How skeletons helped me get my drawing groove back

Hello friends, I hope you are doing well. How is your year going? I hope things are going great. I just wanted to talk about getting over my drawing block in the past year and a half. I have periods of time where I don’t draw anything. I want to draw but I am hyper critical of myself. I mentioned it previously on the blog. If the drawing doesn’t’t come out exactly as I imagine it in my head then I get frustrated. This is not an excuse to switch to AI, because I do not support slop in any shape, or form. The best trick that I could do to get past my mental block was pick up my sketchbook and draw a skateboarding skeleton.

It never fails no matter how long it’s been between drawings (sometimes years!) that as soon as I start drawing a skating skeleton I can always come up with something. The reason for this comes from my love of the art of Vernon Courtlandt Johnson. He created almost every iconic deck for Powell Peralta back in the ‘80s, and even came out of retirement to create new decks in 2010, and 2020.

If I want to draw a subject then I try to emulate the style of my heroes. So for a few days in a row I went with that. One drawing a day. My poses, and lifework were very stiff at first. As the days went on the drawings got better. My poses became more dynamic from day to day. I finally started coming around, and feeling more confident with my work.

A took a few weeks off the sketchbook to work on art on the computer. I'll be posting those soon. When I went back to the sketchbook I knew exactly where I could pick up. This time I wanted to do a skeleton from a specific era. I did baggy clothes, and a skateboard with super tiny wheels. This was very much in style in the '90s. Believe it or not they still make tiny wheels.

One of my old friends who used to work at Neversoft gave me a couple of ideas. So I drew them up, and he asked if I had ever thought of putting together a sketchbook of my skate skeleton drawings. I said I never thought of it, but he said he would help me raise the funds if I ever decided to pursue a book. I’m not sure anyone would be interested. Would you buy a sketchbook if I sold it? Tell me about it in the comments section. If you enjoy this blog there are several ways you can support me. You can sponsor me directly on Patreon. Or like and subscribe to my videos on YouTube. You can even subscribe to the Pink Monorail Podcast featuring my wife, and myself. 

 

Sharing some favorite basketball illustrations

Heya friends, I hope that your year is going well. The art process continues to get better. I can’t wait to show you some new work when I feel it’s ready. In the meantime I wanted to share some rare basketball illustration that I made. You might already know that I am a big fan of basketball, streetball, playground basketball, freestyle, and sneaker culture. I’d written extensively about all of that in the past. Every now and then I create some basketball art that I’m really happy with. This was the case for some sci-fi themed posters.

The Nike Air Mag were the self-lacing sneakers featured in Back to the Future II. I wondered what they would have looked like in other colors, and even how a futuristic Nike warm up suit might look like. The other famous sci-fi sneakers that I always wished I owned were made by Reebok. The (bug) Stomper boots were worn by Ripley in the movie Aliens 2. I made up an android basketball player from the future wearing the Stompers. In both illustrations I even created futuristic basketballs. 

The next illustration was made for the most exciting NBA rookie in a generation. Victor Wembanyama was a 7’ 3.5” Frenchman that was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs. He played unlike traditional centers, in that he had the ability to dribble, pass, and shoot like a guard. The closest player he could be compared to was 6’ 9” Kevin Durant. Kevin had been called a “unicorn” for his rare combination of height and talent. Victor was like a super unicorn, which made me extremely happy for the team. I had been a fan of the Spurs for decades. Former head coach Gregg Popovich knew how to build franchises around talented big men such as David Robinson, and Tim Duncan. He coached the team to five championships, and was a three-time coach of the year, and a four-time All-Star coach. If they kept to the Popovich template then there was a chance that Victor could be a franchise player for years to come, and multiple-time champion as well!

The last two featured players in my basketball art gallery were Cameron Brink, and Caitlin Clark. They were super talented rookies that took the WNBA by storm. Interestingly enough they wore the same numbers but had completely different styles of play. Cameron was injured early on in the season, and missed the rest of the year while Caitlin was a nightly highlight reel. Now Cam was getting back playing minutes, and looking like she never missed a step. Best of all both dynamic players were placed on the the Team USA lineup for international play. They would be going into the FIBA tournament, and hopefully win the World Championship. If the team performed exceptionally well then they might use the same lineup for the Olympics.

