May the Fourth be With You 2026

May the Fourth be With You 2026

OK, I'm only 6 hours late to the official "May the Fourth"--based on a pun so obvious and terrible I am disappointed I didn't think of it myself.  It's also using Jaxxon T. Tumperakki as part of a running joke I've been using for... 11 years now?  What the--what happened to all that time?  Well, let it never be said that I will not commit to the bit.  This time it's Jaxxon wistfully staring off at the Twin Suns of Tatooine as they begin to drop down below the horizon.

To re-explain everything about Jaxxon (and to copy-and-paste part of this from last year's Blog), he's part of my continuing--although not as Quixotic as it used to be--quest to make Jaxxon, the "Star Wars" version of a green Bugs Bunny, into something vaguely popular.  Jaxxon started in the Marvel Comics "Star Wars" #8 (1977), taking place after "A New Hope", in a pastiche of "Seven Samurai"/"Magnificent Seven" and...  And it's a long story.  He's a 6' tall, green rabbit which was loosely based on Bugs Bunny that was in "Star Wars" comics and he caught my attention as a kid.

Since I've started this crazy quest, he's now he's appeared in comics (sure, it's the "Star Wars: Adventures" line, but I'll take it as a win and say he's officially canon, now), and apparently even has a Black Series action figure.  He also is the star of the "Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories" one-shot with Dark Horse Comics a couple years ago (with an awesome Mike Mignola cover).  And he is in the non-canon "Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the Past", voice by Ben Schwartz.  So, shall I declare myself the winner and say I'm done?  Oh, I'll probably beat that dead horse a little more, still!

BONUS for "May the Fourth": Here's an unrelated link to a hauntingly beautiful song by Jeremy Messersmith's "Tatooine", delightfully animated with paper cutouts from the original trilogy.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quickly scrawled digital pencils on a 3,000px x 2,000px canvas in Rebelle 8 Pro.

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STEP TWO:  And here's the finished digital painting

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Done digitally in Rebelle 8 Pro.

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Happy (belated) Superman Day!

Superman Day - 2026

I don't know why I don't realize these things until they are too late, but last week on April 18, 2026, it was Superman Day.  With Superman being my moral North Star since I was but a child (some would argue I have yet to grow up and I can't say they are entirely wrong), I thought I'd do up a painting of Christopher Reeve as Superman, why not?

After my mentioning I think I've been a little too heavy on digital painting of late in my last post, I figured I had to do up something with traditional painting--in this case it is another Acrylic painting.  Although, I wish I had a better scanner, as the colors are a bit more harsh than they are on the original.

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils done with a blue pencil on an 11" x 14" piece of copy paper.

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STEP TWO: I was going to bust out the light box and trace it onto some watercolor paper and thought "Hey, why don't I just scan it in and print it out on some extra-heavy cardstock?"  Also, it was a bit larger that I was intending and shrunk it down to 8" x 10".  I converted the Blue Line to Black, darkened the lines, and printed it out to paint with Acrylic Paint.

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STEP THREE: And here's the first pass with Acrylic paint.  Mostly, just to lay out the basic shapes and colors and give the next layers something to stick to, as Acrylic seems to adhere better when going over top a previous Acrylic layer.

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STEP FOUR: And here's the final painting.  Alas, the finished painting is much more subtle in color and blending than the scanned image shows.  Ah, well...  I guess it's OK.

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Done traditionally with Acrylic Paint on 8" x 10" extra-heavy cardstock.

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Dune (1984) - Paul Atreides

Dune (1984)
Paul Atreides

I admit I was surprised to see a Dune 3 trailer already, figuring it would be another couple a few years before it was going to come out.  But, anyhoo, as great as Denis Villeneuve's version is, my "Dune" has all manner of David Lynchian weirdness: Jean Luc Picard/Professor X as Gurney Halleck; men with eyebrows bigger than ZZ Top's beards; Sting running around in a black thong; Spacer Guild members are giant fetuses in steam-powered locomotives; and more festering pustules than you can shake a stick at.  There is something about the David Lynch version that I find compelling for all its strangeness.  Well, that and I saw it when I was a teenager--the prime time to imprint on media.

So, for not much reason, I figured I'd do a run of "Dune" paintings.  I also feel as if I had been doing a bit too much digital work of late and feel like I need to do some work in the actual painting and whatnot.

Of course, I should have done some sort of rhyme or pun with "Dune" and "June", I suppose.  Ah, well.  Perhaps, by the time I'm done with the half-dozen or so paintings I'm vaguely planning for this run, it will be June or close enough to it.

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STEP ONE: Here are the quick pencils, done on a 6" x 8" gray gessoed hard board.

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STEP TWO: And here is the first pass with Acrylic paint.

