The Great Pumpkin Only Visits the Most Sincere Pumpkin Patch

This is for Amy. Thanks for the Jack-O-Lantern suggestion!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It is officially Halloween everybody! Whoohoo!

Sorry I wasn't able to post these past two days, and that for the past week the posts haven't been what they should have been. I had tons of stuff for multiple clients due all at the same time, so I was devoting pretty much all my time to that. But it's all done now, I turned the last project in last night. There will be revisions on them, I'm sure, but at least the rush of everything due at all once is over. I apologize that this had to happen right now and kind of mess up with my posting.

But anyway, thank you so much to everybody who's been following me all this month. I've gotten tons of great feedback and I'm glad that so many of you have been liking what I've been putting out. That means a lot.

Hope you all have an awesome Halloween!

Happy Guy From The Black Lagoon

DAMN! Missed posting yesterday by a half hour. The good news is, my deadlines are fast approaching, so I almost have free time again. The bad news is, my deadlines are fast approaching so it's crunch time, and I still don't have any free time. I hate that this is happening the week of Halloween. I should be putting good stuff on the blog now more than ever this month. But priorities kids. Priorities. The clients come first.

Yes, Master!

Yay! Igor. Or Eye-Gore. Tomato, tomahto.

He's Out Lookin' For A Top To Chop..

This one's for you Kevin! Headless Horseman, as requested! Once I get a little more time on my hands I'll make this vector art to match the other posts, even if it's after Halloween by the time I get to it. Thanks for the suggestion! I didn't even think about the Headless Horseman. I am ashamed.

OK, now back to work. Enjoy!

That's the 3rd Werewolf This Month....

Another super rough sketch. Still under a lot of tight deadlines. Hope you like it!

Prince Treat-Hotep

GAAAAHHH I'm so swamped with work right now it's not even funny. I'm afraid it'll be rough sketches for the next few days kids. If anything at all. Hopefully I can get caught up with stuff and get some other better pieces up before Halloween.

Anyway, this is a sketch I had actually done LAST Halloween but it never made it up on the blog. The frustrating this is I did a better, tighter version of this mummy and a couple of other monsters, and they disappeared on me. I have no idea where they went off to. If I can find them, I'll be scanning them and putting them up, but until then it's all roughs.

Have a Devilishly Good Halloween!

I do feel kinda bad for skipping a day of posting, but it takes a while to bake and clean and get stuff ready for a party, and it was really fun so I don't feel *quite* as bad as I should. But I'm making up for it with two posts today. The other one will probably get done at my normal posting time, so check back later tonight for the second post o' the day.

Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a...really cute airborne kitty!

Yesterday it was ghost dogs, today it's witch kitties! It is a proven fact that cats enjoy flying around on brooms at night.

So I'm throwing a Halloween party tomorrow night. Why am I telling you this? There is a chance the preparations for said party will cause me to not be able to post tomorrow. I'll try but just in case it doesn't work out, I will make up for it by posting double on Saturday, so it'll all even out. Just to give you guys a heads up.

Bark Bark BOO!

Who says the afterlife is just for people? I think ghost puppies would like hanging out in pumpkin patches. Lots of stuff to run around and hide in, scaring all the ghost kitties.

That Ain't No Avon Lady At Your Door

More trick or treating monsters! Why you ask? Because it's fun to design wacky monsters, especially friendly ones who just want their annual free sugar fix.

Oooh! Piece of Candy!

Went the super-cute-cavity-inducing route with this little piece of candy. This makes me giggle when I look at it. It's so damn cute!

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Whew! Almost didn't make it today! Cutting it close..again.

I decided to do another sketch/quickie Photoshop rendering today. I played around with a slightly different technique in shading, not that you can tell with the results. I normally do a multiply layer with the flat color and a normal layer of the shading on top of that. For this, I had a flat layer of dark color for the background between the pencil sketch and the multiply layer. I went into that and airbrushed an extra layer of shadows. The end result looks exactly the same as my other Photoshop stuff, I just did it a little differently.

Fascinating isn't it?

Anyway, hope you like tonight's addition to Cute-n-Creepy '09!

I Want My Mummy!

Here's a mummy!

