This year I’m keeping a sketchblog.
I sketch all the time but usually just keep it to myself unless I feel it’s good enough to share with the rest of the interent but doing that doesn’t show all the doodles and fun, quick art I do. So I decided for 2026 to share it all with you in this ongoing blog post.
Another fun thing I plan to do is sketch the movies and TV shows I watch as well and put them here.
One slight caveat, I started this sketch blog after Christmas, a week before January 1, 2026. A lot of time due the the holidays and the time off from work I sort of unofficially start my new year during this time.
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Another toy sketch, this time the Squawk van from Stranger Things that I bought myself for Christmas. I’ve always wanted a van that I could turn into an RV and travel the world sketching from the road. Plus vans are cool and the ones with paintings on the side are just next level!
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For me, the streaming platform Tubi is like a digital version of a video store. They have an enormous assortment of random content. A large portion is “mainstream” or stuff I’ve seen or heard of… and then there is a multitude of random shows and movies I didn’t even know existed.
Like this.
Commander Toad in Space. I saw it on the Tubi platform and just had to check it out. It’s only about 30 minutes so it wasn’t a huge time drain. Some of the humor has a bit of wit to it but over all it’s pretty clunky, cheap and I only found it to be a tiny bit fun.
After some research it turns out this show was part of the ABC Weekend Special series and aired in 1993. So the youngsters in 1993 might have found it more enjoyable than I did and that was the target audience after all.
I do like that the entire cast is made of puppets, except for one human boy. I am a big fan of puppets so that was neat.
The TV show is actually based on a series of Commander Toad books that I have never heard of either. I may try and read one or two and see how they are.
So by taking a chance and watching this offbeat, random show I saw some creative puppets and discovered some books I hope to read. Not bad Tubi, whatcha’ got next?
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Sometimes you just want to do some sketching but just can’t go anywhere for whatever reason so instead you grab some toys you have laying around and sketch them.
First up is Podcast, from the Ghostbusters Afterlife toy line.
I thought this movie was OK, pretty fun but I felt it needed more people populating the world, it just felt really small.
Second is an 80’s favorite: one of the California Raisins from Hardees.
Back in the 80’s, Hardees had some fantastic toys you could either buy or get in the kids meals.
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We decorated some cookies for Christmas and the colors that came with the kit were red, white and green. I opted to just use green and white and I like how these two turned out. The green one reminds me of a tennis court.
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I am a big fan of Stranger Things and could go on and on about the show but instead I will share with you a sketch I did of the Sidestep cassetter player Henry gives Holly in season 5. I’ve never seen one of these before and it looks pretty neat. I had something similiar when I was kid but it was red and had the handle on top.
Back then I spent a lot of time just listening to music. Just sitting or laying on the bed listening to tapes and the radio. Nowadays I only listen to music when I’m in the car or at the gym. I’m going to try and spend some time just listening to music and not doing anything else while I listen. Just listen.
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My son, Rylan and I watched Red Scorpion together over the holidays. I believe I watched it as a youngster but don’t remember anything about it. This time I enjoyed it quite a bit. The twist at the beginning with Dolph’s character got me good, I didn’t see that coming at all. The middle part kinda drags a bit but the action is fun and they blow up a lot of stuff.
I like watching older movies even more now since I know all the effects are practical. I really appreciate that a lot more these days. CGI is fine and all but sometimes it’s hard to beat the old school effects, there’s something more visceral about a real object blowing up or an actual physial set or location.
Dolph Dundgren is in peak form here and looks super young. It’s interesting he’s playing another soviet soldier after his turn as Drago in Rocky IV.
Overall a fun action movie with a perhaps slightly different story than ususual. On a side note, Rylan really knows his soviet era vehicles and spotted the fake Hind gunship right away. A creative effort from the filmmakers to dress up a different chopper to try and look like a Hind.
