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.

Inktober 2018 - Day23 Muddy

Inktober 2018 - Day23 Muddy

Pen brush inked and then digitally colored

Inktober 2018 - Day 21 Drain

Inktober 2018 - Day 21 Drain
Todd! Only a little more than a week to go!

Poor Todd was inked with a brush pen and then digitally colored in Photoshop

Inktober 2018 - Day17 Swallon

Inktober 2018 - Day17 Swallon
Ah, good ol' Phorlp, from the hypochondriac planet of Bleh. 👽

Brushpen inked and digitally colored with Photoshop

Inktober 2018 - Day16 Angular I hate when this happens.

Inktober 2018 - Day16 Angular
I hate when this happens.

Brush pen inked, then scanned into Photoshop for digital coloring

Inktober 2018 - Day15 Weak

Inktober 2018 - Day15 Weak 

Catching up on catching up and approaching the halfway mark!

Digitally colored

Inktober 2018 - Day14 Clock

Inktober 2018 - Day14 Clock
Still doing "posting catch-up" with Inktober 2018. This one was a struggle. My original idea was way too much dark humor; so I came up with this instead.

Inked using a Pentel brush pen on Canson marker paper.

Inktober 2018 - Day13 Guarded

Inktober 2018 - Day13 Guarded
Giggleberry!!!

Brush pen inked, then scanned into Photoshop for digital coloring

Inktober 2018 - Day12 Whale

Inktober 2018 - Day12 Whale
I have fallen behind on posting these images. I swear it takes longer sometimes to post this stuff than it is to draw this stuff. Anyway, here we go with the catching up.

Original inked image and digital tone + type

Inktober 2018 - Day10 Cruel

Inktober 2018 - Day10 Cruel
If you think this is bad, you should see Cruel Joke #14.

Digitally colored image

Inktober 2018 - Day10 Flowing

Inktober 2018 - Day10 Flowing

Todd! Hang in there! We're only one third through Inktober!
Nothing like bringing back my good old friend, Todd, for some frog torturing fun.

Digitally colored image; inked with a brush pen and then scanned into Photoshop

Inktober 2018 - Day09 PRECIOUS

Inktober 2018 - Day09 PRECIOUS

If this doesn't give you a heartwarming feeling, I don't know what will.

I just wanted to do something different then what seemed to be an overload of Gollum images for today's Inktober prompt word.

This image was Inked with a Tombow WS-BS pen brush and colored with Copic markers.

Inktober 2018 - Day08 STAR(r)

Inktober 2018 - Day08 STAR(r)

Fortunately, Brian Epstein convinced Richard to stop wearing dickies and using giant keys as drumsticks. As a reward, Brian gave Richard one of his rings, which started a whole new obsession.

(PS: I made this whole "Dickey" story up. I felt so bad when several people wrote to me saying this was an interesting story they never heard. Fake news! Sorry . . . was just joking around because his real name was Richard (aka Dick) Starkey. So "Dick"-key . . . get it? . . . nevermind . . . )

Ink and gray Copic markers used for this image

Inktober 2018 - Day06 DROOL

Inktober 2018 - Day06 DROOL

Hmmm.... Tacos.
Hmmmm... Zombie drool.

Digitally Colored

Original Ink drawing

Inktober 2018 - Day07 Exhausted

Inktober 2018 - Day07 Exhausted

Todd is . . . exhausted.

Digitally colored

Original inked image with type

Inktober 2018 - Day 05 CHICKEN

It was obvious Hector was going to be a problem as soon as he hatched.

Image inked with a Kuretake black pen brush on Canson marker Paper and colored with Copic markers.

Arrrggghhh! It's Another Quick Sketch Video: Inktober 2018 Day05 CHICKEN

Inktober 2018 - Day 04: SPELL

Inktober 2018 - Day 04 SPELL.
I like really stepping out of the norm, and here's a great example.
(Don't think you're going to find many other dancing vampires for today's Inktober.)

Full digital color version of today's Inktober

Inked with brush pen and then added type and background in Photoshop

I was originally going to submit only my hand-drawn images for Inktober 2018. But now, several days into this, I'm going to go back to the digital format that I used for the past few Inktobers.

Full color sans Text

I'm basically using a font to help create a cleaner and consistent look instead of my handwriting. To me, it looks and reads better.

Original pencil sketch

The original inspiration for this image was from an envelope with my doodles on the back

Inktober 2018 - Day 03: Roasted

My quickie image for Inktober2018 for Day03 for prompted word: ROASTED

Thought Process: I'm cheating a little. The prompt word immediately made me think of an image I did several months ago of a coffee mug design for my wife.

