Documenting the week of June 3-9
Substack: https://monumentsinruin.substack.com
There are some real highs and lows in this week. Makes me feel very fortunate that we can share here. It may not feel like it at the time but when we stay in forward momentum the most surprising and unexpected things can happen.
Daily Art | June 3-9
Forget about it all. Leave the world behind. Lay in the cool, green grass. Let the sun touch your belly. As long as the breeze remains in constant motion, we can recharge today and address another day when it arrives.
Let us begin.
To say this dog is upset at me is an understatement. While we are still healing from a slight limp, the sketch and catch is still on temporary hold. While we are still in Heal and Chill mode, the ink continues to flow. In this case, not my favorite work but the angry side eye from the pup kind of makes up for it all. haha!
“Dad. Throw the damn pig.”
Improv. 99% of what where things start on the page is improv. At some point I really wanted to see this wingspan braking the border. Fun piece to start the page.
Chill and Heal continues. The day was beautiful and I managed to talk the dog into relaxing without feeling like it was punishment. A little shade, light breeze, cool grass and enough peaceful vibes to break out the color pencils to give them a go. This pale green monster skin was a fun direction. This was a bit of medicinal work for future use. Trying to learn more about sketching from different angles. Forward facing and profile, left and right. Of course, addressing color work is still a much needed piece of trial and error, homework, whatever we want to call it.
Per a discussion with my family about the previous work, the concept of a fence line was bouncing around in my head. Perhaps an extension of the bird. Later that evening I decided to approached the page in a descending pathway instead of left to right. Breaking the cycle music have been a good choice to redirect energy because this fence turned out to look pretty solid!
Another day of Chill and Heal. This time my effort to keep the pup in chill mode required a sacrifice to the lawn chair K9 gods. With the pup in relax mode, I was able to knock out a quick piece inspired by the morning moon. Woke up to see this beautifully bright moon and the light cloud coverage. Absolutely perfect for a werewolf or some other nocturnal creature to roam.
Plant attacking werewolves are probably normal somewhere in the world.
Continuing on the fence theme, I have now started to connect a few tasks here. Following the logic of the split faces, we are now seeing the fence and it’s inhabitants from various angles.
Goofing around and converted these to B&W to pretend they may be going toward some type of comic spread and they looked pretty cool. Decided to save them and share. Yu may have seen these in the page notes already. If not, here ya go!
More fence work. Watched a tutorial about drawing cartoon dogs and it did nothing for me. Nothing that I can note here anyway. Was hoping it might connect but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Certain things attach themselves and the energy grows in abundance. Other things roll off like water on a ducks back. This was the case. Perhaps something subliminally made it through and it will surface later? Until then I am still enjoying the fence work. Decided to try my hand at a more realistic looking dog. Someone needs to protect us from the creeper, right?
Keeping the back and forth vibe going, this was partially inspired by my dog playing with the neighbors. They were looking through the fence and run, barking, jumping. It was pretty hilarious.
Back on comic vibes. The super-sad super-hero concept has really been bumping around my thoughts. Perhaps I can sit down and storyboard this concept and then execute it. For now, this is a working piece based on that idea. What do you do when you are stuck between the sun and the moon and linger within a universe that simply does not seem to feel like a home? The only life in sight is this beautiful place called earth. A place packed with equal parts beauty and disgust. Drift in isolation or seek to protect such a unique and fragile environment?
A little more work on the comic side of the emo super hero.
Found one! Found an episode about sasquatch on Tubi. I believe it was Mysteries of the Unknown or something like that. Decided to work on this while passively watching/listening.
More mysteries of the unknown. In this case, it was more of an improvised stone structure. Clearly based off of a Stonehenge type of construction but not intended to model the henge. It was a fun landscape style piece to fill in the gap on the page and perhaps connect to the emo super hero. Maybe this was built as a way to contact an otherworldly being in humanities time of need but by the time they arrived the passing of time and evolution has now erased what once was. Now they are faced with a deeper dilemma of fulfilling a prophecy. One in which they have to chose to save those who can not save themselves.
The idea of more shading within worlds that involve both serenity and something sinister, both light and darkness has really been keeping the ink flowing lately. Perhaps this is an other world were all things can live together.
There was a rewarding moment when I decided to simply stop here. Nothing has to be other than what we choose. Ideas and concepts can grow. There is no finish line. In this case, it is about stepping away happy with the growth obtained within the process of creating. It all starts again on the next page and there is a lot more to learn.
LearnToDrawTogether Sunday Challenge | June 7, 2026
The last page of the sketchbook has arrived. It was a fun way to close the book out. This challenge was to sketch something that feels like your previous life. My first though was the Kung Fu master known as Pai Mei from the Kill Bill movies. Though I have never felt like a villain, I appreciate the discipline required to achieve this master level. This is someone I have sketched in the past. In fact, the immediate impulse to revisit the exact image gave me pause. It would be fun but there are more lives that we have lived. What other souls prefer to live in isolation, to view the world without disturbing the waters? The ones who may build a universe yet live in its shadows.
SketchDaily Challenges | June 3-9
…is this the end?