Sketchy Thoughts | October 28, 2026

November 4, 2026

Closing out October’s Halloween art challenges, plus some outside sketching with the pup and finding beauty in unexpected obstacles.

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Sketchy Thoughts | October 28, 2026
Documenting the week of October 21-27

Taking on the October Halloween challenges was a fun and exciting way to push myself. This week we close the loop on those challenges, enjoy some outside time with the pup, and move into our next season.

Daily Art | October 21-27

Sketch and Catch! We had a fun afternoon with the unstoppable red ball. No snails were harmed in the sketching of this work :) Dog slobber protects us all.

Pushing toward being a touch more aggressive with hatching and cross-hatching. As the October season continues there will be an increased focus on this element. Good or bad, it’s happening… But not yet!

This concept finished up nicely. Really enjoyed the colorful aspect of this background. The hollow eyes work well with the action of pouring out a slew of thoughts that roll around in our heads.

This was a fun combo to experiment with. I was not able to follow the Kawafitober hashtag to investigate what it was all about. Adding this bright blue background as a last minute choice makes me smile.

Peachtober is another prompt that was outside of my knowledge base. After sitting with the prompt for a few minutes a curious direction started to manifest. Those peach ring candies, though not a personal favorite, became the option for me! It made me laugh and I enjoyed the process of sketching it out. Tested a few other brushes in the background too!

As a long time fan of Beavis and Butthead it was really fun to spoof this icon of absurdity. After tapping into the candy corn theme in the Candy Killer prompt, this work revisits multiple old friends at once. After it was completed my thoughts went to how much time goes into a few seconds of animation. What a fun adventure!

I am not one to spout that we live in the matrix. Still , it was rather peculiar that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were noted or showcased somewhere multiple times during this days prompt. In a rare occurrence, there was a real world turtle that arrived in our yard the day after. Did we summon it? Is it the matrix messaging me with corrected coordinates? In the words of the might Black Sabbath, “Am I Going Insane?” Kidding, of course. We lost our sanity long before the lizard people took over the governments of the world.

Sketch and Catch returns! What a beautiful week to hang outside with the pup. There were a few days I chose to leave the sketch pad behind and soak up the day. On this day, we had finished listening to a podcast recommendation from Bone folder press with Maria Popova. It is they reference how one person will see a tree in the path as an obstacle and another with see the beautiful colors of the tree. Forgive my paraphrasing of the quote. That sparked the inspiration for the sketch.
Here is the article and you will find the Youtube link embedded there.

Do you see the beauty of the tree or an obstacle in your way?

Our final prompt for the Stinktober event was Hallo-Weenie! Through all of the ups and downs, the Halloween art celebration has been a great experience for me. It allowed me to explore the digital surface, really dig into some alternate ideas and directions, and see a massive amount of amazing creative talents flooding the art world with their work. Many of which were truly inspirational for me.

I keep telling myself to work on lettering. Even though i feel myself to be disciplined in a daily art routine, working on lettering never gives me that spark. There are times that excitement creeps in but by the end of the wording it feels underwhelming. Perhaps its time to learn how to create my own font type and stop free handing this stuff?

Alternate color way for something, possibly, maybe, one day… For now, we are back in the fun zone!

Thanks to Chris Piascik for hosting the Stinktober prompts and to Retro Supply Co for hosting Fright-Fall. Looking forward to next year already!

LearnToDrawTogether Sunday Challenge | October 18

Drawing Challenge Number 58: “Draw your Original Character!”
This is a creature that keeps reoccurring in my work. It has a comfortable flow to the outline and I always enjoy drawing the hands. In this case, I chose to give it 4 fingers and a thumb. Typically it is a two or three finger creature. Why the change? No clue.