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STEP THREE: And, after a lot of back-and-forth and corrections, here's the finished painting.  Now that it's scanned in, I'll toss a coat of varnish on and call it done!  

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Done traditionally with Acrylic Paint on 6" x 8" gessoed hardboard.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 #9

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's the next submission featuring that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing:
MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!

Well, here it is, the last of the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness for 2026. And what better way to send off our favorite Mind Blastin’ Lil' Buddy than to have the A.I.M. Agent whispering “Hush” and all that with a parody of “Goodnight Moon”.

Visit the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog early and often to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils done on a 2,500px x 2,000px canvas.

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STEP TWO:  And here are digital inks.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the added colors, done on several layers under the Digital Inks. 

I also added a slight paper grain over the top to break up the plain colors.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 #8

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's the next submission featuring that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing:
MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!

Here's the next submission to March M.O.D.O.K. Madness.  Why did I choose to have M.O.D.O.K. driving some sort of "Mad Max: Fury Road" style murderous dune buggy?   Who knows, especially since I really don’t like drawing vehicles.  I'm not even all that good at them (although, admittedly, much better than I used to be).  Bleh!  What was I thinking?

One more day to go for March M.O.D.O.K. Madness!

Visit the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog early and often to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 2,750px canvas.  I also did a simple grid just to keep everything vaguely in perspective.  Nothin' fancy or exact--just enough to fake it.

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STEP TWO:  And here are digital inks.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the added colors, done on several layers under the Digital Inks.  I decided to keep the inks drawn in freehand, rather than using either the Perspective Ruler or the new hold-shape to snap to a straight line or corrected shape feature that Clip Studio Paint has with Version 5 (basically, the same thing that Procreate does when drawing shapes).  Keeping the lines freehand gives them a little more life for this kind of wacky drawing, whereas if all the lines were precise and exactly straight, etc., it would probably be a bit more sterile.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 #7

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's the next submission featuring that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing:
MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!

Well, this took a little bit longer than I intended, but here’s my ripoff… er, pastiche of Frank Frazetta, based on a problematic scene in “Ms. Marvel #7” vol. 1 (1977) where M.O.D.O.K. attempts to take over Ms. Marvel’s mind and make her love and worship him.  It didn’t last long before he got the stuffings beaten out of him, of course, but I could not pass up the image of M.O.D.O.K. in a Frazetta-esque scene, vaguely based on the comic page.

Here's the original page from "Ms. Marvel #7" (1977) in question.

And here is the one of the many "Princess of Mars" covers from Frazetta that I used to base my parody upon.

Visit the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog early and often to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!

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STEP ONE:  Hey, look, I used Rebelle and remembered to do some "Work in Process" pics while working on the digital painting.  (It happened once, I guess it can theoretically happen again.)  Anyhoo, here are the very quickly scribbled digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 3,000px canvas.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the first and part of a second pass with the digital Gouache brushes.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting, after lots and lots and lots of back-and-forth.

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Done digitally in Rebelle 8 Pro.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 #6

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's the next submission featuring that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing:
MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!

OK, this picture of M.O.D.O.K. was just me goofing around with the Lasso Fill tool in the latest Version Update for Clip Studio Paint.  Nothing fancy and not a parody that amuses me (and only me, not that it takes much) or anything like that, just randomly circling parts that filled in and subtracted out colors.  It gave an interesting paper cutout look to the image which I kind of like.  Kinda.  I was so committed to the bit, I even signed my name using the Lasso Fill Tool.

Not to worry, I'll make it up with the next one: A pastiche/parody of Frank Frazetta if all goes to plan.  Not that it always does, of course...

Visit the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog early and often to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!

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Well, as I just started working on it and just goofed around until it was done, there isn't really any "Work in Progress", it was all done on a 2,000px x 2,400px canvas on a couple different layers.  Um... tada!...

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 #5

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's the next submission featuring that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing:
MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!

This time, it's just a bit of digital doodling on a canvas in Rebelle 8 Pro and this came out.  Looks like non-idle hands are also the Devil's Workshop!  Although, in my Mind's Eye, it was going to remain a bit more "painterly" and impressionistic.  Maybe next time!  Or, one of the times coming up, anyways...

Visit the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog early and often to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!

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STEP ONE:  I just did some doodling in Rebelle 8 Pro and had done on a 1,875px x 2,600px canvas.  This time, I remembered to do a half-way point of the digital painting, rather than realize when I'm 80% of the way finished to think "Oh, crud, I should have done this an hour ago..." 

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STEP TWO:  Here's the finished digital painting

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Done digitally in Rebelle 8 Pro.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 #4

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's the next submission featuring that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing:
MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!

