Bloodied Knife

This illustration is a response to another Draw This In Your Style challenge. This one was hosted by artist Peter Brockhammer and I was drawn to the balance of whimsical playfulness and bloody horror in the original. I was partway through the ink work when my kids pointed out that my own style of drawing is probably too similar to the artist’s for this to be a stylistic challenge but it was still fun to adapt a digital art work to my analogue ink and watercolour. As a fan of gothic horror novels and movies, it was also just a fun subject to play with. I don’t think I have drawn blood spatter since I created my Alfred Hitchcock bookmark a couple of years ago. Spatter is always fun.

Jekyll and Hyde

I decided to tackle an Art Journal Adventure prompt in my art time.  The prompt I chose from the ones I have skipped was the letter J combined with “something that shows half”.  Frequent readers of my blog will know how my mind works and understand why I immediately settled upon illustrating Jekyll and Hyde.  I interpreted “half” was being about duality but also chose to represent it literally by splitting my illustration in half and making one side more Jekyll and one side more Hyde.  I think I just about got what was in my head onto paper.

Pumpkin Patch 2017

One of the first American things we did upon emigrating just over four years ago was visit a pumpkin patch.  It, therefore, became an important part of our annual traditions, so much so that the kids insist that we return to the exact same farm each year.  This year, however, only five of us visited the pumpkin patch.  At 14.5, our oldest son has outgrown the tradition and opted out.  Sniffle.

We started with the horror barn.  At night, there are live actors inside the barn who jump out at visitors and there are also moving parts and more special effects.  I am a horror movie fan and totally cool with gore but I don’t imagine I would cope with the evening version of the horror barn.  Mr Pict and I once visited the London Dungeon early in the morning which made us the first visitors.  Mr Pict nipped to the restroom, leaving me alone in a dark room.  When one of the models moved, I screamed very loudly and almost punched the poor employee.  Anyway, the day time version of the horror barn contains the fixed props, some of which are very gory, and some sound effects.  My kids love it but we did see a couple of kids crying, one hysterically.

The Alien barn is another favourite of the boys.  It is all 3D paint effects, black light glowing, and disorienting strobe effects.  And it definitely can be disorienting: in the pitch black, I walked smack into a wall that I thought was a door.

We also did a lot of the “country fair” type stuff that the farm runs during its Halloween festival.  We shared a funnel cake, which is a must, and the boys used canon to fire vegetables at targets.  A new thing this year was a range of sports ball activities.  My very unsporty boys had a whale of a time measuring the speed of their baseball throws, getting balls through targets, shooting hoops, and scoring goals.

We also made another attempt at the farm’s corn maze.  My children know nothing of the story and movie ‘Children of the Corn’ beyond the title but still decided to act out being spooky little ghouls among the corn stalks.  The idea of the maze is to visit each of five stations within it in order to paint the fingers of one hand a different colour.  For a bit of fun, the pattern of the colours on each individual’s hand then determines a funny little action each person takes – such as playing air fiddle or shaking your tail feathers.  We have never yet managed to find all five stations.  I think we are officially hopeless at mazes – though we did find our way back out again.

We hopped on the wagon which took us out to the pumpkin patch.  The boys had wanted to select a small or medium pumpkin each but there were only large ones left so they agreed they would team up to pick and carve one communal pumpkin.  Getting them to agree on a pumpkin was a whole other matter.  Pumpkins were considered and rejected, argued over, discussed and dismissed.  Finally they found one they could all agree upon.  Now we just have to agree on a design and carve the thing.

 

 

 

Inktober 2016 – #31 Redrum

I did it!  I completed the Inktober challenge!  Woohoo!  I actually feel accomplished.  I managed to produce a daily drawing despite being completely and utterly overscheduled.  And I loved it!  Ten to fifteen minutes of drawing every day with my morning mug of tea was actually very therapeutic, my little oasis of creative calm before facing the day.

For my final Inktober drawing, I turned to another movie for inspiration.  ‘The Shining’ is one of my favourite horror movies because it resists having its meaning pinned down and is unsettling precisely because not everything is explained and the denouement does not end with a neat little bow.  If you are a fan of the movie and have not checked out the documentary ‘Room 237’ then I highly recommend it.  Very nerdy but learned.  Anyway, I decided to draw Danny in the Redrum scene.  Purists will note that Danny actually has a motif on his shirt in this scene but I could not be bothered pulling up a photo reference or building in that level of detail.  I still think it is clear enough what character and scene I drew.  Followers of my blog might recall that this summer my kids and I reenacted some scenes from ‘The Shining’ when we spent the night in a hotel in Toledo that reminded me of the movie.

I managed to sign this final Inktober drawing twice.  Doh!  I signed and dated it once when I finished the black ink work and then once I had added the red text.  Things that happen when you rush!

Inktober 2016 – #27 Cthulhu

It’s a quick fly-by post from me today as I am just home briefly from work before heading out to volunteer at my sons’ school.  I am pleased to report, however, that despite the hectic schedule today and still slowly recovering from my illness, I managed to produce today’s Inktober drawing.  I actually cannot believe I have managed to keep this going despite everything I have been juggling.  I am so glad I took the plunge to participate this year.  I turned to the Drawlloween prompt again today and it was “Call of C’Thursday”.  It is so funny to me that, despite the fact I don’t particularly have any fondness for the writings of Lovecraft, I seem to draw and paint Cthulhu frequently.  I painted one twice in my altered book last year and recently I shared that my 9 year old made a Sock Cthulhu for one of his brothers.  Apparently the Pict family cannot get enough of Cthulhu. (I didn’t erase my pencil sketch marks before taking the photo with my phone.  Oops.)

Inktober 2016 – #26 Critter

Today’s Drawlloween prompt was “They came from outerspace!” and I was immediately kicking myself that I had not glanced ahead at the prompts before drawing my Xenomorph.  So I had to think of another horror beastie from outer space for today’s Inktober drawing.  I did think of ‘The Thing’, it being one of my favourite horror movies, favourite movies even, of all time but I decided it would be too challenging to draw, especially in a brief gobbet of time.  Just as the kettle boiled, I had my idea: a critter!  ‘Critters’ is a B movie horror from the 1980s that spawned a few sequels.  It’s not top notch quality by any standards but it’s schlocky fun and the naughty aliens are a visually strong and memorable element.  So a critter it was.  This drawing was going pretty well I thought and then, for the first ever time, my fountain pen burped and left a big fat ink blob on the paper.  Grrr.  At least it wasn’t right in the middle of the drawing.  Still annoying though.

Inktober 2016 – #20 Xenomorph

I have gone off prompt for today’s Inktober drawing and this one took me much longer than the duration of my morning cup of tea.  Having drawn Predator, I decided I had to draw its frequent enemy, the Xenomorph.  This was really complicated to draw.  It was all about the placement of ink filled shapes to construct the alien figure and the composition on the page.  I worked on it piece by piece and just had to hope it would all come together in the end.  That’s the challenge and thrill of working in ink since it cannot be erased.  My kids declared the drawing to be “totally awesome!” so I guess I pulled it off.

Road Trip #6 – Horror Hotel

I think anyone undertaking a road trip has to have a few horrible accommodation experiences just to generate good anecdotes and make one more appreciative for basic motels.

Back in 2001, when touring New York, New England and South-Eastern Canada, Mr Pict and I had a run of cruddy hotel experiences, things like cigarette burns in bedlinen and mouldy sealant around showers.  So when we turned up at our hotel in Nova Scotia and discovered the room reeked of smoke – and both being non-smokers – we decided to cancel our booking and find an alternative.  That proved to be pretty challenging, however, and we ended up at a motel we now refer to as the Werewolf Motel.  We gave it that moniker because of the deep grooves running down the door of our room that looked ever so much like gigantic claw marks.  More terrifying, however, was the fact that the manager was sitting in his office in his yellowed underpants and vest (singlet) with his stained and moth-bitten laundry hanging above his head.  We spent the entire night expecting to either hear a howl or be devoured by bed bugs.

