Stefan Große Halbuer

Upcoming changes to my Patreon

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had/have great winter holidays and a nice final days of 2025!

A while ago I already wrote a post about my growing uncertainty about how to continue my Patreon. I've had some quiet quality time to reflect on a couple things during the holidays, inclu...

The Electric Bazaar Zine

Hey dear Patrons!

I’ve wanted to make an art book for ages, but in the spirit of making something with a little faster turnaround time, I turned some of my existing art into a Zine. The result: The Electric Bazaar Crazy Vending Machine Art Zine!

I recorded my process while working on it, you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/Mt7yQRJ82Do

If you'd like to grab an edition:

I ...

The Hearts: Playing Cards Making Of

Hey guys, I made a new video in the last couple days. As you know I've been working on my custom cards deck "Suits of Life" for the last ~1.5 years. Now I took some of the footage from along the way, and turned it into a making-of video. Here's an early sneak peek for you! Feedback welcome as always :)

Why I haven't been posting on Patreon

Hey everyone,

this is my first post on Patreon in months. I actually have a whole notebook full of post ideas, but I just never took the time to make, write, and publish them. So instead of finally forcing those out, I think it’s time to talk about the reasons for the silence.

This one’s going to be a bit personal.

I've always been an advocate for building as many channels and profiles online and offline as possible: most creative freelancers need 2025-10-30 15:44:12 +0000 UTC View Post

The Democratizer

Hey everyone!

First of all, sorry for not posting anything in here! Less time spent online, and some lovely spring weather caused a bit of a timeout for me.

I have been making some art as well though, and I'm going to share it bit by bit in the upcoming weeks. We'll start with the very most complex one: a new part of my Electric Bazaar series called The Democratizer. Complex means: it's great for a little concept & ideation walkthrou...

The Democratizer - PSD/high res files

Hey everyone,

here's the premium addition to my latest walkthrough. You can download the files below :)

Thanks & Cheers
Stefan

Suits of Life: Tasty Treats

Hey guys,

I'm back drawing playing cards for my Suits of Life deck! The next suit will be the Diamonds, and it's all about tasty treats. I love drawing food, especially the unhealthy ones 😅 so I'm having a lot of fun with these. So far I made the 2 and the 3:

My goal for the colo...

Nostalgia Refuge

Some new and unreleased art for you guys today!

Serif, the team behind Affinity Designer, asked me if I could create an isometric artwork in the app. I've tested and used Affinity already a while ago, and it was cool to work with it again for another drawing.

I thought it was a good opportunity to make another isometric room. For this one, I imagined what my dream apartment would have looked like in earlier years, so it's a nostalgic mashup from the glorious 90s.

2025-02-24 15:30:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Making my first comic - Vlog #1

Hey friends!

I just finished producing a little Vlog styled video about making my first ever comic for "Mirrored Dreams".

I've tried a little different direction for this video, and I really liked it a lot! Less direct tutorial, more like just documenting and commenting my progress. I've recorded some material for another part, and hope to find some time making a par...

Pen Tales Episode 3: Chester Holme

Hey everyone,

episode 3 of Pen Tales with Chester Holme is just out! Listen in if you'd like to learn more about Chester's work, illustration style and the two comics he contributed to Mirrored Dreams.

I was particularly impressed by how he sees restrictions and limits as fuel for creativity. We also talked about balancing freelance work and mental hea...

Mirrored Dreams is live on Kickstarter!

Hey everyone!

Mirrored Dreams is now live on Kickstarter!

You’ll find all the info, available rewards and limited print offers on the page. Now it’s up to you - help us turn this book from a dream into reality!

If you can’t or don’t want to use Kickstarter, we set up a Shop...

The Seed print & Kickstarter sneak peek

Hey guys,

I'd like to reveal a new artwork for you that I just finished yesterday! It's a page from my comic the seed which will be part of the Mirrored Dreams book.

I put a little extra effort into this page though, because this will also be a limited A3 size Risography print. We're going to print 60 editions, 50 of these go into the Collector's Edition boxes alongside lots of other nice printed goodies.

2025-02-03 14:22:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Pen Tales Episode 2: with Dimi Pantazis

Hey guys, the second episode of Pen Tales is here: this time I had Dimi Pantazis as a guest, a greek comic artist with a really interesting background!

The episode is on early access for you Patrons again, before it goes public in a couple days.

I hope you don't mind the missing video from Dimi, his greek island internet was rather slow :D

How did you like the Podcast so far? Anything I could improve or any questions you'd like me to asks my guest? Let me know! :)

...

Pen Tales Episode 1

Hey friends,

one of my goals for 2025 is building a stronger and more consistent artist brand around my work and person online. This includes experimenting with new formats, Podcasts being one.

Maybe some of you remember my announcement of the Pen Tales Podcast from September. I kept working in the back, now set everything up and recorded my first episode yesterday! Before I release this to the public, I'd like to give you a first listen (or look, as th...