It's Pi Day, and what better way to celebrate than a M.O.D.O.K. cartoon (click the "Pi Day" Link/Label on the side bar for more examples)?  I will admit, I'm not much when it comes to Math (or Maths, for those of you across The Pond), but Pi Day amuses me.  Although, Mario Day (Mar10) also amuses me, as well, but I always forget about it until it is the day of, otherwise I would probably post something in honor of that day, too.  Next year, I guess...

Visit the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog early and often to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the very quickly scribbled digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 3,000px canvas.

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STEP TWO:  And here are digital inks along with the Lettering.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the added colors, done on several layers under the Digital Inks.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 #3

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's the next submission featuring that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing:
MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!

This time I kept it relatively simple with a parody of Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop.  Although, M.O.D.O.K. maybe looks a little too much like Bart Simpson...  Hmmm, perhaps I'll do that one next week if it hasn't been done to Death already.  Well, a cursory search or two didn't show anything much like I had in mind, so maybe.  We shall see...

Visit the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog early and often to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the very quickly scribbled digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 3,000px canvas.

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STEP TWO:  And here are digital inks along with the Lettering.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the added colors, done on several layers under the Digital Inks.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 #2

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's the next submission featuring that Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing:
MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!

This time doing a parody of the classic "Akira" poster by Otomo, with M.O.D.O.K. doing the classic walk toward his Kirby-Powered Mecho-Chair.  This is one of those images I've had in my mind for quite some time, but it feels so familiar.  I tried to do a check on The Googles and such to make sure this hasn't been done before and didn't see an example.  Perhaps it has been on my mind for so long that I gave myself deja vu.

As for the Kanji for M.O.D.O.K., as I neither read or write Japanese (heck, many argue I barely read and write in my native tongue, English), I will have to put my blind faith in the Internet that the English to Kanji translator I used is correct. What could possibly go wrong?  Anyhoo, I traced over the Kanji to go over the M.O.D.O.K. ala the "Akira" poster, just to be as accurate as possible and to minimize the odds of my accidentally writing some unintentional.

Visit the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog early and often to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the very quickly scribbled digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 3,000px canvas.

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STEP TWO:  And here are digital inks.  I didn't care for the penciled steps into the Mechano-Chair as the 1-point perspective made it look a little on the wonky side, so Ichanged it in the Inks to make them a bit more rounded and curved to follow the Mechano-Chair's form.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the added colors, done on several layers under the Digital Inks.  I debated exporting the Inks Layer as a .png and doing the colors in Rebelle, as it does a much better job with some of the paintings brushes and tools, but decided to just do it all in Clip Studio Paint.  I love Clip Studio Paint's Ink brushes, and Rebelle's color and digital paints.  If only they could be combined into some Frankenstein program!

Good enough to call DONE and go on the start the next one!

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026 #1

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2026
(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's time again for everyone's favorite March-based bit of Madness and Mirth featuring that wacky, hyper-cephalic Jack Kirby creation Designed Only for Killing:
MARCH M.O.D.O.K. MADNESS!

For the first one, I had an image pop into my head of M.O.D.O.K. as the poster for the B-Movie classic, "Attack of the 50ft. Woman".  Oh, sorry, "Classic" should be in scare quotes--but I liked it when I saw it as a kid as part of a double-feature with "The Amazing Colossal Man"... or was it "War of the Colossal Beast"?... I watched all of them at one time or another on "T.J. and the A.N.T. (All Night Theater)".

Here is the original, classic "Attack of the 50ft. Woman" poster.  Classic Poster and awesome art by Sci-Fi Movie Poster painter, Reynold Brown.  He painted so many of the Classic Sci-Fi posters that fascinated me in my youth.  Give 'em a Google!

I'm hoping to get about 8-10 submissions done and sent to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog.  Visit the site to see some of the other artists who also enjoy the exploits of everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and tell 'em John sent ya!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the very quickly scribbled digital pencils done on a 2,000px x 3,000px canvas.

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STEP TWO:  And here is the digital painting, done in Rebelle 8.  And, yeah, those cars are comically childish, but they were small and just in the background.

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Done digitally in Rebelle with an assist from Clip Studio Paint with the Lettering

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Unwanted Valentines: The Lord of the Rings (2001)

Unwanted Valentines:
The Lord of the Rings (2001)

Here's another Unwanted Valentine, this time featuring Sauron from "The Lord of the Rings" (2001).

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital blue pencils, done on a 2,000px x 2,800 @ 300dpi canvas.

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STEP TWO:  And the digital inks, done mostly with an 10pt and a 15pt brush.

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STEP THREE:  The colors were done on the layer below.

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Done digitally with Clip Studio Paint

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