Current Projects

Life and Stuff…

Wow, it’s been quite a while, hasn’t it? There are lots of reasons for that. Summer vacation started, which means my studio hours get seriously truncated and interrupted. Two of my sons decided to have medical problems that required some surgery (one of them an emergency case, but both are fine and back to driving each other nuts). I finally got the help I needed to do some serious repairs to my barn. Basically: life. It’s a struggle not to get swept up in the frustration of not having enough studio time, let alone time to keep this website up

Tags: #art, #copicmarkers, #copicmultiliners, #digitalart, #drawings, #galleryupdate, #illustration, #ink, #penandink, #plungermonkey, #plungermonkeydynamo, #PMD, #randomdoodleage|

It’s Plunger Monkey Dynamo Time!
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It’s Plunger Monkey Dynamo Time!

It’s Plunger Monkey Dynamo Time!

I’ve been hinting at it for weeks now, but it’s finally up and running! The official It’s Plunger Monkey Dynamo Time! comic strip! I had no idea when I embarked on the Inktober challenge last year that it would eventually lead me to something that’s been a pipe dream clattering around my brain for years. One of the many reasons I had never featured PMD in his own comic of any type was that I was having a hard time nailing down his personality and how I wanted to “use” him. I had this vague sense of who he was,

Tags: #art, #comics, #copicmarkers, #copicmultiliners, #drawings, #ink, #manga, #mangaselfportrait, #penandink, #plungermonkey, #plungermonkeydynamo, #PMD, #portrait|

Gallery Update: My Face x100!!!!
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Gallery Update: My Face x100!!!!

Gallery Update: My Face x100!!!!

With all the ups and downs in studio time I experience, I’m pretty happy to have pumped out the 100th cartoon self portrait. I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable drawing myself without picture reference and I’m much more willing to push expressions to their extremes without crossing that undefined “realism” line. Now that I have 100 under my belt, I’ll be looking to change things up a little. I haven’t figured out how, yet, but I think this milestone is a good point for it, whatever it will be. I’ll still continue doing the daily self-portraits, they have become a

Tags: #art, #cartoonselfportrait, #comicbooks, #comics, #copicmarkers, #copicmultiliners, #drawings, #galleryupdate, #graphicnovels, #illustration, #manga, #mangaselfportrait, #observationaldrawing, #penandink, #portrait, #revery, #selfportrait, #sketchbook, #sketches|

Gallery Update: 80 Shades of (Toby) Gray…
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Gallery Update: 80 Shades of (Toby) Gray…

Gallery Update: 80 Shades of (Toby) Gray…

If you’ve been following me on the Book of Faces, then you know I’m still chugging away on the whole manga self-portrait thing. My style has been developing, and I’m quite pleased with several of the drawings, but I don’t think I’m producing consistent enough images yet. I’m getting a little too caught up in the abstraction of the linemaking (something I’ve always loved) and often forgetting to pay attention to the underlying anatomy. I’ll get there, though. Here are the next 32 portraits, collage-style.

#56 is NOT supposed to

Gallery Update: A Jedi’s Strength Flows From the Force…
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Gallery Update: A Jedi’s Strength Flows From the Force…

Gallery Update: A Jedi’s Strength Flows From the Force…

I think I’m finally calling this piece done. I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head to do a series of drawings depicting myself and Plunger Monkey doing various things. In many ways, he’s kind of like my Hobbes, I guess. But I could also argue he’s kind of like Yoda to my Luke…hence the idea for this drawing. That, and, I’ve had a lot of Star Wars on my brain lately. Actually, that’s not unusual, but more on that in a minute.

At first I was thinking I’d just do a line drawing…

Tags: #art, #conceptart, #conceptdrawings, #conceptillustration, #digitalart, #drawings, #galleryupdate, #illustration, #influences, #luke, #photoshop, #plungermonkey, #plungermonkeydynamo, #PMD, #portrait, #selfportrait, #starwars, #theempirestrikesback, #yoda|

50 Shades of (Toby) Gray

Alright, just to clear the air: I have not seen the movie nor read the book, and I have ZERO intention to, but I couldn’t resist the play on words as a title for this entry. Forgive me.

