Sunday, May 17, 2020


In this one, I was explicitly trying to mimic the style of old men's magazine cartoons, such as those found in Playboy. I think I pulled it off. Both in the look and feel of the art and in the gag itself.


  1. Hey there, I'm a beginner at drawing and was wondering what tools you use? I have a bamboo drawing pad, and have been using Paint 3D. And, of course, pencil and pen in notebooks.

    I really like your style and was hoping for a few basic tips. I was looking at your Blackpudding stuff and thought for a moment it was all analog then scanned in, but then I realized likely not.


    1. Hey man

      I mostly draw digitally, but of course I also draw on paper here and there. Some of the early Black Pudding stuff was on paper, other parts were digital. It's a mix. But for the past several years at least it has been 100% digital.

      I use a Wacom Intuos 4, which is a pretty old tablet. I think I got this one in 2009 or 2010. It's awesome. I also tried an XP Pen Artist 16, which is a pen tablet display. It's OK, but the drivers SUCK and I stopped using it. Now it just serves as a second monitor and I went back to my trusty Intuos. My opinion is get a Wacom. It is better to get a traditional Wacom tablet that is decent size than it is to get a pen tablet display from an off brand. The Wacom hardware and software is just light years better.

      If you ever want to print your stuff make sure you draw at a minimum of 300 pixels per inch (ppi, or dpi). Plus it just makes your lines smoother. In my opinion, going 600 ppi is overkill. But if you have a powerful machine and plenty of storage, go for it. You can always reduce pixel dimensions on a drawing but you cannot increase it without visible quality problems.

      Other than that, draw digitally the same way you draw on paper. It's all art. The tools are important, but not defining. You are doing the work.

      On a more basic note, if you are just starting out in drawing, then steal steal steal from artists you like. Copy copy copy, as practice. And of course draw from life as often as you can. Reference is better than no reference.

      And have fun.

  2. Thanks! Will do. I'm working on getting hand/eye connection using a pad, it's certainly not the same as pencil/pen. I'm learning to sketch, then ink with long strokes, cntrl-z over and over. Fun times.

    I'm early retired, so not a youngling, so I dunno if I'll ever get very good, but I'm a DIY kinda guy putting together an RPG. I have a few sci/fi novels out already, if I can get good enough I'd love to do my own covers, but that's way down the road and a totally different style of drawing.

    There are a lot of great youtube tutorials out there, making things a ton more accessible than when I was back in school. So that's cool.

    Thanks again for the tips. 300dpi minimum. Learn the pad. Wary of pen screens. Got it.