• Inktober #3- Bat – 2022

    The third prompt for Inktober is bat. Again, this was another easy one considering bats are a popular go to when it comes to horror. I wanted to do something a little different than your typical bat though. I decided to draw a “Vesp” from the movie, The Silence.

    The Silence is a Netflix original and in my opinion was a good movie. The bat like creatures called vesps were different and terrifyingly vicious. They relied on sound to find their prey so society had learned to become completely silent so as not to become victims to swarms of these ravenous little monsters. This is a similar concept to the more popular movie, A Quiet Place, which was released a year earlier in 2018. Although, other than the creatures being drawn to sound, that is the only similarity these movies share. Therefore, I think they are both deserving of a watch.

    Have you ever watched The Silence? What did you think? Share your comments below. Check back tomorrow for the next Inktober prompt, scallop.

    Thanks for stopping by, free spirits!

  • Inktober #2 – Scurry – 2022

    The second Inktober prompt is “scurry”. This was an easy prompt to come up with a horror movie. Several movies came to mind of eerie little critters scurrying around. Gremlins, Critters, They, Graveyard Shift… the list goes on. The one I settled on for my sketch was “Don’t be Afraid of the Dark”.

    There is the original from 1973 that I had watched as a child and the remake from 2010 that I watched as an adult. They had few similarities but were both great movies. For some reason little monsters have always creeped me out more than big monsters. I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s the fact that you can find a small space to hide from the big ones and they can’t get you but the little monsters are the ones hiding in the small spaces and will get you wherever you go!

    For my sketch, I drew both versions of the creatures. In the 2010 version, they are called Homunculi or tooth fairies. I’m not quite sure if they had a name in the 1973 version other than humanoid creatures but as you can see they are quite different from each other yet equally menacing.

    I will say that the remake is a more “hardcore” horror than the original so if you are looking for something a little easier to watch, I would go for the original. If you are a calloused horror fan then the remake is a lot more gruesome of a movie.

    Have you seen these movies? Which one was your favorite? What did you think of the remake? Share your opinion in the comments below. Check back tomorrow for the next Inktober prompt, bat.

    Thanks for stopping by free spirits! Now scurry along!

  • Inktober #1 – Gargoyle- 2022

    Another year has passed and another inktober series is at hand. I decided to do another horror movie series to prepare us for Halloween. I am a huge horror fan. I enjoy trying to pair movies I’ve seen with the different prompts. Sometimes it can be very difficult but this year I have successfully paired a movie with each prompt.

    So let’s start with our first prompt, Gargoyle. There are not too many gargoyle horror movies out there… well, good ones at least. There is a movie with the title “Gargoyles” from 1972 which within the first fifteen minutes seemed as though it was going to be a very entertaining movie and then gradually changed into something that was laughable (and not in a good way). I almost couldn’t finish it but I did and it was so bad. And that’s all I have to say about that.

    Then I remembered “Tales from the Darkside” which originally was a TV show but a movie was made with the same name in 1990. I watched it quite a while ago but I do remember being entertained and enjoying it. It was about a young boy captured by an evil old woman that was going to cook him up for dinner. To distract the woman, the boy told her different stories to prolong her meal preparation. One of the stories was about a gargoyle which is all I will say as to not spoil the movie. So I decided that this would be the gargoyle I would choose for my sketch.

    So one down, thirty more to go! Let the horror/monster fest begin!

    Have you ever seen the movie, Tales from the Darkside? What did you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! Check back tomorrow for Inktober prompt #2, scurry.

    Take care Free Spirits…or should I say, Freaky Spirits!

  • Inktober 2021 – A Tribute to my Dad

    My 2021 Inktober is dedicated to my dad. You can go back and read each post explaining the memory that is connected to every image. Today is my dad’s birthday. He would have been 64 today. I figured today would be a good day to share a post of all my sketches together. A lifetime of memories doesn’t really get much justice from 27 sketches but it’s still a fine tribute to my dad and all the great memories we had. I love you dad and I think of you everyday. Happy Birthday!

  • Inktober 2021 #29 & #30

    I never did get around to sharing my last two Inktober sketches last year. I dedicated my last inktober to my dad. He passed away in October of 2020 and this project was my way of bringing back some good memories to October.

    The prompt for entry #29 for Inktober was “Patch” I decided to draw a patch of poison ivy. My dad was extremely allergic to it. If he even so much as looked at it, he would be covered from head to toe. We were always in the woods for one reason or another and for some reason my dad always got the rash. Meanwhile, I never had a single itch. I felt very fortunate at the time that I was not affected like my dad was. I could have rolled in it and been fine. That is until I became an adult. When I started a job doing landscaping, it was rare that I didn’t have poison ivy! It was so irritating and the itch will drive you mad. Though beware, the more you scratch, the more it spreads! I tried so hard not to scratch it but there were times when I would wake up because I was scratching myself in my sleep. There was no escape! Now I know how my dad felt.

    For #30, I did not follow the Inktober prompt sheet. All my other sketches correlate with the official list but this final one was meant to be something else. My dad’s most recent dog was a Vizsla named Sophie. My dad always had his hunting dogs. He took his dogs hunting all the time. Not Sophie though. She was the biggest scaredy cat and she would never hurt a fly. The outside cats would bully her all the time because they knew she was a chicken sh!t. It was pathetically hilarious. Sophie was a big sweetheart though. She just wanted to be loved and protected.

