About
The Sketchy Republic is the work of a former art director at one of the world’s largest comic-book publishers and a longtime advertising creative director who spent 20 years making other people’s ideas look good. Now he makes politicians look appropriately terrible. Political satire, editorial illustration, bad behavior, and the occasional smashed tomato. No party line. No sacred cows.
Where the ideas come from, and why I work this way
Yes, I use AI as a research tool to spot what's trending and what's building in the news cycle. It surfaces possibilities, and I decide which ones deserve a drawing. Most get tossed. The ones I keep have a real point of view, something the headlines aren't saying.
The news doesn't wait, and neither can satire. I couldn't hand-draw fast enough to keep up with the headlines, so I use AI to spot what's building and to rough out the blue line. Then I take over: every piece is inked and colored by hand. Speed from the machine, soul from the human.
How a piece gets made
Every piece goes through the same pipeline. Here's one from start to finish.
Step 1: Blue Line (AI-assisted)
Once I've picked a concept, I use AI to generate a loose blue-line sketch, the same kind of underdrawing a penciler hands off in a traditional comics pipeline. This is the only stage where the machine is involved. It's a rough layout, not a finished idea.
Step 2: Ink (by hand)
I ink over the blue line myself, deciding line weight, texture, and where the blacks fall. This is where the piece gets its edge, and where I rework composition and details until it says what I want it to say.
Step 3: Color (by hand)
I color using techniques I picked up over years inside the comics industry: controlled palettes, deliberate color holds, and color that steers your eye and sets the mood.
The Final
Same drawing, three stages, and a lot of decisions between each one. It's a long way from pushing a button except the ones I hit in Photoshop.
Why I'm upfront about it
AI is one tool in my pipeline, like a lightbox, reference photos, or a brush. I'd rather you know exactly how the work gets made. The satire, the tone, the ink, and the color are mine.
Welcome to the Republic.