Another year, another beautiful Goblin Week comes to a close…

Huh? You mean you’ve never heard of Goblin Week??

Goblin Week is a week-long art… challenge doesn’t seem like the right word. Event? Celebration? Cavalcade?? Started and encouraged by Evan Dahm, of Rice Boy fame. The rules of goblin week are simple: draw a goblin. You can draw as many as you want, though often folks will draw a goblin a day for the full seven-day gamut. Beyond that, players are encouraged to go nuts. Goblins can mean anything! Make anything! You don’t have to shackle yourself to little green men!!! (This is entirely a personal preference, but please, draw anything other than little green men.) It is a fun, freeing little exercise in making something strange and delightful, and this year I had the dawning realization that I had been in it for all of 8 years now, since Evan started it in 2013. (Goblin Week 2014 was actually the first zine I was “published” in, though we’ll get to that in a minute.)

So what was I doing in 2013?

Er, well, still getting the hang of digital coloring, linework, light and shadow - basically everything, from the looks of it. I was still two years from graduation at that point, and despite almost ten years of carrying a sketchbook around the halls of grade school I hadn’t really figured out the whole “art” thing yet…
I remember struggling a lot with this piece and others like it - this was also a time when I cared a lot more about biological practicality in my goblins than I do now. Large eyes for seeing in the dark, extra limbs to make climbing and carrying a less complicated affair, whispy whiskery eyebrows - it all speaks to the practiced cave-dweller, but I think in terms of charm the design falls short. (I promise this whole blog won’t just be me dragging my past self - I understand An Attempt Was Made.)

Now it’s 2014

And we are getting the first taste of what would become one of my artist proclivities, which I refer to as “Wow, That Sure is a Lot of Things.” This piece is still rough but the charm is starting to eke its way through. This is one of seven drawings I did for Goblin Week 2014 and one of several different goblin designs, and while its not the one that was ultimately published, in hindsight I think its one of my favorites. The little hanging bottles with flowers and his fishhook earrings make me smile. I hope to see him in a JRPG town square hocking dubious wares someday.

Invitation from the Goblin Prince 2016

I skipped Goblin Week 2015 - or at least, I cannot find any evidence to the contrary - so we move on to Goblin Week 2016, where a drastic change has taken place. Finally we’re getting a sense of movement and presentation from the design, as well as a touch of understanding on light and color.
2016 was also a big year of Gender Feelings, and this character at the time was serving as a thinly-veiled self-insert. Its a fun bonus exercise of looking back at the mirror of - not necessarily who you were, but who you wanted to be, what you were trying to find yourself in. I hope we all find the Goblin Prince within us.

Goblin Week 2017

Not much to say here. I think I was very stressed out at the time LOL

Goblin Week 2018

We have reached the point now where I can recognize the art as my own, and therefore I have less and less to say about it LOL
What I can add - I believe this is the point where I started to think about the narrative attached to each goblin design. As I recall this goblin was named Ulrich, and he was a court painter, and a very sour one at that - due in no small part to his subject, one Lord Mule von Muskham.

(Looking back?

I bet they have a torrid romance going on.)

Goblin Week 2019

I think around this point was when I was growing tired of drawing static characters in a void of space - and so this time the focus shifted from many different goblins to a single goblin, going through the different locations that make up their day. It seems a bit routine maybe - but not all goblins are sludge and explosions. Some like iced coffee and to meet a frog. Who wouldn’t?

Goblin Week 2020

Ah, the infamous year. Well, it certainly had some bright beginnings.
I was still in love with the lumpy little potato goblin from the year prior, but was struggling to come up with further scenarios for him - so for this year I opened it up to my pals on twitter to submit some emojis for me to craft a scene out of it. Although now I can’t recall what each one was based from exactly… what do you think?

And with that, we come to Goblin Week 2021…

The beauty of Goblin Week’s openness can also be one of its biggest hurdles - its always easier to work within some constraints, I feel, than to be handed a limitless toybox and be told to “do whatever.” How does one even start?

Then I remembered the point of inspiration that gets me every time without fail: what if X was a metal band?

And so I made the band BOG SPIT, which I picture as a small goblin town group of friends still struggling to get the word of their EP out. I wish them all the luck in the world.

Goblin Week is one of the few artistic challenges that I’ve more or less been able to keep up with annually, and while simple it is startlingly easy to track my development of skills and interests through goblin lenses. If I could have any hopes for goblin futures, I would say I hope I find it in me to be more experimental and more ambitious in the Goblin Weeks to come.

With that, Happy Goblin Week, (thank you Evan Dahm,) and Happy New Year to all my fellow funny creatures out there 💖