Just when I thought I was done with Mermaids

And the new process continues! I used to bemoan the loss of my beloved scanner, but my new workflow (enabled by today's camera phone optics) makes it a thing of the past.

Princess Projectra's night at the Tiki bar...

Man, this one is defining a whole new workflow. I drew this in my sketchbook, then used my phone to take a picture of the linework. I cleaned it up a bit, then used Illustrator to vectorize the linework. Dumped a PNG to Procreate and colored/composited. The background is from Frax HD, and back to Photoshop for final compositing.

Are there Tiki bars on Saturn?

I'm mashing-up the nifty Tiki style of the 1960s with some of my favorite characters. So, for some reason, i think it's funny if each character is drinking a wondrous beverage. More to come, so stay tooned!

Diana's Adventures in Tikiland...

I picked up the new Making of Moana book recently, and it's friggin' inspirational!  It triggered this Tiki-inspired Wonder Woman that I hope you find giggleriffic.

In Repose

This one's heavily inspired by 1960s advertising art--it's just so very supergroovy! Doodled in my trusty sketchbook, then inked/painted in Procreate, finally composed in Adobe Photoshop.  Dig it!

Rocky the Island!

Headed here on my next vacation! This started off as a sketch in my handy Moleskine. I took a picture and inked/painted in Procreate with Apple Pencil. I dug through photos I took on Turks and Caicos and found a nifty one for the background.

Chalupa's Tiki Adventure!

I had so much fun drawing my little dog (Chalupa), that I figured you all needed to see it closer-up than the previous piece.  As usual, a mixture of Procreate on iPad, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop gets us to the finish line.

Sunday Evening Mai Tai

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday evening? Most of this was done on my trusty iPad Pro with my even trustier iPad Pencil. I took each element into Adobe Illustrator in order to generate vectorized versions for easy scaling, then composited everything in Adobe Photoshop. Hope y'all digs.

Another batch of Inktober drawings I posted on Instagram!

Catching up with Inktober!

I'm keeping up on Instagram and Twitter, but I keep forgetting to update my blog! I'll do better, y'all! Here are the last several days of Inktober, for your viewing enjoyment!

Inktober, the second

So I replaced a red ink with a blue ink, without cleaning the nib first, and this is what I got when I used it to ink this piece. Not consistent, but fun. 

Inktober begins!

Here's my first inked piece for Inktober. I inked this with an awesome hand-made koa wood fountain pen from Simply Wood Studios in Honolulu.

Hunter Gatherer Fred!

Yabba Dabba Doo, y'all! Another take on everyone's favorite caveman. I did the figure work in Procreate on iPad with an Apple Pencil. I converted to vectors in Adobe Illustrator and plopped it into Photoshop to composite with an old background image.

Yabba Dabba Doo! How I'd update the Flintstones

So I really enjoyed the new Flintstones comic from DC Comics, and I really wasn't expecting to. The cartooning style didn't really resonate with me. I've been a Steve Pugh fan for over a decade, but I think the stylistic approach he took is a little too realistic. The Flintstones needs a layer of abstraction to work. I would have liked to have seen a Ben Caldwell or Sean Galloway kind of approach. Not saying I could do nearly as well as any of those guys, but I was inspired to take a stab at Fred and Wilma, dancing the day away at a hep vacation getaway..

Happy Fourth of July, all!

I've been staring a lot at old Groo comics by the incredible Sergio Aragones! This is my attempt to integrate some lessons learned from his shortcuts to my own style. Then I made it patriotic.

Third in the Series--Mer-Kara!

How I love the Bronze Age of comics--simpler stories for a simpler time. At least, I think it was a simpler time; I guess it's always a simpler time when you're a child. At any rate, my fondest comic book memories are from the 70s books, and I really miss the days when all comic books could be appreciated by all age groups.  Nowadays the form is divided into uncompromising niches. It's sad to me that I can't buy Batman comics for my niece and nephew.

