#plungermonkey

Happy New Year (two and a half weeks ago)!

This really ought to be broken up into several different posts, but I know the way my life works and I’m already a solid month behind when some of these updates should have been made to be even remotely timely. So, you’re going to deal with a monster update and like it!

Where to start? Well, as happens to many, life got very busy the closer we got to the end of December. I stayed busy with some studio projects, but many of them were gift related so I had to keep quiet about them. At this point, I’m a little

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

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

Inside Toby’s Brain: MediBANG!

You thought I was going to forget to update the site this week, didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU!?

Me too. But I ‘membered.

I think this may be the last of the big catching up posts. About a year ago, when my Samsung tablet still had that new tablet smell, I was looking for the “perfect” drawing app to suit my needs (I’ve got several favorites, but the search will continue). I stumbled across the free app, Medibang Paint. It looked pretty robust, and it was free, but the interface was “weird”, so I set it aside and decided to focus on the

Gallery Update: I’m Baaaack

Hello! I’m back from my two weeks in the woods wrangling Cub and Boy Scouts! It was a great experience (and with the week at Cub Scout camp being my fifth and final, it was a bit emotional), but very draining. I’m still trying to get back into the swing of things and remember what the heck I was doing before I left. In the meantime, I thought it best to catch up on some posting while my brain sorts itself out.

Waaaaaaaay back at the end of June, my youngest son finished out his last days in our little elementary

Tablet Art: Smile For The Camera

Right. So, once again, there’s been a gap in posting. There’s been a gap in studioing, too (yes, I’m making that a verb). I had to spend a week performing my civic duty by serving on a jury in a particularly disturbing trial. If not for the subject matter, the whole experience was actually kind of interesting and rewarding. I have a new found understanding of and respect for the concept of a jury of one’s peers. I’m glad to be back in the studio, though.

The first tablet drawing I did (a few weeks ago, now), after finishing up that

Gallery Update: Merry Plunger-mas!

The first month of 2o17 is almost in the books, but it’s not too late to post about xmas, right? I hope not, because I have several posts coming up somewhat related to that. I’ve been trying to finish up the book cover for the fourth Thea: The Little Witch series. I’m currently awaiting approval. I still have a handful of illustrations, plus a book cover for another author, awaiting me, but, I don’t want to fall too far behind on postings. I haven’t had the time to work on IPMDT while working on the cover, but I hope to

Gallery Update: Let There Be Star Wars!

On December 15th, the wife and I decided to surprise the kids after school by taking them to the first pre-opening day showing of Rogue One (yes, I thought it was awesome. This is not news). For a while now, I’ve been thinking it would be fun to do some PMD illustrations outside of IPMDT to commemorate certain events or happenings. Star Wars Rogue One was the perfect event, given the overall significance of Star Wars in my creative life. I’ve always thought of Plunger Monkey as somewhat of my alter ego, a manifestation of some of the crazier parts

Insert Clever Title Here

Alright, trying to get back into some kind of productive nightly ritual and put my tablet to good use. I have several other post ideas, but I’m skipping over those to get to this one…I just can’t come up with a title…

I love working digitally, but I miss “traditional” media. It’s part of the reason I’ve been drawing It’s Plunger Monkey Dynamo Time! exclusively the old-fashioned way, then scanning, tweaking, and formating the panels into strips. I like the feel of pencil and ink on different textures of paper. I like erasing the pencil lines to fully reveal the crisp,

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