I DREW THAT: Zazzle x D23 2026

 

A selection of items are available on Zazzle featuring the exclusive character art that I created for D23 now splashed across their 2026 everything; or perhaps they’re on the D23 site offered through Zazzle. The Print-On-Demand platform features Mickey, Miss Piggy, the Mad Hatter and The Sun Bonnets on shirts, drink ware and other items. I don’t know how long these have been available. 

I don’t know if other characters are waiting in the wings to be featured on merchandize. I also don’t know if these are D23 Gold Member Exclusive items. All I can say is order it while you can and keep an eye open for more in the future.

https://d23.com/shop/

D23 Character Collage Tote Bag

This large page with sold er straps features 8 pieces of my character art: the Mad Hatter, Dory, Daisy Duck, Lightning McQueen, Kermit the Frog, the Sun Bonnets, Pua and Cruella DeVil with the D23 logo in the center square. It appears to have the same design printed on the reverse.

Character Tee-Shirts 

Mickey Mouse, Miss Piggy, the Mad Hatter and the Sun Bonnets are available with character art printed on the fronts of shirts. Shirts are offered in a variety of colors.

The same selection of character art are available with the art printed on the backs and the D23 logo printed on the fronts on the upper-left chest.

Mickey 2-Sided Hoodie

This hoodie features Mickey Mouse printed on the back and the D23 logo on the front, upper-left chest. The hoodie is zippered in the front with hoodie drawstrings and 2 pockets.

Mickey Hat

The classic dad hat is available in a variety of colors. Is is contracted with 100% cotton bio-washed chino twill for a soft, worn feel.

Character Insulated Tumblers

Here are a selection of three characters: Mickey Mouse, Miss Piggy and the Mad Hatter. The tumblers stainless Steel construction holding 20 oz.

D23 Character Mugs

Mickey Mouse, Miss Piggy, the Mad Hatter and the Sun Bonnets are printed on two-sides of a coffee mug. The handle and inside of the mug are colored to compliment the art. The mugs are available in two sizes.

I DREW THAT- EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival, 2026

 

Now that Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival 2026 is done, it means that remaining bits of associated merchandise on DisneyStore.com are drastically marked down.

The headband with Mickey ears and an Ice Cream Mug with lid feature Orange Bird art that I created in late 2024 specifically for the festival. As with most character art assets, things like colors and details either added or removed happen between when I deliver art and when it appears on actual products.

I DREW THAT- D23 Gold Member 2026 Branding

 

It’s a remarkable honor to have contributed this year to D23 look. D23, the official Disney fan club changes its branding look in subtle ways that still engages its fan community. The branding applies across most of the elements that reach the fans including membership cards, display banners, and not the least of which pins. I drew as many as 17 pieces of character art for the D23 group. We’ll see as the year progress which of them pop up and in what variety of uses.

 

A lot of the character choices in the mix give nods to significant anniversaries celebrated by the many characters, movies and theme park icons that Disney is famous for. 

 

Among the items in the Gold Member gift kit are a members card and certificate, a commemorative Mickey Mouse pin celebrating “Thru the Mirror” 1936 short, collectible magnet featuring Pluto, $25 event discount and D23 Disney Lorcana card.

This year, higher level membership offer additional premium gifts including a a few items featuring some of my art: a 10-piece pin set and a RSVLTS x Disney Shirt.

Here, I share 14 of the characters that I created for D23.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (No. 1)
Mickey Mouse (Thru the Mirror, 1936, 90yr)
Cruella De Vil (One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1961, 65yr)
Pluto the pup 

Daisy Duck
Pua (Moana, 2016, 10yr)
Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland, 1961, 65yr)
James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (Monsters, Inc., 2001, 25)

Dory (Finding Dory, 2016, 10yr)
Sun Bonnets (Country Bear Jamboree, 1971, 55yr)
Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog (The Great Muppet Caper, 1981, 45yr)

Lightning McQueen (Cars, 2006, 20yr)
Mickey Mouse (No.2) (Thru the Mirror, 1930, 90yr)

 The style that D23 had me apply to the characters is an extension of what I’ve been doing on my ongoing series of sticky note sketches. I describer it as something honoring 1930’s newspaper clip art or “Monopoly Man” art. It incorporates bold line work and clear silhouettes. It sometimes has rubber-hose arms and legs. It never fusses with making sure shapes are closed off to define spaces to drop in color.

 

Tuff-Girl- Action!

This is the 2023 Tuff-Girl Poster print.

In keeping with the 1960’s - early 1970’s era of inspiration I drew upon 2 sources of inspiration.

First is the 1969 cover of Action Comics No. 373. Pencilled by Curt Swan and Inked by Neal Adams. It was after a little internet research, that I had learned to whom to credit the art. I think perhaps with Superman in the bottom right corner, that one could spot Swan’s style. What I think threw me off that scent and into thinking that the penciler was emulating Swan’s style was the not-typical-Curt-Swan’s-Supergirl face of the central figure. Knowing what I know now, that’s Adams’ style bleeding into the face render.

In my original, concept sketches, you can see me attempting to stick closely to the Supergirl design with a skirt, inspired boot designs and the same hair do. I would have added a cape if that was something with which Tuff-Girl accessorized her costume.

The secondary inspiration is the promotional poster for the James Bond movie Dr. No by artist, Mitchell Hooks and designed by David Chasman. 

 

As I have developed and improved as an artist, the more that I like art styles that are rougher and incorporate peeks of the art processes or, as they say, the artist’s hand. In the poster version with five different spot colors for the figures, the black screen is Hook’s drawing.

For my base drawing, I broke Swan’s Supergirl pose with more asymmetry and contra-posto to have her stepping out of the hole instead of her hands and feet holding open the hole. The torn hole, is less the white framing device of the DC Comics cover, and as a result is a stand-in for a sun burst motif. To make the rough drawing feel communicate, I used a black Prisma Color art pencil on a 9” x 12” piece of water color paper, expecting to enlarge the image of the print.

In my digital color of the art, I soon jumped away from borrowing the monochromatic or spot color look, and settled with playing with the idea of the interaction of only printed magenta and yellow screens underneath the black screen of the drawing- no cyan screen. With different levels of magenta and yellow there are ranges of pinks, oranges and reds to play with. The direct painted version seemed to be lacking. So knowing that I was playing with the 2-screens idea, it was a short creative leap to have Photoshop create coarse half tones of the magenta and yellow.

Siding with the Dr. No poster, I silhouette Tuff-Girl against white rather than the black of the Action Comics cover for a back-lit effect. The triangular page tears working with the white background further implies the sun burst motif, intentional or not.

For my convention exclusive version, I recolored the surrounding “page” to a near-black, deep rose color and pulled back to fit the top-left tag while revealing more of the art.

I often try to have my Tuff-Girl posters feature her with her dog Wichita. I’m sorry that I opted not to include Wichita in the final image. She threw the composition off balance.

Heroes Convention 2023

 

After a three year absence, I will be returning to Heroes Convention, Charlotte, NC this coming Father’s Day weekend.

HEROES CONVENTION

Charlotte

Friday, June 16 - Sunday June 18, 2023

Charlotte Convention Center

 

501 S. College St.

Charlotte, NC 28202

Artist Alley: AA-68 & 69

Featured offerings:

- Unstoppable Tuff-Girl Comics -

- Original Art -

- Art Prints -

- Commissions -

- Sketch Books -

- Miscellaneous Merchandise -

This was a late decision on my part to go this year. I had not been able to go to last year’s Heroes Con, which was the first following the COVID having shut down the previous two shows. Other than the loose art that I’ve drawn and collected for sale, I won’t be arriving with much new stuff.

If you’re curious, Issue No. 4 of Unstoppable Tuff-Girl is still rattling around my head.

I hope that I remember how to do this and pack everything that I’ll need and want to sell.