On this road trip, our kids got to have their first – but probably not last – horrible hotel experience.  Our stop for the night was Toledo, chosen only because it was a convenient place to stop on that day’s journey.  Photos on the website had been taken from convenient angles to not reveal how utterly dilapidated the hotel was.  As we pulled up, our stomachs sank.  The surrounding street were rough as a badger’s butt and as we entered the hotel car park we could see mattresses and chairs piled up outside some of the rooms.  The place was really run down and falling to pieces.  Then we saw the yellow police tape across one patio door.  Gulp.

It was pretty late in the evening and finding accommodation for six of us was going to be problematic so we decided just to treat it as an adventure for the night and stick with it.  As we walked along the dank and dim corridor towards our suite, our youngest son asked, “Is this a haunted house?”  The corridor was eerily reminiscent of the Overlook Hotel.

Our room was actually OK.  It was dated and very battered around the edges, the decor was very tired, but it was spacious and the beds were comfy – which was pretty critical.  Nevertheless, my 9 year old refused to open any cupboard doors in the kitchenette in case he found a severed head.  What the hotel did have going for it, as far as the kids were concerned, was a large thermal heated swimming pool but I don’t think even that mitigated against the fear of disease or death.

Toledo was clearly a place struggling to recover from the collapse of traditional industries and deep recession.  Every street we drove through suggested depression and hopelessness.  It was apparent that the hotel we were staying at was not being used by tourists very much but was instead catering to people living there paycheck to paycheck.  It was all really sad and I actually felt guilty being in that context as a tourist on vacation.

We did not want to hang around the hotel so we decided to go out and see a movie.  My kids have never been to a proper drive-in cinema so we headed to the Sundance Kid Drive In at a place called Oregon.  Disappointingly there was no raked parking so we had to reorganise all of the seating so that everyone could get a decent though imperfect view of the screen.  The sound quality through the radio was fantastic though.  We saw the new version of ‘Ghostbusters’ which I found entertaining and, not being much of a fan of the original, actually enjoyed the new version more.

Despite an almost full moon, a rattling and rasping AC unit, and our imaginations running wild, we all managed to get a decent sleep.  We survived the Horror Hotel.

Pumpkin Picking

In what has become a Halloween tradition in the two years that we have lived in America, we headed to Shady Brook Farm this weekend to have some spooky themed fun and pick out pumpkins.  Mr Pict and I had thought to take the kids somewhere else, change things up a bit instead of repeating the previous years’ jaunts, but the boys all protested and wanted to return to familiar territory.  The Pictlings have determined the tradition.

The boys bounced on the giant trampolines, looked at the animals, played on the climbing frame, and ate pretzels, funnel cake and deep fried oreos.  The middle two boys had a shot of a corn cannon, blasting corn cobs at various objects.  Everyone guffawed when my 10 year old managed to hit the giant corn doll in its groin.  Our 6 year old had fun blasting zombies with a paint ball through a rather too rapid fire technique.

There are two barns that get decked out spooky style for Halloween.  In the evening, folks can wander through the dark interior while real life “ghouls” terrorise them but by day it is equally fun to wander around and see all the grotesque and fun decorations.  The kids love the alien barn.  Donning 3D glasses makes paint jump off the walls and models of aliens seem to vibrate.  The kids think it is massive fun.  My 12 year old and I then had a wander through the horror barn.  It’s grotesque in places with imagery lifted from gory horror movies but it’s the room full of clowns that freaks me out the most.

Then it was time to head to the pumpkin patch so that each of the boys could select a pumpkin for carving.  I guess the pumpkins were nearing the end of their season as there were many rotten and smashed ones littering the ground.  It, therefore, took a while for the kids to find the pumpkins they wanted.  We set them a size and weight limit which was not an issue for our 10 year old who wanted the smallest, roundest, most orange pumpkin he could find.

We then did some freestyle carving to turn the pumpkins into a My Little Pony, two vampires and Jack Skellington.  With that, the pumpkins were ready to be transformed into lanterns for Halloween.

 

 

Picking Pumpkins

It is a weird experience to have now lived in America long enough (a year last Friday) to be cycling round the same events and holidays and experiences.  We arrived in the country amid the build up to Halloween and now here we are with Halloween on the horizon once more.  This time last year we went to Shady Brook Farm for the kids’ first ever experience of picking pumpkins to carve; yesterday we returned to Shady Brook Farm to pick out some pumpkins to carve this year.

The farm runs a whole Halloween event.  In the evening, adults – or at least adults who like a thorough scare and have strong bladders – can explore various barns, fields and corn mazes in the dark while people dressed as various horrific things terrorise them and they encounter horrible props.  In daylight, it is still possible to wander through the attractions but, of course, there are sources of light and there are no actual human horrors lurking in corners, just grotesque props.  We, therefore, started our afternoon at Shady Brook Farm by heading into the Horror Barn.  I went in first with my 11 and 7 year olds.  Later Mr Pict went in with the 5 year old.  Our 9 year old didn’t want to do it at all, which is fine.  Getting the creeps is not for everyone.  The thing that unsettles me in the barn is actually the claustrophobia.  The narrow corridors created by hoarding and the darkness creep me out far more than corpses dangling from a ceiling and vampiric girls chewing on pet cats.  However, this time around, the first room was filled with clowns.  I have a proper, deep-seated fear of clowns.  Even happy clowns give me serious chills so horror clowns really make my flesh crawl and my spine judder.

After the horror barn, we went into another barn that is a 3D Alien experience.  It’s pretty lo-fi but really effective.  We were each handed a pair of 3D spectacles and then we entered the darkened barn where the walls of the corridors had been painted with fluorescent paint that vibrated and sprung forward from the walls.  There were also dangling dayglo threads and the odd alien figure lurking in a corner with its big eyes and long fingers.  There was also a walkway through a rotating cylinder that was dizzifying and the exit was via two large inflatable pillows that we each had to squeeze between.  It was exactly the same as last year but none of us minded because it was a ton of fun.

The boys then played on various items of play equipment: an inflatable assault course, a bouncy slide, giant bouncing pillows to trampoline on, wooden play equipment with slides and fireman’s poles and a rope spiderweb.  They also snacked on pretzels because we cannot take those kids anywhere in Pennsylvania without them eating pretzels.  After the snack stop, we decided to undertake one of the mazes.  Last year we had attempted the large corn maze and became terribly lost and bewildered and then panicked as one by one the kids all needed to pee.  In desperation, we actually exited via an unofficial gap, having entirely failed to discover each of the designated stations and the exit.  This year, therefore, we stuck to the weenie haystack maze and the kids had fun playing hide and seek among the haystacks and crawling through and inside the corn tunnels and the corn wigwam.

A tractor-towed wagon ride delivered us to the pumpkin patch where the kids selected and rejected and selected again about half a dozen pumpkins each.  A couple of them were even set on taking home pumpkins that were too heavy to lift.  They were told to scale back their ambitions.  With carving designs in mind, they finally chose pumpkins they felt were the perfect size and shape for what they wanted to create and construct and two were even green instead of the traditional orange.

It’s rather nice to be cycling through things again as it means we are establishing new traditions in our new country.

*PS  I am unsure as to why some of my photos are appearing so small.  I have just moved to using Flickr to host my photographs for the blog and I clearly have not got the hang of it.  Hopefully it is not too visually annoying.*