February Sketchbook 2025 - MastaFran ComicsMastaFran Comics

Pushing through the doldrums of winter, I made a collection of pixel art, sketches, and drawings I’ve been making over the past month.

As I’m figuring out the last of my commissions, I’m thinking of ways to change up my art output. The chief catalyst is buying a new iPad to sketch in it everyday like my past sketchbooks. It’s been tough as I keep shifting my art attentions around pixel art, digital illustration and general sketching.

Pixel Art

With wrapping up my pixel art commissions and getting back into developing Blackmask, I’ve been pushing myself to get better with my pixel art workflow by drawing in Pixquare on the iPad

Monochrome green pixel illustration of an anthropomorphic raccoon looking at the camera with casually hanging his hand on his belt.

Monochrome green pixel illusion of three anthropomorphic animal characters. Left is a anthropomorphic female sheep carrying a travel sack on his back and a mini sword. Middle is an anthropomorphic pig in overalls tipping his hat to the camera. Right is an an anthropomorphic female goat with a silly beard.

Trying to score a mental victory for myself by making this cutscene layout for Blackmask. It’s not final, but I’m glad I pushed myself to finish more pixel art. I also made a few half body drawings for NPCs. Thinking more about it, this would be better for more “important” NPCs.

Mastafran's art piece as Featured Art on the front page of Newgrounds

Happy again that my pixel art got front page on Newgrounds!

Digital Art

I got a new iPad, and I’m forcing myself to get better with Procreate. It’s not easy but I’m pushing myself to learn the settings enough to get conformable casually sketching in it to find something that I can like like my traditional work.

Illustration of an anthropomorphic lynx wearing a revealing Landsknecth Doublet and holds a sword with a tassel on it.

Digital Illustration of an anthropomorphic female lynx wearing a revealing Landsknecth Doublet. She dashes toward the camera sword first in a dynamic pose.

During a lunch break at my dayjob, I made these sketches of this Lynx Sword Lady who I’ll call, “Lady Letti”. as digital brush testing in Procreate I’m also pushing myself to try naming and writing up short blurbs of the characters I design. But I shouldn’t fret too much about it. This design is strong enough that I even got fan art from a mutual on Bluesky!

A traditional ink and digital color illustration of two anthropomorphic fox farmer character designs, one male on the left side, one female on the right side.

When my mind is blocked I also colored some older traditional ink drawings. These older fox designs are NPC ideas for Blackmask, whe I finally reach the step to make a fox town for them

A traditional ink and digital color turnaround illustration concepts of male and female anthropomorphic fox pirates. On the left, is a turnaround of a male fox wearing a red pants and brown hat. The Fox carries a large rifle and shot powder in the thick hairs of his tail. Middle drawings are three variants of his head with alternate eye styles. On the right, is a turnaround of a female fox with two tails wearing a yellow outfit and purple headband. One tail holds her sword at her side, and the other holds her quiver of arrows in the thick hair.

I designed the Greentail Fox Pirates for Blackmask after I drew and animated their sprites, but I wanted turnarounds I to use for larger illustrations. I’m not 100% sure how much I’ll use the gunner but, they do go with the pirate stuff I’m shooting for in the world.

Digital illustration of an anthropomorphic female coiled snake standing with two legs. The snake has spines on her back that extend up to an larger axe head spine at the tip of her tail to be used as a weapon. She also dons a helmet with axe blades on its sides.

From the tangled snake design i made earlier, plus a fan art design by a mutual on Bluesky, I made a redesign of this warrior I’ll call the “Tanglong” because as this point this snake has become more dragon-like. Also, are there Filipino mythical dragons because I now notice “Tangle Long” looks like “Tagalong”

An illustration of an anthropomorphic dog guard trapped in a choke hold by an anthropomorphic raccoon in a blue longcoat.

To avoid getting caught after an oppressive curfew within the gates of the dog city of Sirratitus, Cole dispatches a guard before an alarm can be sounded.

For the longest time, I had this colored in my files but didn’t feel happy with the colors. I’ll let this go for now and if I think of something better, I’ll redraw this.

More Sloppy Sketches

pencil sketches of two human male figures in low combat stances

Fight guy sketches to remind myself that I’m still capable of drawing human figures and faces.

Large lizard warrior sketch, so called large because she huge next to Cole.

Pen an ink sketcb on grid paper of an anthropomorphic female lizard warrior sitting on top of an anthropomorphic male raccoon who is tied up with the lizards tail struggling to free himself from her.

This design was was interesting to me so I make another sketch of this Lizard warrior who I now name, Selza the Scaled Swordmaster or Scaled Swasher I wrote int the sketch. She currently has Cole in a bind, can he escape?

