • Teen Wolf

Inktober 2017: Day18Teen Wolf
This little guy was a concept design for a Trick or Treat bag. Basically, he's rising from the bag's base. I'll need to simplify this design because TOT bags are generally very graphic and iconic in today's market.

Inktober Day #18: Teen Wolf Surprise!

Inktober 2017 • day 17 • Go Fish! (Bunnies and Monstas)

Inktober 2017: Day17
Go Fish (Bunnies and Monstas)

Those who follow my artwork will probably recognize this image. I've been working on variations of this concept for quite some time. This is part of a calendar idea I've had for the last few years.

#Inktober Day 17: Yet another version of Go Fish from my Bunnies and Monstas collection

Inktober 2017 • day 16 • Minya (aka Godzilla Jr.)

Inktober 2017: Day16
Minya (aka Baby Godzilla or Godzilla Jr.)

I always thought Minya was a strange looking monster. He had to be one of the worst creatures made in the early Godzilla movies. But with this character's introduction came so many questions about Godzilla. Was Godzilla the father or mother? Did Godzilla have a mate? Were there other children?
But the strangest thing about the character was its weapon: the smoke rings. They hardly seemed to do any damage at all. Seemed more annoying than harmful. Makes one wonder how he learned to make smoke rings, right?

#Inktober Day 16: Minya practicing how to make smoke rings

Inktober 2017 • day 15 • Were-Cow

Inktober 2017:
Day15 Were-Cow

This cow survived a werewolf attack; As soon as it was bitten, the werewolf realized he was a vegan. I'd imagine the horrible milk this cow would produce since it's diet is probably no longer vegan. It would be close to blood pudding I bet. Oh, and good luck milking this cow.

#Inktober Day 15: Scanned version of the Were-Cow ink drawing.

Side Note: After scanning, I altered the placement of the lettering from above and set it below the character instead. Better this way, IMHO.

Inktober 2017 • day 14 • Da Batman

Inktober 2017: Day14
The Batman gearing for action

Would be weird to not do at least one Batman image for Inktober. This one is based on a sketch I did while in Iceland. I gave that original drawing to a family member while there, so I thought I'd do another version of that picture for Inktober 2017. (Hope you don't mind, Victor!)

#Inktober Day 14: Batman is ready for battle with his trusty little Batarang

Inktober 2017 • day 13 • Lumpy Bumpy

Inktober 2017: Day13
The Lumpy Bumpy Monster

When pressed for time, but you still want to do a daily image for Inktober -- go with what you know. I've been drawing this character for decades now, so it is easy for me to quickly sketch one of my oldest characters, Lumpy Bumpy Monster.

Inktober Day #13: My old reliable character, the Lumpy Bumpy Monster

Inktober 2017 • day 10 • Deadie Bear

Inktober 2017: Day10
Deadie Bear
Did a similar character last year for a Trick or Treat Bag, (no one purchased the design.)
For this image, I thought of playing around doing sketchy lines. Actually, after finishing the image, I added even more scratchy lines to make have a rougher edge.

#Inktober Day 10: Awww, Deadie Bear is coming to you for a hug . . . 

Inktober 2017 • day 9 • Vampire's First Flight

Inktober 2017: Day9
Vampire's First Flight
I wonder how vampires learn how to transform and fly as bats. Is it similar to a baby bird?

#Inktober Day 9: Do vampires take a leap of faith to learn how to fly?

Inktober 2017 • day 8 • Little Witch

Inktober 2017: Day #8
Little Witch . . . 'Nuff said!

#Inktober Day 8: Cute Little Witch

Inktober 2017 • day 7 • Helium Ghosts

Inktober 2017: Day #7
Ever wonder what would happen if ghosts played around with helium?

#Inktober Day 6: Ghosts discover helium

Found a harder tipped version of my favorite Tombow brush pen (WS-BH 150).
I find it's better for my heavy hand, allowing me to add more pressure to get the line thickness I want. This allows me to draw thinner lines than if I used the soft tipped version (WS-BS 150). Because of this, it feels more comfortable. Overall, I think it produces a cleaner image, allowing me to add more lines and detail.

Inktober 2016: Lost (#07 of 31)

Today's word of the day for Inktober 2016: Lost.
This word brings me back to one of my very first cartoons.

