SLART October 2023 Retrospective
Overview of an Artist's October Observations
SLART note: I’m realising that, the more I reflect, the easier and more beneficial it becomes. Do you have a think about the month just gone? I forgot what I had for dinner 2 days ago. I’ve decided to start a monthly retrospective, whereby I look back on what art I have created over the month and what I’ve generally been up to. It’ll include a roundup of the my posts throughout that month too. To nudge my memory, what I have found useful is looking through my photos and conversations that have happened over the month. That in itself turns your mind towards what has occured over the last 30 or so days.
Let’s take a look back at October 2023:
Quick subnote: This post is too long for email, so please read feel free to read it on the web or in the Substack app.
October 1
It’s the first day of Inktober 2023, I only found out about Inktober last year and hugely enjoyed the process, so I thought I’d do it again!
I watched the film, The Brothers Grimsby with my family and couldn’t stop laughing. It’s been a while since I saw it, this was when it came out in the cinema. Check out my Father-in-law as an extra in the background.
October 2
Inktober Day 2.
My Mother-in-law shared an image of her new tissue box business.
October 3
Inktober Day 3. Inspired by a quote that I adore.
I pre-ordred Arnie’s new book.
October 4
Inktober Day 4. Dodgy Dave selling his hooky watches.
I started watching Nathan Barley again, it’s so hillarious! I spotted Stephen Mangan in it as part of this porn spoof.
I drew Gay Hendricks as the cover for my podcast with him.
October 5
Inktober Day 5. A Swindon themed sketch.
In the evening, I went to a ‘speakeasy’ in town. The front is disguised as a laundrette. It’s pretty cool.
October 6
Inktober Day 6. The goose that laid the golden egg!
I had a weird memory trip, whereby I had remembered something I created back in 2010, but I haven’t paid any mind to it since. To cut a long story short, I got asked to create some posters for a film that Toya Wilcox starred in. Back then, I was so anxious and scrabbling around trying to earn a self-employed living as a web designer, I was more focused on getting paid than anything else.
This memory of creating the posters popped into my head, but I couldn’t remember the lady I had worked with, nor did remember the name of the film. So I did a bit of memory-jogging, a few searches later and some pondering, I found the lady and found the film title.
The film is: The Power of Three.
You can see below, 2 of 4 posters that I created for the film. My brief was to create posters for the casting office featured in the film, two of those posters featured Anton Alexander in different scenarios. Below left he is a Rambo-esque solider and another was called “Anyone for Tennis” (I could see the edge of this one behind Toyah’s head, I’ll have to scan through the film again).
Also, I drew DuVay Knox on the way home from work. I think I captured him quite well, despite being on a bumpy bus ride in the countryside.
October 7
Inktober Day 7.
I have a lovely day at Hauser & Wirth in Somerset with my baby Daugther and my friend.
In Substack world, I posted this:
Monkeys are smarter than humans
Author’s note: This was a lot of fun to create. Having a reference photo each from a huge encyclopaedia made it feel like a real global community exhibit. The brief was sent out by Art Aviso in 2019 and as 2020 came around, the exhibition got postponed a couple of times, understandably (You’ll read more about it below).
October 8
It’s Inktober day 8 and I’m on the hard shoulder of the M4 with a toad who’s been towed, 200 miles away from Swindon.
Today’s highlights: I put a wig on my daughter, took my electicity meter reading and prepped for my upcoming art exhibition.
October 9
Inktober Day 9. Patrick Ewing X Mr Tickle.
Today’s highlight, my friend was on Steph’s packed lunch on TV.
October 10
Inktober Day 10. What do you think of fortune tellers?
Today’s highlights, including, my Arnie book arrived today so I decided to do an impression of him:
I drew camden noir on the way to work.
I sketched Mabel and her hooman Laura Kennedy:
October 11
Inktober Day 11. The wanderful, John Cleese!
A thing that happened today: I got my poster ready for the art exhibiton on the 14th.
Substack, I published my Podcast with Susan Cain:
October 12
Inktober Day 12. My ex-colleagues (from the company I’m at now) had an in-fascination with Ainsley Harriot, we are all big fans!
I set up my print rack at the exhibition space, here’s my piece titled: Fighting with Hulk Hogan.
October 13
Inktober Day 13. This one was inspired by this classic tune:
Every now and again, I watch a few Lenny McLean videos to pretend that I’m a tough guy (I’m really not). I had a little look today.
October 14
Inktober Day 14. It’s a castle, innit.
I had my art exhibition at Trinity in the evening.
Then I published a post about Doubting yourself!
October 15
Inktober Day 15. Crocodile Dundee II inspired sketch.
Highlight of the day was feeding my baby daughter some baby porridge. She has it all over her face and looked super adorable. Every day’s highlight is really hanging out with my daughter and wife, but I don’t want their cuteness to take over this post lol.
October 16
Inktober Day 16. Said baby inspired.
Not a lot else happened today. I started looking for a gift for my nephew’s birthday coming up. He loves Manchester City FC. I had a nice walk back home with my daugther in the pram, it was a clear, chilly day. I pulled funny faces at her all the way home, we had a right laugh!
October 17
Inktober Day 17. Inspired by my piece Memento Vivere.
Today was a big day!
One of my best friends had a baby boy.
It was another good friend’s birthday.
My other good friend’s 3 year old broke the TV when using VR and it made me laugh a lot. My friend wasn’t happy.
I had a mega drawing day, with Substack peeps as my subjects:
October 18
Inktober Day 18. YEEE-HAW!
Today saw some more Substackers being drawn. I invited each subject to nominate a pal, it’s a really enjoyable way to connect with new people and an excuse to draw more, not that I need an excuse.
