Was up late last night working and listening to a Raymond Chandler audiobook. Some good old fashioned PI goodness.

GAME TIME. You get to guess how much of this is me trying to be cool and stylish and how much is “oh crap my pen is out of ink, where did I leave the new cartridges, oh to hell with it, I’m taking this way too seriously, let’s just do whatever.” HINT: It is exactly what you think. Still, can’t let the fact that this is posted publicly stop me from experimenting, trying new things, and generally be willing to make this sort of slightly unfortunate mess.

My brother’s been looking for a place to live in Toronto while on a co-op term. He had two major stipulations: no hipsters, and no hippies. “They smell,” he says. My mother – a young teenager in the hippie era – was not going to take that sort of crap.

Here, in tribute to my mother and to piss off my little brother, is a dancing hippie.

You know what was awesome? The new Sherlock Holmes movie. I’m just sayin’. Finding more authentic reference of the era is a little more difficult, but if you’re willing to wade through the crap and large swathes of dead links to former Geocities pages, costumes.org is a goldmine.

Trying to be more confident with my blacks, which, usually, would be charitably described as “hesitant”.

My theme for January, inspired by a lot of 80s movies, not to mention the new Sherlock Holmes flick (Victorian bromance? It’s like a movie just for me!) feels appropriate for ringing in a new year. Instead of looking forward, I’m going to go back into history and draw a bunch of people from past eras. (And, seeing as I was born in 1987, “past eras” pretty much encompasses anything prior to 1990.)

History isn’t quite my forte, but I do have a few things I’m a sucker for. Very old cars. Old hats. Victorian men’s clothing. Pretty much anything Kate Beaton will make a comic about.

Welcome to The Monthly Daily, my New Year’s resolution and a project that I’m sure I will soon regret immensely. My name’s Kim Sokol, and I’m an illustrator. I’ve discovered since leaving school that, getting caught up in self promotion, endless website tweaking, not to mention basic listless drifting, I’m not drawing nearly enough.

So here’s the plan. Every day, throughout the year of 2010, I shall post a drawing here. To keep it from being too aimless, each month will have a theme. (Monthly theme. Daily drawing. Monthly Daily.) To see other people who have done similar things, check out this great post on Smashing Magazine, which was partially the inspiration for this endeavor.

The rules of the game, as near as I’ve considered them, are simple: picture every day. If I absolutely have no way of getting it online, then I’ll still draw it and post it as soon as I have access; otherwise, it needs to be posted on the day. If things go horribly wrong and this goes off the rails, I’ll try to pick it up again at the beginning of the next month instead of letting it fall apart.

So here’s to an awesome year, everybody, and here’s to art. Wish me luck!