My little Draw Your Monster sale was a success! I’ve got 3 Monsters in the queue, two of which are already sketched up and waiting refinement. Once they’re done, after the coloring book comes out, I might revisit the idea, so if you were waiting to see how things turned out you’ll have a chance.

I also got some great advice today from Naomi at Ittybiz about my Be a Cartoon sales page, and have added a bunch of new people to my Cartoon portfolio page, so check it out! I’m thinking of doing a Cartoon sale for Mother’s Day — maybe including some free greeting cards or something, what do you all think?

March was a hard month for a lot of us, but it seems like (once those tax payment checks clear, anyway) April is starting to look up. The sunshine, despite all my efforts to keep it out of the apartment, is starting to cheer me up and bring in some much-needed energy. Not to mention secret burblings of site updates, possible joint offerings with other people, and maybe even something teleclass-ish.

How’s it going for all of you?

Everyone has Monsters.

They’re those voices in your head that whisper discouragement and negativity, those stucknesses and blocks and fears that keep us from moving forward. I’ve got a few of my own, and I bet you do, too.

The little guy on the left there is one of my Monsters — he just wants to be friends, but his big scary teeth can get in the way of safe snuggling. Still, having seen him out in the light, I know he doesn’t really mean any harm.

The brilliant Havi Brooks has an awesome-looking new product in the works: The Monster Manual and Coloring Book*. And I really, really want it! But it’s tax time and money is tight, so I’m doing a limited-edition offering to help fund my own Monster adventures:

Draw Your Monster

We’ve all got our Monsters, real and imaginary. Do you have lurking fears that you’d like to bring out into the light? Is your dog sometimes a wicked creature? Do you just really want a cartoon of a cute monster?

I’ve got you covered!

For $59, you, too, can have your very own Monster — I’ll even mail you the original, or a high-quality print if we end up going digital.

What I’ll need to get started:

• A snail mail address for your original monster to be mailed to you.
• To talk about your Monster! If you’ve already got a vision of your Monster, great! If not, we can email back & forth until we have a clear idea of your Monster’s form. Questions to start with:
  • Fuzzy? Lizardy? Bat-winged? Multi-eyed? Insectoid? Tentacley? Fog? Wall? Creeping Black Void?
  • Is your Monster growling, hiding, making puppy eyes? Sheltering, blocking, posing nonchalantly?
  • Color preferences?
• Generally speaking, I will decide the medium (ie, pen and ink, watercolor, whatever) based on the special needs of your Monster.

I’ve temporarily reopened commissions for these — if you’d like one, just buy my Be a Cartoon package and let me know you want a Monster instead.

*Not an affiliate link so there nyeah.

Dance of Shiva Cards

First, I’m excited to see a project that took me a long time and a lot of painstaking work finally get off the ground. Frank Mitchell made a set of Dance of Shiva reference cards, and he hired me to illustrate the 8 arm positions in 64 combinations. I also made the results press-ready for him, so all he had to do was approve the images and then sit back while I sent it all to press (and pay the bills, heh). There was a card back and box art, and while I haven’t seen them in person yet, I’m crazy excited.

Cartoons

It’s been a week of getting back to cartooning, and I finally finished up most of the pending projects I had.

Elizabeth Halt asked me to draw her and her gorgeous puppy, Atlas:

And then my friend Rey wanted to be immortalized as a Weeble:

And finally, I drew up one of my Monsters (a la Havi Brooks), to show that he’s really a friendly, wee chap that’s worried for me:

Beach Cottage

Finally, I’ve got a sneak peek for you at the header for Cottage Copy‘s new look, an original watercolor including the Cottage Copy Spaniel and Holly’s dream beach cottage:

(Click to see it in all its full-size glory)