January 2026 Sketchbook

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Monochrome green pixel animation of a sailboat in the middle of the ocean, sailing toward the rising sun. The bottom caption reads, "Onward to new horizons!"

For the brand new year, I’m stepping up to handle my anxious mindset and bolster better flow for my creativity.

Blackmask Cutscene Development

Monochrome green pixel animation of a sailboat in the middle of the ocean, sailing toward the dark mysterious island. The bottom caption reads, "This is Chimera Island!"

One of the bigger art tasks have been working on cut-scenes Blackmask. It was rough to return as Aseprite gave me errors from updating to a new version, so I needed to reinstall a portable version and all my old extensions and scripts. My format for the cut-scenes was cramped to work to refine the art for the in-engine game and caption setup. Sticking close to the storyboards I made last year, I pushed through the trouble by putting down lines and cleaning them. Sometimes that’s all it takes.

Monochrome green pixel animation of an anthropomorphic male raccoon wearing a long coat standing on the railing of a ship in the middle of the ocean, sailing toward the dark mysterious island. The bottom caption reads, "This is Chimera Island!"

Development in general is okay so far. Adam, the programmer, is making progress with Boss Design coding, while I work out new pixel art. He tells me he’s squashing bugs at this point, so I’ll be insanely optimistic about pushing for a demo for this year.

As I focus on making new cut-scenes, I’m interested in doing more personal unity learning beyond browsing the interface and reviewing animations that are missing or broken. I won’t put weight on this as the writing is my priority. Right now, I’m hitting a point where I need to force myself to edit and commit to ideas I place. If I’m not 100 percent cheer-leading for my ideas, I need to cut them out.

Other Art Stuff

As usual, I doodle ideas in my sketchbook to keep proactive with my work. There’s still the guilt of not finishing as much art as I wanted. Perhaps, I don’t pace myself with creating pieces after the initial sketches and burning out forcing myself to work on an idea that loses steam. I’m trying to cut myself more slack taking breaks and put more thought into color selections and storytelling to make illustrations more meaningful.

Presto the Mind Horse

Digital Illustration of an anthropomorphic brown male horse, wearing a lavender tunic, yellow waist sash, blue trousers and a red and yellow checkered codpiece over the trousers. He readies himself to cast green and indigo magic spells at each hands.

First draw of the new year is a return to Presto, the flamboyant horse OC I made last year.

Gel pen sketch of an anthropomorphic male horse wearing a billowing white blouse and a checkered codpiece over pantaloons. He stands with his hands up in a mystical magic casting pose, as if using the power of his mind.

It was first a dumb gag about not using drawing references on Bluesky until the trend returned.

I tried to maintain the energy and spontaneity of the original sketch on a larger canvas. So far it’s working out for me. I need to keep up this momentum for future drawings.

traditional pen and ink and digital color illustration of a small male raccoon sneaking on the table, and hiding behind large bottles and table utensils to listen into a conversation with two anthropomorphic dinosaur like individuals inside a dark smokey room. Left dino smokes a pipe, the right sips from his large tea cup.

Blackmask concept art where Cole sneaks into the smokey room of the big wigs. I think I failed to capture the scale of the larger characters seeming far beyond anything Cole can comprehend. I struggled with coloring this illustrations too the colors blended the background to much and it all looks muddy. Once I figure out how to make this part story relevant, I’ll have a better idea how to rework the look.

Floral Bikini Wolf

Traditional Pen and ink and digital color illustration of an anthropomorphic female canine with white and brown fur standing at a beach with one hand on her hip, wearing a black bikini with a floral pattern.

I colored a self-indulgent ink drawing of to continue working out my digital marker workflow in Clip Studio Paint.

Process of creating the traditional pen and ink and digital color illustration of an anthropomorphic female canine with white and brown fur standing at a beach with one hand on her hip, wearing a black bikini with a floral pattern. Starting with a traditional sketchbook, scanned in line art, flat colors, and rendering with digital brushes.

