June 2026 Sketchbook

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Pen and ink drawing of a mysterious half man, half moth monster of cryptid legend.

June’s gone fast with the month spent tabling at conventions, doodling in sketchbooks, and fumbling with my writing.

Crusader Con 2026

Over the month, I had an okay time I tabling at Crusader Con and Southside Comic Book Show. Both these shows were slower fare, so I spent more time I meeting artist friends to socialize and get a temperature of the comics scene. With the current climate of conventions, I’m making a massive rework of all the merch I’ve made.

Most of this month, I’ve been treading water with burnout. There’s still commissions and other art commitments to get done, but there’s days I feel frustrated and overwhelmed. I have some other conventions in July with MiniCon and Comicopolis coming up, so I’m doing my best to not stress too hard about it because I’m struggling to take five.

Copic marker drawing on a Fantastic Four blank sketch comic cover of Mr. Fantastic and Magneto from the Marvel Rivals universe. Mr. Fantastic uses his elastic body to bind Magneto from escaping as Mr. Fantastic holds a elaborate gun to Magneto's head. Little does Magneto know, the gun is only carved wood.
Copic marker drawing of War Machine from the Iron Man Marvel Comics series. He's a man is large dark red and silver metalic armor with shoulder missile launchers and gattling guns. He points to the camera and asks, "Y'all wanna learn how to do a fuckin' infinite?"

Despite this, come by my online store for prints and stickers of my cool art. Everything I sell at conventions is also the same items you get in my store, plus more, such as Blank Comic Sketch Covers and Sticker Packs!

Blackmask Placeholder Assets

I saw a Kotaku Article the other day about game devs using human made placeholder assets over Artificial Intelligence and I wanted to post a small reply assuring you all that my programmer and I are doing actual work.

My placeholder assets for Blackmask, are just the pixel art I made in color for my programmer’s sake. Half the reason I don’t show gameplay updates anywhere because it doesn’t match with the image of the game I wanted to convey to the public. Everything else is literally my own artwork, as I’m the sole concept artist, environment artist, main animator, and writer of this game.

Pencil and Pen sketches of Blackmask gameplay ideas for the anthropomorphic raccoon player character Cole Blackmask. Going from Top to bottom, Top group of sketches depict ideas keyposes for an animation to fall under to hang from and climb under. Next group shows general animation poses for vertical shooting of a bow and arrow in the air. Next group depicts vertical up and down swimming animations as well as an underwater wall kick for burst speed. Next row demonstrates keypose sequence for a tuck and dodge roll animation. Next group shows poses of Cole using his long jacket to wrap his body within it's folds and vanish into thin air, rendering him invisible and intangible. Following pose sequences shows Cole simply putting on the hood of his cloak to change black and blend into the shadows. Another keyframe sequence shows Cole sinking into his cast shadow to hide underneath for a period of time then reemerge out the ground from the shadow. a similar cast shadow sinking sequence shows Cole diving head first into his cast shadow. Final bottom keypose sequence reuses the dodge roll key poses of Cole leaping into a black shadow portal, vanishing in space, then reemerging in teleportation.

I compile my daily five minute sketches from my sketchbook into an animation map for later reference for pixel animations. I do this for both player animations and enemy animations.It’s insane to me how people an post rendered paintings and call them sketches! Am I not as skilled as I think I am?

Pencil sketches of Blackmask gameplay ideas for the anthropomorphic player character Cole, Rolling Counter Attack. Top two sketches show a sequence where Cole stands with his sword, then rolls backward on button press. Middle sequence indicate that at the last roll from, player must press the Attack button for Cole to begin a sword thrust attack animation. Bottom sequence, details how a forward roll attack would animate, with Cole standing with his sword then rolls forward on button press, until the final frame of the animation, player presses Attack button for a larger sword attack.
A large collection of sketch concept art of the many actions and abilities anthropomorphic fox characters can do as an enemy character for the game, Blackmask. Top sketches show the animation sequences for the Knife Fox's Damage, Jumping, Crawling, and Climbing animations. Second to top sketches show the Bow Fox's Running, Sliding, Searching, and Aiming animations. Second to the bottom sketches show variant of Foxes, with Spears, a Tail Shield, and a Samurai Fox with four tails. Bottom Sketches show designs for a fox mage with magic casting animations for ice spells, lightning spells, fireball spells, reflector spells, and floating bubble spells.
Five ink sketches of anthropomorphic fox archers in different sleep poses. Top left shows fox sitting on a chair with their feet resting on top of boxes as they sleep. Top middle shows fox sitting on their wrapped around tail like a beanbag chair as they are asleep resting their chin on their fist Top right sketch shows fox lying on thier tail with paws forward, asleep. Bottom tow sketches are variations of the fox being shocked awake. Main difference of fox holding their bow.

