Monsters Archives | Freelance cartoonist and illustrator

Cartoon Knight

Stand clear all you dragons – the cartoon knight is here! Armed with his trusty sword and shiny armour, he’s off to save the princess from the grasp of the evil cartoon dragon!

I had the legendary St. George in mind when creating this cartoon, although I’ve opted for a royal blue instead of the traditional St. George’s cross.

Creating my cartoon knight

As with all of my cartoon character designs, this knight began life as a simple pencil sketch. Once I had the pose defined, I add in digital outlines, followed by colours.

Cartoon Frankenstein

Rargh! Say hello to my cartoon Frankenstein! A popular fictional monster that first appeared in the 1918 novel by Mary Shelley.

He is the creation of the central character, Victor Frankenstein, on a dark and stormy night!

My version is of course, much friendlier than his fictional counterpart.

He’s clumsily making his way through my portfolio to give you a hug – go on, give him a squeeze!

Creating my cartoon frankenstein

As with all of my cartoon monsters, this creepy critter began life as a pencil sketch.

He was then fully digitised using Adobe Illustrator, adding first base colours and then a few shades and highlights.

Sabre Tooth Tiger Cartoon

This ferocious sabre tooth tiger is better known as Smilodon, who roamed the plains of America during the Pleistocene era some 10,000 years ago.

Smilodon had a very robust build for a sabre tooth tiger, with particularly strong forelimbs and oversized canine teeth; perfect for a precision kill.

Luckily for you, this one has already eaten – although I think he might be partial to a nice chunk of Mammoth!

Creating my sabre tooth tiger cartoon

As with many of my cartoon characters, this sabre toothed beastie cartoon began as a pencil sketch.

Once I had a pose and composition I was happy with, the next stage was digitisation.

Outlines are created first and then base colours added. I went with similar colours to today’s big cats.

I then created a little earthen mound for him to stand upon, proud as punch!

Alien Invader

Take me to your leader! This cartoon alien invader has travelled far across the stars looking for planets to conquer!

With a big, bulgy brain and comical grimaced expression, this alien has his sights firmly set on Earth!

I’m not sure if he has a name, but I think I’d call him something like ‘The Might Flurg’ or ‘Grindar the Green’!

This ship is clearly just a scout though… imagine what happens when the mothership shows up!

The alien invader spaceship

I guess whenever you think of aliens, the first thing that springs to mind is a flying saucer.

I popped a clear dome on top so you can easily see our alien character.

I then added a series of big, grabby tentacle arms (which I felt would look less aggressive than a laser and certainly more fun).

To top him off, I’ve added in a series of planets and a starfield.

This character would work nicely alongside my Metaluna Mutant that I created previously.

Tyrannosaurus Cartoon

Here he is, the King of the dinosaurs himself – meet my mighty Tyrannosaurus cartoon!

Reaching up to 12m in length and averaging 6 tons in weight, you wouldn’t want to be on the menu!

He had unusually small arms, but these were countered by a six-foot head filled with 8-inch teeth!

Creating my Tyrannosaurus cartoon…

As with all of my cartoon characters, this dinosaur started life as a pencil sketch.

I then create all of the outlines digitally, before adding a splash of vibrant colour.

I usually colour the eyes white but wanted to convey more menace in my Tyrannosaurus, so I went for yellow!

Check out my other cartoon dinosaurs

Dakosaurus Cartoon

Dakosaurus was a medium-sized marine predator that lived during the late Jurassic period.

Armed with a mouth full of sharp teeth, its name basically translates as “Biter Lizard”.

Creating my Dakosaurus

This prehistoric beastie was created firstly as a pencil sketch.

The next step was to fully digitise the outlines, followed by a nice bright green.

I then topped him off with a darker green pattern on his back and a few other shades and highlights.

I’ve placed him on a marine-themed background to really make him leap out of the page!

If you like this prehistoric critter, be sure to take a look at the other dinosaurs in my portfolio!

Cartoon Velociraptor

Here’s my cartoon velociraptor, springing into action with teeth and claws bared!

What was a Velociraptor?

A velociraptor was a small to medium-sized predator from the late Cretaceous period.

Armed with a large retractable claw on the middle-toe, they hunted in packs to bring down prey much larger than themselves, rather like Hyenas or Jackals.

Enough or them could even take down something as large as Triceratops.

Creating my cartoon velociraptor

This velociraptor started life as a quirky pencil sketch, before being fully digitised.

As they are a very active creature, I wanted to make sure my cartoon was leaping into action!

I had a nice teal shade in my colour palette and coupled with some blue stripes he’s very akin to the ‘blue’ character from Jurassic World.

Check out my other cartoon dinosaurs

Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 movie by Tim Burton, and stars Johnny Depp in the main role as Edward, a gentle man with scissors for hands, who is brought into a new community after living for many years in isolation.

This piece was especially fun to create working with all of the various details in his clothing, consisting of various leather straps and buckles.

The scissors were also a key feature of his character, so I made sure these were slightly oversized and exaggerated.

I’m also pleased with the bemused expression on his face, very akin to how Edward Scissorhands appears in the movie.