I wasn’t happy with it so I created a V2 with the wonderful Janine de Novais - they are plotting something!
In other news, I ate a whole back of coated chili peanuts mmmm and my doggy got soaked on his daytime walk.
…And to top the day off, my Geoff Thompson podcast episode was released.
October 19
Inktober Day 19. A chubby chicken chap and an understanding hen wife.
Today’s Substacker drawings were of the wonderful:
Merrill Merkle Cintra Wilson Donna McArthur
I reached 100 subscribers! Thank you all!
I made a meme out of a guy who used to work for my dad called Roy Lance. This is Tour De Lance. It’s funny to me at the very least.
October 20
Inktober Day 20. I’ve been doing the Wim Hof ting, well, not in reality but I aspire to.
It was my 6th wedding anniversary today! Woop! We celebrate on the 21st…
October 21
Inktober Day 21. I’m a big fan of Mr.T and I pity the fool who isn’t.
It’s party time for wifey and I, we go out on the town with a couple of friends. The first night away from our baby, who stayed with my brother!
I had a little reflection on my art exhibit that happened on the previous Saturday.
October 22
Inktober Day 22. Simpson’s inspired…
Just a chilled Sunday today. I actually can’t remember what we got up to. Oh yes, we had a relaxed day after our big night out. A roast dinner, crap telly and chilling with my wife, baby and fur baby.
October 23
Inktober Day 23. Went all hippy and trippy with this one. We are all one.
Today I shared my Kamal Ravikant podcast on Substack:
#4 Love yourself like your life depends on it
Listen now (22 mins) | "So I return to the question, "if I loved myself, truly and deeply, what would I do?" The answer comes easy: I'd fly. Fly as high as I possibly can. Then, I'd fly higher.” Kamil Ravikant
It was my nieces 8th birthday today, and I had 1/2 a day off to spend time with my daugther. We went to eat at Slim Chickens with my mum and sister.
I also did a lil sketch of Good Humor by CK Steefel:
October 24
Inktober Day 24. Just another day of Tea-bagging my tepid bath water.
Today I got annoyed with this zealous hyperbole inside of my inbox:
I captured the spirit of Alisa Kennedy Jones in sketch-form:
My bro put his cat in an outfit.
October 25
Day 25 of Inktober and I’m feeding a double cheese burger to a croc that looks like Elvis.
Alicia Dara has been SLARTified today.
I met up with my mate who had the baby, but the pictured baby, is my baby, not his baby. We had a nice pint of Sagres lager, a bowl of fries and a chat about fatherhood.
I was loving this Lao Tzu quote today:
October 26
Inktober Day 26. ChuckleVison, My muse.
Two other muses today were:
Mike Sowden and Alison Krupnick
I had Slim Chickens the second time this week, this time with my wife and daughter. The chicken tenders didn’t tend to be as tender as they were on the Monday lunchtime scale of tenderness. Doesn’t make sense but you know what I mean. I also did this thing I do, I ordered far too much food, as I knew my wife couldn’t eat it all, so I could eat what she couldn’t eat. But I ended up being in pain afterwards for eating too much! That’ll learn me!
October 27
Inktober Day 27. An intelligent, well-read man with a beastly appearance.
Lovely Jeanne S did this charcoal piece of me and my dog, Bruno. I was blown away! WOW! This part of a note, whereby artists pair up and draw each other. I need to get my skates on a return my rendition of Jeanne ASAP!
I started reading the book of DuVay Knox
…and Today’s Substackspiration was Christopher Frizzelle - What a suarve gent!
October 28
Inktober Day 28. A little quick sketch involving sparklers.
I had a lovely Saturday, a little trip with my daughter to Bristol. I met with and old mate and his kids for coffee and donuts, then to another mate’s house who just had a baby 7 weeks ago, and finally on to an ex colleages place who is also an artist. I made the most of being in the West’s Biggest City to catch up with friends, it was a great day. My wife was at home catching up with some work, so my little trip away gave her a bit of space.
I published by ‘Stack today based on my artistic reflection with Chat GPT.
October 29
Inktober Day 29. Inspired by this wicked tune!
We drove to London to see my lovely Grandad-in-law in hospital, he broke his hip a few weeks ago but is looking and doing well now (THANK THE LORD).
I won’t share any pics, apart from this beautiful London view from the window of the hospital ward. My poor photography doesn’t do the view justice. In the middle pic you can see the new Tottenham Football Stadium, on the right pic, you can see the London skyline and The Shard poking out like a shard of glass into the bright sky.
October 30
Inktober Day 30. Nicely tying in to the football theme (I’m not a fan myself) Liverpool Legend, Ian Rush.
Not much else going on this Monday. My art studio peeps are throwing some stuff out so I thought I’d grab the frames to use.
October 31
Inktober Day 31. I’ve ran out of sketchbook. So I used the back cover.
Today’s Substacker selection, is none other that Brian Bouldrey who launched his new book on this day! Congrats Brian!
Also, Happy Halloween. I left a big bowl of sweets outside with a sign. 90 minutes later it was gone!
I made a cool lil sign on the door…
I can’t take the credit as it was Canva template!
Thank you so much for reading my October retrospective post. It took me a while to put this all together and I enjoyed every moment of it. Inktober has really been a great catalyst in getting my drawing practise moving again. Drawing every day during October made me want to draw more during October. I realise how much I love drawing, it was my first love before painting so I shouldn’t neglect it!
Thank you for your wonderful support, comments, likes and shares!
The wig on your daughter was my favorite!
Yessir. Dope Inking of mahself. Got the Terminators book too....