March 2026 Sketchbook - MastaFran ComicsMastaFran Comics

Monochrome green pixel animation of an anthropomorphic male raccoon standing on a tree branch with his coat blowing in the wind to confront a figure across the treetops behind the trunk, ready to fire his bow. The raccoon calls out to the figure, "Show yourself coward!"

It’s been a packed month for me. I’m jumping around working on game dev, a regular job, commissions and fumbling with writing. Often, I feel overwhelmed, but I’m sure it’s just me finally aging to the ripe age of 34. Even with all this, March looks to be the start of the larger year of art creation for me.

Cartoonist By Night

Over March, I was a guest on the Cartoonist By Night podcast hosted by Anthony Laatsch. Despite the typical nerves of speaking on a podcast for the first time, I did alright. Laatsch and his co-hosts were a nice bunch to draw with while I talk about my start as an artist, my foray into indie gaming, and my general love of retro gaming.

Pixel illustration depicting the the Four Warriors of Light from the Nintendo Entertainment System and Famicom game, "Final Fantasy". The four standard together in a diamond-like formation reading their weapons and skills to attack. Clockwise from the top: Black Mage, a character who's face is cloaked in shadow, wearing a bright yellow hat and large blue robe, wielding a metal magical rod with indigo gemstones embedded in it; Monk, a tan man with long brown hair and thick eyebrows, wearing a black belt, blue martial arts gi and headband, posed in a flying kick at the camera; Fighter, a pale, brown haired man in heavy red armor with gold edge trim and shield, stepping forward and reading his mighty blade for battle; and White Mage, a pale, pink haired person, wearing the series distinct, white robe with red triangle trim, wielding a long wooded, and crooked staff, staying on the ready for healing spells. Above all four of the characters are four crystals of power, each with a different color: yellow, blue, green, and red.

During the session, I’d flex my pixel art skills and try to make this Final Fantasy Piece within the hour. Final Fantasy 1 is a game I often return to so, I figured I’d draw that to stay in the theme of “Retro Gaming” for the discussion. I enjoyed the vibes so much that I’m listing to other episodes they’ve made with my other art friends!

Work in progress pixel animation The Fighter Character class from the Nintendo Entertainment System and Famicom game, "Final Fantasy". The animation is of a red armored man's brown hair blowing in the wind.

I’d consider this Final Fantasy Piece completed, but I got my self in the process of adding more flair to this illustrations, so I’m holding my cards on that until the time is right.

Commissions

Digital illustration of an anthropomorphic female tiger with white stripped fur and green eyes. She wears a black letter jacket over a red strapless leotard, with fishnet pantyhose and dark red heels. She stands on one leg dancing as she holds her top hat in one hand and magician's wand in the other.

Illustration of an anthropomorphic female orange striped cat wearing a blue pinstriped suit with red tie, dark indigo gloves and a matching fedora with a small red feather in the ribbon of the hat. She stands at a dark foggy street corner wielding a drum barrel tommy gun in her left arm.

Took in a hefty amount of commissions, even creating a short blog post about the process creating one of them. Like usual, I’ve been hard at work doing paid work for anyone who taps me on the shoulder.

Pixel art portrait of a female werewolf with brown fur, blue eyes and a pink hibiscus in her hair. She smiles and open mouth smile with displaying her teeth.

Over the last few months, I’m solidifying the type of art I want to prioritize. There’s a transition phase of reducing regular art for pixel art and going all-in on animation work.

Despite the industry being dead end both in the mainstream and indie space, it’s still my strongest skill and I’m interested to pushing more moving loops out there.

I don’t have a true open and close cycle of commissions for now, so don’t feel afraid to message me on social media or explore my Commissions page to have me draw something cool for you.

Blackmask Progress

With Blackmask, I’m making more assets and game art, and I have ambition to take my design skills further than non-finished sketches. This transition will be slow though, because I still have large illustrations and commission projects to knock out in the future.

Monochrome green pixel animation showing the slow tilt up a vine-filled tree, where a rotund anthropomorphic male tanuki, with an outie belly button, torn pants, arm wraps, and large tail embedded with arrows inside for storage, jeering on top of the branch. He has a belly laugh with a leaf stem in his teeth as he readies his large bow with an arrow tipped with a large green leaf as n arrowhead.

Making Nad’s boss intro was surprisingly complicated pedestal shot to create directly in Aseprite. Asprite doesn’t do motion tweening natively so I had to jerryrig a frame by frame camera shot by exporting the full sized pan, and editing the camera motion with Path Animator script by Gasparoken.

pencil sketches of anthropomorphic male foxes in two running poses while brandishing swords. Written notes read: "Sword swins, body reuse, arm moves, legs switch." Right sketches are fox faces wearing alternate styles of bandanas and eyepatches.

The next plans for Blackmask are more of the same: Create pixel art cutscenes for the demo and second draft the main quest out so the direction of the game is crystal clear with little doubt to me and Adam.

Bowser Respites

An alternate interpretation of Bowser's sprite from Super Mario Bros, using the NES Hardware's color palette of Red, Yellow, and Green, over a Black background simulating the outlines.

I started a Bowser Resprite to go with my collection of Super Mario Bros Re-sprites for Mar10 day 2026, but didn’t finish until 2 days later.

The collection of Super Mario Bros. Fan Resprites featuring Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Princess Peach, and Toad, using the original color palette of the real game's sprites on the Nintendo Entertainment System: Red, Brown, Yellow, Green, White over a Black background.

It started with the pixel art trend of remaking Princess Peach’s NES sprite, so I figured I’d throw my hand in the ring. Then, by request, here’s a re-sprite of Toad and finally went full circle and made Mario and Luigi Sprites.

