Life's a Beach (Patreon)

Back in 2020, I was all aboard the hype of adding on a new brand to my name: RogueRats.

It was a result of my poor hearing, actually. While walking out in the streets of downtown San Antonio, or in a waiting room somewhere, or maybe just in my local Sam's Club, I overheard someone on the phone mentioning how much they needed "rug wraps".

I heard "Rogue Rats". What a cool name! In the seconds before I realized my error, I was imagining what kind of wild world these rats lived in. Was it a D&D adventure, with bandits scampering underfoot in search of food or treasures? Was this a group of banjo-beating varmints who hitchhiked on the back of train cars like I used to see in the movies, holding sticks with cloth knapsacks filled with stinky cheeses?

So of course, as soon as I realized that this person was referring to the wraps on her car, I stole the name and made it into a new identity. I spent several months cramming over 30 new pieces of furry and various fandom artwork to diversify this brand, I learned how to spraypaint and created an alternative style guide for myself, and I continued to spraypaint with such poor wrist posture that I got tendonitis! (Ouch. That last bit was very unintentional. Do not spraypaint with poor wrist posture.)

RogueRats is a collective of misfit animals that find solace and community in each other. It is "headed" by 3 characters: Cecil, the brains of the group, a rat who loves to adventure and learn new things (think Desperaux); Cabbage, a wacky 1-braincelled rat who collects shiny things (is he the treasurer of the club then?); and Munchie, an opossum who wants to be in charge, for fun.

I made a dozen OCs for this project. It was so much fun! I hadn't made OCs since those old DeviantArt days back in the 2016-era. Daisy the field mouse, a hipster fox, a bunch of pigeons. My idea was to grow this into a world where people could make and insert their own OCs.

It would be so fun! However, I don't have a set of staff to go to conventions or do logistics for me, to free me up to learn how to write and integrate this into my life. And so I've kept this on the backburner for..has it been six years already? Yeesh!

Anyway, the fun part about RR to me is that it allows me to draw various animals without leaning too hard into a "furry" art style. I love drawing cartoony animals, not anthro ones! This allows me to draw silly animal tropes for normie audiences too, people that wouldn't typically jive with a cat with boobs, but would love to see two kittens making dumb faces at each other.

One of several recent projects of mine has been to work on a small series from my 2020 RogueRats brainstorms, titled "Life's a Beach", focused on a seagull member of the club.

And with summer just close enough that I need fresh non-pony content, I decided finally to blow the dust off of this one for good.

(I was also brainstorming the "Now Kiss" enamel pin series at the time, as you can see from that errant pony doodle!)

I've decided to name him Arnold. He's an eccentric fella who knows how to turn people's trash into treasure. And on the beachside in his fictional urban city, there is plenty of trash.

It's a few weeks still away from completion, but this will eventually turn into a beach towel. I've been doing some legwork finding a good manufacturer and cloth type, since I've never worked with towel fabrics before and I want something in good quality.

RogueRats has a few dozen themes written down in various places. I hope, even if I can't go ham expanding this little universe, that people love the characters and quirkiness of this little world!