But, enough of my whining.  Hope y'all digs on Mer-Kara's Aquatic Adventure!

Last one for awhile, y'all. I'm concentrating on a new web portfolio, to be debuted soon. The figure and background illustrations were done in Procreate on iPad with the Apple Pencil. Some of the textured curly bits were done with the wicked-cool fractal generator Frax! The design elements and final layout are pretty much all Adobe Photoshop, with some Adobe Illustrator thrown in for good measure.

What if Wonder Woman was a mermaid...

Second one in a 3-part series of DC mermaids!  Main figure and background entirely drawn/painted in Procreate on iPad with an Apple Pencil.  The cosmic fish tail fill was produced with a tricky combination of Frax (to generate an interesting fractal pattern) and Percolator (to lay a cool star pattern on top).  Final composition was done in Adobe Photoshop, with a smidge of Illustrator.

Mer-Batgirl!

Mer-May seems to have had an effect on me.  Crossed with my love for Bronze Age comics, this is the kind of design that pops from my brainstuffs. The original pose was a quick gesture from my sketchbook.  All illustration and digital painting was done on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil in Procreate. The final layout/design is a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Hope y'all groove on it.

One more for the day!

This piece was inspired by an awesome CD collection of Bikini Beats beach grooves.  Hope y'all digs!

Color version!

And here's how I'd color that last page.  Hope ya'll are diggin' these--they're tons of fun to do!

Free coloring page #8!

This would be the bottom half of a larger piece--#7 to be exact. I'll post both of them together in color shortly.  Have fun coloring this one up!

Color version of the last coloring page!

I've been such a slacker on this blog lately! Many apologies--I'll be uploading a bunch of stuff to make up for being so silent for so long. Here's how I colored that last coloring page. Yes, I know I cheated with a cool photo I took on vacation on Turks and Caicos last year!

Complex Coloring Page!

Another page for your coloring fun!

TikiMonkeyGirl Coloring Page!

And the latest coloring page for your creative enjoyment--an early version of TikiMonkeyGirl! I'm still deciding on her final character design, but you can color this while you wait.

Aquariumhead, colored by Maze Studio

So my buddy, Brian Maze, colored-up a version of one of my coloring pages and sent it to me. He did so much more than just color--redrawing elements to make a little more sense. Brian is an incredible cartoonist who has taken a few years to concentrate on photography. His official photography page is on Facebook. Go follow, go often! https://www.facebook.com/mazestudio1/

This turned-out so supergroovy that we're chatting about collaborating on a few more pieces. If you guys dig 'em, let me know!

Where the Monkeys Hide

If only I could make a career out of drawing these busy little cross-sections! They're so much gigglyfun to draw. Hope y'all dig on coloring them at least half as much!

Beneath the Cliffs

And here's the fourth coloring page in the series! Stay tooned for more! Heck, I may load up another one this evening...

Coloring Page Curiosity!

This illustration started life as a small sketch in my trusty Moleskine, but soon found new life in Procreate on my iPad Air. I don't know how I made art before Procreate... This piece has enough detail for the adult coloring aficionado, but is suitable for primates of all ages! Print it as many times as you want and have fun coloring!

A new coloring page for your collection!

And the series continues!  I might have to print these out myself and break out the Crayolas! Hope y'all groove on this one. I have a few more queued-up for the next couple weeks, so stay tooned!

Color Me Toons! Number one.

First in a series of coloring book pages for you to download and color the way you want! I design most of my stuff with younglings in mind, but they're detailed enough to appeal to adults getting back into the coloring fun of their youth! If enough folks are into these, I'll collect 'em into an actual coloring book, so let me know if you dig 'em!

Easter Monkey's Coming to Town!

Are you looking for something special for your little primate's Easter basket? Do you want to be unique? Do you want to be different? Look no further--this image comes on a variety of awesome items! Click an image to get more information or purchase directly from my Redbubble page!