Tobywan

About Tobywan

My brain makes me draw stuff that isn't there, and this is where I put it.

Gallery Update: My Face x100!!!!

With all the ups and downs in studio time I experience, I’m pretty happy to have pumped out the 100th cartoon self portrait. I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable drawing myself without picture reference and I’m much more willing to push expressions to their extremes without crossing that undefined “realism” line. Now that I have 100 under my belt, I’ll be looking to change things up a little. I haven’t figured out how, yet, but I think this milestone is a good point for it, whatever it will be. I’ll still continue doing the daily self-portraits, they have become a

Gallery Update: 80 Shades of (Toby) Gray…

If you’ve been following me on the Book of Faces, then you know I’m still chugging away on the whole manga self-portrait thing. My style has been developing, and I’m quite pleased with several of the drawings, but I don’t think I’m producing consistent enough images yet. I’m getting a little too caught up in the abstraction of the linemaking (something I’ve always loved) and often forgetting to pay attention to the underlying anatomy. I’ll get there, though. Here are the next 32 portraits, collage-style.

Manga-style self-portrait practice #56 is NOT supposed to

Gallery Update: Pet Portraits

Hey, another week, another update! Consistency!

I’m still trying to catch up on some of those blog post ideas I’ve mentioned several times now. I have a few more to go. I finished up a page in 10 Things and I was slowly trying to wrap my head around the next, very complex page when I got the go ahead to rework another project, which will tie me up for most of the week, I think. I’ve continued with the daily manga self-portraits. It’s getting tougher to come up with interesting expressions, but I’m still finding ways to have fun with

Gallery Update: A Recent Exploit of Plunger Monkey

Alright, time to do a little posting catch up from December-ish 2015…

As a select, special few of you know first hand, when something positive and worth celebrating happens to someone I care about, I tend to take the opportunity to craft them a custom Plunger Monkey card to commemorate the event and express my congratulations and shared joy. Graduations, weddings, births, those kinds of things just scream for Plunger Monkey’s perspective or reaction.

Back in December, my childhood friend, Aaron, tied the knot with the love of his life, Junko. They are two wonderful people and I’m very happy that they

Gallery Update: A Jedi’s Strength Flows From the Force…

I think I’m finally calling this piece done. I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head to do a series of drawings depicting myself and Plunger Monkey doing various things. In many ways, he’s kind of like my Hobbes, I guess. But I could also argue he’s kind of like Yoda to my Luke…hence the idea for this drawing. That, and, I’ve had a lot of Star Wars on my brain lately. Actually, that’s not unusual, but more on that in a minute.

At first I was thinking I’d just do a line drawing…

A digital painting of
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50 Shades of (Toby) Gray

Alright, just to clear the air: I have not seen the movie nor read the book, and I have ZERO intention to, but I couldn’t resist the play on words as a title for this entry. Forgive me.

Anywhat, *gasp*, right? A second post this week? I told you, I have a bunch of plans and ideas, I’m just struggling to make the time to get around to them. But, since I did pass a small milestone this week with drawing my 50th manga self portrait, I didn’t want to wait too long without doing something fun to mark the occasion.

Studio Stuff: Pepere’s Hat

It’s been, again, far too long since I’ve posted here. I’m a little better about making micro updates and posts on the TOBYSBRAIN FB page, but I’ve had a bunch of post ideas-a list, in fact-I just haven’t had the time to get to them. Rest assured you will see them with your own two eyes. At some point. Promise.

Anywho, a lot has transpired in the world of Toby that I’ve wanted to comment on (and I will…I haven’t forgotten. I made that promise just last paragraph). I’ve made some Plunger Monkey art. There were the annual Plunger

American Ninja Warrior…and stuff.

So, once again, it’s been far too long since I’ve posted here. I’ve been a little better about posting on my FB page (I just added today’s manga self portraits, the first in about 20 days), but not much in the last few weeks. I’ve had other obligations, I’ve been renovating the guest room in our house, prepping for the holidays, etc.

One thing I did get around to though (aside from seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens on opening night and the following night), was filming my latest entry video for American  Ninja Warrior. I’ve got a long

Process: How to Mangafy Yourself in 6 Easy Steps

Okay, I’ve been busy for a while. Life and stuff. But, since everyone is clamoring for it (well, no one is actually doing any clamoring…other than imaginary people in my head. No, that’s not sad, it’s, um, practice.  For when I actually have fans and followers. Who clamor for things. Yeah. Definitely practice. Not sad…), I thought I’d throw together a quick process post for how I’ve been going about my manga self portrait exercise.

Manga-style self-portrait practice Grrrr…or, Arrrr…you decide!

First, I snap a reference photo of myself and open it in Photoshop.

Inktober 2015 Recap

Now that we’re half way through November, I’m finally getting around to doing a recap of my first Inktober. In case you missed it, Inktober is an annual challenge started by artist Jake Parker. The goal is to do one ink drawing every day for the month of October (or as many as you can manage) in order to improve your skills with ink as well as foster the good art habit of daily practice. When I decided to take up the challenge, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do a drawing every few days, much less every

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