Tobywan

About Tobywan

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

PMD Xmas Card Envelopes and 2022 Year in Review…and how the heck is it 2023?!?

Another year, another…something? As cliched as it is to say, I’m baffled that another year has slipped by. On the one hand, it’s great we all made it through to be reading (or writing in my case) this here blog post. On the other hand…where did the time go? I don’t often think about how old I am, and the fact that I keep getting older (though I do think about other people getting older, strangely), but more and more these days I am aware of my age and just how many things I still haven’t managed to accomplish. It’s very

Inktober 2022 Wrap Up

Hey look, my, like fourth blog post this year? I need to be better about that…

Anymonkeys, it’s almost a full month late, but I finally finished Inktober 2022. I’ll admit I struggled with a lot of the prompts this year. The ideas didn’t come as quickly or easily as previous years. It was a nice challenge, though. It forced me to dig a little deeper and think a little more creatively, and, as always, I had a ton of fun.

Since I decided to start collecting these illustrations in book form every few years, I tried to think ahead to make

Lee’s Dragons: Bird Dragon

So, how ya doin’? It’s been a bit. Again. I haven’t been very good about updating the content on this here digital manifestation of my Brain this year. I have been keeping busy, though. Aside from basic sketching practice, the vast majority of my studio time this year has been consumed by my Inktober illustrated book Inklings. It has been a ton of work, particularly since I designed three whole fonts and embellishments just for it. I may slap together a post about it at some point. Or maybe not. If you want to catch up and continue to follow the

Happy Mother’s Day 2022!

Happy Mother’s Day 2022 to all the moms out there, but especially my wife and my own mother. It’s been a little while since I’ve updated my website or posted a blog, but fear not, I have been busy in the studio. You can get near daily updates on what I’m working on by following me on Facebook or Instagram, but to sum things up, I’ve been working on a book project…but before I get into that, it’s time to debut this year’s Mother’s Day card for my wonderful, talented, hard-working, patient, understanding wife! I rely on her for so

The Gi Coat 2.0: The Beast Coat

I. Am. Tired. BUT, at long last, my latest wool coat creation is complete (except for maybe some random adjustments that come up after wearing it around a while)!

It’s built off of one of the first sewing projects I did several years ago: my “Gi Coat”. I’ve been a martial artist since 1995, and I have a great appreciation for martial arts related fashion (and Asian fashion in general). I’ve always liked the simplicity of my karate gi, overlap one side on the other and fasten with a couple of ties. That

PMD Xmas Card Envelopes 2021

Somehow, here we are in 2022. I intend to do a year in review style post about 2021, which should be…interesting. I didn’t post here as much as I intended, and I dropped the ball on a lot of goals I had set at the start of the year. But, I think I did accomplish a lot, some of which wasn’t on that goal list (at least initially).

Before that post, though, I have to do the annual sharing of the xmas card envelopes. For anyone new here (which, given my stats and how little time I have to spend trying

Inktober 2021 Wrap Up

Here we are, another year, another Inktober infused with plungers and monkeys (everyone’s favorite plunger-wearing monkey, specifically). I’ve taken to doing these recaps/wrap ups at the end of the challenge, but this one will be a bit of a general “what’s been going on?” as well, since I’ve barely posted anything here this year.

If you follow me on my other social media thingies, then you know I’ve been staying busy. I’ll do an end of year/year in review post like I usually do, but just in general, I’m a bit off of the goals I set for myself this year.

Lee’s Dragons: Cat Dragon

‘Sup. It’s been awhile…Since June 18, according to my last blog post. Life has been, well, nuts. I’ve made art over the last 3 months, but not as much as I’d like. If you follow the Toby’s Brain FB page, you’re pretty aware of all the “real life” things that have been getting in my way. My last blog post here was about an illustration I drew for my oldest son’s high school graduation. Since then, he was scrambling to get his Eagle Project and paperwork done and submitted before he turned 18 (which he did. Mostly. Thankfully he

I Have A High School Graduate?!?

Yeah, that title is accurate. Somehow or another, my oldest son suddenly became high school graduate age. At the same time, my youngest just graduated 8th grade and is on to high school. It’s been a whirlwind busy week of graduation related “stuff”, and none of it has completely sunk in. I may be actively denying that reality in my head, though. I’m not quite ready for any of them to be grown up. There are so many things I feel like I missed out on with them, things I wish I had done with them, lessons I think I

New Shirt Alert: A New…Plunger?

Well, here we are in May (?!), and I’m finally getting around to releasing a new shirt (and if you want to skip my rambling and go straight to decorating your torso, and you missed the other links, you can go get yourself the new PMD Wars shirt here). This one was almost ready to go, much like the Blade of the Monkey shirt from the end of 2020, but I got hung up on the final look. I’m still not 100% sure (not that I ever am about anything) that this one is “done”, it’s one of those that

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