#influences

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: A Recent Exploit of Plunger Monkey

Alright, time to do a little posting catch up from December-ish 2015…

As a select, special few of you know first hand, when something positive and worth celebrating happens to someone I care about, I tend to take the opportunity to craft them a custom Plunger Monkey card to commemorate the event and express my congratulations and shared joy. Graduations, weddings, births, those kinds of things just scream for Plunger Monkey’s perspective or reaction.

Back in December, my childhood friend, Aaron, tied the knot with the love of his life, Junko. They are two wonderful people and I’m very happy that they

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…

A digital painting of
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A Recent Read: The Metabarons

Inktober is all wrapped up for this year. I managed 31 self portraits in 31 days. I’ll put together a big post showcasing and comparing all of the images later, but if you want to check some of them out now, go to the TOBY’SBRAIN FB page (if you love me, you’re already following it. If you’re not following it, you don’t know you love me yet.).

Anywho, in the meantime, I thought I’d share an epic graphic novel I recently read: The Metabarons.

The-Metabarons-cover Bonjour! I come from France!

This 536 page,

Sketchbook: I Hate the Way I Draw Heads…

It’s been a jam-packed, busy week, so I don’t have much of an update, unfortunately. I did a little sketching last week, still trying to work on the composition for that piece of concept art in my last entry.

Toby-Gray-dragon-monk-sketch-5 A bit of a combination of the previous two layouts. I’m going to have to gather some visual references to help me define the plateau these characters are standing on so it looks like they are way up in the mountains and not standing in a field with mountains in the distance.

Studio Stuff: Comics Comics Comics Comics…

Happy Star Wars Day!

Star-Wars-front-cover One of many scores I made during a Free Comic Book Day sale. Star-Wars-back-cover This hard cover contains issues 1-44, plus an annual from Marvel’s original Star Wars run. I actually own a copy of issue #1, but have never read anything beyond it, so I’m looking forward to this classic. I was a fan of the Dark Horse runs of various Star Wars Expanded Universe titles, but it’s kind of interesting that SW is now back at Marvel via the

Gallery Update, Undeserved Presents, and Randomness

Kapwing!

Vinland-saga-book-3 I now have one…two…THREE Vinland Saga collections! Hahaha!

What can I say? My wife’s good. She either loves me or she’s trying to bribe me to do something (like finish the master bathroom…). Or both. Totally undeserved and unexpected, but yay nonetheless.

Anywho, I spent yesterday working on a “shout out” to be included in my middle son’s yearbook. He’s a fourth grader, which means he’ll be graduating and moving on to the middle school (where have the years gone?). Parents of fourth graders get to include a custom message in the printing

Studio Stuff/Influences: Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura

Well, the monkeys are back in school, so I’m back in the studio! How little time I managed to get in here last week during their vacation has me a little concerned about what summer will be like, but I’ll deal with that when that happens, just like every summer (though now I have a website to maintain and keep current, along with my personal goals). Maybe I’ll have to spend my night owl time in here rather than trying to relax and make myself fall asleep, cuz really, who needs sleep? I did spend a little time at my

Studio Stuff/Influences: Katsuhiro Otomo’s AKIRA

The kids are on vacation this week, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stick to my regular update schedule. I’m also trying to use the time to tackle some house projects, so even my studio time might suffer.  However, I will give y’all at least this one Studio Stuff update to tide you over.

Akira-dvd Two thumbs up, even. Waaaaaay up.

Sometime back in the early 90s, my dad took me (and probably my brother, I can’t quite remember on this specific excursion) to a comic book convention (I think in

Studio Stuff/Influences: Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa and the Valley of Wind

For this Monday’s Studio Stuff, I thought I’d showcase another creator whose work continues to influence me. As I’ve mentioned before, I have tons of influences artistically, and I’m not writing about them in any particular order. I’m basically following what my mood dictates and what I happen to glance at on my shelves when I’m planning a post. These posts also aren’t meant to be reviews or synopses, I’m just going to talk about my connection to the work or the creator and how it has affected me.

(And yes, I know I can find better pictures online that are

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