UPDATE Daily Quick Sketch: Piggin' and Grinnin'

UPDATE: I never liked the framing I did in this image, so I eliminated the background coloring.

Originally posted on 3/11/15:
Today's quick sketch was inspired by the blog: Dueling Banjo Pigs, a blog run by illustrators, Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis.

I seem to have jumped on the bandwagon long after this blog first started, but when viewing the blog and it's many banjo-playing pig images . . . I felt like tossing one on top of the already impressive 700+ picture collection pile.

Fully colored digital image of Piggin' and Grinnin' for the "Dueling Bango Pigs" blog site

Doing this image was a lot of fun. It's nice to just jump into doing a fun sketch with nothing but a suggested topic (a pig and a banjo.)

Inked version of the pencil lines created in ArtRage Pro

NOTE: Anyone can submit to the blog, professional or beginning artist. The blog is purely for fun. Even if you don't want to submit an image, it's worth seeing all the variations people have sent over the years. Visit the site here: http://banjopigs.blogspot.com/

Original pencil sketch from one of my sketchbooks

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

Daily Quick Sketch: Fishface

No idea when I did this sketch, but I found this old scanned pencil drawing in one of my archive drives. I dropped it into Painter 2018 and gave it a few color layers and added some color lines. I believe this was created with a small drawing program called Krita.

FishFace, quick colored version of an old pencil sketch image

Krita had a nice interface and it did a great job of simulating a true sketching line on a tablet. But it had glitches, which would sometimes lose artwork from system lock-ups and/or program crashes. So I stopped using Krita for that major reason.

The original pencil sketch

Like most of the things I find, I threw it on this blog for safe keeping. Never know when I might need a character whose face resembles a fish.

Finally got my website updated!

The new website design is up, and it has a new name: www.jimromer.com

It's been about five years since the last update. Adding my animation clips to the video page will take some tweaking to get all those old Flash files to work correctly. Plus, I'm still digging into my archives to find some ancient stuff for the About Me page. All of this will take some time, but for now, there's enough completed for the new site design to go active.

The new website design's homepage

I'm planning to have the newer website design link to www.jimromer.com. My primary domain, www.arrrggghhh.com, will stay as is for now, (which is mostly a promotional site to sell my picture book.) I'll be focusing on branding my name instead of the Arrrggghhh Ink Publishing.

I hope to get published the traditional way. Self-publishing a book was exciting and rewarding, but it's not the way to seriously do picture books. Doing a picture book is hard enough without doing it all alone. So in 2018, I'm a returning member of the 12X12 challenge, writing a new story each month.

A definite plus to the site is the new video page and I'm also planning to add animation clips

To see the new update, head over to www.jimromer.com

Robots in Space: Update (2 more days to go)

Here's the latest updates on the Kickstarter project.
All 3 designs have been finished, with the first two already sent to the printers.

Poster 3 of 3: Mars Rovers replaces Curiosity, adding more rovers to the image

The Cassini poster now has several more of Saturn's moons floating in the background, helping to fill in gap areas nicely. The moons, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea are now representing the Saturn family for our Cassini poster.

The update to poster 2 of 3: Cassini with several more moons

We are also proud to announce that as of a few days ago, this Kickstarter project has been officially adopted by The Planetary Society. This means that these three posters will join their growing catalog of products sold at chopshopstore.com/planetarysociety where a portion of the profits will go to help to fund their ongoing mission: To empower the world's citizens to advance the cause of space science and exploration.

Some profits to this project will now help fund the Planetary Society

Woot! Our Kickstarter project has been funded!

Special thanks to all who pledged, shared and helped spread the word about our planetary kids' posters!

There is still time if you are interested in getting these posters or the many other items that are included in the rewards. The final day of this Kickstarter project is Nov 30, 2017.
The direct link is here: Robot in Space!

My brother is finishing up on the 3rd design, but here is the working version of poster number two (Note: We are still making changes as we see fit, more moons and details will be added before we go to print.)

Working image for the second of three poster series for children.

Kickstarter Project: Robots in Space!

So, last week, my brother started a Kickstarter campaign to create posters for kids. This was something my brother Tom, my sister-in-law Stephanie and I have been talking about for months. So every weekend, we have been planning how to go about doing such a series.

I should also note: this is the very first project my brother Tom and I have EVER worked on together.

This is the first of three designs. Note: This is a work in progress. Not the final image.

We are basing the designs on Tom's successful HISTORIC SPACECRAFT COLLECTION, which currently has ten designs; including one design created exclusively for The Planetary Society for their successful Kickstarter project: Lightsail.

Tom's exclusive design made specifically for The Planetary Society Lightsail mission

We also decided to add a glowing feature to each poster, so when the lights go out, an image will appear. We are heading into our 2nd week, with already half the goal made.

Simulation of glow-in-the-dark effect

We aren't looking for family and friends to help fund these posters as much as getting help for promoting and spreading the word about the Kickstarter campaign. By posting the link far below to your various social media sites, you can help the project succeed by helping find people interested in purchasing our posters.

Here's the great video Thom, my Sis-in-Law Steph, and Freya worked on to promote the project.

If you would like the posters, know a little space explorer or want to help fund the project, go here: Robots in Space

If you'd like to help promote the project, please copy and paste the link below into your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. accounts. (Thanks!)

http://kck.st/2A0fsCQ

Inktober 2017 • day 31 • Scare D. Kattz (Happy Halloween and a farewell to Inktober 2017!)

Inktober 2017: Day31 • Scare D. Kattz sleeps
Ending the month-long Inktober challenge with a tired Scared D. Kattz. Definitely how I was feeling after so many children showing up at the door. Personally, I do not like how this image turned out. Did not finish Inktober on a high note in my opinion. Special thanks to Jake Parker for creating Inktober!!

RE: Halloween this year, so MANY Batgirl costumes!! Wonder why?

#Inktober Day 31: Halloween night, Inktober ends and Thank You Jake Parker!!!

Original Inked version, using a brush pen and a white gel pen for highlights

Inktober 2017 • day 30 • Scare D. Kattz's First Broom Ride

Inktober 2017: Day30
Scare D. Kattz's First Broom Ride

Added this little nod to the Harry Potter books/movies.

#Inktober Day 30: Nimbus 4000, much faster than the 2000 version.

Original Ink image

Inktober 2017 • day 29 • Scare D. Kattz meets Skullbottom

Inktober 2017: Day29
Scare D. Kattz meets Skullbottom

Combining two characters I have drawn in the past. This time Scare D. meets Skullbottom, who was ironically named after he lost his entire body (and jawbone.)

#Inktober Day 29: Scare D. Kat meets the unfortunate Skullbottom

Inktober 2017 • day 28 • Scare D. Kattz & The Witch's Hat

Inktober 2017: Day28
Scare D. Kattz & The Witch's Hat

I was getting kind comments from others online and email, so I decided to wrap this year's Inktober with Scare D. Kat images. 

#Inktober Day 28: Continuing the remaining Inktober days with images of Scare D. Kat

Inktober 2017 • day 27 • Scare D. Kat & Pumpkin Head

Inktober 2017: Day27
Scare D. Kat & Pumpkin Head

Heading to the end of Inktober, I thought I'd get a little more colorful in the final days. This one was drawn with a black brush pen and colored with Copic markers.

#Inktober Day 27: Bring back the kitten character I created several years ago.

(Side note: We actually had to use this sign for Halloween at around 9PM this year.)