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!

2 Kawaii 4 U process gif. (final illustration, as print, as tee)

Here’s the Kawaii design, from initial concept to sketch, color mockup, and finished design.  I’m really glad it resonated with people!  The number of people who stated a desire to get it as a tattoo was astounding (which I’m cool with by the way, please send me photos if you get it done!)  Anyway, thanks guys!

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!

2 Kawaii 4 U

Omigosh I can finally share this!  At SPX last year I was asked to draw something including the words “TOO KAWAII TO LIVE, TOO SUGOI TO DIE.”  Afterwards, Ananth and I asked if we could elaborate on the sketch and make it into some sorta design and then I did.

This is now available as both a tee and a print over at Topatoco if you’re interested!  And there’s the rest of our store at Topatoco as well.

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.

Reason and Desire process. (final)

As promised, here’s the process gif of yesterday’s illustration.  The colors were originally more muted with soft greens instead of the yellow, but then I decided to shoot for a high-saturation primary palette.

There’s more of my process posts over here if you’re interested!

Reason and Desire.  pencil, photoshop.

Found this drawing from last year then kinda got carried away cleaning it up and coloring it.  I’m not 100% on the meaning of cosmos flowers, but the name means “balanced” and there’s a variety called the Psyche cosmos, so I went with ‘em.  (And Serona’s costume design is the same as from this illustration.)

I’ll post a process gif tomorrow!

Goblin on a Rooster process. (final illustration)

I’ve been enjoying sharing process gifs of the more involved/complex illustrations I’ve been doing.  I hope that’s cool with you guys!  There’s more of ‘em here if you’re interested.

Goblin Week is still goin’!  Lookit all those handsome gooblins.

Goblin on a Rooster.  Pencil, photoshop.

Evan declared this week Goblin Week and I could not refuse him.  There are two more days in Goblin Week if you would like to join along!  But truly, every week is Goblin Week.

I kinda made this fella up as I went along so he might be more of an unusually small kobold than an unusually small goblin?  Also I think I was subconsciously channeling Lauren Pettapiece and/or Sam Bosma with this one, and while I’m here you guys should be following their tumblrs if you are not already.

and sorry for the goblin shark link up there.

Lion Queen process.

Put together a process gif of the thing I posted yesterday.  The initial sketch was 2.5”x3” because everything I draw is teeny always.

Lion Queen.  pencil, photoshop.

Meticulously cleaned up and colored a thing I drew at a coffee shop today.