Disney characters help me break our of my art block

Hello friends, in the previous blog I talked about how I’ve been working through summer of 2026 to break out of my mental block regarding drawing. I like to draw but am very hard on myself. To help get me out of the cycle of avoidance I forced myself to do sketches, the ink them. The ideas that I could draw no matter how I felt were skateboarding skeletons. Growing up in the 1980’s these were subjects burned into my brain. The best skeletons came from the pen of Vernon Courtlandt Johnson. After four days, and four drawings in a row my friend Ralph asked for a skater doing an Indy Nosebone. Rather than another skeleton I did one featuring Mickey Mouse.

I played Disney Sports Skateboarding but it wasn’t really that good. With that said I still unlocked everything in the game for the GameCube. I didn’t enjoy it near as much as I play Grind Session, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 on the Playstation. With that said the Disney characters in a skate game was a great idea. The levels were memorable, and special moves truly unique. The control wasn’t there, but the character models were amazing. I used Mickey’s costume when creating my piece.

As long as I was at it I did another Disney drawing. This time featuring Chip and Dale. The chipmunks actually appeared in Disney Sports Snowboarding for the Game Boy Advance. The duo were capable of performing all sorts of tricks on the snowboard. They were spaced apart as if they were the boots on a snowboard. It was a clever mechanic. I wondered how they would have appeared if they were in the GameCube game instead. I’m sure they would have been a blast to play. I was in a full Disney mood at this point, so I decided to draw a very rare character just vibing. Ferdinand the Bull was an Academy Award winning movie from 1938. It was a lovely story about self acceptance. There are some days where I just want to sit under the shade of a cork tree and smell the flowers too.

With a few days of drawing under my belt I decided to go for a color illustration. Still in a Disney mood I did a piece in time for the 4th of July. The 250th anniversary of the USA was a bit of a let down, but that didn’t stop me from putting forward something patriotic. I don’t draw Oswald nearly enough, but this one with Ortensia came out kind of cute. If you are a regular on the blog then you know that I am the co-host on the Pink Monorail podcast. The missus is a theme park historian, and she was doing a write up on The Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland. This was an attraction at Disneyland that was eventually turned into Big Thunder Mountain, and the remaining land became Star War’s Galaxy’s Edge many years later.

Over the past few years some unscrupulous people have been suing the various Disney Fan sites claiming that the photographs they were using were their property. So unless you could prove you took the picture, or used a photo from the Disney press people then it was hard to get any story posted. Especially for retro attractions. So the missus asked me to create illustrations that she could run that wouldn’t step on any toes. I did a few for her write up. One of which was based on the original attraction poster.

I’m actually in the process of creating other illustrations for future articles. It’s a great exercise to create art for her that keeps me engaged. I’d like to know if you had ever drawn anything from a favorite game, or in this case Disney attraction. 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. 

 

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. 

 

The skeleton skateboard art from my sketchbook

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. In the meantime I’d like to share some skeleton skateboard art with you that I did from a few years back. When I was a kid I saw my first Vernon Courtlandt Johnson illustration for Powell Peralta skateboards. My mind was forever warped by it in a good way. Ever since then I’m always at peace when I draw skeletons skateboarding. You can see a bigger collection on my gallery of surf, and skateboard art.

Did you have a favorite skeleton piece that I did? Would you like to see me do more skate art? 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!

Art Requests from 2024 finally completed.

At the end of 2024 I asked my friends if they had drawing ideas to get me out of my creative slump. I said they could throw three ideas at me, then I would choose one. After drawing it I would send it to them. I had done that in the past, and after a dry spell thought I should do it again. Sadly it took me about 11 months to get it done. Today we look at the drawings for my friends, and the story that went with one of them.

My friend Andrew asked for a Lunar character, or Fire Emblem character, or Heathcliff. I chose Edelgard even though I’ve never played Fire Emblem. I hope it looks okay.