Electric Bazaar 5

Hey guys,

I'd like to give you a sneak peek to a brand new artwork: the fifth part of my Electric Bazaar series! And this one's going to become a part of the 6529 Meme Collection next week! I'm very proud to finally be a part of that art movement.

Would you be interested in another post looking into the making of/animation details?

Cheers and have a great Sunday!
St...

Huion Kamvas 22 Plus Review

Hello & Happy New Year everyone!

If one of your New Year's resolutions is getting a new drawing display, you may want to check out my new video that I just finished! 😄 I wanted to give you early access, before I'll officially release it soon!

Enjoy & Cheers
Stefan

Jimbō-chō Bookshop, Part 2: Working out multiple light sources

As I recently finished the Jimbō-chō Bookshop artwork, here's a second process insights post focusing on colors and lighting tricks.

Hey dear Patrons,

as I recently finished the Jimbō-chō Bookshop artwork, here's a second process insights post. After explaining my approach to composition and perspective in the first part, let's focus on the color palette and thou...

Mirrored Dreams Cover Reveal

Hey everyone,

I'd like to reveal the cover for the Mirrored Dreams book today! It's a co-production between my co-founder and friend Dominik Gümbel and me, and we had lots of fun making this :)

We also have a release date for the Kickstarter campa...

Japan & Japan

Hi dear Patrons,

it's been a while - unfortunately I've been having some health issues lately and needed to take things slower. Nothing serious, but being sick isn't really compatible with freelancing, and I want to change the habit of "just pulling through" with work as I've learned that it significantly slows down the healing process.

Right now I'm catching up on several unfinished projects, two of them with a Japan focus. So here's a little Japan infused update! :)

Japan...

2024-12-03 17:40:24 +0000 UTC View Post

Jimbō-chō Bookshop - Mixing Reference and Imagination

Hey everyone,

I’ve just wrapped up the outlines for the scribbled scene I shared on Monday. Today, I’ll be sharing insights about the inspirations and decisions that shaped this new work.

The idea

My street scenes often begin with real-life references (like my Japan Days series that also inspired this new work). For this one, I was inspired by Tokyo’s Jimbō-ch�...

A good old Art Update!

Hey everyone,

I've got lots of new art to share with you - first of all, the scene for my client Chegg is colored (that's the image in the header). Next, I'm going to turn this room into three more day times: morning, evening and night. I'd like to break down my process and show you how I do that in one of my next posts.

Speaking of process making-ofs: I'm also working on a personal commission just now. Here's the scribble of the scene:

2024-11-04 17:09:15 +0000 UTC View Post

Outlines, Outlines, Outlines

Hey guys,

I continue to be busy with commission work, unfortunately lots of deadlines were squeezed into a short period of time. I took a couple slow weeks during summer and traveled a lot. Then I panicked a bit, thinking I wouldn't make enough money this year, and accepted too many offers at once. That was bad management by me, and now life it being stressful, but it happens.

Here's one learning, apart from getting your schedule in order: think twice before takin...

Fresh cards in the deck

Hey dear Patrons,

I've been trying to find time here and there to work on my playing cards project. Not so easy lately, as work and life stress were both a bit up. But I think I made my favorite card so far, the Jack of Clubs:

I once again went live when I colored this one, here's the stream: 2024-10-09 11:14:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Suits of Life Cards Update

Hey guys,

I'm working on new Playing Cards, next up are the Clubs! And these will be Gaming themed, with a little focus on 90s gaming as that's what I grew up with :)

Here's three finished ones (2, 3 and 8), and also a WIP for the Jack of Clubs:

2024-09-27 06:52:50 +0000 UTC View Post

Initial Clip Timelapse & Animation Insights

Hey guys,

I've already shared my animation for Initial Clip with you some weeks ago. Today I'd like to give you a deeper look behind the scenes, as it's been one of the most complex animations I ever made so far.

First of all, there's a full length replay of the drawing part. Then I attached the layered PSD file that I use f...

Plastober 2024 prompt list

Hey friends,

saying hello from my summer holidays in Greece - plus I wanted to share this year's Plastober prompts with you! There's daily and weekly prompts again, everything is in the images of the post :)

Also here's just a few thoughts on Inktober/Plastober and the creative community:

I wasn't sure wether to create another list this year. I've been hosting Plastober for the last 4 years, and in the last 2 years the number of participants has been going down significantly...

The Pen Tales Podcast is coming!

Hey everyone,

a short one today, with a nice little announcement! It's been one of my "personal brand" mid term goals to start a Podcast at some point for a while now.

I love listening to creative Podcasts, and there's lots of them already. I've been in doubt about adding another one to the overly saturated mix for a bit, but then realized it's the wrong way of looking at things. If I'm motivated and excited to create it, I should create it! 😉

Meaning: Pen Tales i...