Yeah. Not quite sure what else to say tonight. Hope you like it! See ya here tomorrow with a new piece!

Sittin' On The Backyard Fence...

This post is dedicated to my good friend Lisa, who gave me the idea of doing a black cat. To which I said, 'Duh! Why hadn't I thought of that before?' It's only one of the most iconic Halloween things ever. And I shall name him Walter.

My goal today was to be a little more stylish and less cute, just to shake things up a little bit. I like the color scheme and the composition, and there are certain things about the cat I love, like the whiskers, the eyes and the tail. The body was driving me crazy, and I'm still not sure that I hit on *quite* the right shape. But at least it was a little experimenting on my part. I'll have to practice more elegant styles in the future so I can get a little better at it.

Give Me Something Good To Eat!

He just wants some candy like everybody else! Just don't go pulling that 'Just Take One' stuff with this guy. He won't be happy.

I'm really happy with him since it only took me about an hour and a half, and it's pretty much an actual illustration, however simple and basic it is. The original rough sketch I did had a woman standing at the door looking up at him, but I'm not sure she's needed. And I ran out of time. If I put her in, this would be going up after midnight, and it's close enough as it is. I might throw her in later and if I'm happy with it, I'll do a re-post. Anyway, off to bed with me for it grows late and I need to sleep.

Night of the Cuter Dead

DEFINITELY went with more 'creepy' today, but he's still kinda cute in a flesh-eating zombie sort of way! Don't hug him though, you might get a little blood on your clothes. Plus the whole 'he'll probably eat your brains' thing.

This was a little challenging. Trying to get a zombie to fit in with the other monsters was a little difficult, since zombies really aren't my thing. I don't draw them...like ever (this was my first zombie!) and I'm not too big into zombie movies either. Too much gore usually, but 'Shaun of the Dead' was an exception. That was an awesome movie. But I digress. I really like him. Not too sure if he's going to make his way into the ol' portfolio but still it's a good Halloween blog contribution. Now 'Cute and Creepy' actually means cute and creepy. not just a catchy title!

Meet Chaney!

ANOTHER late post..geez...work sure can get in the way of on the side projects can't it? I REALLY need to sit down and get ahead of these so I'm not scrambling to bang out one at 10:00 pm every night.

I am love with this guy! I decided to do a more animated werewolf just because it would be fun. I like the Pete the Puma-esque look and the more classic-animation feel to him. I want to develop him a little more and take him past this extremely rough sketch phase, so don't be surprised if he makes another appearance before the month is out. I think I'll name him 'Chaney' for Lon Chaney Jr. It fits.

It Came From Silver Springs!!!!!

Whew! Cut the deadline super close tonight. It's after 11 and I'm just getting this up.

Next creature in my monster series: The Creature From the Black Lagoon! Note: instead of a moon, like in my other monster settings, there are instead MOON JELLYFISH! Hahaha! It totally counts.

Quick 'Creature' trivia: they actually filmed some of the movie not too far away from Orlando, in Silver Springs. It's currently a little 'theme park'/tourist attraction with some glass bottom boats so you can see the actual spring where they shot the underwater scenes. It's pretty cool. The more you know!

Trick or Treat!

SO unhappy with my ghosts from yesterday. I'll chalk it up to exhaustion. I'm still very tired today. We hit up Disney's Hollywood Studios for a little bit with Brian's dad today, and then I had 'work' work to do and take Brian's dad to the airport...needless to say I'm still pretty tired. The heat wasn't quite as bad today but it still felt like an afternoon from the middle of summer as opposed to the middle of October. That does nothing to make one feel refreshed and energized.

Anyway, rambling. I didn't like my stuff yesterday so I doodled this MUCH cuter ghost up, scanned it in and gave it a quick 10-minute render in Photoshop. I like it much better.

Boo to You!

BLURRGGHHH SO TIRED. Full day at EPCOT today. And it was unseasonably warm. Understatement of the year: it felt like friggin' August today. I am going to bed.

Puttin' On the Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttzzzzzzz!

Haha. Young Frankenstein again.

Spent the whole day at the Magic Kingdom and resort hopping today with Brian and his dad so I didn't have much time to work on this (I know, what a terrible life I have here..) . I had started him a few days ago, but he was really stiff (no pun intended). I fixed him up a little gave him a better pose, so I'm happy with Frankie, but the BG was a tad rushed. Oh well.

At least I made it for posting today! Just barely, but I made it.

Now I am exhausted and I bid you all a good night!

Werewolf? There! Wolf.

Haha, 'Young Frankenstein' I love you.

Here's a cute little werewolf for you guys! He's my favorite out of everything I've done for this project so far. It helps that werewolves are my favorite monster (the original Lon Chaney Jr. film is AMAZING. If you haven't seen it, go Netflix it. Classic awesomeness.)

Brian's dad is in town for the weekend. I'll still be posting but we'll be out and about in the parks all weekend so it might just be little sketches and doodles for the next few days. I'll see what happens. Also, updates may be a little later than usual. But I just wanted to give you guys a heads up.

Enjoy!

Bat-A-Tat-Tat

Sorry I haven't responded to everybody's comments today. I can't sign into my Facebook for some reason. I hope that little problem fixes itself...

Anyway, here's a cute little bat. He's out hunting for yummy bugs to eat!

Candy Apples Redux: Sweet and Sour

Bonus post today!

My friend Matt gave me an excellent suggestion the other day after my candy apples post. He said why not expand on it, and go with sweet and sour'? Red apples are sweet, green apples are sour, and that way it goes beyond just anther cute thing. Brilliant. I really miss brainstorming with ya, Matt. You're always chock full of awesome ideas!

So here they are, sweet and sour!

Charlie-O-Lantern

Well, it was about time I did a Jack-O-Lantern wasn't it?

He Vants To Suck Your Bluhd!

One! One cute vampire! 'A 'a 'a 'a!!!!

Another post in this style. And there's a background this time! Bonus! I'm figuring out that days that I'm in the office at work make posting just a little bit harder, so the post was a little late tonight. (Sorry Matt.. :( ) I think I may have to work a head and stockpile a few of these ahead of time. I have a bunch that I'm working on, but I should probably work them past a really quick rough sketch before I consider it 'stockpiled'.

Anyway! Enjoy the Count tonight. And watch your necks! ;D

Candy Apples 2 Ways

More foodie treats for you today. Candy apples! And they're happy t'see ya! Not really something Halloweeny in the more traditional sense, but they start popping up in the fall around this time, and they're always being served at Halloween parties and stuff. So they're making it into my blog. Ny'ah.

I couldn't decide wether red or green looked better, so I decided to go ahead and just do both. They work really well together, and I'm happy with them.

Itsy Bitsy Spider: Cute and Creepy Day 3

Here's a little spider for my third post of the month. He's a cute little guy. I can't really bring myself to draw a more realistic spider. And thank to Brian for helping me with colors! I had a hard time figuring out what color his body should be.

I've noticed as I've been brainstorming ideas for things to do for this that a lot of Halloween stuff is either food or a monster of some kind. So I've been trying to come up with other things to throw in to mix it up a little bit. Hence 'spider'. Also I'm going to mix up the styles a little more as well. I can only do so much vector art and have it look different every time. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Be sure to drop in tomorrow for another addition to the group!

Witchy-Poo

It's day 2 of my Halloween-O-Thon and I have this little witch for you. I actually have a bunch of iconic Halloween characters I'm planning on doing in this style. Which I like, by the way. It has a very Target-y Halloween display feel to it, and I think they'll be an awesome portfolio addition. I'm planning on sprinkling them in throughout the month, so keep your eyes peeled!

And thank you!! I've gotten a really great response to this little experiment which makes me super happy! Hopefully I'll keep your interests through the month. :D

Cute-n-Creepy Day 1: The Sweet Beginning

Yay!!! First post in my 31-Days-Of-Halloween Extravaganza! And what better way to start than with candy corn, that ultra-saccharine symbol of trick or treating. I'm not a fan of them myself. They're a little too sweet for me. But I love how they look. And every year I try them, thinking maybe this year will be different, maybe I'll magically be a fan of the lil' guys.....but no. Never changes. But at least I can appreciate them visually!