Happy Halloween!

 

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween, so here's my lil collection of Spoops!

First up, we have the crochet project for today, based on a pattern I found on Ravelry by Zoe Deterding!

As you can see, it's quite... pink!

I picked pink for the witch hat thinking it'd be cute, and I was right. It's *way* pinker in person. I think that having it against a very dark blue sheet is what washes it out. That said, it's a bit tight for my grown up noggin, so I'd call it child-sized. Makes sense - the pattern calls for a much larger hook than I used, which ... maybe it was an F hook? It's wooden and has no markings.

Regardless, you're probably wondering if I made it all the way through my Creeptober prompts, and I'm pleased to tell you that Yes I Did!!!

"COSTUME"; pencil sketch; 2022

"PARTY"; pencil sketch; 2022

"TRICK OR TREAT"; pencil sketch 2022

"SOMETHING YOU ARE AFRAID OF" pencil sketch; 2022

On the 28th, I drew "COSTUME", which shows a girl in a cute demon costume (which, maybe I'll try out next year).

29 was "PARTY", so I drew a ghost and a black cat having cake and conversation at a punch bowl.

The 30th gave me "TRICK OR TREAT" so I drew a curly-haired witch getting her candy from a bowl on someone's porch.

And today's was "SOMETHING YOU ARE AFRAID OF"...

Guys, I'm terrified of large creatures in the deep.

I'm seriously unnerved by massive animals. I think they're amazing and I'm in awe of them and I respect the fact that they could accidentally kill me and never even notice. It's the existential dread some people get when viewing the Pillars of Creation. I get the same "wow I'm super tiny and pointless" feeling from whales.

In other words: Whales are like Great Old Ones to me.

Sure, a giant squid paralyzes my brain in the same manner, but man... It's silly that I'm scared of whales.

I think it's mostly the "can come out of nowhere because it's super duper DARK in the deep sea" thing they've got going for them.

My eyesight's pretty bad. It's easy to startle me.

Getting startled underwater can kill you!

So yeah. I'm a chicken.

Anywho, I'm gonna cozy up with my Dedbert and watch some spoopy videos tonight. I hope you guys are having a good Halloween!

And if you want to have a say in this week's art, feel free to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message saying what category you'd like to see:

• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Location
• Dedbert
• Geometric
• Word

From me to you all:

Go Enjoy Something!

And Happy Halloween!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which These Are Mostly Doodles/Concepts...

I have, as you may be aware, been plugging away at the art prompts from Kick In The Creatives' Creeptober list...

But the last couple weeks have been weird.

Last week, everything was all about my youngest sister's wedding, which, as I said on Tuesday, was PERFECT. It was marvelous and I hope the two of them have a wonderful marriage. It did mean that I was a bit wrapped up in the stresses of prep and then the tiredness of the following days (not that I cut a rug or anything, I'm just low-social, and having that many people around me was tiring in a very good way).

This week, you'd think I'd have less excuses to fall behind on art, but... somehow despite there not being anything going on, I still feel very tired and none of that is helped by me not being able to sleep. Yay.

Last night's lack of sleep had a reason, at least.

One of the massive horde of ladybugs that seem to be creeping into everyone's homes found its way into my bedroom, and instead of chilling on the ceiling or on a far wall like one of my spiders...

The big doofus was flying around like an idiot, smacking into walls, pinging off the metal shade to my bedside lamp, and most egregiously of all...

Landing. on. my face.

Ugh.

Nothing like waking up at 3am with little feet tapdancing on your nostril.

Creepy lil butthead.

Anyway, it's missing in action now, so there's every possibility that this headache I can't shake is from ingesting a toxic insect.

I'm mostly joking about eating the ladybug.

Because it really is nowhere to be found...

Anyway, after yesterday's rainstorms, today's gorgeous 65℉/18,3℃ weather with its broad blue sky and wondrously golden light and balmy winds is a treat. A treat that I enjoyed in owl pants and a tee with Putties from Power Rangers on it under the label "Jobbers". Also a yellow flannel shirt. While wielding sandpaper and scrubbing furiously at rocks.

Anywho, I did end up doing the art from the 14th to today, it's just.... kind of more conceptual than finished. And there are some pieces that I'd love to finish some day!

"SPELL"; pencil sketch; 2022

"MONSTER" pen sketch; 2022

"HORROR FILM"; marker sketch; 2022

Yes, Horror Film is flipped on its side. My camera was being very, very combative that day. And yes, it's based on "Halloween". I'd actually like to try this one again, because the idea of taking something that should be Orange and Red and Silver and making it in entirely pink/magenta tones is kinda calling to me. I'd try it in Krita, I think.

As for Monster, that thing is adorable, but I wouldn't want to meet it on a moonless night. And Spell has a lot of potential in a more graphic style - it might make a fun piece of flash some day.

"FESTIVAL"; marker sketch; 2022

Oh Festival... I want to redraw this some day as a proper engraving-style piece. It's supposed to look like a Halloween-themed Maypole being danced around by various monsters - a bat, a skeleton, a headless ghost, a minotaur, and maybe a cat? I would love to play with this concept some more!

"SCARY FACE" marker sketch; 2022

"GRAVEYARD"; pencil sketch; 2022

"GOBLIN/I LIKE ROCKS"; marker and pencil sketch; 2022

"PUNCH" marker & pencil sketch; 2022

"CLOWN"; marker sketch; 2022

"SILHOUETTE"; pencil; 2022

"TWILIGHT"; marker sketch; 2022

"FULL MOON" marker sketch; 2022

"THROUGH THE WINDOW"; marker sketch; 2022

"GOTH" marker and pencil; 2022

I am extremely happy with how both Goblin and Goth turned out. They're both self portraits, after a fashion. I buzzed my hair yesterday and honestly, it's not bad! I can't do makeup to save my life, though, and I haven't owned a pair of purple pants in years.

