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 242: Inktober Continues!

In which I show off art that I've done!

It's been quite the past two weeks! I have fourteen days of art - from the Friday before I went to Boston to today, in fact! The prompts are:

• Freeze
• Build
• Husky
• Enchanted
• Frail
• Swing
• Pattern
• Snow
• Dragon
• Ash
• Overgrown
• Legend
• Wild
• Ornament

I think most of these have at least something to do with Spook Patrol, too!

"Freeze"; Inktober 2019

This one doesn't have anything to do with Spook Patrol, sorry. It's just some poor wageslave trapped in a walk-in freezer. I'm pretty proud of having the imprint of his face visible on the door where he tried to scream for help!

"Build" Inktober 2019

 Oh look, a book fort! Someone (probably Spencer, the main character of Spook Patrol) has built a fort of books, set up a small lantern and a "do not disturb" sign! The book there was supposed to say "A Brief History of New England Hauntings", but I ran out of time (I give myself a ten minute time limit so that I don't feel overwhelmed when I start drawing!).

"Husky" Inktober 2019

 I didn't take this one at face value. I went for more "like an emptied shell" than "a real cute doggo" or "chonky" as the inspiration for this piece. Here we see Everett Lamonson, an old friend of Spencer's, hovering over his own body under a sheet in the attic of the Scarlett Rose Manor, the haunted house that starts Spencer's lifelong struggle with the supernatural.The mound in the background is a bunch of dust sheets covering the corpse of the entity that used to control the manor.

"Enchanted" Inktober 2019

Hey, look, it's Spencer again! Here he's standing outside the gates to the infamous Scarlett Rose Manor, holding onto a copy of Evangeline and the cowrie shell necklace sent to him by some mysterious stranger. What is waiting for him in the manor?

"Frail" Inktober 2019

Oof. This is a rough one. Spencer is back, but this time, he's recovering in the hospital from the Romania Incident. At some point during his job with the Spook Patrol, he is nearly killed in the field, and it's the end of his working relationship with the main crew of Spook Patrol, segueing into a story I'm calling Isle of Storms.

"Swing" Inktober 2019

More Scarlett Rose Manor stuff! Here we see the eponymous Scarlett Rose seated on a porch swing with her lady-in-waiting behind her. Scarlett here is actually named Charlotte Van Ross, and her maid's name is Emmaline. The two were very much into each other back in the day, but, uh... Emmaline was African American and a servant at that. If they'd been a man and a woman it couldn't have been allowed even then, but as two women? Their interest had to be utterly suppressed. And then they vanished on the night of Miss Charlotte's intended wedding to Sir Rupert Bertholomeu, a young English nobleman who was not entirely thrilled with the prospect of not just pulling up stakes and moving out to the US and marrying a girl he'd never met.

Interestingly enough, Sir Rupert and his servant also vanished that night...

"Pattern" Inktober 2019

Bubbles! I couldn't figure out a way to make "Pattern" relate to Spook Patrol, so I actually used the letters to plot out the centers of the bubbles :)

"Snow"; Inktober 2019

Poor Spencer. Here we see him peering out the window of the Castle Ardelean, a minor Romanian castle where he was brought to start recovering from the Romanian Incident. It's kinda hard to see, but he's got bandages on his face. He's super not-okay.

"Dragon", Inktober 2019

So, there's another story to come with Spook Patrol, and that's Isle of Storms, where Spencer ends up taking on a solo mission from the Spook Patrol. He ends up going to an abandoned island off the coast of Japan. I don't know why I think there are Komodo Dragons there, but I like the idea of him panicking and throwing his flashlight at one. Poor Spence...

"Ash" Inktober 2019

Here we see a spooky skull burning in a brazier. I think this is in Romania during the Incident. Again, poor Spence. I'm very cruel to him.

"Overgrown" Inktober 2019

One of the saddest parts of Spencer's past is his loss of both of his best friends - both Joe and Everett Lamonson were taken by the manor. Joe was killed in the yard, but Everett, his younger brother, survived and was getting ready to come to college with Spencer. The day of the pickup, Everett had vanished. Spencer found his bike outside the manor, covered in blood. The police never came to pick it up, so now it's overgrown with vines and another small tree.

"Legend" Inktober 2019

This collection of objects all relate to the Scarlett Rose Manor story. You may recognize the copy of Evangeline and the cowrie necklace. The thing with the picture of the house is Everett's three-ring binder containing the history of the house. The newspaper articles are all about people who have died or vanished in the house. The cassette recorder holds the tape that somehow drove Spencer's childhood friend Pam insane. I was going to include the VHS tape that Reggie, another one of the sextet who entered the house, had taken, but I ran out of time.

"Wild" Inktober 2019

This is a symbolic piece, I think. See, Spencer's nickname (given to him by the leader of the Spook Patrol) is "Rabbit". The host of Spook Patrol believes that Spencer is just a coward, but! Even a fearful rabbit can be dangerous if cornered. That's Spencer in a nutshell. Scared as can be, but also dangerous under the right circumstances.

"Ornament" Inktober 2019

This is a protection charm that Spencer's parents gave to him after the Romanian Incident. Spencer may be a total skeptic, but he's not going to turn down something that would make both of his parents feel better about letting him keep working. It's a Hamsa Pendant, which is something considered to be protective to both Jewish and Muslim people. The ankh is something of an insurance policy added by one of Spencer's coworker, Diva. This pendant has absolutely no magic powers, but Spencer still values it and tries to keep it on-hand at all times.

So there you have it - that's what I've been up to!!!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC