The Malleable Monarch: Holiday Three-fer

One of the reasons it took so long to post anything was that this summer, like most, seemed extremely busy. And parts of it really were. We were gone to Ozzie-land for a week and half, visiting the beach and lake for some longer weekends, and I started a major house project to replace the backyard fence and gate and include a new deck. Let's just say that most days were very industrious if not completely absorbed in R&R. That all came to an abrupt halt on Oct. 1, 2025. The longest federal government shutdown in history began that day and despite never having been furloughed during a shutdown in my 20+ years in federal service, this was the year they decided my position was unnecessary during such a shutdown. I was optimistic that it would just be a week before congress capitulated or compromised but as the rhetoric became more clearly a stonewall, the reality sank in that this was going to be a long-haul ordeal. Fortunately, at the same time our local Drink-n-Draw group had just posted an "Inktober" challenge to draw one image for each day of the month with a list of mythical and mystical creatures assigned to each day.

At first, I didn't think I would have time as I would be back to work "any day now" but as the opposite became clearer, I decided to go ahead and take up the challenge. Below are some of my favorite sketches from Inktober. Some days topics were just not very motivating and there were several times I found myself behind on the assignment but at the end of October, I found that I had actually sketched one image for every day (plus one bonus day) and it was a great experience. Most daily topics were figurative which I hadn't done in quite a while and organic figures are not my usual go-to for drawing subjects. My favorite part of the exercise as that there were several subjects that lent themselves to charcoal so I happily made a mess of the dining room table charcoal dust and eraser nibbins! It was great practice and if we have another shut-down by the end of next month, I might try a similar challenge.