I wasn't happy with the way the mug came out, and my wife would often ask, "Is that supposed to be me?" I believe it was the way I drew it, and google eyes, and the blank stare that didn't make me completely thrilled with the original final image. So here's a revision of that image.

Revision of the coffee mug design I did for my wife. LINK HERE

Inktober 2018 - Day 01: Poison

My quickie image for Inktober2018 for Day 01 for prompted word: Poison.
Thought Process: I basically thought of a poison bottle. That's it.
Also posted a real-time video of drawing this image on IGTV. About 6+ minutes long. LINK

The first ink sketch for #Inktober2018 (following the prompt list of daily words.)

How different pens create different images

Someone wrote to me asking why I sometimes mention what pens I'm using for different illustrations. What you use often makes a significant difference in how your final image will look.

Below the middle image shows the original pencil sketch for my Day 01 Inktober 2018 entry. Note the difference of the outer two images on the left and right.

Showing how different brush pens can change the look of a drawing. Click on the image to see a larger version.

The left image is more detailed with finer lines because there was a harder point on that brush pen. So that inspires adding more tighter lines for shading and details. The image on the right was drawn with a softer brush tip, which makes it easier to create the flowing and thicker lines. That pen inspired me to use fewer lines and a simpler iconic look. The end results are quite different even though they were both based on the same pencil sketch.

The quick answer to that original question above:
By mentioning the items used to create an image, allows others to know how they could get similar results by using the same product(s).

Inktober 2018 - Prompt List

It's that time of year again where I dedicate my warmup sketching hour in the morning to Jake Parker's Inktober. Inktober is a yearly Internet event where people draw ink images and post them online, every day in October.

This year I was going to just sketch, but I didn't enjoy the process that way. So I eventually went back to my inkings, scanning, coloring and adding text in Photoshop format that I've been using for several years now.

This is the daily word prompt list provide by Inktober creator, Jake Parker

Some may not like me adding text, color and polishing my ink sketches for Inktober . . . Too bad. Seriously, if you are one of these people, you really have too much time on your hands. Go draw something.

Inktober 2018: Arnie Geddon Update

I have been gearing up for Inktober as mentioned previously. The plan is to do the letter-a-day/alphabet with this character Arnie Geddon, but I'm still ironing out his look. It's getting there.

Arnie Geddon, the latest version of the character

I plan to do all images on toned tan paper as seen above, using black brush pens and white pens for highlighting. I've got my ideas and the entire alphabet down on paper. Hopefully, this will all start happening around the end of the first week into Inktober 2018.

Arnie and the pens and paper I will use for his 26 Alphabet pages

Daily Quick Sketch: Arnie McGeddon

With October approaching, been thinking a lot about what I want to do for Inktober 2018. Last year, in the final week I did several images of a cat character. I like the idea of doing something consistent, instead of a daily random drawing.

My idea is to do an alphabet book for adults using this character. So each day I'll be going through the alphabet, having Arnie interact with each letter of the day.

Daily Quick Sketch: Burrito VS Taco! (1 of 2)

Funny how inspiration works. One of my favorite Facebook people is Jason Curtis, a cartoonist with a true sense of humor, original wit, and a fantastic simple style. I dislike Facebook, but Jason is one of the few reasons I check in once in a while.

Long story short: Jason did a cartoon one day that had the punch-line asking who would win in a match between a Burrito and a Taco. Somehow that cartoon was in my head when I was trying to sleep, I pictured what that match would look like. So, since I was awake, I drew the two characters.

In this corner, wearing red trucks that are WAY too high up his body -- The Beefy Burrito! 

The original inking of the Burrito character, using a Kuretake ZIG brush pen.

The original pencil sketch

Here's the link for Taco.

Daily Quick Sketch: Burrito VS Taco! (2 of 2)

Here is the Taco character. I felt burrito would be a heavyweight boxer, while poor old Taco would a more frail character.

And in this corner, a simple shell of a man, it is --The Crisp and Breakable Taco!

The original inking of the Taco character, using a Kuretake ZIG brush pen.

The original pencil sketch

Here's the link to Burrito.

Daily Post: Chicken Little (with video)

Today's sketch is one I had around for a while. This was a design for a story I wrote using known fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters. This is my version of Chicken Little. I know traditional, Chicken Little is a cute, little chicken in books, (or a big headed with glasses like in the animated movie.) I wanted very wacky. 

Digital color comp for Chicken Little character

Inking for Chicken Little

Daily Sketch: Bug

New concept sketch of a character I'm developing for my latest picture book manuscript, Bug. His name is Allen, a character with an extreme identity crisis.
Swipe to see the original sketch, inking, and color breakdown images.

Sidenote: I used an inking brush setting which resembles a leaky pen. I really like how fluid and random the line becomes.

Final color version

Original pencil sketch

Inking with some shading

Alternative image with color background