I’ve been drawing these probably sort of sentient, definitely empty-headed little lumps of grass and leaves for goodness knows how long now. Big ones, little ones; all sorts and all sizes.

And they’ve found a home within my annual sketchbook collections, that’s for sure. In the last 15 years these little creatures have made appearances within most of them and, in fact, one year they were the main feature across the 60 page sketchbook.

What to call them? I’m not sure. Never have been. But what I am sure of is that I love drawing them.

Recently, I’ve been going down a little leafy creature rabbit trail of sorts. I thought I’d take you on a little tour of some and leave you with a spooky preview of the next one, just in time for Halloween.

While most of time I tend to draw them from my mind, I do occasionally see a plant and think, hey, you’d make a good one, wouldn’t you? and then take some photos. Case in point, this one made of blackberries (that I ended up painting a bit more like raspberries for some reason).

And now one of my very favorites. A dumpy little potato-faced lump sitting in the rain.

These little goofs spark an unquantifiable amount of joy, for me. They sit, unmoving, like little toads and probably don’t think about much of anything. I’m aspiring to the same, these days. Doing a real bad job of it, myself, but I aspire.

And now to close out this haunted month, a preview of a truly spooky one! Leaves of three, let it be, indeed. Nothing quite so terrifying as a little insensible ball of poison ivy hopping through the woods at ankle height. Nothing.

Stay safe out there!