I was glad to follow the next generation of basketball superstars in every league. I’ll be sharing new basketball art in the future. I’d like to know if you’ve ever created fan art of any sports star? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bookmark This Page; the random fighting game posts

I love fighting games of every type. If you want a look at rare titles, unpublished titles, and random fighting game topics then Bookmark This Page.

The best championships in fighting games, part 1

The best championships in fighting games, part 2

Fighting with a disability, part 1...

Fighting with a disability, final part

Coloring the action, how color impacted the development of fighting games

The Frightful Symmetry of Street Fighter

The new wave of Black fighting game protagonists

A quick look at the native origins of Samurai Shodown...

The unlikely origins of some Mad Gear bosses...

The Aliens, Predator, Terminator, and Capcom connection...

Creating a fighting game Frankenstein's monster...

Who will rule The New Urth? A 1UP classic...

Gravity Falls, the show, the games. A 1UP Classic...

Who will be the last fighting master left standing?

Revenge of the wooden men! (Originally posted on my Capcom-Unity blog)

Before Antonov there was Asimov, a take on the King of Fighters XIV host.

Painted faces, where have I seen that sumo before?

Chosun Musa, the 2D Korean Fighting game that almost was.

Korean fantasy fighting game Chosun Musa is not cancelled!

A look at Ken-Ju, an unreleased fighting game from 2005

The sprite-based game that predated the features of Street Fighter 6

Welcome to Death Vegas - A 1UP classic from January 23, 2009

Ultimate Domain, a fighting game that never was.

The return of Sonic... Blast Man?! - A 1UP classic from April 12, 2011

The return of a lost fighter? - A 1UP classic from October 16, 2008

A glimpse at the psychic fighting games

What about touch-based fighting games? - A 1UP Classic from April 7, 2011

Remembering some rare fighting game news in Arcadia

The last great fighting game covers of Arcadia.

The Fallen Angels, and Rage of the Dragons. Two rare fighting games get a second chance in arcades!

A good Double Dragon fighting game? The story of Rage of the Dragons.

The story of Burnov. Or how to make a fat character work in a fighting game.

Celebrating 10 Years of Arcadia / the Return of EGM! - Two Capcom-Unity classics from June 16, 2009

Daigo owns Arcadia Magazine! - A 1UP classic from October 11, 2010

Capoeira Fighter 3, the interview - A 1UP classic from January 4, 2008

The Return of Capoeira Fighter 3: Ultimate World Tournament!

What are your favorite rare, or unfinished fighting games? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Marvel comic book, and Sega video game fan art

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. I really needed the time off this past summer. I could feel home, and work life were draining me. I needed a recharge, and refocus. It turned out that visitors kept checking out the blog. Maybe they were bots, but I know there were also actual views because I got some new comments. Near the end of August the blog passed two million views. I'd like to say hello, and thank you to everyone that's stopped by. I appreciate the views, and comments! It keeps me motivated to continue.

I am starting to turn around the art slump. I’m going to share the 2026 art in the future. Today I’d like to share some illustrations that I never got around to posting. You can see more of these on my anime, and comic book art gallery. The first was Psylocke from the X-Men. I had been thinking of doing an illustration of Betsy Braddock, aka Psylocke for a while. The sexy ninja costume that she had through most of her time in Marvel comics, however her original butterfly design was amazing.

The second illustration was a fan piece of Jona Xiao. She was the actress that was playing Iron Fist in the Eyes of Wakanda animated series on Disney+. I did this drawing before finding out what her costume will actually looked like. I made it a point to celebrate minority actors playing superheroes. Plus she's one of the few to play a DC villain (Rainbow Rider 2.0 in the Flash TV series) and Marvel hero. I had also created a few video game related fan pieces for myself, that again I didn’t share here.

I had been thinking about recreating the decks from Sega’s Top Skater. I feel sorry for anyone that never experienced it in the arcade. This was especially bad as it never got a home port (until the recent Yakuza series). I loved the character designs. I hope to import the deck graphics into a Tony Hawk game one of these days. The last illustration for today was based on a boss character from the game Sonic the Fighters. This was an extremely rare arcade fighting game from Sega. It was set in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. In this version of the game Mecha Sonic could transform into a space ship. The design was very cool, and one that I wish they had made a toy, or a 3D print of that I could buy. You can see these pieces, and many more in my video game art gallery.