A notable step that’s exclusive to my digital art style is making a large flat color layer to color over a Clipping Mask. I’m future-proofing my work in case I want to use this character for transparent images. After all that I transparent marker color my art as usual.

I could stand to make a more interesting action for her. She’s just standing there, but this was a sketch in my sketchbook that I colored in Clip Studio Paint as a daily warm up.

Gel pen sketch of a male and female anthropomorphic wolf. The pair wield round shields and single edged swords.

Morning sketch with more scrimbloized wolves. I was experimenting with a toonier style I’ve seen from children’s book art I find on Pinterest. Something was working with the male but the female one is flubbed to me as I couldn’t pick between adding tits or not. I’ll work with some more as I mess around.

Tavern Bears

Gel pen sketch of an anthropomorphic male raccoon in a long jacket walking on the floor underneath the tables of a drinking tavern for anthropomorphic bears. Even sitting in chairs, the two bears tower over the raccoon as they drink from their steins and pay the tiny raccoon no mind.
three pen and ink sketches of an anthropomorphic muscular male bear with black beard like fur pattern. He wears stripped pants with suspenders, and on the third sketch on the far right, a variant with a hat that covers his eyes.

Tavern Visit sketches along with ideas for bearded bear designs. Besides the bandit bears from the game demo, there is room for bears to have their own little society, with houses to sleep in, and not blonde human children to worry about. There’s so much worldbuilding I’ve yet to draw to establish the size dynamics of Blackmask.

Madame Blackmask Palmistry

Gel pen sketch of a female and male anthropomorphic raccoon. The old female raccoon pokes into the palm of the impatient younger raccoon to assess his fortune through divination.

In his younger days, Cole’ adoptive mother, Madame Blackmask, insisted on palm readings to assess the future effects of his rasher decisions. Cole could never confirm if she had fortunes, or simply life advice though.

Rat Patrol Group

Digital painting of an anthropomorphic female rat wearing an indigo dress and gold jewelry, and small green orb at the end of her tail smugly sitting on the shoulder of an anthropomorphic male raccoon wearing a blue jacket looking annoyed towards the rat.

Made a slight return to ideas for Queen Liddell and her Rat Patrol Group. Queen Lily is a bratty trickster who harass those who displease her with tricks and curses.

Pencil sketch of an anthropomorphic female rat wearing elaborate jewelry like a headdress, necklace and a small pearl wrapped at the tip of her tail like a want.

Cole accidentally disrespects her and she and her rats dedicate their time to torturing Cole everywhere in his travels, until he apologizes for his misdeeds.

Pencil sketch of a group of five anthropomorphic rodent characters: Clockwise from the top a female rat with large ears, long whisker-like eyebrows, a high hem dress, and a magic wand. The right is a male red squirrel wearing a bowlder hat, and holding a shillelagh. The bottom right is a armored hedgehog impaled with rusty swords in his body. Bottom left is a male rat with a large cape and tunic, holding a mighty sword toward the camera. Top left is a male bat with a monocle and readying his set of throwing knives.

Lily is followed by her loyal royal guard, The Rat Patrol Guard, to deal with magical and paranormal threats to realms both small and large.

Marker sketch of a group of five anthropomorphic rodent characters: Clockwise from the top a female rat with large ears, long whisker-like eyebrows, a high hem dress, and her tail wrapped around a magic orb. The top right is a male bat with a monocle flying behind the group. The bottom right is a male red squirrel wearing a bowler hat, and holding a shillelagh running in panic. Bottom center is a male rat with a large cape and tunic, holding a mighty sword. Top left is a armored hedgehog impaled with rusty swords in his body, leaping to the camera dual wielding his swords.

Despite this massive responsibility of a newly ordained the newly ordained queen, Lily lets her petty nature endanger the world and must work solve problems caused by her immaturity.

