We’re halfway through the spookiest month of the year and I’m slowly working my way through the prompt list for Mab’s Drawlloween Club 2024.
As I mentioned in my last blog, my goal this month is to draw a little each day and I’ve almost managed to keep up with that intention (I think I’ve only missed one day so far). Drawlloween is my favourite Halloween drawing challenge, and this year I’m drawing all my entries in my sketchbook, and playing with different mediums, with the aim of breaking out of my artist block and creative funk.
Here’s a quick sketchbook tour of my contributions to the challenge so far.
If I Were a Shape Shifter
If I’m being honest, I was a little stumped for this one. I rarely paint self-portraits, spooky or otherwise, and I feel very self-conscious doing so. Then there was the question of what would I shape-shift into? In the end, my regular event adornment informed my decision.
I used the anime cat-face theory to help me create the altered structure for my face, using several different reference photos of domestic house cats for the overall shape, and the placement of the tongue and teeth within the hissing mouth.
I kept my own eye and hair colour and used my actual kitten ears as a template for my shapeshifter cat ears.
The whole composition was sketched out loosely in pencil before details and shading were inked in using Micron Fineliner pens. Colour was added with watercolour. All in all, this took about four hours.
Frankenstein
For this one, I toyed with the idea of drawing the monster, but then settled on the iconic Peter Cushing. He played the misguided Doctor on screen in 1957’s The Curse of Frankenstein.
Once again, I’m not at all confident with portraits, so naturally I chose one of the most recognisable faces of stage and screen!
The most important, and difficult, part of this piece for me was nailing the initial sketch. It went through several iterations, over about four hours, as I worked on getting his features in the correct place. To begin with his eyes were wonky and his ear was far too low down!
Then inking began, again with Micron Fineliners, on his face, shirt and buttonhole. I finished up the jacket with a black Copic marker (hence the colour isn’t perfectly matched) and then a touch of pale pink for the flower. Peter took around eight hours to complete.
Vampire
For this prompt I chose a still from Dusk till Dawn, featuring Salma’s character just before her surprise transformation. I’m sure it would have been more tantalising for some to see a full-length picture, but I found the colours and pose of this one more sensual and erotic.
I've decided I need more practice with my markers, they’re new to me and I’m finding them very tricky to work with!
Once again, I made an initial sketch in pencil to get the placement of her features correct, then on to a much brighter colour palette than I am used to.
Foolishly I’d assumed that swathes of colour would be much faster to lay down than a multitude of thin black lines but, alas dear reader, I was sorely mistaken. Perhaps when I’m more proficient with the markers that will be the case. I lost track of how long I spent on this one, but it was easily more hours than the Peter Cushing portrait.
I’m not entirely sure I caught Salma’s likeness, but I’m happy with the result regardless.
Faun
Half man, half goat and full of magick – I used my imagination for this one, rather than leaning on Fan Art again. While reading about the history of fauns in folklore and mythology I came across the poem L'après-midi d'un faune written by Stéphane Mallarmé in the late 1800s. Other tales and art also depict fauns with nymphs, and I decided to run with that idea.
My reference photos this time consisted of a boxer, a ballet dancer, a couple of goats and Phil holding a flute for me so I could capture the finger positions.
I stuck with fine liners for this sketch, and I might work it up into a full painting at some point in the future. This piece took around six hours.
Witch
Both my and Phil’s imaginations immediately ran to Shakespeare when this prompt popped up, with the Weird Sisters as an archetype of chaos with links to the fates of mythology.
Another friend also shared their thoughts...
"Think Macbeth, in the mist bending over a cauldron in the gloom, hair unkempt but still jet black like that of a younger woman, clothes ragged and a raven on her shoulder, her green eyes seeing everything..."
Meet Fordaeda, the result of three imaginations and my hands.
As always, the initial sketch and details were put down in pencil. This time, I was my own model with a very awkward selfie used for the hand pose. Other reference photos were sourced for the raven, mainly so that the scale would be correct as they’re very large birds!
Bird, face and hand details were inked in using my favourite Micron pens. Colour was added to her eyes using Copic markers, then a small amount of phthalo green watercolour.
The background, her shawl and the contents of the cauldron were all added, quite quickly, using watercolours. The drying times for each area and layer added a little wait and delay to the process, but overall Fordaeda took between six and eight hours to create.
Next up is Bones, then Alien. I’ll keep sharing updates on my progress with the challenge over on Instagram and Facebook and will add regular sketchbook tours for you here as well.
I’m not keeping up with the daily prompts, but I will continue to work through them at my own pace into November. That will give you a little respite from the onslaught of festive cheer that you’ll find on all your feeds once Halloween has passed!
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Stay Spooky,
HK x
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