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A lot of my work starts with somewhere real, then gets pulled sideways into my own imagined folklore.
A strange building. An old map. A familiar landmark. Some bit of infrastructure you have passed a thousand times without really looking at it.
That is a little part of Sootpunk too: real places twisted into stranger histories, local legends and things that probably should not be there.
Choose a real place near you and turn it into a monster, creature or local legend.
The important bit is that the place itself must be real, then twisted into something else. It could be a factory, church, tower block, viaduct, pub, car park, bridge, pylon, hill, wasteland, or anything that feels very specifically where you live.
Start with whatever reference works: your own photo, an old postcard, an archive image, Street View, a planning document, a map, an estate-agent listing, or just a sketch made while you are there.
Make the place itself into the creature. Windows become eyes, chimneys become horns and railway arches grow teeth.
Or leave it mostly as it is and add something that looks like it has been living there for 400 years without anybody mentioning it.
This can be a 10-minute quick piece. Edit a photo on your phone or computer, print or photocopy it and attack it with a biro. Sketch it. Add a monster. Give it a name. Done.
Or disappear into it for three days and invent an entire municipal cryptid bureaucracy. 🤣
Use whatever you like: pencil, paint, ink, photography, collage, digital art, cardboard, found rubbish, or computer-aided cryptid conjuring.
Give your monster a name. Add a rumour, warning, sighting, bit of folklore, newspaper clipping or council notice if you fancy.
It can be horrible, funny, sad, daft, unsettling or completely inexplicable.
Your monster can be 600 years old or have moved into the abandoned retail park last Tuesday.
Bonus points if the council has known about it since 1978 but nobody can work out which department is responsible.
Post the real place alongside it if you fancy, but do not dox yourself in the name of monster art. A general location is plenty.
#LocalMonsterChallenge #Sootpunk