Have you ever created fan art of comic book characters, or video game characters? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bigmex is going on summer break for 2026!

Dear visitors I am at the end of my three posts a week run. It’s been three years worth of content. I hope you enjoyed it. I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate the views, and comments over the years. Last year I took the summer off to help the missus record new episodes of the Pink Monorail Podcast. I learned that taking the time off was good for my mental health as well. I was able to focus on art projects, and things for future blog content without feeling like I had a self-imposed deadline. I hope you understand why.

Enjoy your summer, and I’ll post again in the fall. Do you have any major plans for the summer? Or any projects you think about launching? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Shout-out to the Knicks!

If you visit this blog regularly then you know that I am a basketball fan. I just wanted to give a shout out to The New York Knicks. I also wanted to give props to Mayor Zohran Mamdani for being a positive motivating force in politics. You can tell he’s been a fan of the team for decades. His speech at the Knicks celebration was fantastic, unlike the sourpuss speech from the Knicks owner who shall not be named. A lifetime ago a Knicks fan reached out to me to create an illustration for him. He liked my streetball art, and wanted to see a streetball player in the team colors. I said I’d do it, but I wouldn’t do any other favors. Anyhow here is the 23-year-old drawing. I’d like to think I’m even better now, but I really need to draw more.

That’s it for me today. I got work, and podcasts to edits. Expect more about it in the future. In the meantime I’d like to know if you were happy for the Knicks, or any of the World Cup teams playing in 2026. Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bookmark This Page; Everything about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Epic Mickey

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is easily my favorite Disney cartoon character. If you want to learn everything about the character, and his appearances in animated, comics, and games then Bookmark This Page.

Bookmark This Page; The Disney Company in China, a podcast series

When the missus went on sabbatical I recorded a six-part series for the Pink Monorail Podcast on how the Disney Company started doing business in China. If you want to listen to the entire series then Bookmark This Page.

Disney in China, Episode 1

Disney in China, Episode 2

Disney in China, Episode 3

Disney in China, Episode 4

Disney in China, Episode 5

Disney in China, Episode 6

Have you ever visited any of the Disney parks in Asia? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Designing an Aquabats fighting game roster

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. I am still working on getting out of the artist slump. It’s tough when you want to be creative, but you are also your own worst critic. Today I’d like to share illustrations that I made from a superhero ska band. You might have heard of the Aquabats. They had a television series, and were a part of Southern California music culture for decades. They were an act that I grew up with, and one that my kid became a fan of. In fact one year we were visiting the San Diego Comic Con where they would also be performing a concert at the House of Blues. My kid asked if she could dress up as cosplay, and if I could also dress up.

Without another word I put together a costume of the Floating Eye of Death, from the Aquabats album of the same name. My mom helped make her a belt as well. Needless to say she had an absolute blast that year. We walked the convention floor, and came across other Aquabats fans. The band was doing an autograph signing at Toddland, and they loved the costume. They said that my floating eye made of a beach ball, and painted pool floaties was not far removed from the same way they made the original eye for the album.

We caught many concerts, and made lots of friends in the community. Around this time we joked about how much fun an Aquabats fighting game would be. I said they had enough band members, and enemies from the various albums that it would be possible. So I drew up what I would imagine the player select menu would look like. These illustrations and more are in my Fighting Game gallery.

Do you think an Aquabats fighting game would work? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bookmark This Page; The story of Maui Mallard

Did you know that there was a time when Disney was making some of the best sprite based games of the 16-bit era? Donald Duck, or rather a look alike named Maui Mallard was going to be the next big mascot. If you want the full breakdown then Bookmark This Page.

Remaking an Icon, Maui Mallard, part 1

Remaking an Icon, Maui Mallard, part 2

Remaking an Icon, Maui Mallard, part 3

Remaking an Icon, Maui Mallard, part 4

Remaking an Icon, Maui Mallard, final part

Did you have a favorite Disney game in any console era? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!