Hello Friends and Art Lovers.
For my inaugural Buy Me A Coffee post I thought I'd share a little about who I am and what are my motivations.
I'm a retired U.S. Marine who picked up a pen and started doodling again when I reentered the normal world following over 23 years of being deployed or doing the Corps' bidding. It's one of those "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" type situations, but overall - I'm proud to be a 3rd generation Marine.
Before all that, I'm a Gen X kid at heart who grew up on a steady diet of sugary cereal and Saturday Morning cartoons. It's what I know and love. Looney Tunes. Hanna Barbera. Jay Ward. Total Television Productions. Depatie-Freleng. If you know what those are, then you are my brothers and sisters in animation.
I used to draw all the time as a kid, but once I had a family and got more senior in the Marine Corps, then much more serious things around the world took my attention and rightfully so. Most of my drawing went by the wayside. I realize now what a huge mistake that was. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. I lacked any artistic creative motivation to draw for myself anymore. Occasionally I'd scribble something out, but I was missing the desire. Regret is a stinky cologne.
I would still actively watch cartoons with my sons and loved everything that Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network were producing in the 90s and 2000s. There are so many classic shows. Heck, I still watch these shows by myself even today in 2026. Ren & Stimpy. Rocko's Modern Life. Invader ZIM. Dexter's Lab. Samurai Jack. Misadventures of Flapjack. Chowder. Fosters Home... simply fantastic stuff.
I'm very fortunate that I rediscovered my love for creating traditional art after I hung up the uniform. Pens, pencils, paper, markers, paints, clay... the messy, imperfect joy of it all.
Sure, I can also dink around with Photoshop, After Effects, ProCreate and all those digital creative tools - but at the core behind it all, it's still my hand pushing pixels. When I'm left on my own - I prefer traditional mediums.
We're in a precarious age where everyone is in such a mad rush to jump on the Generative AI band wagon, but I'm here to tell you friend. I want to roll that wagon out into a field, douse it with gas and light that sucker on fire.
Here's my 2-cents on Gen AI: If I took away your AI prompts and programs you have NOTHING."
I on the other hand can still use my human meat mittens to draw in dirt with a stick if it came down to it. TRADITIONAL always wins. If nothing else, it's more nurturing for the artistic soul.
There are so many other issues and reasons WHY Generative AI is a horrible blight upon the arts. We can peel that onion another time...
For the month of APRIL 2026, I've started my own art challenge and called it: #NO_AIpril
(as in "NO AI April"). Simply enough, every single day I'm going to create some kind of doodle or sketch using only TRADITIONAL means to do so. No DIGITAL and certainly NEVER GENERATIVE AI. (ptooey!)
Feel free to join me, or you can just follow along. Feel free to share the posts and tell your friends.
However, if this is something you want to support and would like to buy me a coffee, you will have my sincere appreciation.
Here are all the other various ways you can find me if you're so inclined.
https://linktr.ee/JeffToonsOfficial
Thanks for reading if you got this far. We'll talk again soon.
Cheers,
Jeff
aka: JeffToons