See you there!

monstergram7 - Top 3 January 2022

 

The monotonae blog has been a current-works portfolio. It has also been neglected for quite a while. At the end of 2022, I thought that I would at least do some sort of Top 9 or 10 liked postings from my instagram account, monstergram7. There are phone apps that will filter that kind of thing, but for reasons I didn’t like the results, not the least of which is the inclusion of the 2021 “Top 9” post. I felt that the pool ought to be limited to the original posts. So in brute force manner in went back through my posts to see what the top 10 were, and in the process I could determine the tops by each month.

And now here I am, beginning a month by month accounting of the top 3.

#1- Cinderella’s Broken Coach (ballpoint pen ink on paper napkin). 

I had drawn this in a Carl’s Jr. one morning while waiting out work being done on my car, so the vehicle repair theme was at the forefront of my mind. Playing around with stylizing the Disney princess is a frequent part of my 9-to-5 job.

 

#2- World Pictographic Icons from a D23 Map (digital). 

This square of 3 is just one of many that features the pictographs that I designed to embellish a map for the D23 Disney Fan Club. The map that I had created is just the backing board for the real prize- a set of enamel pins each representing a different Disney resort plus the Disney Cruise Line. The inspiration for the style was Rolly Crump’s animals for “it’s a small world” attraction that compliments Mary Blair’s  fanciful designs.

#3- Poppy Jean, Tiger (black ink and color pencil on paper).

Poppy is another of my attempts to develop a pin-up/cheesecake character design in my own style, whatever that is. Many successful artists can be identified by how they draw and paint beautiful women: Dan DeCarlo, Frank Frazetta, Alberto Varga, Olivia Berardinis, and the list goes on. However, I get in my own way because so much of my 9-to-5 job is to be a style mimic, and not a style originator.

I think some time in 2021, I had drawn a loose princess character, which I thought could be the basis of that pin-up. Even now, I’ve not settled on a distinct design, but just to be contrarian, she’s keeping the glasses.

I had explored perhaps two dozen different names. I perhaps settled on “Poppy” because I frequent do my initial sketches with a Poppy Red Col-Erase color pencil. The second name, Jean came about because I liked the three syllable rhythm. It won out over Poppy Anne, Poppy Jo and several others.

The costume is a nod to the Lunar calendar Year of the Tiger for 2022.

Stiky-to-itivity

 

After a couple of years of the COVID pandemic induced work-at-home situation for my staff-character artist position at Disney, I earnestly returned to a semi-regular drive into the Disney Glendale campus work routine Spring of this year. The buildings were and had been throughout the year typically pretty empty. In May, I started making sketches on standard size 3-inch square sticky notes and posting them in the lobby of the building.

This fulfilled two things: 1) In an empty building, I felt that I could pretty much do what ever it was that pleased me (provided that work was being completed); 2) the sketches were things that I could share with regularity on social media like Instagram (@monstergram7) and with a group of Disney employees on Slack.

These sketches being neither assignments (for work or commissions) or those that I do for my “What Shall I Draw Today?” (in which I accept suggestions by social media followers,) I chose to keep simple in design and color. They are done mostly with a single color pencil and finished with available black pen ink. In the 7+ months, I had coaxed a couple of the interns to each make at least one sketch. Thanks to Zahra Merchant for a lovely Snow White interpretation. Thanks to Christine Lew for a jaunty King Louie take.

Assembled in the animated GIF above, I had made over 130 sticky note sketches.

Around October, I began to regularly take pictures of the wall as the number of stickies grew and shrank. My initial thoughts had dwelled between the extremes of “No one is taking any of these ‘FREE SKETCHES.’ I must be doing something wrong,” and “Somebody is taking my stuff (again labeled as ‘FREE SKETCHES.’ They’re ruining my gallery.” 

There were two occasions when several sketches disappeared in an afternoon. So curious. 

For my own kicks, the subjects that I sketches were mostly from lesser touted Disney films and television- not the Mickey Mouse and Princess things that stock the shelves of the Disney Store.

