April 2026 Sketchbook

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April has been a heavy month but I pulled through it all with a new batch of cool art and animations for everyone to enjoy!

Pen and ink and digital color illustration of an anthropomorphic male raccoon wearing a long blue jacket and holding a long sword at his back, reading over the shoulder of an anthropomorphic male puma wearing blue and purple pants and hat, kneeling down, writing in a tinny notebook with his ink-dipped claw like a pen nib, while smoking a cigar.

Blackmask and Pixel Art

Monochrome green pixel animation showing an anthropomorphic raccoon at a lakeside surrounded by brick ruins, rocks and towering trees across the horizon. The scene is overlaid by black bars with placeholder dialogue text.

Pixel art for Blackmask trucks along as Nad’s boss fight is programmed to a point where he’s capable of doing many of his trick shots and weapon skill. My own goal at the moment, is to create a solid library of reusable animations to fit in a large varieties of cutscenes to save future work for myself.

Monochrome green pixel animation showing an two views of an anthropomorphic raccoon with a long coat running in place. The scene is overlaid by black bars with placeholder dialogue text.

I’m getting stronger at creating animating loops for the cutscenes, using tools like 1-Point Perspective Helper, Wave Warp, and Extend Cel to get more out of Aseprite as I go. These strides quell the anxieties of development, as there’s much that can go wrong and fall flat.I need to remind myself that there’s no rush or deadline, so I need to get more trusting my vision.

Work in progress pixel animation The Monk Character class from the Nintendo Entertainment System and Famicom game, "Final Fantasy". The animation is of a man's blue martial arts gi blowing in the wind as he performs a high kick.

To give myself a break, I dabble on my Final Fantasy fan animations that I expected to finish back in March but, I spend time adding animations. I’m Blackmask trucksnot on a specific deadline to finish fast and I keep thinking of more stuff to polish and add to the piece.

Conventions

I had a moderate showcase at Pokecon Wheaton. Cory Byrd and I were an island of self-published comics in a sea of toys, collectables, and trading cards. The inadequate advertising of the event didn’t attract foot traffic to the cramped basement of a union building.

Despite that, I took the slow moments in stride, enjoying a nice espresso from My Half of The Sky Coffee across the street and chatting with Cory about the ups and downs of sustaining an art business. It can be tough to table at these increasingly expensive shows, while those who want merch from me, already have it. I understand that showing up gives inspiration and support to fans who visit , yet I can also do that on my live streams on Twitch.

My next convention is at the Forset Park Public Library Fan Fest so catch me there! For anyone else who’s no within the state of Illinois, you can get the same merch from online store.

Commissions and Art

A pair of digital art portraits of the same smiling female werewolf with brown fur, blue eyes and flower her hair. Each portrait variant has a different smiling pose, a blue and green colored background, and alternate flower colors, Pink with yellow tips, and blue with light blue tips.

Over the past month, I knocked out 2 icon commissions in a flash! For a second, I was worried because my Apple Pencil tip wore out, messing up my lines. I pushed through to finish line art and simple color.

Daryn Creste the Bull Brawler

Digital coloring of a traditional pen and ink drawing of an anthropomorphic red bull character with white horns asymmetrical in size in a fight pose to the camera. He wears a blue half coat with a fur collar, held up by straps, a tied green and yellow striped sash at his waist and blue with yellow rivet metallic gloves, boots and codpiece for brawling.
Digital coloring of a traditional pen and ink drawing of an anthropomorphic red bull character with white horns asymmetrical in size in a fight pose to the camera. He wears a blue half coat with a fur collar, held up by straps, a tied green and yellow striped sash at his waist and blue with yellow rivet metallic gloves, boots and codpiece for brawling.

Did a touch up render of this older drawing with simple overlay layer cel shading. I can never decide my coloring style with many of my ink drawings, whether to leave the colors flat to let the inks shine, or render it with some amount of shading.

Gel pen drawings of an anthropomorphic bull character with asymmetrical reminiscent of a crescent moon. He wears a half coat with fur trim held up by crossing straps, a tied stripped sash at his waist and metallic gloves, boots and codpiece for brawling. A smaller portrait is on the top left corner of the page to show his horn orientation. Gel pen drawing of an the back view of anthropomorphic bull character wearing a half coat with fur trim and a tied stripped sash at his waist. The back of the jacket has a Taurus horoscope symbol. Right side Various gel pen drawings of bull emblems and symbols. Top sketches have designs similar to the tarus horoscope symbol. The next few symbols are simplifies bull heads with horns. The bottom sketches are various simplified designs of the Venus of Willendorf as an anthropomorphic cow.

Pen sketching my Bull Brawler OC, who I’ll name, “Daryn Creste” with protagonist proportions hoping I can stay in the spirit of that original Bishonen Far Side Sketch.

Two Gel pen drawings of an anthropomorphic bull character with asymmetrical reminiscent of a crescent moon. He wears a half coat with fur trim held up by crossing straps, a tied stripped sash at his waist and metallic gloves, boots and codpiece for brawling. The two poses are ideas for how his fighting stance will be readable, the notable difference being that his fists are further forward, compared to the second drawing where his fists are more spread apart revealing his chest to the camera more.

I made some exploration sketches of general kickboxing stances to see how he’d be as a character. Since I drew his gloves and outfit more inspired by Tekken and King of Fighters, I think this bull would be more of a rush down brawler just for the pun of “bull rushing”. It’s still an long work and I’m figuring out a synopsis for him, hence the martial arts angle. Hell, I might just scrap him if I can’t commit to something interesting.

What’s next

My daily sketches have been lax over the month, taking a backseat to writing related things, be it Blackmask related or not. I feel behind on planned art projects, so I’m closing commissions until I’m at a satified place.

I’m getting more work done over May. My convention schedule is still light, but Blackmask is make enough progress that some real news might happen soon. This will be great because I’m not gonna lie, I’m facing some creative burn out where I’m getting sick of working on it for so long not making meaningful progress. I’m getting more and more irritated at the state of the video game industry and the creative industry that I badly want to torch everything and check out forever. Every instinct in my head is telling me to quit everything and end it all with a 9mm not out of sadness but out of malice and spite. I’m irritated that I need to hold on to a cause i’m struggling to find meaning in.

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