Improving my Comics

March wasn’t convention heavy, so I took time to tackling in between things such as improving my comics page. Much of this is related to a comic reprinting project that I’ve put off for years, and I’m trying my damnedest to get done.

Shirley's Day Page 1: Panel 1 Establishing shot of crowded high school as student enter for their morning classes as a white sport utility vehicle stops close to the sidewalk for drop off. Shirley’s Mom (In car and unseen) "Bye Shirley! Have a good day at school!" Panel 2 Shirley, a brown haired teenage girl wearing a red t-shirt, exits her mother's car. Shirley "I will Mom, bye!" Panel 3 Shirley turns toward High School building anticipating her first day at a new school Shirley "Sigh. Another Day at School! I can't wait!" Panel 4 Up the stairs of the front entrance, Shirley waves good morning to her classmates who are grey and out of focus in the foreground Shirley "Hi there!" Panel 5 Shirley walks into the main hallway of the school greeting more students, once again out of focus in the far background. Shirley "Good Morning! How's it going?"

Page 1 Ryan Francis's short comic titled, "Incident at the Game Store" Panel 1: Establishing shot of a loving couple. The boyfriend is a white guy with brown hair wearing an open green collar t-shirt over a stylized ghost graphic t-shit and brown pants. The girlfriend is a black lady, with an eyebrow piercing, purple backless top and white pants. They stand in a dimly lit shop filled with many different video game boxes on the shelves. At the entrance leading to an eyesore shopping mall, an obese individual wearing a grey beanie hat, a blue shirt with the words "Body by Gaming" on it, and blue jeans. Panel 2: Point of view shot of the Obese individual, seeing the couple at the cashier desk purchasing their game. Panel 3: Voyeuristic Close up of the girl's butt in white jeans. Panel 4: Close up of Obese character's face in concealed lust. Panel 5: The Obese character's cheese dust encrusted hand shaking in anticipation.

Through the early weeks of the month I’ve been adding alt text Shirley’s Day and Incident at the Game Store. The Pizza Man is in the process of getting it’s own alt text for it’s pages.

Pencil sketch of an anthropomorphic female bear with puffy hair wearing a shiny black jacket and skirt over a white top and purse. The bear fiddles around on her small smartphone as she stands at simple street corner lit by four lights at the intersection, a mailbox, and a curb drain grate.

I was going to visit C2E2 but, I didn’t have a significant inclination to spend money to network to an industry going down the drain, so I saved my time and took more hours at work to get my money’s worth.

If I get a table at C2E2, perhaps I’ll go one day. The next convention I’m tabling at is Pokecon in Wheaton, IL on April 11th plus I’m making an artist appearance at Zone Comics and Games in Homewood,IL for Free Comic Book Day. It’s not much for this month, so if you’re looking for merch from me, you can always shop my store to get my books and stickers that way.

Wrapping it up

Gel pen sketch of an anthropomorphic lizard wearing chest armor and helmet shooting a flintlock blunderbuss in one hand and holds a long spear in it’s tail. Sceond sketch Gel pen sketch of an anthropomorphic lizard wearing chest armor and holster belts. Higher up sketches depict their metal helmet in a front, side, and back view. Third sketch Gel pen back view sketch of an anthropomorphic lizard wearing cross straps attached to their chest armor . Higher up sketch show a detail design of the flintlock blunderbuss and it’s carrying scabbard.

As of writing this, I turned 34 years old on March 3rd. Despite being a year older, I can’t say I’ve changed that much. The world continues to be on fire and I try not to let that get to me.

unfinished pencil sketch of a muscular anthropomorphic male dog sitting in a large chair

Pencil sketch of an anthropomorphic male wolf sitting on a throne with a large sword in hand, wearing a metal crown, armbands, and fantasy speedo. His right hand supports his cheek in deep thought, contemplating that he's "Born to Breed, but Forced to Bleed..."

Some days, I worry if my presence has that much impact on the world. I can hang on to the fact that I do mean something in other people’s world and that should be plenty. Drawing is the big thing that keeps me from falling down further, so I need to use that as my tether from getting existential about everything.

Collection of pencil portrait sketches of an anthropomorphic bear family. Top Left is of male bear with a thick eyebrows and goatee. He wears a fine jacket with a vine themed trim over a ruffle neck shirt. Top Right sketch portrait on the right of an anthropomorphic female bear with a tall beehive haircut. She wears a plunging neckline dress with a necklace of small round gems surrounding a large black gem. Bottom left bear has a round glasses lined with small round gem stones. Like his father, he wears a fine jacket with a vine themed trim over a large tie with a round black broach in the center. Bottom center left bear has long hair with thick braids framing her face. She wears a plunging neckline dress with a necklace of small round gems. Bottom center right bear has large wall eyes an wears a large bowtie on his neck with a simple jacket. Bottom right bear has large wall eyes and wears small bows in her ears, a large bowtie on her neck and a billowing dress.

As I was creating more finished art, I find myself sketching in my sketchbooks less often. The few sketches I keep, I try to color direct on my sketches with digital art. Sometimes I think leaving the messy pencil sketches intact seems lazy, but I’m accepting this is what I can do in the amount of time and mind power I can offer to these one off drawings.

Digital color over traditional pencil sketch of an anthropomorphic gryphon with red fur and wings. They wear a yellow jacket with blue trim, blue ascot and trousers.

Pencil sketch of an anthropromorphic female dragon with a long mustache wearing a long black qipao. She holds a large tea kettle and small cup to drink. Second Pencil sketch of an anthropromorphic dragon with a long mustache. They hold a large small cup to drink., Third is an ink sketch where the neck wraps around the chest area.

I’m all over the web showing my daily drawings and practice sketches! If you have any questions, comments, or just wanna to say hi, I’m on BlueSky, Twitch and more places online!

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