JuneToon 2022

The JuneToon challenge consists of a list of prompts for each day of the month of June, with an overall focus on cartoon characters. I decided to translate all the prompts into the closest Pokémon I could think of — some were definitely easier than others.

Every time I have tackled a month-long challenge there are many times I think “Why am I putting myself through this?” as it is a LOT of work, and I definitely fell behind and had to catch up a lot throughout the month.

Overall, glad I did the challenge and am happy with the results!

Linktober 2020

Decided to do a different art challenge this October and follow the Linktober prompt list. I didn’t get all 31 of them in, but it was a nice change of pace to not stress over quite as high of an output and instead focus on playing with different mediums: gouache, marker, pen, colored pencil, and digital.

Glitch Techs

Couldn’t resist doing some fan art of High Five and Miko when season two of Glitch Techs came out. I used Copic markers for the color on both of these. If you haven’t had a chance to check the show out on Netflix, I highly recommend it!

Chromatic Critters

I got some gouache paints for my birthday this year and wanted to take them out on a spin to test them out. We are about to move into our first house, so I decided to make some art for my son’s bedroom.

I kept the color scheme simple for each piece, and just used a main color plus black and white to tint and shade the paint.

Animal Hybrids Project

(Inktober 2017)

I wanted to do something inventive for the Inktober challenge this year, so I decided to design some creatures inspired by the official prompt list.

I started by writing down each prompt in my sketchbook, and listing a few animals that each prompt brought to mind. For each creature design, I did studies of the real-world animals used for inspiration. Finally, I designed a hybrid animal using a mixture the traits of the real world animals.

Sketches of real-world animals
Final hybrid creature designs

31 Days of Como

(Inktober 2016)

For the Inktober drawing challenge in 2016 I decided to try out a new artistic medium — sumi ink.  Many traditional sumi brush paintings draw their themes from nature, so I decided to do daily paintings of the creatures of Como Zoo Park Zoo and Conservatory in Saint Paul.

Each painting was created with sumi ink and a bamboo brush, white gel pen, and black multiliner pens of different sizes.
Time lapse videos of each piece are posted on my YouTube page. Prints of the artwork are available for sale, contact me if you are interested.

Pokémon Starters

I never got into Pokémon growing up, but when Pokémon GO came out this summer I finally jumped on the bandwagon. Here are some watercolors I made of the original starters.