I adore Smiling Friends and it is one of the best shows to come out of Adult Swim for a long time now. It’s a great absurd cartoon with a mishmash of visual styles. There is some fun animation and it ranges from the hilariously simplistic to the very complicated – but it all works really well together.

As for the main reason I like the show, it’s the dialogue. I am more of a writer than an artist, so I just love hearing character lines and conversations because they feel so real. My favorite episode is still the one where they go to Brazil and are stuck in the airport, trying to figure out what to do. The dialogue is just so natural and can feel heavily improvised. You get these moments of absurdity in an episode, juxtaposed with statements that sound like something I’ve heard out of my friend circles.

Smiling Friends is real good stuff. My favorite character is Alan, the red guy.

Smiling Fight 64

Anyway, as I had mentioned at the top of the sketchbook post, the drawing composition I went with for this Smiling Friends art reminded me of game box art. Something like a mascot fighter like Super Smash Bros.

So… that is what I decided to run with as a little photobash element. Pretty basic but has that late 1980s licensed game feel to it. A horribly misguided licensed game. You know that without the M-rating it’s not going to be as good.

Anyway, some credit: The Smiling Fight 64 logo is a bash of the official Smiling Friends logo, and the font HVD Steinzeit. Additionally, I used two box art sources. The first was located here, while the second was located here.

Anyway, with that gag done, here is the full art you’re looking for.

As always, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2026 Sketchbook #006 – Smiling Friends appeared first on hpkomics.com.

So yeah, here is the main character, Lauren Ipsum herself. I really love the classic cartooning look of this character, and the overall comic. It has always given me a warm, nostalgic feeling. I grew up reading a lot of newspaper comics as a kid, and I feel like Brubaker’s work would have fit right in alongside some of the comics I loved.

The other thing that I think makes Lauren a good cartoon character is that she is easy to draw. I do not mean that in any dismissive way, rather, the shape language is very strong and you know right away as you draw the character that you’re on the right track or not. The overbite and the ears are particularly key in the look, I found. When I was happy with those I felt I was on the right path.

As always, here is the key art without the sketch. Charles, if you are checking this out, let me know if you want to full resolution image.

As always, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2026 Sketchbook #003 – Lauren Ipsum appeared first on hpkomics.com.

So what do I do to open the 2026 sketchbook run? Let’s revisit one of my older characters, and mascot, Karma.

The last time Karma popped up in the sketchbook project was in the second post of the 2025 run.

I was thinking about doing a redesign, and had at one point considered bringing his eyes together. It felt weird, however, so I decided not to do that. I did make an adjustment to his mouth, though. I also did a turnaround of the lizard for reference purposes. I am likely going to be doing a lot of turnarounds for characters in the coming year.

I also did update the sketchbook project template. I had accidentally merged out the editable header layer, so I made a new one from scratch. I also decided to add more paper texture to the sketch background as well to provide contrast to the illustrations.

Anyway, check out the model sheet below.

He’s a very fun character to draw. If you are an artist and feel so compelled, I would love to see how you draw him. In any case, thank you for checking out the first post in the sketchbook project of 2026.

Anyway, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2026 Sketchbook #001 – Karma appeared first on hpkomics.com.

It’s been quite a while since I updated the sketchbook here on the site. I feel bad about it, but the reality is, I was dealing with a lack of motivation and time, which makes this stuff hard to do. My transition to full time teaching, and all the associated work involved in that transition, ate up a lot of my time.

I ultimately feel like I need to train myself to draw again. So, inspired by a recent post I wrote, it was time to draw the iconic Art the Clown from Terrifier.

I ended up choosing Art the Clown as a subject because, well, the character has a very distinct facial structure. I mean, just look at him!

He seemed like he would be fun to draw, and he very much was. It’s a lot of sharp features, which I enjoy in clown characters because it can be creepy. I also love horror, if that wasn’t clear based on 90% of the material posted on my site.

Really, though, this is me just trying to loosen up and get back into drawing regularly. On that note, keep me going. I’ll take the first five suggestions posted in the comments (one request per commenter, please) and I’ll give it a spin.

Thanks for checking out the work!

The post 2025 Sketchbook #032 – Art the Clown appeared first on hpkomics.com.

As far as I am concerned, Bart Simpson is among the most difficult characters ever to draw.

Anyway, there is my attempt at the early ’90s bad boy. I feel I am close, but having not drawn this character in years, maybe a decade or more, I am sure there are elements I can improve on. But again, I am close. Maybe it’s at least close enough for Bongo Comics if they were still around, of course.

Anyway, I still enjoy The Simpsons. It was fun to draw this classic character. I will need to draw Homer at some point, he’s my favorite character. But here is Bart, for now.

If you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2025 Sketchbook #013 – Die Bart Die appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Not much to say here. I’ve been a fan of the series since it first aired and wouldn’t mind drawing an official comic one day. Hell, I feel like I could do a good job writing one as well. Maybe a mini or a backup if the opportunity presents itself. At least now I have some art for the portfolio. The art style is easy enough, I think, it’s very iconic and once you figure out proportions it can be done pretty quickly.

Here is the image separate from the sketchbook graphics.

Aaaaaaaand that’s the way the news, goes. Goodnight everybody.

If you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2025 Sketchbook #012 – Rick and Morty appeared first on hpkomics.com.