    My dad loved to show off her skills though. He would grab a quarter out of his pocket and let Sophie sniff it. Then he would throw it in a direction that she wasn’t looking and tell her to retrieve it. And so she would. She would sniff around for a little while and follow the trail until she found the quarter. Then she would gingerly pick it up with her mouth and run it back to my dad to do it again. She was a good tracker, that’s for sure.

    I dedicated this last sketch to Sophie because she passed away almost exactly a year after my dad did. My dad died October 27, 2020. Sophie died October 26, 2021. After my dad was gone, Sophie was always waiting for him to come back. She found comfort with my mother but it wasn’t enough. Sophie was always a nervous dog but her anxiety was so bad afterwards, it was almost unmanageable. She just seemed so scared and worried all the time. My mom hated leaving the house because Sophie was too scared to be alone. It was frustrating not to be able to tell her what happened. She was so confused why my dad never came back home and I wish I could have just explained it to her. Sophie’s health rapidly declined that year despite my mom’s efforts in giving her the healthiest and most comfortable lifestyle a dog could have.

    My mom said that when Sophie passed, she had an overwhelming vision of Sophie seeing my dad and running to him as fast as she could, young, happy and healthy.

    My dad and Sophie are so dearly missed that words cannot even begin to explain. It’s hard to write about, not only for obvious reasons, but because my vocabulary cannot do my emotions justice. The feelings are so strong, overpowering at times. This is why I started this project. It helped me work through things and also brought some light and relief to such a heavy situation. I hope you enjoyed this final entry for my Inktober project. I apologize for it being so late. Although, it is my dad’s birthday today so I figured it was the right time to share the last piece.

    Happy Birthday Dad. Wish you were here. You too Sophie.

    I hope you enjoyed today’s stories. Check out my next post to see my entire Inktober 2021 collection. Thanks for reading.

    Take care, free spirits.

  • Inktober 2021 #28 – Crispy

    I drew a perch for this prompt because one of the things I’m going to miss is my dad’s fish fry! You may have read in a previous Inktober post that my family and I would often take my dad’s boat out on Lake Erie. We would spend all day in the sun, fishing for perch. Whatever we caught, we would bring back home and fry them up for one of my favorite meals of all time. My dad would take care of the fish and my mom made this home made tarter sauce. Together, it was sooooo goood. I never even remember what the sides were because I was so focused on the fish.

    I know I can have a fish fry anywhere but it’s not the same if my dad doesn’t make it. I always enjoyed his cooking. Some of the things he would make became my favorite meals. When I try to remake them though, it’s just not as good. I guess I’ll just have to keep practicing.

    Thanks for stopping by. I have one more Inktober sketch to do for my collection. I will not be doing #30 or #31. The prompts don’t bring up any memories for me. Plus it’s Halloween so I will be having fun with my son that weekend! Check back soon for the final sketch!

    Fry it up, free spirits!

  • Inktober 2021 #27 – Spark

    My dad was a metal worker by trade. He was a welder at Jeep for over 40 years. He worked on various parts of the jeeps over the years. We are a huge jeep family, always have been. I always thought it was cool to see them on the road or even driving our own and I would think, Yea, my dad made that. He obviously only welded one part of the vehicle but I gave him all the credit.

    He would also work on projects at home. He had his own welder so he did repairs for various things and every once and a while he would do fun projects like a coat rack made from horseshoes and stuff like that. He would show me what he had done once he was finished. He told me about the different types of welds you can do. He was very talented and his work always came out clean and perfect. At least it looked perfect to me.

    The number one rule when my dad was welding was to not look at the light. He always made me turn my back or go somewhere else for the moment. I was always tempted to look but it was so incredibly bright I never actually did. Okay, maybe from a distance I glimpsed for a split second one time but I immediately looked away and never did it again. My dad always wore the welding helmet and the gloves for protection. Although, he usually had a t-shirt on with little holes all over from the burn marks. I always wondered how it didn’t hurt when the sparks would hit his arms and shirt but it didn’t seem to bother him.

    My dad was a jack of all trades and a master of a few. I think metal working was definitely on the mastered list. I’ve always wanted to get into it artistically and make sculptures or something but I have yet to do so. One day.

    Thanks for reading! I’ll be posting #28 later today so check back soon!

    Master your craft, free spirits!

  • Inktober 2021 #26 – Connect

    I’ve been wanting to do a sketch related to my dad and my grandmother(his mother) for a while. Their relationship always stood out to me. My grandmother was around a lot. She would always come with us on vacations and trips and she would come camping with us at the fair when I would show my horse. My dad would always invite her to come to things and pick her up because she didn’t know how to drive. I always thought it was nice of him to always pick her up.

    He was always very respectful and never said a bad word about her. He cared for her and genuinely wanted to spend his time with her. He would go out of his way to do anything for her. I learned a lot by watching him. I try to treat my own mother the way that he treated his. They had a strong bond that anyone could see. He took it really hard when she passed and my heart always broke to see how sad he would get. He said sometimes at night it felt like someone would sit on the bed beside him and stroke his hair when he was sleeping. When he would open his eyes there was no one there. He believed it was my grandma visiting him.

    Right before my dad passed, when he was very sick, he wanted the blanket my grandma had made him to keep him warm. It was a tiny, old afghan that barely reached to his knees. I laid it on his chest so he could feel it and covered him up with a quilt on top so he could get warm. Although, I think the love from that holey afghan did most of the warming.

    I miss both of them dearly but they both inspire me everyday.