Tobywan

About Tobywan

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

Make Mine Marvel

Well, true believers, I don’t have it in me to be particularly fun and witty right now. It wouldn’t be terribly appropriate, either.

I’m guessing if you’re a regular reader (all 2 of you) or if you’ve found your way here somehow, you probably know who Stan Lee is and undoubtedly heard about his passing on November 12, 2018. His is a name that can be placed on the same list of world renowned creators who have had a major impact not just on future generations of creators but on entire cultures alongside the likes of Walt Disney (and probably George

Gallery Update: Inktober 2018 Wrap Up

We’re just over a week into November, so I guess I should finally get around to this here wrap up post about Inktober 2018. I believe (according to the art in my files) that my first foray into Inktobering was in 2015. It was a fun little challenge put out by comic artist and illustrator Jake Parker years prior. The idea was to improve one’s inking skills by doing one ink drawing a day (presumably on top of whatever other projects one might have). I don’t know if it was from the beginning or not, but at some

Here Be LEE’s Dragons

Well, it’s a few weeks late, but I finally pulled off the next phase of my wife’s birthday giftage: custom shirts depicting the dragons I draw for her birthday. I attempted yet another new process, and I had to hide my work from her again, and life was getting in the way, but, I got it done. Right now, her shirts are the only ones. If there’s enough interest or encouragement, I may release them to the public at large as their own line of shirts: Lee’s Dragons.

Anyway, about that new process. I uploaded all the layered PSD files of

Gallery Update: Here Be Dragons!

Everyone loves dragons, right?

Of course. But few love them as much as my wife.

It’s birthday time for my wife again, which means another dragon wallpaper from me! I went back to Procreate for this one and spent over a week noodling away at it. Here’s a breakdown of how it came together.

The first step to any art I create-whether it’s digital or traditional, whether the media is pencil, ink, or paint-I start with a rough drawing. I knew I was going to draw a dragon. I even knew it would be a

Gallery Update: Revenge of the Moleskin

It’s that time of year again: the annual summer camp moleskin sketchbook sketches update thingy! Of course, there’s a few things to take note of this time around.

Firstly, this was the first time I’ve had all 3 of my sons, all now in the troop that I am the scoutmaster for, at the same camp. This meant, for the first time in many years, I only had ONE week of summer camp to go to. Don’t get me wrong, I love camping, I love the outdoors, I love having these wonderful memories (as well as some frustrating ones, to be

Gallery Update: I’m Ready for My Closeup

I don’t even know how long it’s been since the last post. I’ll refrain from “lying” and saying I hope to be more consistent starting now, because I know that’s unlikely. I mean, I want to be productive and focused, but I’m also aware of what my real life schedule is over the next few weeks. On the upside, summer camp is around the corner, which will hopefully mean being out in nature with my moleskin. I’m not quite sure how camp is going to be this year, with it being the first time since my son’s type I diabetes

Toby’s Brain: The Movies are now HERE!

It has been a busy week! Not as much actual drawing as I’d like, but I’ve made some good progress on some “business” goals. The biggest deal is that I finally got myself a proper YouTube channel (there should be a link in the sidebar…somewhere. Have I mentioned I’m not terribly competent with the ‘puter stuff? Just in case, this link should get you there…). It even has two whole videos on it! I spend a lot of time watching other artists draw whilst waxing eloquently about art and their process. It’s great inspiration and a good way to

NEW SHIRT ALERT: The Steampunk Fish has arrived!

Check it out!

Everyone’s favorite flying steampunk fish!

I crafted this image in Clip Studio Paint, which, as I’ve said many times, I love using on my iPad. It worked great for designing this shirt, and when I sent it over to Photoshop to do some final tweaks (the logo, metadata, converting it for upload, mockups…) it held up perfectly (I was a little worried about how the process would work, but it was PSD to PSD, so I shouldn’t have worried. Then again, this is me and this IS technology…). I noodled away

Gallery Update: Mother’s Day 2018-The Card

Happy Mother’s Day, 2018! I couldn’t do what I do and dream what I dream without my wife by my side or my mom (and all the other women in my family) supporting, encouraging, teaching, and raising me. I love all of you and I can’t put into words my gratitude.

Time for a peak at this year’s card!

The dragon kids are a year older. I try to go through pictures from the previous year and find one that represents something special-a place, a moment, an event-and then I try to capture it in

Get Your Cephalopod On! Literally!

Well, it’s not Monday, but I’m finally getting around to this here blog post in conjunction with the next shirt available for purchase. I made a bunch of little tweaks to this one, which started out looking like this:

This is the Multi Purpose Novelty Squid. I was fairly happy with this rendering back when I made it, and it holds up reasonably well to me now. I never really liked the text, though, and overall it just seemed to be missing something.

Here’s the updated version:

The

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