During my college years, I was the college newspaper cartoonist doing weekly drawings. One year, I won the national Columbia University Golden Circle Award for Best Cartoon from a Collegiate Newspaper. This inspired me to try going professional. I drew up about 3 dozen cartoons to submit to the New Yorker, Playboy, Reader's Digest and several other popular magazines. All were rejected. With good reason . . .

Rehashing an old cartoon I did while in college.

After all the rejections, I changed my focus and started doing a comic strip called Home of the Brave, which ran monthly in a fanzine for 2.5 years and then was reprinted/rehashed for a Spa/Health magazine for about a year. This old lady became one of the regulars in that strip (years later, she was also used in my first children's book Bobby's Biggest Bubble.)

Original pencil sketch

I'm going to search for the original old cartoon and post it (even though doing so will bother me tremendously -- looking at how I used to draw! Bleh! ) If I find the image, I'll update this post.

Inktober 2016: Hidden (#06 of 31)

Today's 6th Inktober 2016 image is based on the word: HIDDEN.

Not much to explain on this one. Just keeping the jokes gross, dark and uncomfortable . . . (because those are the drawings that are getting the most attention! Go figure.)

Alien Hide N' Seek professional Mr. Glorp playing with the Elf on the Shelf (he's hiding, kinda.)

I will admit I do have a bit of hatred for the Elf on the Shelf. He just seems to be the most obnoxious and shady elf in the world. Glad I put him in his place with this cartoon . . . 

Original pencil sketch of Mr. Glorp (sans the elf . . . )

Inktober 2016: Sad (#05 of 31)

Okay, I'm already going dark in the very first week of Inktober. Nothing wrong with a little dark humor, right? (I have to admit, I found myself giggling a few times while doing this image.)

Here's my Inktober image for Oct 5th. The prompt word for this day was "SAD."
I thought of all the saddest characters out there -- Pooh's friend Eeyore easily made the top of my list.

Oct 5th's Inktober image for the word "Sad", made using a pencil, brush pen, and Copic gray markers

Now I don't ever remember seeing Eeyore happy or smiling. That was the first part of this image, making Eeyore super happy. Once I sketched out what he'd look like . . . I started to think of what could possibly make him so happy. That's when everything turned dark.

I first focused on this key element of the drawing -- I found only one reference image of a happy Eeyore

Recalling my youth watching cartoons of Pooh, I've always disliked Rabbit. Face it, he was a jerk most of the time. A snoop, a bully, a control freak and just too darn excitable. So it was easy to make him be the fall guy for this joke. 

The rest of the image was roughed in around the Eeyore character, with the tragedy emphasized in the foreground

I needed to really make his death be totally abnormal with the environment of the characters. I went all Donny Darko and decided to drop a jet engine on poor old Rabbit. Wanting to not over offend people, I toned down the violence and kept it on a comical cartoony level. (No blood, guts, or gore.  I made sure to hide Rabbit's face to help soften his tragic death.)

Inktober 2016: Hunger (#04/31)

Today's Inktober word on the prompt list: Hunger.
Immediately zombies come to mind. Generally, that's is their entire life . . . eating, walking and looking for more to eat.

There are so many unanswered questions about zombies and eating:
1.) Do zombies ever get "full"?  2.) Do zombies only prefer "fresh" food?  3.) Why don't they eat each other?  4.) Do zombies poop?**

Image #4 "Hunger " for Inktober 2016, made with a mechanical pencil, Kuretake brush pen and Copic gray markers

This drawing touches on one of the things I always wondered as a kid; would a zombie ever eat itself?  If it did, that would be such a great efficient ecological system . . . am I right? I mean, if zombies can do that -- it'd make them have the smallest carbon footprint in the world!

Original pencil sketch of the self-sustaining zombie named Earl

(**Anyone have answers to these questions, let me know!)

Inktober 2016: Collect (#03/31)

Today's Inktober word on the prompt list: Collect.


SpongeBob SquarePants immediately came to mind with his impulsive hobby of jelly-fishing. I remember an episode where a giant jellyfish started to attach SpongeBob, to stop him from collecting little Jellyfish. I thought I'd take from that event and exaggerate the size of the bigger Jellyfish (and add more monstrous features like the teeth.)

Sketched, inked and highlighted this SpongeBob image on Toned Tan paper

I used to draw SpongeBob many times during my former job as a Creative Director in the Amusement business. It's been about 12 years since I drew this character. Back then I would design new outfits and concepts for new plush SpongeBob toys.

No sketch for this image since it was penciled and inked on the same sheet of paper.