Halloween – Art Journal Page

Last week’s Art Journal Adventure prompt was Halloween.  I had received my October Art Snacks box but had not attempted the challenge of using all of the items to create art.  Since one of the things in my box was a jar of orange ink, it seemed like the subject of Halloween might be a good way to kill two art birds with one stone.  I was initially going to go much darker and creepier with my Halloween art work but – perhaps since I was drawing while watching ‘Frankenweenie’ with my kids – my creative mojo led me to draw a band of cute monsters trick or treating.  This was my first time using brush pens.  It took  a while to get the hang of how to hold them to create different strokes and widths but it was fun trying something new, which is the point of receiving a box of art goodies each month.

Inktober 2016 – #32 The Munsters

You have not entered a time warp.  It is indeed November which means that it is no longer October or Inktober.  Regardless, I am extending Inktober by a few days.  I had a conflict between two different aspects of my control freakery –  on the one hand, Inktober should only last the 31 days of the month and then be done, dusted, completed; but, on the other hand, I had a partially complete sketchbook that I did not want to leave blank or repurpose for some other drawings because that would be too mentally messy for me.  The solution, therefore, was to extend the regular ink drawing practice of Inktober into November just long enough to fill the sketchbook with illustrations on the same theme – things spooky, horrible, monstrous, or gothic.  I may not draw daily since there is nothing compelling me to do so but if I get the chance to draw when supping my morning cuppa then that is what I shall do.

First up in this Inktober extension was a portrait of the Munster parents, Lily and Herman.  I loved ‘The Munsters’ when I was a kid.  Because I loved the classic Universal monster movies, I loved watching a show that depicted these classic monsters all living together as a family, along with freakishly normal sister Marilyn.  I have tried to convince my kids to watch episodes from the show but so far they are not biting.  I think my Herman could stand to look more goofy because he looks a bit sneering instead of lovably dorky.  For a ten minute drawing, however, it will do the trick.

Halloween Tabs Art Journal page

This week’s Documented Life Project prompt was to “add a tab”.  I was instantly uninspired.  I don’t partake of the planner element of the project, for a few reasons, and it seemed like adding tabs was more appropriate for the planner element of the project than the art journal element.  I was at a loss.  I actually considered just skipping the week entirely.

Then I had an idea.

It has been a while since my kids had collaborated with me as part of the DLP.  They have worked with me on two previous pages: one where they started the drawing and then I completed it and one where I had to incorporate a pocket.  I decided, therefore, that the surest way of me becoming inspired was to work with my boys on the prompt.  We decided upon a Halloween theme since we just celebrated Halloween on Friday.  And school photos.  We just received the kids’ school photos.  They were not great and honestly I probably would have asked for retakes had it not been for the fact that we got drenched in a rainstorm on the walk home from school on the day they were issued with led to the photos being in less than pristine condition and, therefore, unreturnable.  Monstrous school photos of cute monsters.  That was my idea.

I drew four little kid monsters, from the classic movie monster range, as if they were having their photos taken.  I drew a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy and a lagoon creature.  I used watercolour and ink to colour and outline.  Then came the tab element and my children’s input.  I cut four tabs to correspond to the four monster characters and decorated them with a line of very thin washi tape to add some colour.  I then used some arrow stamps to indicate the direction in which each tab should be lifted.  I stamped the obverse side with some sugar skulls just to add to the Halloween theme further and to make the lifted side of the tabs more decorative.  My kids’ contribution was that each was asked to draw something of their choice onto the tab that indicated who would be found beneath.  My 5 year old drew a bat for the vampire, my 7 year old drew a moon and the word “howl” using a hairy font for the werewolf, my 9 year old drew a sarcophagus for the mummy and my 11 year old drew a fish for the swamp creature.

So I went from completely uninspired to inspired by including my boys in my prompt page.

This was not the only art project I worked on this week.  I also created a lino block print of Danae which you can read about and see over at my Art Blog, Pict Ink.

Here Be Monsters

Mr Pict: Who lives in Pennsylvania?
Littlest Pict: Um….Vampires?