#sketchbook

Gallery Update: Moleskin Madness! Part 2-The Camping Strikes Back

Yes, kiddos, this is indeed my THIRD post this week. Having this tablet allows me to putter away at things during times when I’d normally not be able to be very productive (though right now, given the time of day, I could be in my studio, but I’m still recovering from being sick, my foot hurts, and lounging on the couch with my leg up is much more appealing than being in my studio chair right now).

Alright, time for round two of the recent moleskin sketching bonanza. These sketches were done while I was at Camp Carpenter with my youngest (still

Gallery Update: Moleskin Madness! Part One-Enter the Random

Phew! I’m back! I managed to get quite a bit of drawing in during my two weeks at camp, thanks to my trusty moleskin sketchbook. However, I’m so behind on updating this site, that I still have some moleskin sketches from before I left to share. I don’t want to overload anyone with a super image intense post, so I’ll do this in three parts (all with snazzy titles). This particular post will contain the stuff from before camp, the second post will be from my first week of camp, and the third post will encompass my sketches from the

Gallery Update: It’s Tick Season…Yay.

It’s been a little while since an update. I’ve been plenty busy both in the studio and out. I’m wrapping up the camp shirt design, I think I’m done with another project for my cousin (still waiting for final word), finally finished up a gift/project for my nephew that became more involved than I originally thought (I got carried away), as well as finished up yet another project (that I can’t post about until next week…you’ll know why when you see it), all while churning away on the comic strip. Outside of the studio, there’s been a few camping trips

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

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

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.

Manga-style self-portrait practice #56 is NOT supposed to

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.

Inktober 2015 Recap

Now that we’re half way through November, I’m finally getting around to doing a recap of my first Inktober. In case you missed it, Inktober is an annual challenge started by artist Jake Parker. The goal is to do one ink drawing every day for the month of October (or as many as you can manage) in order to improve your skills with ink as well as foster the good art habit of daily practice. When I decided to take up the challenge, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do a drawing every few days, much less every

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,

GALLERY UPDATE: Shadow of the Flute-The Return of the Cello Flute

Well, here we are, almost two weeks since my previous post. Here I am, still hoping to be more consistent in the studio now that the kids are back in school. Here I am, starring down several more hectic and busy weeks. *Le sigh* (that must be read as Pepe le Pew. If you didn’t know to do that already…then either I’m old or you’re uncultured).

Anywhat, I haven’t been completely not in my studio or otherwise making art (though it sure feels like it). On the second day of school, my wife took her last vacation day of the summer

Go to Top