Anywhat, *gasp*, right? A second post this week? I told you, I have a bunch of plans and ideas, I’m just struggling to make the time to get around to them. But, since I did pass a small milestone this week with drawing my 50th manga self portrait, I didn’t want to wait too long without doing something fun to mark the occasion.

Tags: #art, #ballpointpen, #cartoonselfportrait, #comics, #copicmultiliners, #drawings, #galleryupdate, #illustration, #ink, #manga, #mangaselfportrait, #observationaldrawing, #penandink, #portrait, #revery, #selfportrait, #sketchbook, #sketches|

Process: How to Mangafy Yourself in 6 Easy Steps
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Process: How to Mangafy Yourself in 6 Easy Steps

Process: How to Mangafy Yourself in 6 Easy Steps

Okay, I’ve been busy for a while. Life and stuff. But, since everyone is clamoring for it (well, no one is actually doing any clamoring…other than imaginary people in my head. No, that’s not sad, it’s, um, practice. For when I actually have fans and followers. Who clamor for things. Yeah. Definitely practice. Not sad…), I thought I’d throw together a quick process post for how I’ve been going about my manga self portrait exercise.

Grrrr…or, Arrrr…you decide!

First, I snap a reference photo of myself and open it in Photoshop.

Tags: #art, #ballpointpen, #comicbooks, #comics, #drawings, #illustration, #manga, #mangaselfportrait, #observationaldrawing, #penandink, #photoshop, #portrait, #selfportrait|

WIP: 10 Things Status
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WIP: 10 Things Status

WIP: 10 Things Status

Well, for anyone who isn’t aware, I’ve been participating in the Inktober challenge. It simply entails doing one ink drawing a day for the month of October with the goal of improving one’s inking skills and fostering good art habits (daily practice). It seems it has taken up most of my studio time these days, especially because I’ve had the problem of falling a day or several behind due to weekend commitments and life thingies. I am currently caught up, though, with 23 drawings in the tank. I’ve been posting them to my Facebook page (which you should

Tags: #10things, #art, #digitalart, #drawings, #illustration, #onehentwoducks, #photoshop, #theannouncerstest|

WIP: A Bunch of Stuff
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WIP: A Bunch of Stuff

WIP: A Bunch of Stuff

Still crazy busy around here, but I’ve actually been somewhat productive in the studio. I’m still plugging away at the 10 Things project, currently working on this page:

Yes, I am “cheating” a bit by continuing to copy and paste that army, but I do want to finish this project in my lifetime. The real trick, and what I hope will bring some added entertainment, is on these combined pages I’m trying to show increasing levels of interaction between the various “things”. Every time something new is introduced, the previous “things” react to

Tags: #10things, #art, #digitalart, #drawings, #galleryupdate, #illustration, #onehentwoducks, #photoshop, #theannouncerstest|

Process GIF: 8 Brass Monkeys
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Process GIF: 8 Brass Monkeys

Process GIF: 8 Brass Monkeys

I finished up another page from the 10 Things project:

Oooh, shiny monkeys!

The pages that are just a single phrase are a tad quicker than the combined pages. The next page, obviously, is going to be: 1 hen, 2 ducks, 3 squawking geese, 4 limerick oysters, 5 corpulent porpoises, 6 pairs of Don Alverso’s tweezers, 7 THOUSAND Macedonians dressed in full battle array, and 8 brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt. These last pages are going to be tough. And nuts. Definitely nuts. But in a good way.

I’m holding

Tags: #10things, #8brassmonkeys, #8brassmonkeysfromtheancientsacredcryptsofegypt, #art, #digitalart, #illustration, #monkeys, #photoshop, #plungermonkey, #plungermonkeydynamo, #PMD, #theannouncerstest|

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