Sketchy Thoughts | September 23, 2026

September 30, 2026

A rabbit in the dark, a spider-legged hearse, and a scarecrow stuck at work. This week I continue to chase Fright-Fall prompts, made record-show handbills, and celebrated #53 and #54 with cake and chess pieces.

Substack: https://monumentsinruin.substack.com

Sketchy Thoughts | September 23, 2026
Documenting the week of September 16-22

This week was full of season shifting activities. Spontaneous creativity and long-eared, shadow attackers, along with Halloween treats and anniversary celebrations. We keep walking a fine line to balance our analog/digital options and dive deep into all of the spooky prompts we could sink our fangs into.

Daily Art | September 16-22

My first intention in creating a Substack page was to quietly drift around. A place to archive my weekly art and other creative efforts without feeling like it was flooding friends who did not sign up to see such activities. Since then, Bone folder press has become one of my favorite accounts to follow. Not only in my admiration of their artwork, but also the occasional chat prompts that send their small community into different areas of creativity. Last week they suggested readers stop for five minutes and make something with no intention other than it be a thing without purpose.

Stop scrolling and let’s take 5 min to make something!

Make something that doesn’t need to become anything in whatever medium you want. Pictures, words, bottle caps, whatever.

No project, no purpose, no fixing it.

Just make a little something and leave it here (if you’re comfortable).

Sept 16 / Materials: Backside of random stickers, torn up used post it and some pencil shavings

For the past several weeks, I have debated on keeping a log of the animals that I come in contact with or see on my early morning drive to and from work. Deer, opossum, cat, fox, coyote, any number of birds and skunks, but since I am always driving it is difficult to remind myself to catalogue anything afterwards.

In this case, we found a wild rabbit on our sketch and catch break, and it was kind enough to let me pick it up. Don’t worry, it was not hurt, nor was it harmed by myself or the dog. Once we set it back on the ground, it happily hopped away and went on about its business. I have caught a glimpse of it a couple of times since then, but as I write this, it’s no longer in our area of play dates.

Note: It hopped past me in the darkness on the second day’s AM walk and I thought an apparition had come from the grave for my soul. Halloween season is officially here.

Continuing on with more of the Retro Supply Co. Fright-Fall prompts. These have been really fun to dig into. As I noted last week, you’ll be seeing them roll out from now on through the Halloween season. My intention is to do a few of these early and hopefully jump across lines to some other Halloween sketch adventure prompts.

There are so many fun prompts everywhere and I want to support everyone who is hosting.

As soon as I read the prompt, this spider-legged hearse came to mind. Not exactly as I had envisioned, but that’s the way most of my artwork ends up anyway. My vision versus my ability and a spot of middle ground between the two. Perhaps that’s what all artists are doing. The result still makes me laugh and I’m happy to have started the concept.

One day I may revisit this idea.

I’m not sure if it was last week or the week before that I had noted there was a record show coming up. To prepare, I wanted to make some art for hand bills. Here is the end result of such and they were a hit at the record convention.

I handed a ton of them out and was extremely happy to see my artwork in physical form viewed by so many people who share the common interest of art and music with me.

More Halloween prompts for Fright-Fall! I like the idea of the person seeing themselves as something different. In recent conversation with a friend, they described not liking the sound of their own voice. Perhaps our sight is the same way as our ears. What we hear in our spoken self is not what is projected to others. Perhaps the vision in our mind of ourselves, much like the artwork I was describing earlier, is also not what we visually project to others. Meanwhile, we are moving along in one lane of expectation while others see us in a totally different light.

I struggled a little bit with this prompt while trying to find a way to make it seem as though ghosts or something of the sort were coming from the tomb. Not 100% sure that thought translates here, but I am happy to put in another daily sketch and start knocking the rust off of the concepts. Perhaps this is another I should revisit later?

Had a chance to do a timed sketch this week! Walked into the restaurant, ordered a meal to go and sat down and started sketching. Some of these turn out to be really fun and really creative because there is no long-term expectation. It makes time fly by and could end at any moment. There are no delusions of greatness in the final product. In this case, I think it worked out nicely. The tacos were also delicious!

Play time is afoot!

Scarecrow! Super fun stuff! The background could use a little bit more of something but the overall look and feel connected with where I was going. The idea of the somber scarecrow just kind of hanging around in a, “What in the hell are you looking at?”, kind of pose. After all, this scarecrow is stuck at work.

My digital work still has a long way to go when it comes to certain aspects. For me, specifically shading needs a touch more attention. I found that the substitution of color for shading is something I’m trading out. It sure is fun though! Hopefully I’ll get past that small hurdle, and find my path into traditional shading and depth in these digital works as I move forward. The ventriloquist prompt was awesome and this absolutely made me laugh.

LearnToDrawTogether Sunday Challenge | Sept 13 and 20

The page is celebrating a year of weekly prompts! For me, I started on week six and have been consistent weekly since then. There have been one or two gaps that I’ve been able to catch back up with after the deadline and I’m happy to be part of the sketch community there.

“When y’all are ready, can we have some cake?”

Number 53: Our 1-Year Anniversary! Sept 19

Another weekly drawing for the Sunday sketch team. This was a solid batch of fun and it feels as though they really are my chess pieces. They’re all reflections of things that I’ve drawn for a while now and seeing them in this format was a real treat.