When prepping bosses and design, my programmer and I chat in Discord about what kind of gameplay and gimmicks should be in. With that, I sketch proposed enemy movements and sketches of the map layouts of the boss arena. I do this with little consideration for difficulty or game balance because I’m more hands off about that stuff, until I have a controller in my hands to test things out.

Collection of pencil sketches of an anthropomorphic tanuki archer performing various moves for the purpose of future animations. Action include, jumping and firing bow in the air, blocking incoming attacks with his massive tail, taking damage, spinning his tail as and attack, plucking items like bombs inside his tail to use, and aiming the bow in various directions.
Digtal sketch mockup of a proposed boss arena for the in-progress independent video game, Blackmask. The scene depicts, a blue blob on the ground floor, with text that reads."Cole starts at forest floor", and three floating platforms with a large green blob on the right platform with text above it reading, "Nad jumps on top of platforms and fires arrows at Cole."

I post on my daily sketches on my BlueSky account as ideas for Blackmask. The art I post is not reflective of the final game, because I can’t guarantee what I draw can be implemented in engine by my programmer, or if it’s even fun in a game sense. I’m more worried I’ll change and idea later when I have a better idea.

Reading Joke Farming

I’ve been reading Joke Farming by Elliot Kalan in my current quest to make my writing less crap and it’s decent read.

I bought this book after hearing about him on the 99 Invisible Podcast about being a Daily Show writer, but when I read the book and found put he’s the Spider-Man writer who made Sauron, the dinosaur scientist who’d rather turn people into dinosaurs than cure cancer, I knew Kalan was legit.

I’m sure its not ideal to be trying to be funny from a book, yet Joke Farming has been helpful for me to wrap my mind around writing in general. Even joke writing has a structure and having a structure is a helpful way to know what to write next, regardless of the genre or type. I recommend finding the book at a library or buying it wherever you can.

Other General Art

I’ve never shown this human black OC before as this girl was supposed to be on the cover to a collected art book I fell off making.

Digital illustration of a black woman with round puff tipped braids, purple t-shirt white pants. She's in a bedroom full of various posters of Mastafran's artwork. The lady lies on her pink sheet-ed bed, full of stuffed plushes and colorful pillows as she reads various piles of comics by Mastafran.

She’s tentatively named “Fran-tan,” as sort of mascot of my sight and “brand” but it didn’t stick to me, due to my gradual pivot away from drawing humans. I made later sketches simpler while adding anything else to her design. I’ll revisit her if I think of anything that sticks to me.

Turnaround ink drawings of a black woman with round puff tipped braids, t-shirt and jeans and large sneakers.
Three Pencil portrait drawings of a black woman with puff tipped braids and t-shirt and jeans.

I’ve been procrastinating on compiling a newer comic collection, because I wanted to make more content to justify the printing.

Nadia and Simone

Another pair of human OC’s that II’m fumbling with a script for a comic every now and then. The pair, Nadia and Simone, are two students/civilians who become friends due to catastrophic events.

Right now, Nadia’s personality is sort of slacker blerd girl in perpetual goblin mode, while Simone is the more elegant fashionista type who panics during weird events happening.

