Assorted Tricks and Treats (Part 3): 31 Days and 31 Monsters

As I did last year, I decided to pursue my own take on Inktober this October by creating a whiteboard sketch for each day--31 days and 31 monsters.

My initial aspiration was to avoid using reference--to develop creatures based on memory. And I was able to do that at first--with several of the images featured here falling into that category. But inspiration ultimately failed me after while and I began to sprinkle in poses and likenesses pulled from other sources. (In the end, I think it'll end up around 70/30 skewed towards fully original concepts.)

Like most people, I think, I found the project easy to start but difficult to commit to on a daily basis--especially once I got into the middle of the month. As a matter of fact, I ended up deferring posts to this blog on a couple of occasions because I needed the time to eek out various sketches.

Looking back on the images I chose--and thinking about the handful I have yet to deliver--it's an interesting review of where my head was at through this Halloween season. I included the Flatwoods Monster and the Mothman--both cryptids from neighboring West Virginia--because of proximity and also because of their inclusion in Fallout 76. (I think I'll finish off the set by sketching a Snallygaster sometime before Wednesday.)
In general, I'd wanted to avoid repeating any sketches from last year--though I did cycle through the usual suspects from classic horror (i.e., Frankenstein's monster, a werewolf, Dracula and a vampire bride, etc.). But these were fresh takes on those creatures and some of the sketches I ultimately liked the most once done.

I also tried to stick to black on white, though I needed--just because of availability of materials--to do two of the sketches in red. Leaning into that, I made respective images of The Blob and Marvel's Carnage which may ironically be the two best of the series.

One thing I did this year that I didn't do last year was to weed out some of the work before pushing it to Instagram. I'm not sure if that's really in the spirit of Inktober, but I feel that I've become more critical of my sketches over time and have less patience if certain projects don't seem to be fleshing out the way I'd envisioned them. In particular, I know I scrapped a scarecrow that I may revisit before the end of the month--because I still have a distinct vision, an itch left to be scratched. I don't know if that means that the quality of the work is better overall. I suppose that's left to you to decide.

If you'd like to check out my sketches, please visit my Instagram account and let me know what you think (Find me here: Owl Cowl and Blaster on Instagram.) Especially let me know if there are any concepts I should cram into these last few days of October.

Happy haunting!