A monster with a stick and a tooting werewolf. The toot was my son’s idea, and once he said it, there was really no going back. The pose just kind of demanded it. As for the lizard-amphibian monster with the club, I’m not entirely sure why he’s so attached to it, but he clearly takes it very seriously. Some mysteries are better left unsolved.
I drew my version of Jack Kirby’s Marvel monster Goom. I’ve always been a fan of Kirby’s work. His monster designs are just great. They are big, bold, and full of personality. I also drew a Parademon, one of Darkseid’s foot soldiers from the Superman animated series. Lately, my sons and I have been watching the Batman, Superman, and Justice League cartoon shows from the 1990s and early 2000s, so that influence has definitely been creeping into my sketches.
This one’s a space explorer wandering through some kind of alien jungle. I actually drew her first as a standalone figure, and she looked a little too isolated on the page. So I went back in and built an environment around her. It’s always fun when a drawing sort of grows into something bigger than the original idea.
Here’s a female Viking warrior, which was a nice change of pace from all the monsters. I made some energetic line work in the background. It was cool stepping outside my usual creature designs and focusing more on a character, even if she still looks like she could handle a monster or two without much trouble.
This robot came out of that same weekend drawing session with my boys. I started with the figure and then decided it needed a bit more going on, so I added a background and mechanical detail. I was looking at Wally Wood’s old EC Comics sci-fi illustrations for inspiration. He had such a great way of making machinery feel dense and believable without losing the energy of the drawing.
Here we have an angry troll and a fish-guy monster. The troll actually reminds me of a guy I knew in college whose nickname was “Angry Troll.” He had this permanent scowl. Even when he was in a good mood, he still looked ready to argue with someone. Anyway, these were both fun to draw, and it was fun to keep the monster streak going.
This one is a creepy, tentacled monster head that I drew while hanging out and sketching with my sons. It started pretty simple, but then I just kept adding to it until it got weird enough to feel right. My graphic designer wife also gave me a tip, save ink drawings as PNGs instead of JPGs. Supposedly it keeps the lines nice and crisp, and a creature like this deserves to look as crisp as possible.
Here’s my take on an astronaut space monkey. Because honestly, monkeys in space is always a solid idea. This monkey looks angry about being sent into space. I just watched Project Hail Mary with my brother and my oldest son. It is a great sci-fi movie.
Good old Frankenstein’s monster, I’ve drawn this guy a few times over the years. There’s just something fun about drawing Frankenstein’s monster. This one came out of one of my drawing sessions with my boys, where I ended up doing a whole run of monster sketches. I really leaned into the background on this one and had fun letting the ink lines get loose and energetic. His expression might be my favorite part. He’s got just the right mix of grumpy and angry.
Here are a few more drawings featuring one of my favorite subjects, aliens with a fish guy tossed in for good measure. I inked my pencil sketches using Pigma Sakura brush pens, which I love for their bold lines. I created a bunch of new drawings this weekend that I’m excited to share soon. I also have several years’ worth of artwork from 2021 through 2025 that I plan to sort through and gradually post in the future. Lots more to come!
sketcharound 