I'm also thrilled with Silhouette, which is a silhouette of a human skull! Graveyard is based on a still from Plan 9 From Outer Space, and Scary Face is supposed to be a Gengar from Pokemon, but... yeah, he be wonky.

Those are the prompts for the last 14 days! I should post again on Halloween as a General Halloween Blog so check back then to see the last few prompts:

• Costume
• Party
• Trick or Treat
• Something You're Afraid Of

If you'd like to have a say as to what each of those contain, feel free to shoot me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message saying which category you'd like to add and for which prompt. The prompts are above, the categories are

• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Dedbert
• Location
• Geometric
• Word

I'm really looking forward to closing out this month, and I'm gonna have a good time finishing up!

How about you guys, any plans for Halloween?

And I hope you go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

In Which Spoopy Season Has Officially Begun!

Every October, I try to do one of those 31-Artworks-in-31-Days Prompt Lists. I started with Inktober, but then I learned about the controversy with that, and I don't need drama, so I have started experimenting with other Prompt Lists. Last year I attempted Witchtober. This year I went with Kick In The Creatives' "Creeptober".

Know how I just said I don't need drama?

Yeah, this prompt list has caused drama.

Not in the ways you may think, though...

See, I'm pretty sure - about 99% certain - that this prompt list is either Cursed or Haunted.

Why?

Well, the first prompt, Dracula? When I sketched it, I created an abomination so terrible, so upsetting, that I couldn't even look at it. I had to give it hair and play around in both Paint.net and Krita to get it to stop scaring me.

It also broke my scanner.

Kind of.

See, my scanner sometimes forgets how to scan, somewhere in between my computer and the machine itself, and when that happens, usually restarting my computer works for resetting it.

Guys, nothing on earth will induce my scanner to put that Dracula drawing on the internet.

My camera phone, meanwhile, is not superstitious, so I snapped a pic of the sketch and sent it to myself.

AND NOW BLOGGER IS REFUSING TO UPLOAD THE PICS TO THE BLOG! What on earth?!?!?!

"Dracula Lineart"; pencil & digital sketch; 2022

What I'm having to do to get this freaky, upsetting image online is switch back & forth between HTML and Compose mode in Blogger, so I'm now 100% convinced this Dracula is haunted.

Here it is in color:

"Dracula"; digital painting; 2022

See? Much less creepy in color.

And yes, I still have no idea how to use Krita effectively, though I'm experimenting, so we'll see how that goes.

The second through 6th prompts are far less problematic, but oh my god this one picture has been running my life. Not ruining, necessarily, but running it. I have been practically glued to my keyboard trying to draw and paint it.

"Ghost" digital Painting; 2022

I'm so proud of this ghost, even if it took me about a dozen tries to get it looking alright. Blending tools are so cool, and I really do like all the brushes available in Krita.

"Hidden"; Digital Painting; 2022

I'm... not impressed with this one, to be honest. Just getting the colors to work together was a bear, and honestly, the tree kinda looks poopy. But I dig the eyes, and... hold on... did I leave the color swatch at the top? Oh no I did! Oh well. I'm leaving it, because that's actually pretty funny. Always check your layers, kids. Always.

After Hidden, I was tired of wrestling with art programs that refused to cooperate and didn't want to tempt fate playing around in my creepy basement scanning, so these are photos of paintings/sketches I did for the rest of this week's prompts (4-6)!

"Pumpkin"; Watercolor on cotton paper; 2022

"Candle"; Watercolor on Cotton Paper; 2022

"Candy Apple" pencil sketch on dot matrix paper; 2022

You read that right, I drew the Candy Apple sketch on dot matrix paper.

It's 2022, and I have a ream of dot matrix paper.

My joints creak.

Honestly, though, this prompt list is a lot of fun, though I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle #31 "Something You're Afraid Of". You're all gonna laugh at me.

And rightfully so. I'm scared of some really silly stuff.

Like a sketch.

It's face down across the room and I'm still creeped out lol!

Anywho, here's the prompt list written out in case you don't want to follow any links:

1. Dracula (👍)
2. Ghostly (👍)
3. Hiding (👍)
4. Pumpkin (👍)
5. Candle (👍)
6. Toffee Apple (👍)
7. Facepaint
8. Candy
9. Cauldron
10. Witch
11. Mummy
12. Under The Bed
13. In The Dark
14. Spell
15. Monster
16. Horror Film
17. Festival
18. Scary Face
19. Graveyard/Cemetery
20. Goblin
21. Punch
22. Clown
23. Silhouette
24. Twilight
25. Full Moon
26. Through The Window
27. Goth
28. Costume
29. Party
30. Trick-or-Treat
31. Something You're Afraid of

How about you all? Are you doing a prompt list this October? And do you want to influence some of the content of my pictures? If you'd like a say in what I draw/paint/bang my head against in Paint.net or Krita, go ahead and send me a coffee on Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category you'd like me to tackle - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Geometric, Location, Word, Dedbert. I can incorporate any of those categories into these prompt challenges!

For the record, the paintings today correspond like this: "Dracula" = Animal (people are animals!), "Ghost" = Animal (dead people were animals?), "Hidden" = Location (it's technically a landscape), "Pumpkin" = Vegetable, "Candle" = Location (It's inside?), and "Candy Apple" = Vegetable. As you can see, I'm... loose with meanings when I'm on my own, but if you want to see what I do with a combination of your tip and the prompt from Creeptober, give it a go!

I hope you're all having a good time out there. Try not to create any Actually Cursed Images, and...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC