Inktober

The story is that a coworker was outside for a team meeting and a bird flew up her skirt. Without a thought the bird fell out of her skirt and she punted it. The bird flew off but when the prompt for fast came up, this is what I thought of first.

Day 2: Noisy/Zombie - I decided that I defintiely wanted things to go more along the Halloween route and changed my tactics and started to mash up another artist’s halloween inktober list. I also decided to make things easier that I would do the bulk of these in gray toned prismacolor marker.

Day 3: Collect/Vampire

Vampire vending? YES PLEASE!

Day 4: Hungry/Devil

Chicken and waffles are totally a Portland thing (or just a thing?) and who better to eat them than the Tasmanian Devil?

Day 5: Sad/Werewolf

This hipster werewolf is super sad, I mean that vinyl was PRECIOUS!

Day 6: Hidden/Black Cat

A hidden black cat, right? RIGHT.

Day 7: Lost/The Shining

The Lost & Found at the Overlook Hotel is full of all KINDS of things.

Day 8: Rock/Bones

Losing Bowie AND Prince was still fresh in my mind so this is where my head went. And that is the opening music for Purple Rain in case you’re wondering.

Day 9: Broken/Candle

It’s got you!

Day 10: Box/Spider

I don’t know about you but jack-in-the-boxes always make me jump, especially one with a surprise spider!

Day 11: Transport/Burn

Yep, that’s a real problem Mr. Scott. Poor red shirt!

Day 12: Worried/The Thing

The worst part of this film for me, UGH- I’d be worried too with that running around!

Day 13: Scared/Scarecrow

He seems nervous, doesn’t he?

Day 14: Tree/ Evil

I think it ate that guy, those apples are just not worth it. Nope.

Day 15: Relax/Addams Family

This is exactly how I imagine an Addams Family vacation to go.

Day 16: Wet/ Ghost

Oh yeah, it was my first thought, you’re welcome.

Day 17: Battle/Doll

True story, this Zuni doll from the Trilogy of Terror was my husband’s idea when he heard the prompt. I had no idea what he was talking about, so we sat down and watched “Amelia” the short in which this little creeper is terrorizing Karen Black. I was hooked. My husband loved this image so much that he used it as his profile pic on Facebook for forever.

Day 18: Escape/Beetlejuice

Sandworms? NOPE.

Day 19: Flight/Monster

I’ll be honest I was looking for an excuse to draw a Pokemon.

Day 20: Squeeze/Jack O’Lantern

For whatever reason, I’d never drawn a snake before this. I like how dismayed they both look by the circumstances.

Day 21: Big/ Haunted

That’s one big spooky problem at that house.

Day 22: Little/Buffy

Oooh, tiny slayer is SO ANGRY. I love her!

Day 23: Slow/Pumpkin

Now THAT is one slow pumpkin.

Day 24: One Dozen/ Owl

A group of owls is called a Parliament, did you know that? I wonder if this kitty did?

Day 25: TIred/ Mummy

That is one long nap.

Day 10: Jump/Voodoo

Yep, I went there….but voodoo dolls aren’t a thing. Really. It’s fine. Everything is fine.

Day 27: Creepy/ Blood

None more creepy, even her blood type.

Day 28: Burn/ Candy

Because candy corn is the devil. Either you hate it with the fire of of a thousand suns, or it owns you. There is no in between.

Day 29: Surprise/ Trick or Treat

Guess who spooked these three?

Day 30: Wreck/ Nightmare before Christmas

He really did come in like a wrecking ball.

Day 31: Friend/ Halloween

Halloween is my wedding anniversary so I drew my best friend and husband giving me a present for Halloween. I would totally take a kitty in a punkin!

Day 1: Swift Crypt

So, in 2017 I decided to make may own list to mash up with the Inktober prompts. So the hubs and I sat down and tried to capture as much creepy stuff as we could in 31 days. The mashups are stellar and ended up being super challenging. I did try to stick to the grays again, but there are a little more color pieces popping up in 2017. I also did a better job of tagging them to keep track.

Day 2: Divided/ Dead

Based on siamese twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton who died a few days apart.

Day 3: Fog/Poison

These labels are recreated from actual vintage bottles.

Day 4: Underwater/Bats

Well duh, that’s what Rays are right? Underwater bats, I mean, just look at them!

Day 5: Long/Spell

In the original story, the princess sleeps for 100 years before her Prince comes for her. What if he never did?

Day 6: Sword/Pumpkin

A mighty inconvenient place to stash a sword if you ask me, but hey pumpkins will grow anywhere.

Day 7: Shy/Scarecrow

True story, there is a scarecrow every year I’ve done Inktober. Why I am not sure but there you have it. How precious is this one tho?

Day 8: Crooked/Skull

I used a legit deformed skull as reference but what this immediately made me think of was the Phantom of the Opera, as Erik is supposedly horribly deformed. The sheet music is from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical of the same name.

Day 9: Screech/Ghost

With a prompt like that, it could only be a banshee right?

Day 10: Gigantic/Ouija Board

I feel like someone should make this!

Day 11: Run/ Trap Door

This would be the best (and funniest- to me) end of a marathon EVER!

Day 12: Shattered/Corn Maze

No one knows where the mirror of Erised went, do they?

Day 13: Teeming/ Black Cats

They seem to be watching you.

Day 14: Fierce/Goblin

I don’t know about you but those Gringotts Gobln’s were totally terrifying to me.

Day 15: Mysterious/Pumpkin King

Nothing says mystery more than Zorro, am I right? RIGHT!

Day 16: Fat/ Crow

Aw, a little baby harbinger of night!

Day 17: Graceful/ Witch

What is more graceful than a ballerina with a broom? NOTHING I say!

Day 18: Filthy/ Skeleton

To be honest, I was originally thinking of the remains of Mr. Cobblepot from Goonies, as they were pretty dirty. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to draw One-Eyed Willy. So here he is, a bit dusty and cobwebby.

Day 19: Cloud/ Monster

I am pretty sure this was inspired by a dating site commercial. I mean, how ironic would it be ? You find your true love and then you’re eaten by a giant cloud monster. HILARITY!

(This still makes me giggle.)

Day 20: Deep/Vampire

This was inspired by the wellhouse that’s holding a ghost/demon in the comic Locke & Key. I started to think about what would happen if there was a vampire in there, and what would happen if it got out.

Day 21: Furious/Haunted House

I am not going to lie, this is the house from the animated film, Monster House. Making it look angry was an interesting project.

Day 22: Trail/Spider

“Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it." The Basilisk is a giant serpent, also known as the King of Serpents. It is a creature bred by Dark Wizards. “ - Hermione Granger, Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets

This was my first thought with this prompt.

Day 23: Juicy/Mummy

Rick: “Is he supposed to look like that?”

Evelyn: “No - no, I've never seen a mummy look like this before, he's still - still -”

Jonathan and Rick: “Juicy.”

The Mummy, 1999

This was my first thought with this prompt. Poor misunderstood Imhotep.

Day 24: Blind/ Murder

The prompt immediately made me think of crows. It’s not uncommon for crows to go blind and they have a very specific look to them when they do.

Day 25: Ship/ Haunted

The Flying Dutchman from Pirates of the Caribbean. This was also inspired by the ship from the original version of The Fog.

Day 26: Squeak/Magic

A mouse magician! Well why not!?

Day 27: Climb/ Jack & Sally

I mean really, what else was this going to be? Also, check out Zero!

Day 28: Fall/ Zombie

This is exactly where I’d expect to find a Zombie around the fall, right? Be careful when raking leaves tho!

Day 29: United/Werewolf

If they had their own airlines, it would totally be like this. I am sure of it!

Day 30: Found/ Trick or Treat

You just can’t be too careful at this time of year.

Note: There are almost zero documented cases of poisoned candy and a tiny handful of documented cases of foreign objects in candy (and zero cases of razors in apples).

Day 31: Mask/ Halloween

These are both actual masks available online. I totally want the ornate skull. The other is a plague mask made of leather, super creepy!

Day 1: Poisonous/Spirit

This year, I have been home for the entire month of October as I am not currently working. It really gave me a chance to branch out, do more color and add watercolor to several pieces.

This immediately made me think of Regan from The Exorcist and I wanted to capture the menace of her time with Mr. Howdy and the ouija board.

Day 2: Tranquil/ Lich

Whenever I think of the word Lich, I always go to the Lich King from Adventure Time, so here he is, tranquil, on vacation!

Day 3: Roasted/ Gallows

True story, in the RPG that I am playing, recently my rogue was perched atop a gallows alot like this. That was the inspiration for the flaming gibbet and warning to pirates.

Day 4: Spell/Embalmed

While trying to figure out what to draw , I stumbled across some pictures of antique mobile embalming equipment. I immediately knew which spell I would want embalmed and check out that black flame candle!

Day 5: Chicken/Candy

I think we all know what chicken candy stands for, it’s PEEPS, of course it’s peeps! And angry peeps at that!

Day 6: Drooling/ Witch

I felt a little guilty about adding Samantha in this image with Helga but dangit, it’s so funny.

(Seriously, I am still laughing about it.)

Day 7: Exhausted/Buried

This promp immediately made me think of Billy from Hocus Pocus and his dirt nap. Probably one of my favorites from this year.

Day 8: Star/Carved

Of course it’s a pumpkin! In fact, I actually carved my pumpkin to match this year.

Day 9: Precious/Pumpkin

As luck would have it, of course I have two days with pumpkins together. I was trying to think of precious things and I happened to look at the crown jewels of England. And it suddenly occurred to me that that orb would make a great pumpkin, and Voila!

Day 10: Flowing/Black Cat

Another one that comes up every year, black cat as a prompt. I knew I was going to do black cat ghosties but originally the grave was just going to say “Cat Lady”. I started wondering if there were famous cat ladies? Turns out every Bronte sister was a cat hoarder, so this is the headstone of the oldest, Anne.

Day 11: Cruel/Bat

While I was looking for bat reference material I stumbled across some pics of the desert long eared bat and fell in love. My reference photo was just so blessed happy that I changed cruel to crewel, as in needlework- so there he is, your embroidering bat. You’re welcome.

Day 12: Whale/Cobwebs

I knew I didn’t want to draw a whale, but whale BONES? Yes, please. This is based on the blue whale skeleton at the British Museum of Natural History. Her name is Hope and you can find her in Hintze Hall, which is her permanent home.

That aside, imagine the size of the spider it took to catch a blue whale in its web. * shudder *

Day 13: Guarded/Wand

Wormtail held this wand waiting for Voldemort’s return, you can be sure it’s guarded!

Day 15: Weak/Chains

There is a weak link in those manacles, it will probably give and these two will be free again. Oh darn!

Day 16: Angular/Barn Owl

Note: I started delving more into watercolors this day and I was heavily inspired by Bubo from the 1981 Clash of the Titans.

Day 17: Swollen/ Scarecrow

As I mentioned before there is a scarecrow every year, this year’s garden guardian is ‘Swoll like Elvis’. He’s jolly and tubby and I love him.

Day 18: Bottle/Coffin

I am pretty sure this is the most awesome whiskey bottle ever. I would totally drink this.

Day 19: Scorched/Cauldron

My thoughts with this prompt immediately went to Hocus Pocus, I mean that cauldron is LEGIT. I love the shape and mechanics of how it hangs from the ceiling of the Sanderson sisters cottage.

Day 20: Breakable/Possessed

Madame Leota from the Haunted Mansion was my go to for this prompt. I love the aesthetics of this.

Day 21: Drain/Undead

I made this with a specific friend in mind who says “I’ve seen enough horror films to know, you NEVER put your hand in the garbage disposal”.

Day 22: Expensive/ Skull

It looks pretty spendy to me, especially with that gem in the tooth there. So fancy!

Day 23: Muddy/Evil Eye

This pieces is almost exclusively watercolor and the first I’ve done like this. I am pretty pleased overall with my progress in this medium but hey, that’s not the point. There is an EYE in the mud?

Day 24: Chop/ Spider

I am going to be honest this was the first thing that popped into my head with this prompt and I am going to stand by it. Murderous chef arachnids for the win!

Day 25: Prickly/ Tentacle

Hrmn, there is something moving in that urn over there. I am guessing that’s not a plant?

Day 26: Stretch/Cross

I knew this was going to be a big cross but the more I thought about it the more it needed to be someone’s tombstone. And here we are, if Vincent Price was part of the wizarding world, this might have been his headstone.

Day 27: Thunder/Nightmare

I went Nightmare Before Christmas here, here is Jack’s house amidst a thunderstorm.

Day 28: Gift/Demon

Worst….present….EVAR.

Day 29: Double/Snake

I may have mentioned that I am a fan of the look of Siamese twins but I don’t think that translates well to King Cobras. Believe it or not, this is something that happens more than you think with snakes and they can live just fine like this. Creepy,right?

Day 30: Jolt/Jack & Sally

Inspired by the original Addams Family movie where Wednesday wants to play a game called “Is there a God?”. As usual something with Jack & Sally works it’s way into Inktober. <3

Day 31: Slice/Halloween

I tend to keep Halloween as the Day 31 prompt for this project. Halloween also happens to be my wedding anniversary, so I drew my dream anniversary cake for year 14! Enjoy!