Gallery Update

2023 Year in Review

Alright, I’m notoriously bad at grasping the passage of time, but instead of being bewildered that 2023 just ended, I’m a tad surprised that I almost titled this post “2024 Year in Review”. I think that’s the first time I’ve thought more time had passed, rather than less.

Either way, growing up in the 80s and 90s, thinking ahead to anything past the year 2000 always seemed like the future. I mean, yes, literally it was, but I mean some kind of sci-fi, flying cars, robots, teleportation, and computer brain implants utopia kind of future. I suppose there are plenty of things I take

Inktober 2023 Wrap Up

As of November 16, 2023, I finally finished Inktober 2023…only two weeks behind schedule this year. I found this year to be much more challenging, and I think it’s because I’ve been doing Inktober 52 all year long for the first time. I can’t quite classify it as burnout, but definitely a strain on the creative faculties. I struggled with ideas for many of the prompts this year, but in the end, I always managed to come up with something that met my general, self-imposed guidelines: it has to feature Plunger Monkey or something from his universe (the PMDverse?), the

Lee’s Dragons: Elephant Dragon

It’s September, which means it’s time, once again, for this:

For my wife’s annual birthday dragon 2023, I kind of knew what I wanted to do well ahead of time. Given that the whole concept of these illustrations is that there’s a planet basically terraformed by dragons, that eventually evolve and speciate to occupy all the different biotic zones, I try to think of an environment first, then figure out what would live there. Right now, everything is heavily influenced by life and ecology on earth, but I hope to deviate from

Happy Mother’s Day 2023!

I hate the cliche about how fast any given year is whipping by, but, somehow it’s already Mother’s Day 2023. I haven’t processed January yet. Unfortunately, the space-time continuum seems to be unaffected by my concept of time, and it continues to march on. For now…

Anymonkeys, Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in my life! While I think it’s important to stop and appreciate all the people that make a difference in our lives more than once a year, it’s still good to have one day set aside to force us to remember to do so (see my aforementioned bafflement

Gallery Update: New Revery Concept Art!

Hey look! A new blog post! And a new little logo title thingamabob!

But mostly: NEW REVERY CONCEPT ART! It’s been a minute, but I finally, randomly, decided to produce a piece of concept art for the story that I will eventually get off my butt and tell. There’s a lot of work to be done, more world building, updating and editing the existing story and thumbnails, and then actually drawing the thing, but a step forward is a step closer.

This is the first piece of concept art I have done for Revery

Commission Reveal: The Warlock Series

Okay, it’s finally time to reveal the latest series of commissioned work. Back around October-ish 2022, author L.S. Gagnon-The Patron Saint of My Art-reached out to me once again about illustrating some new book covers for her. I’ve done her covers for The Witch Series and The Little Witch Series, as well as four story illustrations from The Witch Series. This time, she has a new series of books in the works (some of which are out already), the first cover of which I had illustrated a few years ago (someone else did a few of the follow ups).

Lee’s Dragons: Bird Dragon

So, how ya doin’? It’s been a bit. Again. I haven’t been very good about updating the content on this here digital manifestation of my Brain this year. I have been keeping busy, though. Aside from basic sketching practice, the vast majority of my studio time this year has been consumed by my Inktober illustrated book Inklings. It has been a ton of work, particularly since I designed three whole fonts and embellishments just for it. I may slap together a post about it at some point. Or maybe not. If you want to catch up and continue to follow the

Happy Mother’s Day 2022!

Happy Mother’s Day 2022 to all the moms out there, but especially my wife and my own mother. It’s been a little while since I’ve updated my website or posted a blog, but fear not, I have been busy in the studio. You can get near daily updates on what I’m working on by following me on Facebook or Instagram, but to sum things up, I’ve been working on a book project…but before I get into that, it’s time to debut this year’s Mother’s Day card for my wonderful, talented, hard-working, patient, understanding wife! I rely on her for so

Inktober 2021 Wrap Up

Here we are, another year, another Inktober infused with plungers and monkeys (everyone’s favorite plunger-wearing monkey, specifically). I’ve taken to doing these recaps/wrap ups at the end of the challenge, but this one will be a bit of a general “what’s been going on?” as well, since I’ve barely posted anything here this year.

If you follow me on my other social media thingies, then you know I’ve been staying busy. I’ll do an end of year/year in review post like I usually do, but just in general, I’m a bit off of the goals I set for myself this year.

Lee’s Dragons: Cat Dragon

‘Sup. It’s been awhile…Since June 18, according to my last blog post. Life has been, well, nuts. I’ve made art over the last 3 months, but not as much as I’d like. If you follow the Toby’s Brain FB page, you’re pretty aware of all the “real life” things that have been getting in my way. My last blog post here was about an illustration I drew for my oldest son’s high school graduation. Since then, he was scrambling to get his Eagle Project and paperwork done and submitted before he turned 18 (which he did. Mostly. Thankfully he

Go to Top