Pencil sketch of a battle of anthropomorphic animal character in a mighty battle. An anthrpromorphic female rat with large ears, long whisker-like eyebrows, a high hem dress, and her tail wrapped around a magic orb in standing behind of a male rat with a large cape and tunic, holding a sword as they charge into battle against two armored lizards with their own symbols.

The rats tend to be at odds with their own smaller enemies, such as toads, newts, lizards, weasels, snakes, all the way up to tackling threats from the mighty Cat Kingdoms!

Pen and ink sketch of a pair of anthropomorphic rodent characters, a female rat with large ears, long whisker-like eyebrows, a high hem dress, and her tail wrapped around a magic orb in front of a male rat with a large cape and tunic, holding a mighty sword.

Would I really be making an animal fantasy thing without having rats and mice? Admittedly, it’s done to death, but there’s still fun with little guys exploring big worlds that’s universally appealing.

Bottom pencil sketch of an anthropomorphic male raccoon in a long coat, nervously stepping backward holding his simple cutlass, as a small female anthropomorphic rat, approaches him with menace, holding a large sword double the rat's and the raccoon's size.

I had a funny idea of a rat character strong enough to carry a normal sized broad sword. I was trying a design in style of ogres, being big and simple minded. The juxtaposition of such a large character actually being small is a source of visual humor.

Pencil sketch of two anthropomorphic rats in fantasy armor. Left male rat wears large plater armor with a face covering steel helmet. Right female rat wears bikini armor with a leaf theme.

Sketching ideas for how large rat enemies could work. There would be a general armored rat with only a sword, and a specialized rat who has swords and magic.

Pixaki Screenshot of a green monochrome sprite of an anthropomorphic rat character wearing a cape and a large sword. Next to the rat for scale is an anthropomorphic Fennec fox and an anthropomorphic male raccoon in a long coat.
Screenshot

Rat sprites are in my to-do list of Blackmask NPCs and Enemies, so I’m chomping at the bit to return to them for the game.

A set of pencil sketches of anthropomorphic male rats dressed as Asian monks complete with a long monk robe and mushroom takuhatsugasa hat. Right sketches show the similar rat drawing their sword like a samurai together with another rat wearing European style medieval armor.

Another Rat Design that’d been doodling is a rat with a Kasa style mushroom hat. Not sure if he should be a samurai type or an unarmed monk.

Letti the Lynx Warrior

Pencil sketch turnaround of an anthropomorphic female lynx in a revealing landsknecht doublet and stirrup pants.

Revisiting Letti the Lynx Warrior. I attempted proportions that matched actual lynxes, where they have long, fat limbs and a tiny head. It looks absurd, but it is giving her design more sauce.

Illustration of an anthropomorphic lynx wearing a revealing Landsknecth Doublet and holds a sword with a tassel on it.
Digital Illustration of an anthropomorphic female lynx wearing a revealing Landsknecth Doublet. She dashes toward the camera sword first in a dynamic pose.

While doing laundry, I pondered some ideas on Letti’s character and lynxes in general. A frequent problem I have with myself, is that I don’t think of a character for the designs I make.

Digital illustration of a ceremony celebrating a male and female anthropomorphic lynx in walking through a throne room with confetti falling around them. The female lynx with orange and white fur on the right wears a shiny pink dress with a pink neck wear along her long slender neck as she hangs her arm with her husband while waving to the lovely off camera crowd. Written text above her reads: "Queen" The male lynx with white fur, three blood-red eyes, and two barbed tails, wearing dark purple armor with a gold trim at the pointed shoulder pads. He strides in a smug contempt for all who surround him. Written text above him reads: "The Most Racist Cat in the World."

Lynxes in myths have mystical qualities, so I wondered what if she was married to an evil sorcerer while she was obliviously along for the ride or something. I started with the initial sketch but I went forward on coloring The coloring wasn’t expected but welcome for me.