Pen and ink turnaround model sheet of a lanky, black girl with natural hair, a large hoodie, tight capri pants, and canvas shoes. Written text are proposed names for the girl: "Nadia, Michaela, Abigail"

Jowl Dog

Traditional ink and digital color illustration of an anthropomorphic female mastiff dog with long winked jowls covering her topless breasts. She also wears an assortment of decorative loin sashes and gold wrist and arm bands.
Traditional ink and digital color illustration of an anthropomorphic female mastiff dog with a small gold forehead circlet and long winked jowls covering her topless breasts.

No One:
Me: What if dog anthros had lower hanging jowls?

Even More Laser Sharks

Ink sketch of three anthropomorphic female sharks swimming underwater in a line up and carrying a laser rifle in her left arm.

In my mini sketchbooks, I continued to draw my laser shark girls with different body types.

Two marker drawings Ink sketch of a muscular anthropomorphic female shark with black hair. She wears black pants and suspenders over a white button shirt and tie. Ink and marker portrait sketch of a muscular anthropomorphic female shark with black hair and metalic teeth. She wears black pants and suspanders over a torn open white button shirt lightly exposing her cleavage and abs.

Morning work sketch, exploring my laser shark spy fiction ideas. I certainly wanted a reference to Mr. Kiel.

Hyena Sketches

Two pencil sketches of anthropomorphic hyenas wearing a decorative hooded robe. They stand together in a dumb conversation with each other, Left hyena asks, "How tall is your wife?" "Eight feet," The righy hyena replies. "Splendid." The left hyena confirms with glee.
Pencil sketch of a female anthropomorphic hyena wearing a decorative robe, turban and loincloth. She stands with a thick walking stick smoking a simple pipe.
Pencil sketch of an anthropomorphic hyena wearing a hooded polka dot patterned robe with salvaged chest plate armor over it. They stand holding a large hookblade sword, and a massive shield gauntlet with long claws.
Pen and ink drawing of a anthropomorphic female hyena wearing an eye mask, chest wrap and loincloth. She has dark spots that function as portals inside her body to let weapons pass through her or be stored inside her.

Bra Strap Meme

Two panel comic. First panel of a Digital comic of an exhausted and bloody anthropomorphic female dragon leaning on top of a building rooftop in the smoking aftermath of a giant city leveling battle. Across from the dragoness on another rooftop is a small construction commenting on the dragon's tattered leotard and armor exposing her shoulder. The construction worker says to the dragon, "Your bra strap is showing." Second panel of a digital comic of the haggard female dragon wordlessly turning toward the construction worker as her"bra strap" opens into a long gashing wound through her shoulder. The construction worker horridly whispers, "Oh..."

Made a stupid bra strap meme of my never-drawn OC Olivia surviving from a rough fight. It’s not much but, I’m getting over a slight art block while using my Moveinkpad more.

Tiger Maid

Three pen and ink sketches of an anthropomorphic female tiger wearing glasses a black dress and white apron. First sketch, the tiger carries a tea set in a tray. Middle sketch of an anthropomorphic female tiger wearing glasses, a bonnet, a black dress under a frilled white apron. The tiger carries a tea set in a tray. Third sketch of an anthropomorphic female tiger wearing glasses, a bonnet, a black dress under a frilled white apron. The tiger carries a tea set in a tray.

Bunch tiger maid sketches to deal with art block while stuck at work.

pencil drawings of an anthropormorphic female canine wearing a parka, a checkered skirt and boots. She has various poses such as running and standing. other Pencil drawings of an anthropormorphic female canine wearing a parka, a checkered skirt and boots. Written text reads,"Wacky Euro Doggo." More Pencil drawing of an anthropormorphic female canine wearing a parka, a checkered skirt and boots running while shooting a gun.

Most of my sketchbooks these days are full of writing notes and trite, wiry garbage. I keep experimenting with different character design art styles when I get bored and I get bored often. If only my boredom passed to projects I work on.

Pen drawing of an anthropomorphic male raccoon wearing a long coat, carefully treading between shafts of tall pikes. He winces at the skeletal remains of previous explorers impaled on the tips of the spikes, possibly from stumbling from the floors above the spike pit.

I make plenty of other illustrations that you can browse on my website. You can also commission me to create artwork for you and catch me drawing live during my weekly art streams!

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