Jerzy Drozd

Teaching Artist and Cartoonist. He/him. When life is feeling heavy, I enjoy creating and sharing stories of cute heroes showing extraordinary courage.

City of Steel – Four Million Years Later, episode 19

AVERT YOUR EYES, FOR THIS EPISODE IS NOT PRETTY. I mean the Transformers cartoon episode, not our podcast episode. But you can avert your eyes while you listen to the podcast too; that picture of the volcano doesn’t ever move. Anyway, EXPERIENCE: The return of the Constructicons! Optimus Prime CUT TO PIECES!! Season 2 music start sneaking in!!! All this and an ALLIGATOCON!!!!

Watch the episode before listening to our commentary:

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Changing Gears – Four Million Years Later, episode 18

After 17 episodes of barely saying anything, it’s time for GEARS to shine! Witness: Starscream, on his BEST BEHAVIOR!! Experience: The Autobots DRIVING from North America to Africa?? And watch in horror as Prime and the Autobots mow down MILES of TREES!!! WHAT?? All in our latest exciting episode!

Watch the episode before listening to our commentary:

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Baba Yaga the Ambiguous Cat Witch

Penciled in Clip Studio Paint, inked on watercolor paper, then painted in Clip Studio Paint using Ray Frenden’s terrific watercolor brushes (affiliate link).

I’ve been working on several ideas for a new Doctor Baer story, and one that’s in a third draft stage involves introducing the famous slavic witch into my animal world. This is the working design.

I’ve been reading and listening to a lot of material on Slavic mythology and fairy tales, and the ambiguous witch keeps me fascinated. Neither good nor evil, she stands for the wildness of nature itself. Containing all the sublime terror and joy of participating in life. Naturally that would make her a cat in an anthropomorphic comic!

But I’ll let some of the sources I’ve been using tell her story. Here are some good listens/reads on this character and the archetype she falls into:

NSFW but lively and fun discussion on the Deviant Women podcast:

A thorough discussion on the Mythillogical Podcast:

A shorter presentation on the witch:

Another long-ish podcast from Bone & Sickle.

And here’s a terrific book by Clarissa Pinkola Estes on the wild woman archetype

She shows up as an antagonist (though they call her the Hunchback Fairy) in this 60s Russian film that I unironically adore:

And hey–here’s a cool song that teaches you about her!

Expect to see more drawings of her as I work on the story.

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Social sites

My preferred place to post stuff I’m working on is here, and my preferred place to interact is on the Doctor Baer Discord server. I am on the other social sites (though I don’t check them frequently), including the new Threads site from Meta:

Post by @jerzydrozd
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And then there’s always:

That’s a lot of websites! Some of them may get more attention from me than others. But the best way to connect with me are by following the blog and joining my Discord server.

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When Doing it is a Dance

Darling. Little child. You are required to do what will be acceptable only if you do it voluntarily.

– Alan Watts

This is the best reframing of the cliche “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s a short listen, too.

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Autobot Spike – Four Million Years Later, episode 17

We’re back to talking about episodes, and here is AUTOBOT SPIKE to kick off season two. In this episode we hear young Jerzy’s shocked reaction to the new SEASON TWO OPENING! Jerzy upgrades the script from an intermediate level to young adult level!! Hoover lovingly talks about Reflector!!! Jerzy actually THROWS SHADE at Optimus Prime!!!! And we mispronounce Donald F Glut’s last name YET AGAIN (sorry Chris)!!!!! All this and the creepiest quote in the series (so far, at least). Stick a colander on your head and transfer your mind into your podcast player!!

Watch the episode before listening to our commentary:

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Droppin’ Art in Akron

Some tiny drawings I hid at Canal Park during an Akron RubberDucks game. Mascots Webster and Homer in action, on the field!

I don’t get as many opportunities to leave these “art drops” as I used to. Back when I lived in Ann Arbor and was part of a bowling league, I’d hide these kinds of watercolor and crayons sketches weekly:

I always include a note on the back that reads something like this:

You found an art drop! I’ve hidden these drawings around [insert location here] just for you to find it. I hope you enjoy it, or give it to someone who will!

I don’t sign my name or leave any website info anymore. The idea here isn’t to get followers or subscribers, but to put a playful bit of charm in the world as best I can. And it helps me to be less precious about the drawings. I’m making something to let it go.

A few years back on the Lean Into Art Cast I spent an hour with my pal Rob Stenzinger where we dug into more reasons why I enjoy leaving little drawings all over the place:

There are worse ways to spend your time!

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Drawing Podcast Art – Live Stream Replay

I live stream Saturdays at 3pm ET. Follow me on Twitch to be notified when I’m drawing! Platform agnostic viewers can watch here.

A replay of the live stream held June 20, 2023. In this session I draw a t-shirt design for my transformers podcast:

Which you can purchase on a t-shirt here.

And a piece for my recent guest spot on Ben & Zack’s Monster Market Podcast:

I also spend a little time showing some of the 3d work I’m doing in Blender to import into Clip Studio Paint:

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