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My favorite cat of all time. Simba, you were the absolute best cat, my best friend, and the kindest creature I have ever been privileged to care for and live with.
I miss you every day, buddy... but I feel your presence, and I send you my infinite love and warmth.
~ Ramon
The skies turned black. The rivers ran red. The sun betrayed us all to transparency. This was the world we truly lived in. It's just that, at times, we had to cover the mess with a smile. The wider the grin, the better the cover.
Don't give it away, now.
May 19 gave me two big canvases in one day.
In the morning a white winged dragon came crashing out of a bright blue sky, with a tall pagoda rising up in the corner to give it scale. In the afternoon I started over on a fresh white canvas and built a colorful armored titan up from nothing, one shape at a time.
Two completely different energies, one long and happy day in the studio.
This one started as a completely black canvas. I wanted the cosmos to come first and the warrior to come after.
Day one was nothing but nebula, blues and violets swirling out of the dark with a red planet hanging above. Then I drew the figure right on top and spent the next days building him up until he stood out against the stars.
Starting on black changes everything. Every color you put down glows.
The raccoon suit is pure nostalgia, so I had to paint it.
Flat teal ground, a rough red shape, and then Mario slowly stepped out of it, tail and all. Once he was done he needed some company, so a blue friend joined him in the corner.
A classic for a reason.
Spyro got the full treatment on this one.
Clean pencil first, then wave after wave of marker until the wings, the horns and that cocky little smile all came alive.
Purple dragons will always have a home in my sketchbook.
March 10 was a marker marathon. Three pieces, one day, and two of them were the same bird drawn two completely different ways.
In the afternoon I worked on Mario in bright greens and yellows, then moved on to a dark winged bird that ended up flying over a fiery yellow sky. That night I couldn't let the bird go, so I started it again in bold black ink with just a touch of green and finished it two days later.
Same bird, a totally different mood.
Drawing the same subject twice back to back is one of the best exercises I know. You learn something new every time.
A little moogle to brighten up the week. I started with a few loose blocks of color, found him hiding in them, and then let him get loud.
By the end he had his own comic book burst behind him, shouting his favorite word.
Kupo! That is all. That is the post.
Sonic, done my way. I started with an explosion of loose marker color and let the speed come out of the chaos.
Over a few days I kept pulling him forward out of the background until he finally broke through, grinning like he always does.
Gotta go fast, but the drawing still took its sweet time.