Another development were the emergence of two themed days. Wednesdays would become “It’s WED-nesday” and then “Today is WED-nesday” which featured something from the Disney theme parks, you know, from Imagineering formerly known as WED Enterprises. 

Fridays would become “Free Draw Friday” which may have already been a thing on social media like “Throwback Thursday.” Anyways, on Fridays I would draw non-Disney things and cheekily put them on the walls of the Disney building.

This Tuesday is the first of more than 250 business/work days for 2023. 

Someone order more sticky notes.

What Shall I Draw June 26th through July 17th?

Breaking an almost six-month long sketching drought, “What Shall I Draw Today?” returns with a grand, 22-days long Disney Parks themed event!

What Shall I Draw Today?

Sunday, June 26th through

Sunday July 17th, 2022

From Sunday, June 26th through Sunday, July 17th, I will be taking other people’s suggestions as the inspiration for daily sketches. At any time during this event you may pitch your drawing suggestions on any on these social media platforms:

Instagram: @monstergram7 

Facebook: @Monster Enterprises

Blog: monotonae.blogspot.com (here in the comments)

Suggestions may consist of two parts:

1) a favorite Disney character;

2) a favorite Disney Parks thing (attract, snack, parade, etc.)

Suggestions will be selected with the magic randomizer (blindly pulling slips of paper from a cup). Sketches may be drawn in a Disneyland autograph book, or on a collector card, or on a simple sticky note.

For As to your Qs, please click on the WSIDT tab above.

Mapplicable

 D23, The Official Disney Fan Club, has announced the 2022 D23 Gold Member Collector Set. It’s the exclusive gift that every new and renewing member receives.

For more information about the club, please go to the D23 site, naturally: https://d23.com

My contribution to the set, was a world map that is the backing board for the real prizes that are a seven-piece set of exclusively designed enamel pins. Each pin features one of the six Disney theme Park Resorts plus a seventh for the Disney Cruise Line. To be clear, another artist designed the pins.

All two-dimensional maps are necessarily stylized representations of three-dimensional features existing on a spherical globe. In this, I chose to build the land masses from circles and parts of circles and a few straight lines.

The characters and things iconography on the final piece of art are all blues, teals and purples so as not to compete with the pins. 

However, there were more colorful early versions.

conceptual sketches

Many of the animal elements are inspired by those found on the “it’s a small world” attraction: hippopotamus, tiger, penguin, llama, kangaroo, and goose. I think the animals for the attraction are more Rolly Crump designs inspired by Mary Blair’s stylization than purely coming from Blair’s work for the boat ride. Keying off of the style, I chose other animals and things as nods to other Disney things.

Sea Serpent - Disneyland’s defunct Submarine Voyage attraction

Parrot - Rosita from Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, Adventureland

African Bull Elephant - Jungle Cruise attraction, Adventureland.

Polar Bear - Walt Disney’s White Wilderness (1958)

Big Horned Sheep - Grand Canyon diorama, part of Disneyland’s Railroad experience

Baobob Tree - Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction

Steam Locomotive - Walt Disney’s love of trains

Baby Oyster - Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland

Moose - Disney’s Brother Bear

Aulani Resort and Spa main building

747 Jet Airplane - Intended align with the “travel” theme to embellish a title box that didn’t get included on the map

London Tower and Notré Dame Cathedral couldn’t fit on the map and were eliminated as candidates

I am pleasantly surprised to see that the D23 designers had taken the purple grid pattern I had created for the map’s oceans for the background and repurposed it for the collection’s passport cover. For this pattern, I was inspired by the tiles of the Mary Blair murals that once flanked the Tomorrowland corridor in Disneyland. In fact, the square tiles were cut from a larger pattern of waves and mixed up. It is possible that many of the tiles can be reassembled in a few continuous lines. That’s trivia, not a challenge.

conceptual sketches

early green & blue version

exploratory purple & yellow version

early red & purple version