Some more prehistoric skulls from the Natural History Museum. The big one is some ancient fish, the little one was a mammal. I don’t think I’d want to mess with either of these animals. 

T-rex skull, drawn at the American Museum of Natural History. Apparently this one comes alive at night when no one is around? 

The real challenge in switching from brush pen to rapidograph pen has been that the lineweight I can lay down doesn’t vary at all anymore. I had no idea just how much I used to rely on that to make slight adjustments on the fly. Now there’s almost no margin for error. It’s forcing me to strive for a level of perfection that I didn’t really think about before. With the brush, I liked to leave the figure and the proportions a little gooey. Now precision has become the name of the game. 

Some time last year I started making a comic for the expressed reason that I hadn’t made a comic in a while. I was pretty happy with what I got out of it. I started with no idea where it was going to go. I just sort of had this image in my mind of a female Silver Surfer seated in the lotus position in an asteroid belt, so I made that panel 1, and went from there. It was just supposed to be a one-off, and I was never going to use the character again, but lately I’ve caught myself developing a backstory for her. 

Three of her limbs are cybernetic. She uses T-1000-style liquid metal armor, which creates her prosthetic arms and legs. It also filters her blood, to make up for extensive internal damage. This results in her rather grim, no-nonsense sensibilities. 

Some mountain lions from the Natural History Museum. I’m making trips there into a weekly thing, I think. 

I’ve forced myself to switch it up a little. I’ve been using a brush to lay down linework for more than a year, and it’s my general policy to change what I’m doing once I feel comfortable. I recently started experimenting with different kinds of pens, and I’ve come to respect, if not fear, the rapidograph. It creates a line with absolutely zero variation, and shifting lineweight is usually my bread and butter. This feels very limiting for me. I can’t wait to use it some more. 

The Tempest is probably my favorite Shakespeare play. My concept for this one was that Prospero’s skin looks like stone or tree bark at the start of the play (seen here), as if his magic is turning him into a part of the island itself. But then, as Ferdinand and Miranda’s love begins to melt his vengeful heart, he starts to look more and more human again. 

Remind me to use better paper if I’m going to go in with watercolor. 

Some more miscellaneous doodles from my sketchbook