Random Doodle-age

Gallery Update: Inktober 2018 Wrap Up

We’re just over a week into November, so I guess I should finally get around to this here wrap up post about Inktober 2018. I believe (according to the art in my files) that my first foray into Inktobering was in 2015. It was a fun little challenge put out by comic artist and illustrator Jake Parker years prior. The idea was to improve one’s inking skills by doing one ink drawing a day (presumably on top of whatever other projects one might have). I don’t know if it was from the beginning or not, but at some

Gallery Update: Still Catching Up…

Oooh! Three weeks in a row? Something like that? I may catch up on all the ideas for blog posts yet…

Don’t get your hopes up, though. Life is still happening.

Anywhat, before I go back a few weeks…or months…I’ll post this:

My awesome wife picked up on the fact that my favorite ballpoint pens for drawing were running out, so she did a little research and found me (and the kids) some cool pens. They’re nothing special, amazingly, just Amazon Basic 1.0. But, they work really well. They have good flow and are very

Gallery Update: Milk, A Body Good, It Does

Firstly, be sure to check out the latest installment of It’s Plunger Monkey Dynamo Time! if you didn’t already. I think I’m going to try to post new installments on Tuesdays and Fridays, we’ll see how long that keeps up, though. If I can’t stay far enough ahead, I may drop back to once a week.

Secondly, I didn’t spend time in the studio yesterday because I was volunteering at my youngest’s elementary school for Art Day. I helped run a few different stations that saw the kids producing different types of art, filling in where ever the staff needed me.

Gallery Update: Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a…Well, It Is a Bird…

It’s been far too long since I’ve updated the site (I hate how much I say that…I hate how much I say “I hate how much I say that” when referencing how long it’s been since I’ve updated the site, too). As usual: life. I have something biggish planned that is slowly in the works. I was close to having it ready last week, but ran into a hiccup. I’m excited about it, but y’all will just have to be excited about my vagueness…though if you’ve been paying attention to the tobysbrain facebook page, you’ve probably already got

WIP: 10 Things

Some time last week I finally dusted off the 10 Things file and got working on it again. I’m currently working on page…well, I don’t know which number it will be, I haven’t been keeping track. But, it has 1 hen, 2 ducks, 3 squawking geese, 4 limerick oysters, 5 corpulent porpoises, 6 pairs of Don Alverso’s Tweezers, and 7 THOUSAND Macedonians dressed in full battle array on it:

Toby-Gray-10-things-1-7-WIP These last pages are getting complicated…

I have corner registration marks roughed in on a separate layer still turned on here. They just give

Stuff and Things

Well, this is by far the longest I’ve gone between site updates since before I started this website (think about that a moment…). Where the heck have I been? What have I been up to? Why is the typical Monday update happening on a Thursday? Why are squids?

Please, hold all your questions until the end, but since you asked:

  1. It’s been summer vacation, which means my studio time has been sporadic to non-existent whilst the kids are home, running amok.
  2. I’ve been being the stay-at-home dad, dealing with fights, bickering, complaints, etc. But we’ve also manage to have a lot of fun,

Sketchbook: Camp Sketches

The relentlessly hectic pace of summer continues on. I spent last week at Cub Scout camp with my two youngest boys. It was a great week. We had beautiful weather and the boys were all well behaved and had a lot of fun. It was a little bitter-sweet for me, as the week drew to a close, it really started to sink in that this was my middle son’s last year of Cub Scout camp. He’s been 3 years in a row, and I’ve attended with him each time. I’ve watched my shy, introverted son who feared anything new grow

Sketchbook: Chimera Doodle Gallery Update

Yes, I know, it’s Tuesday, not Monday. For those of you who follow me on the Books of Faces, you know why. For those of you who don’t, basically, I spent yesterday eyeball deep (my eyeballs, not Willy’s) in the lovely aromas associated with fixing a plumbing problem. Why not just call a plumber, you ask? Cuz I’m me, that’s why.

Anywhat, ever since my amazing wife gave me a Vest of Holding for Father’s Day (so I can carry all the things), I’ve taken to carrying some art supplies with me whenever I leave the house. This is

Gallery Update: Willy McEyeballs

Um, no, that’s not yet another new logo…it’s been there this whole time…why?

Anywhat, I managed to get some solid hours in the studio the last few days and “finished” the Willy McEyeballs piece. I say “finished” because I’m never really done with any of the art I make. I always see problems, things I meant to fix and forgot, things I want to improve and tighten up. But, I think I need to move on from this one. For now.

Let’s take a quick look back at where this piece started. I was going to show some more transitional stages, but

Sketch Book: Polar Chimera

(Yes, that’s yet another “new” logo/variation…I can’t stop!)

So I’ve had griffons and chimeras on the brain lately. I’m not positive what started it specifically, other than seeing some beautiful artistic interpretations while browsing through Pinterest looking for visual inspiration. One artist, who goes by RobtheDoodler on deviantart.com , did some wonderful owl cat griffon drawings that really got my brain spinning (go check out the series of drawings he did of his critter, they’re awesome!). What would various griffons look like with different combinations of birds and cats? Why not different sizes? What about other mixes of animals?

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