Sam Waite – Writer & Reviewer

Once upon a pandemic, I was actually pretty creative – I was furloughed, a fortnight staying with my sister had become a couple of months, and my iPad became my closest ally. I took up the “Just Write Challenge” no will revisit some of those results, but today I wanted to stroll down a more visual part of memory lane – some of the digital drawings I created not that long ago, but am too out of practise to recreate without weeks of editing and re-editing myself.

So if you’ll indulge me, or even if you won’t, I’m going to share some of the work from the past few years that I’m still pretty proud of and that I’m still happy with myself for creating. These were al made using the Sketchbook app, because I couldn’t get the hang of Procreate and am in fact the type to abandon things I’m not immediately good at – a fabulous trait for a creative, obviously!

Quite a bit more recent than the others, this drawing has some touches I’m not too keen on – the texture of the hair gets worse the longer I look at it, honestly. Still, this was a nice reminder than I haven’t completely lost the knack, even though it did take a lot longer than when I as drawing or hours every day.

Thinking pink for just a bit longer, this one happened between countless rewatches of Jake Hays’ music video for his song “Overcomplicated.” Katherine, a content creator I’d been following for a while at that point, turned in a really fun performance and I kept coming back to this brightly coloured scene of her character watching Jake’s suffer at her hands.

This is another drawing stemming from nothing more than seeing something online and thinking “Oh that looks cool.” Mostly it was the glittery eyebrows that drew me in, and I had my work cut out for me trying to figure out how to put them across in a flat image. Admittedly I have better versions of this one saved (i.e. sparklier-looking) but I wanted to rely minimally on outside editing for the work shared here.

A bit more cartoonish and during one of many phases where faces were giving me too much trouble, this picture represents something I joke about but also deeply believe – mermaids would be topless regardless of anatomy. Living leagues below humanity, it never made sense to me why they should have adopted our ideal of modesty. Of course, the answer in many cases is because the media is for children, but my drawings simply are not. (Also I liked testing Instagram’s censoring of “female presenting nipples.”)

I won’t lie and pretend I have a solid recollection of how this one came to be. I definitely love a swishy garment and an impractical top, so maybe there was nothing more to it than having some fun with this character’s fashion. Deep into a Drag Race binge at the time, I imagine some of the whimsy came from that – although frankly I can imagine odder ensembles being worn in a nightclub.

Like the caption says, this was purely an exercise in vibes. I mostly end up drawing female-presenting characters when making them up for myself, so I wanted to try something different in drawing someone male-presenting and in stepping away from a big phase oof attempted realism. His bridge piercing is in kind of a weird place, but I’ve always really liked this drawing.

Now to make myself look like a liar by sharing pictures of several men back to back! During those dark days of furlough, one respite I found outside of creating for myself was the then-daily Twitch stream of West End performer Cleve September. After he’d brought together a community, some of whom I’m still friends with to this day, it seemed only right to immortalise the head of the WLFPK in pixels.

So you know I mentioned still being friends with people from Cleve’s Twitch stream? Well, imagine my surprise when rapper CCB invited me to join his Discord server, only to be met with one of those same friends! In fact, after a couple of years of casual online friendship, it’s only when meting up with Charlie midway through his European trip that we officially met, face to face – it really is a small world, after all. (Also Charlie has made some brilliant songs, definitely look him up!)

Throwing it back to my early plans for posting art online, this was a turning point in my planned Favourite Artists series. I’d already been a big fan from Lakeith’s work on Atlanta, and while unable to go to work I finally watched Sorry To Bother You, and rented his then-new film Judas and The Black Messiah, introducing my parents to one off my favourite actors working today just in time for a well-deserved Oscar nomination. (It was the wrong category, but I’ll take it!)

Sticking with wonderful actors and moving back to friends in the same breath, I’m going to close out with another more recent piece. After seeing Izzie Winter’s one-person musical, My Sister is Missing, I was in awe of them, their presence, and their undeniable talent. As has been thankfully often the case, I also found Izzie to be a warm, kid-hearted, no supportive person offstage, and one of many in the London theatre scene who I truly treasure knowing.

And that, as they say, is that. Maybe in the future I’ll unearth more work I’m proud to share, or perhaps I’ll even create some more. In the meantime, take me as a cautionary tale – if you love doing something, just stick with it and reap whatever benefits may come, even if it’s just the thrill of loving what you do.