Cat Witch vs Bat Witch

pencil sketch of an anthropomorphic homely female cat with unkempt hair, a tattered short dress, stripped gloves and stockings, a tall witch hat with two points resembling ears, walking next to an anthropomorphic alluring female bat with long black hair blending into the bat wings on her back, a long black deep plunge, high slit hem dress that accentuates her larger chest and legs with black thigh-high stockings, and a tall witch hat with two points resembling ears. The jealous cat trudges next to the bat who casually reads her spell book and carries her broomstick. The envious cat thinks, "Look at this stuck up, bitch!!" while a small sign bubble points at the bat reading, "Normal Girl."

Claudia the Cat witch stumbles upon a rival Bat witch, where she seethes within. I made a dumb doodle with the idea that the homely Claudia would have a rival who’s the typical sexy witch. As much as I enjoy making the sexy characters, I get more of a kick making weirdos with funny body shapes.

The little art I complete is still meaningful, even as a pocket sketch I create during lunch breaks at work. I enjoy making these tiny sketches without stressing about making more of them. Thanks to keeping a Sketch Wallet with mini sketchbooks, I can continue my art even a decade after graduating art college.

Summer Blocked Party

To push myself to improve my writing, I joined a competition to write a 1000 word short story for the Local Coffee Shop writer’s group. Despite my self-doubts, I was able to brainstorm something that can go with the prompt: “agency without freedom OR freedom without agency.” The competition was loose with formatting and genre rules but I pushed myself to depend on the words to show the visuals and characterization instead of half-assing my scripts to draw later.

There’s clear stuff I see wrong and I’m resisting the urge to go back to revise it and let it go to write a better next story. I’m just gonna commend myself for not dumpstering the story the second I got stuck.

You can read the story here or listen to the narration by Edyrem, one of the voice actors on the server.

Reading More Books

Cover to the book: "You Are Not A Rock" by Mark Freeman.


Along with my writing, I’ve been reading more often. I finished reading “You Are Not A Rock” by Mark Freeman and “Mastering Creative Anxiety” by Eric Maisel, hoping I can manage the bad feelings I have. The books help me worry less about my personal career disappointments and making “artist” my personality.

Cover to the book: "Mastering Creative Anxiety" by Eric Maisel.

Some days, my difficulty to see my future as an artist hampers my enjoyment of creating work; as if the idea of “feeling better” won’t stop me from feeling irrelevant. Despite the books asking me to forgive myself for my flaws, I still feel that stubborn contrarian urge to refuse leeway for myself.

Cover to the book: " How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor" by Thomas C. Foster.



Another book I finished this month is “How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster. I struggled to stay with it as the techniques of reading comprehension and writing analysis is not as interesting compared to Foster’s other book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor.”

Cover to the book: "How to Read Fiction Like a Professor" by Thomas C. Foster.

Despite that, “Nonfiction” gives me more reasons to stick with reading news article for the sake of gaining more writing knowledge. This book is a nice companion piece with “Write Faster, Write Better” by David A. Fryxell for learning how to format your research tasks. Overall, I recommend reading it to get savvier to information as a human. It won’t beat touching grass, but you’ll get more rounded.

Future Plans

Over February and the rest of the year, I’m returning to conventions, so keep an eye on my conventions page for the events that I’ll be tabling at. Some new pieces of prints and old favorites will be busted out for these new events. It’ll feel like a slow burn for me for not taking the time last year to check registration dates. The overall slump in convention attendance is also putting me on notice about the sustainability of vending as an artist.

As disappointed as I am at my start of 2026, I can’t consider the year bunk jut yet. Every day for an artist is a violent fight to take back time life steals from you to be creative. One needs to have a certain amount of mental illness to be stubborn enough to keep at this even when nothing is working.

You can follow my daily sketches on Bluesky, watch my weekly streams on Twitch, and keep up with news on the progress of Blackmask on it’s website.

Even if you miss the conventions I go to, I have Stickers, Art Prints and Comic Books for sale on my Online Store! You can also drop a dollar my way on my Ko-Fi Page!

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