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.

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!

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!

Happy New Year, part 2!

I friggin' love the new Star Wars--plot holes and convenient script contrivances be damned!

As part of my New Year of tributes to the influences of my past (and sometimes present), here's my take on Rey--my second favorite of the new characters. BB-8 is in my #1 spot, but I find tech harder to draw than pretty girls.  I'm working on this piece a bit more--adding background elements and such, but was too excited to wait to post.

I did this one entirely in Procreate for iPad, with a Pencil by 53. Hope y'all dig it!

Happy New Year!

2016 is going to be my year of tribute. I'm going to share my homages to the pop culture icons of my youth with you, my fellow groovies.

One of the great tragedies of contemporary media is the death of Saturday morning cartoons. I used to schedule my Saturday morning based on the 2-page illustrated ads in my favorite Bronze Age comics--making notes in my Han Solo/Chewbacca spiral-bound notebook as to precisely what time to switch from ABC to NBC to CBS in an effort to watch ALL my favorite cartoons! I went through phases--sometimes it was Hanna Barbera's funny animals (from Yogi Bear to Scooby Doo to the Wacky Races to the Laff-A-Lympics); other times it was action/adventure (Just wait 'til you see my homages to Filmation's Tarzan and Flash Gordon). 

I've been doodling Jabberjaw, The Hair Bear Bunch, and Speed Buggy, and will post as I finish! My goal is to make an homage map, of sorts--I'll draw all the characters in detail, but the backgrounds will be really abstract for each one. Once I have anywhere from 20-100 characters done (I think of additional inspiration each day), I'll composite them into a single large poster scene. I don't really know why I'm doing it, since I can't really publicly sell licensed characters--but I'm getting a lot of joy out of it. I draw stuff that makes me giggle, and I'm giggling my butt off doing this!

Is there something you'd like to see? Let me know, and I'll perhaps work it into my schedule. I've decided to stop short at the Smurfs, Transformers, He-Man, GI Joe era--I don't have as much of a connection to that stuff. I guess I was too cool for school for a decade or so, and didn't come back to Saturday morning cartoons until Batman, the Animated Series began.

Santa on the 26th!

Santa deserves a break too! I imagine him on a beach somewhere, frollicking with all kinds of critters! Most of the characters were drawn in Procreate on my iPad Air, with a Pencil By 53. Then the whole thing was composited in Photoshop. Doing my best to put together a series of holiday illustrations--with an odd twist, of course.

Ancient Frodlodyte

I drew this little guy directly in Procreate with a Pencil By 53. The background is a picture I took on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the rain forest near the volcano. Everything's composited in Photoshop.