About The Walnut Bowl

I created The Walnut Bowl in the beginning of 2015 as a way to reintroduce myself back into the world of art. I had a passion for art that had been neglected for many years and I was ready to finally get back into it.

As a kid, I absolutely loved drawing and making handmade cards for my mom and dad. I always dreamed of making cards one day. Now here I am making that dream come true! I love creating simplistic art that can make people smile or even laugh.

Originally, I wanted to draw educational comics (I have a love for both teaching and art). Since walnuts are the ultimate brain food (and they're shaped like brains), I wanted to represent a bowl of walnuts as I would be a source where you could "dig into knowledge." As much as I loved that tag line, the web comic path just wasn't for me.

I love The Oatmeal (hence my initial desire to do web comics); I think he does a great job expressing his thoughts and ideas in concise drawings. Other web comics I love are The Awkward Yeti, Sarah Andersen Comics, Fowl Language Comics, and Lunarbaboon to name a few. I love Nick Seluk's brain/heart series and all his hilarious (yet accurate) organ characters. Sarah Andersen's 5-panel comic is unique and her artwork is goofy and always accurately depicts real-life scenarious. Brian Gordon of Fowl Language Comics has funny and relatable comics about his life as a parent. Last but not least, Chris Grady of Lunarbaboon documents his life as a parent/husband through his comics which are both funny and touching. You should definitely check them out if you don't know them already!

As for makers, I'm a huge fan of Le Petit Elefant's artwork! I also love A Jar of Pickles' cards--they are extremely simple and minimalistic yet super cute!

Back when I unofficially started The Walnut Bowl, I was using GIMP along with a Wacom Tablet borrowed from a friend. It was not the best setup and my art was somewhat limited. Now, I do most of my artwork on my iPad Pro (which I absolutely love). Like most artists, I use Procreate which, for $6, is a steal. I still use GIMP to finalize the art (add text, resize, create mockups, etc.).

A lot of things! But definitely font-selection and handwriting/caligraphy. All those cool letterings on instagram? Yeah, those people make me jealous!