Dustin Parker's Monster Mania

I have a strict set of rules that I follow when creating a Monster Mania drawing but those restrictions still leave plenty of room to experiment and evolve. The most notable change has been my approach to coloring the drawings.  The early drawings were colored in a more painterly style, and I used a variety of watercolor and chalk brushes to color the drawings. I would start by laying a foundation of splatters and drips and textures, creating an abstract painting that served as both a background and an underpainting for the drawing. I would then proceed to color the line art using flat colors. Then I would use chalk brushes to paint the shading and highlights. I would often play with opacity levels and layer effects to allow bits and pieces of the abstract underpainting to show. The end result was messy and haphazard like a real painting.  In 2018, Clip Studio Paint became available on the iPad, and I started doing the majority of my inking and coloring on my iPad. The iPad ch...

I currently draw all of the Monster Mania drawings on my iPad Pro using Clip Studio Paint. I have hundreds of brushes but I use Frenden’s “Inker - Nib Stiff” and “Inker - Nib Flexible” brushes to do the majority of my digital inking and coloring. I also love to draw and color using the lasso tool. I do all of my inking and coloring in Clip Studio Paint and I use Adobe Photoshop to add some texture and grit. Roughly 95% of the work is done in Clip Studio Paint and the remaining 5% is done in Adobe Photoshop on my Mac Studio.  I’m a decrepit old man and drawing makes my hand hurt. It doesn’t help that I hold my Apple Pencil in a peculiar way. The Apple Pencil is also really thin. I like my stylus to be thick. My grip of choice is the pro-draw grip. Most grips are not thick enough for my taste and all of them like to slide off of the Apple Pencil during use. The pro-draw grip is super thick, it stays in place, it is extremely comfortable to draw with, it helps alleviate my drawing pai...