About Me

My name is Ian Schwabe, and I am a freelance illustrator, graphic designer, and cartoonist. I also like to make animations as a hobby, compose music, and dabble in game design. I was born in Lancaster, PA, U.S.A., where I lived for 19 years, and I currently reside in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I graduated from Oral Roberts University in August 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts in Ministry and Leadership. While I am have also been certified to teach English as a second language in Vietnam, I wish to become a youth pastor either in Vietnam, Australia, or another country where the Lord decides I am needed. I also previously attended Penn State University, earning a certificate in Digital Arts.

I started drawing when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I began by replicating a comic style similar to that of Garfield, one of my primary inspirations. I developed my skills and art style, taking influence from Garfield, Sonic the Hedgehog, and later Mega Man. I began to draw original comic strips (primarily Wausau and Jackson, which I launched as a full series in 2018 and ended in early 2022) and assorted character artwork. In late 2019, I overcame my dislike of drawing backgrounds and began creating full art pieces regularly. I typically make one or two illustrations per month. In 2022, I launched a new comic strip, The Artist and His Brain, which is about an artist (portrayed as myself) who talks to his brain as if it were its own character. I am also a self-taught animator (starting with Macromedia/Adobe Flash in the early 2010s), primarily making short comedic animations to accompany my YouTube videos or for other groups such as Sonic Paradox. Someday, I wish to pursue bigger projects, such as animated cartoon specials (e.g. Christmas stories) and comic books.

Some of my noteworthy illustrated works and webcomics can be found on tapas.io, Webtoon, Twitter, and Instagram. Additionally, I worked on illustrations for the Church of the Nazarine Thailand's children's book The Boy Who Cried Tiger. I also created some backgrounds for their animated adaptation of the Creation story in the book of Genesis. In addition, I drew several thumbnails for videos by the YouTuber redhotsonic.