My friend Tamson works as a park ranger. He asked for a skateboarder, or dragon, or something cool from Mexican folklore. It turns out a lot of creatures from Mexican folklore are monsters that lure children to their death. Such was the case for the Lechoza which looks like an old lady but turns into an owl monster. I hope Tamson doesn’t run into any while patrolling the parks.

My friend Jeremy is also a producer on the indie fighting game Rotten Core. He asked for a creepypasta character , or an obscure SNK character, or Spawn. Touji Sakata is a rare SNK character. Despite looking imposing he’s actually very short, not that I would want to mess with his bone-breaking throws. If you know what game he’s from post it in the comments.

My friend Christy kept it simple and asked for Santa. This was actually the first of the drawing that I had finished last year, but she wouldn’t get it until 2025.

Diana had some really great fantasy ideas. Falcor from Never Ending Story, the Goblin King from Labyrinth, or The Horned King from the Black Cauldron. I was going to draw the Horned King, but I had never drawn Falcor before so I did that instead. Have you seen any of the movies that Diana had requested characters from?

Our good family friend Paul had a bunch of great ideas. Adventure through Inner Space, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, or The Santa Fe Super Chief. I had actually drawn an Adventure through Inner Space illustration for my friend Ray a long time ago, so that was out. The choices were Disneyland attraction or classic train. Since Paul is a Disney super fan I went with a couple of characters from the attraction.

My old boss, and mentor Angel asked for something so specific I had to draw it in color. “Hello Kitty in a pink sprinkle donut!” I didn’t mail this drawing out when it was done, instead I gave it to her over breakfast when we caught up.

Long time friend Erin also had a bunch of great ideas; any Lucha you really love, or a chocobo from FFVII, or the "clever girl" Dino from Jurassic Park. I was super tempted to draw the velociraptor but instead I went with my favorite tag team from the modern era “Los Ice Creams.” They wrestled for Chikara Pro Wrestling and lasted a few years. My favorite old school tag team was the Road Warriors / Legion of Doom.

The missus asked for the stars of her favorite Disney movie the live action So Dear to my Heart. This movie was a very subtle look at race relations in the USA that was very rarely brought up when instead people would point at Song of the South as proof that the Disney studios were filled with racists. If you get a chance please watch this film.

My good friend Jennifer asked for Stitch or Eeyore. I decided to combine both because I thought they should get along well.

Blaine had the hardest idea to draw. He said “The only thing I’ll throw in here is an illustration of a funny moment in your life.” It took me months but I remembered something funny that happened when I was a kid. Like many of you my family went to church on Sunday. My brothers and I were fairly well behaved at church because we knew that our parents wouldn’t tolerate us acting a fool. Two little kids didn’t get the memo and were way out of control. The entire church service they were crawling all over and under the pews. Which wouldn’t have been so bad but they rolled up their missalette (a church program) and used them as megaphones. Every few minutes one kid would yell “PEE PEE” and his brother would call out “POO POO.” This went on for an hour. We did our best to bite our tongues and not laugh out loud. Even our parents were finding it hard to breathe. To this day whenever we pass by my old neighborhood I just point in the direction of the church and say “Pee Pee Poo Poo” to my family and they bust out laughing.

Family friend Wendy is another Disney Fan. Her ideas were the Cheshire Cat and Caterpillar, or Dobby the house elf, or Pee Wee Herman and his dog Speck. I’ve drawn the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland previously, and I don’t care for JK Rowling's politics. So the choice was obvious. I’ve never drawn Pee Wee before. I did get a chance to interview him many years ago at a Disney event. He was a genuinely kind soul. I miss him.

Last but not least was my old friend Dan. One of the most insightful people when it comes to movie, and comic book storytelling. I miss hanging out in his old comic book shop. He had a very specific request. “Draw me as a fat space marine preferably an ultramarine por favor.” Ask and ye shall receive. I had fun putting this piece together. So that wraps up my drawing request from 2024. Will I open up requests for 2025? Well that remains to be seen. Did you have a favorite drawing? I’d like to hear about it. 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!