there was a great shadow in the wood.  ballpoint pen, pencil, photoshop.

Drew this while traveling!  Also: hello everyone, I have returned from traveling!  I hope you had a good time while I was away.

I had a small procedure done on my dominant hand last week so I can’t do a whole lot in the way of drawing or typing.  Please excuse me if I’m absent from the internet for a little bit!

north, dhio, kaia.  photoshop.

The young god, the old god, and the mortal monster man who the two gods liked enough to make immortal so they could be together forever.  Ha ha ha, so many people have asked me lately when I’m gonna do a comic about these guys.  The answer is: ????? the future ?????  I’m really thankful they resonate with people, though!

Hey so I’m going to be out of the country from the 12th to the 24th of April, so this blog is going to be fairly quiet until then.  Ananth will continue updating over at Johnny Wander in my absence and I’ll hopefully be able to update dumb photos over at my twitter whenever there’s free wifi access.  Take care, guys!

Three of Swords process gif. (final illustration.)

Here’s a process gif of the Dhio tarot card from yesterday!  I’ve been really trying to/meaning to delve into better design in my illustrations.  If you are also interested in those things, Kali Ciesemier (kalidraws) has some great articles on her blog about composition and subdivision!

Three of Swords. photoshop.

Sometimes I like to think about what what tarot cards best represent my characters.  Dhio is the three of swords because he has emotional issues.

monstrous, hungry gods.  pencil, photoshop.

Drew this on the plane headed to ECCC.  I guess it’s a spiritual successor to the Dhio Journal Comic from a while back?  Been thinkin’ a lot about my pantheon of prehistoric beast gods lately!  Some day I won’t be working on four big projects simultaneously and will have the time to do a proper comic about these guysss

her hair like blood.  pencil, photoshop.

Another old sketch that I dug out and colored.  Gosh I hope there’s no kids watching this blog.  Go away, kids.  Come back in a week.

Death and the Hearth.  Pencil, photoshop.

There’s a open ballot to vote for the names of Pluto’s two unnamed moons and let-me-say-right-now, I am a huge supporter of one of them being named Persephone.  (Well it should technically be Prosperpina/Prosperpine if you’re going for the Roman names but I digress.)  The whole thing’s made me think a bunch about my own Hades and Persephone analogues; Dhio being an irritable creepy god of what people (mistakenly) assume is death and Kaia being an even-temepered goddess of the hearth and domesticated animals.

Anyway what I’m getting at is that, despite its being in first place, Vulcan really isn’t an appropriate name for a frigid moon of a dwarf planet.

Dhio and Kaia.  Photoshop.

Sketched this a while ago as a redraw of something from 2003 and then it accidentally wound up getting finished.  That seems to be happening a lot lately.

I never seem to draw Dhio as a man, but that’s how he spends like 99% of his time.  There’s just something really fun about drawing a tiny girl hanging out with a gigantic monster.

beast husbaaandsss

Kaia and Dhio painting, animated process gif.

I made a little process gif of how I made the previous painting.  Ha ha, I have this bad habit of digitally noodling with real media stuff until it looks digital.  Gotta looooosen uuuup

I should probably mention, the actual painting is super tiny, maybe 4”x4”.

Kaia and Dhio.  ink wash, watercolor, pencil, white paint. (process gif here)

After doing the Exquisite Beast for a year, I’ve been meaning to push myself more with real media, maybe emulate something similar to the whimsical lineless stuff maruti-bitamin and tir-ri do, or the mixed media paintings Sam Bosma seems to be able to churn out in his sleep.

Anyway, I seem to be on a Beast Husband kick.  I think it started about a decade or two ago and expect it to putter out around the time I die.

monster romance vs anime boy venn diagram.  photoshop, childhood obsession.

I was thinking about that thing I said yesterday, about how I only like drawing two types of dudes: lovesick beastmen and white-haired anime bois with Problems.  And, oh wait false alarm, it looks like I’m only into lovesick beastmen.  why am i admitting this to the internet.

Since I’m certain people will be asking for the names of these dudes, I’ll give a rundown from left to right in the three rows:

Kenner the beastman, who still likes his ex
Nicholas the android with a codfish face, who actually is not quite so lovesick as just has a wife and daughter who he loves more than anything
Grey the clone of a dead god, who needs to figure himself out
Dhio the prehistoric dog-turned-god, who has a huge crush on his coworker
Pythias the dragon, who has less problems now that he is married
Sidere the god of lust, who needs to check himself before he wrecks himself
Death the psychopomp, who needs to get out more
North the garuda, who is in love with his best friend’s wife
Raitaro the dragon, who has low self-esteem

Some day I will do one million comics about everyone.

The Black Dog.  ink doodle, photoshop

An ink drawing of Dhio that’s been sitting in my sketchbook, with some excessive Photoshop noodling.

Benign Kingdom Poster Quadrant.  Photoshop.

For the Benign Kingdom kickstarter poster, me and KC and Becky and Evan each did a quadrant of a heraldic shield based on our book covers.  I’ve had so much fun doing this project and drawing my characters has been this awesome icing on the cake.  What is cooler than drawing a lady riding side-saddle on top of a giant dog?  Nothin’.

The Kickstarter is still going if you’re interested in picking up the art books!  The price will go up after they’ve been printed, so it might be a good idea to get them before the end of the month.  Thanks everyone, for your interest and support!

Benign Kingdom Cover.  Photoshop.

Hey so, if you’ve ever looked through this blog and thought you’d like an artbook from me, here’s your chance!  Becky, KC, Evan, and myself just put up a Kickstarter for a series of art books called Benign Kingdom.  Each of us did our cover and poster art with the theme “benign kingdom,” and I had to take the chance to draw Kaia and Dhio.

Watch the video while you’re there, you can see me nervously fidgeting around a bunch and holding a kitten!