Pen an ink sketch on grid paper of an anthropomorphic female lizard hugging anthropomorphic male raccoon for warmth.

Made another more intimate sketch of Selza with Cole. For the first few sketches making her a femme fatale type, I’m seeing some story potential as a typical, defrosting the cold-hearted warrior type story.

pencil sketch of a character design turnaround of a coiled snake standing with two legs. The left drawing has the snake holding a single head axe with it's tail and the right drawing is a simple back view of the snakes legs and butt to show how the tail attaches in anatomy.

This is the initial sketch design of the earlier Tanglong. I wan’t happy with it at first because felt too direct to the first inspiration by someone eles’s shitpost of a snake with legs. But after more iterations I tightened up the design.

Traditional brush pen and copic marker turnaround sketches of an anthropomorphic red furred baboon character in blue chaps, welding a small yellow flintlock pistol.

Baboon Pirate idea. It was in my sketchbook of other monkey characters I had that I decided to color with makers. I tried to get more experimental with the coloring for once. The only regret is that I didn’t give him a bigger dumpy.

Dogs and Wolves are bitter enemies who totally hate to each other…right? They’d probably would go to war same reason anyone goes to war: inconsolable differences of fear and prejudice. And also someone owes them $3.50.

Pencil sketches illustration the strained relationships of anthropomorphic animal characters. The top sketch of a dog mother pulling her puppy away from a wolf mother who also pulls her cub away in unspoken suspicion and prejudice. Handwriting reads, "Casual racism." The bottom sketch is a lion teach his cub how to fire a scoped musket at a baby hyena digging a hole. Handwriting reads, "Ranked competitive racism."

Canines and Felines have different approaches to racism. It’s a dumb worldbuilding thing and I’m still figuring out to different conflicts and relationships of the factions.

Dog Bridge statue sketch ideas. It’s a spicier idea of building statue as sentinels guarding a bridge across into a dog country or something. I don’t know if they should be living or not. Most of my sketches are brainstorming to make it easier to draw environments.

two pencil sketches of an anthropomorphic female dog carrying a small puppy child.

Most bits of Dog Fantasy land world building sketches. This time of a character called, Lady Doggington and her small son. She’s quite fancy looking. The over all idea is that socialite type who carries around a small dog. I supposes in this situation, the small dog who be a child she’s too attached too.

Pencil sketch of an anthropomorphic female rat wearing elaborate jewelry like a headdress, necklace and a small pearl wrapped at the tip of her tail like a want.

Revisiting an older character of Lillian the Queen of the Rats. She’s a fae-like trickster who like to complicate Cole’s adventures due to her fascination with him. I’m still figuring out the details of this relationship as I mull over my notes and sketches.

Pencil sketch of an anthropomorphic male raccoon standing at the top of a pedestal with his foot on top of a snake tail, and carrying a female rat. The sketch composition is reminiscent of the cover art of Edgar Rice Burroughs "A Princess of Mars" book by Micheal Whelan

Among the many explorations of their relationship is a few intimate adventure sketches of Cole being more stalwart than he should be. The broken sword is a nice contrast to bolster Cole’s anti-heroisim. The composition is a homage to Michael Whelan’s illustration art. I hope to make this a larger illustration down the line.

Pencil sketch of a battle scene of an anthropomorphic raccoon nimbly flipping against a group of anthropomorphic weasel bandits who can stretch their bodies to attack at a long range with their knives.

Two pencil sketches of one same battle scene of an anthropomorphic raccoon leaping over an anthropomorphic weasel bandits who can stretch their bodies to attack at a long range with their knives.

A bunch of sketches I made in my sketchbooks showcasing the weasel bandits in Blackmask. I wanted to make a larger illustration series of Cole verses the enemies who would be in the game’s demo. I already made an illustration with the Fox Bandits, but I want to make more down the line when I’m more put together.

A large collection of sketch concept art of the many actions and abilities anthropomorphic fox characters can do as an enemy character for the game, Blackmask.

I’m trying my best not to stuff too many ideas because most the stealth and combat stuff I think of isn’t even implemented in my game. But I do keep note of stuff that can be interesting. Heck, I’ve got a million ideas for foxes alone.

I don’t think this is everything I’ve posted online or drawn in my sketchbooks. much of it is art that takes ab it to scan, and even more is art I’m not as happy about posting. I bounce around the though about to not worrying abut quality by getting the ideas out of my head verses the idea that art and it’s impact on an audience is forever and first impressions count. I want to keep nudging myself into notable change, so I’ll see what the rest of the month brings.