New year, new me.
The apparel oft proclaims the man (-child) [Part 2]
Bye Bye Bongo
After 27(!) years I am no longer with Bongo Comics—this news is actually several months old, but I held off posting about it until the last of my work with them was printed. So that’s a wrap for me on bulgy eyeballs and overbites!
I started at Bongo many (many) moons ago as an intern in college, became a production assistant, then a staff artist, and finally an art director. In my tenure at this job, between comics, collections, foreign editions, exclusives, calendars, and miscellaneous books, I drew something in the neighborhood of *500* covers.
My career with Bongo covered well over half my life, and literally has been my entire adult life. I’m well aware that this kind of run with one company is not a common story these days, and I’m very grateful that I got this experience.
I came up with the rough idea for this drawing a few years back when I realized I had been on the job for (at the time) half my life. Just wanted a bizarre way to illustrate my career versus my influences/favorites. It had been on the backburner for a bit, but this seemed like a good time to finally finish it and mark the end of an era!
Excited for the next chapter…
Rex and Sapphire
I started this drawing of Rex and Sapphire earlier this year when Ramona Fradon passed away… seeing the glimpse of Metamorpho in the Superman trailer spurred me to go back and put the finishing touches on this!
Cerritos Strong
I would be remiss to not mark the final episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks with a little bit of fanart… it’s Taylor, the USS Cerritos‘s resident Kzinti Ensign!
I was a teen when I read the first volume of Larry Niven‘s Man-Kzin Wars. I was already a huge TNG fan, but I had never seen the episodes of TAS that featured the Kzinti, and I had no idea that the Kzin had any connection to Star Trek. And I definitely did not expect to see a Kzin wearing this particular uniform!
Just one example of how Lower Decks has lovingly homaged every corner of Star Trek history. What a journey–and now I can’t wait to see how the mythos of Lower Decks lives on as Star Trek continues on. LLAP!
En-courage-ment
If someone you know had a childhood crush on He-Man and is going through a hard time, you are morally obligated to draw them a picture of He-Man providing them encouragement.
Furthermore you are then morally obligated to create a corresponding picture of Faker with a separate brand of encouragement.
Art Dump Dec 2024
Going to be sharing a number of older pieces that I haven’t shown before, and just decided I’m going to keep them all in one post. Updates will be ongoing!
Swordfighter:
A ghostly fox spirit (kitsune), and an old school JRPG mock-up featuring the said fox spirit… pretty proud of myself for coming up with the pun Kit Swoony.:
Here’s a nutty one… a vanilla/coffee/chocolate ice cream squirrel. Topped with hot fudge and nuts:
IYKYK #letsfightinglove
This skull dude is one of those rare cases where a visual popped up in my head, and I was actually able to draw it as I saw it. I think maybe I should put him on a shirt. Or a sticker?
A cosmic maiden and a cosmic unicorn:
Sometimes your cake eats you.
Birthday Cake Dinosaur, drawn earlier this year for a dino-mite friend!
Beware the Batgirl!
I missed Batman Day last week, and also I didn’t draw Batman. Instead I created a new Batgirl, inspired by a 1989 merch catalog, because why not! I drew her both with and without a jacket because I’m thorough like that.
Heads Up!
Yiiikes, I have been swamped and neglected to update this blog. I’m sure everyone is very distraught about this. Anywaysss, catching up:
When my dear friend Jeremy of Spy Monkey Creations/Battle Tribes asked me to design some new heads for the existing Weaponeer mold, I was more than happy to oblige! We brainstormed with the mighty Glyos All-Father himself, Matt Doughty, and these designs were the end result. Of course, strong influences from the lineage of Super Robots and their often organic antagonists should be noted.
The new heads are a little smaller than the original Weaponeers heads, and combined with the existing Weaponeer body, the proportions become reminiscent of the Jumbo Machinders of yesteryear.
The digital sculpts were done by @anthonyscotcoffey, and he absolutely crushed it. Being a 2D artist I live my art life in a very flat world, and it’s completely magical to see my drawings translated into three dimensions.
Like most Glyos figures, these new headsculpts can serve multiple purposes depending on how they are oriented, and the drill head in particular serves as a mini vehicle cockpit when placed horizontally. I was particularly happy when I came up with that!
I really hope everyone enjoys these, and can’t wait to see how people incorporate these new parts into their Glyos building!
Both of the shown colorways are available NOW, as well as three more colorways! Go HERE for details!!
2024: Year of the Dragon and then some!
The Year of the Dragon has a lot of alternates in different cultures, I decided to cover all of them! This was a lot of fun, but drawing 9 characters wiped me out! Note that I started this blog entry with the Snail on the posted date, but kept updating it until posting the Dragon on Feb 15, 2024 (several days after the actual Lunar New Year >_<U). I feel very relieved that next year’s Zodiac features no alternate animals!
2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon according to the Chinese Zodiac, so I conceived these characters as a group of Rangers (in the fantasy RPG sense), but for a futuristic setting. My aim was to make each character feel very distinct from the others, but still make sure the group’s costumes and colors felt unified and balanced as a whole.
Size chart below!
Draw Until You Die
For the final #FlashBackFriday of 2023, here is a drawing that will shortly be 10 years old. [insert skull emoji]
honk!
I drew a tiny dinosaur to show my appreciation for a dear friend!
Lo!
The good thing about getting a burst capillary and drawing a little cartoon about is that the next time you get a burst capillary you already have a little cartoon ready for it. 🙃 #flashbackfriday
The apparel oft proclaims the man (-child)
Other artists will draw outfit-of-the-day posts, but I don’t have a lot of outfits, so this ish is gonna have to tide me over for a WHILE.
Lone…
Time-lapse video of my process HERE!
Ewok Through The Valley of The Shadow of Death
Ewoks: space teddy bears that murder (and possibly devour) space facists… what’s not to like? And what better way to celebrate Star Wars Day than with a hyper-nerdy OC? Anyways, this guy is an Ewok berserker known only as the Tiger of Endor. Most Imperials think his existence is a rumor fueled by Rebel misinformation, but that’s because all the Imperials who *have* seen him are dead… LOLOLOL May The Fourth Be With You! 😎
(I drew the lineart for this way back in 2015. Colors are brand new, the Rebel Alliance symbol is from Wikipedia (weathered by me), and the forest scene is a screencap from Battlefront.)
Rabbit Rabbit for May 2023
Halo Kitty–INKED!
What a cool and unexpected surprise–someone on Twitter got my Halo Kitty fan art tattooed! 🙀
(My drawing was originally posted in 2007)
Retro Vibes
A retro heroine with retro sci-fi gear.
Also retro because I finished the lineart two years ago, but didn’t finish the colors until now. 😬 So, also #WayBackWednesday, I guess? 😅
Super Scale Bros
I wanted to put together a quick scale comparison of the last week’s Mario drawings, but I didn’t want to have a totally blank background, and I didn’t want to actually draw a background, so instead I did a quick manipulation of a screencap from Super Mario Bros. Laziness is the mother of invention!