I thought this was going to be a difficult subject to illustrate until I remembered that I sketched a few amusements over the years, most during the day. I referenced those sketches and sleeted the Tornado ride for this illustration.
The fourth prompt is “witch” and it happens to be one of my favorites. Usually for Inktober, I work on my “Little Witch” series, which started back in 2018 as a desperate need to find ideas for postcards to mail to my mom.
(Mom was placed in Assisted Living back in 2018 for memory care. I mailed her postcards to give her something to look forward to and help her settle in.)
This year I did the “TheyDrawtober’s Cook” list and that’s what I sent my mom this year. I thought the food art would give her some memory triggers. I haven’t seen her since December 2019, thanks to CoVID 19 but occasionally my sister is able to FaceTime with us.
I have to admit it’s been hard to keep up the daily practice. She likes cats and always dressed as a witch for Halloween, so that’s where the idea for the “Little Witch” series came from. I do enjoy doing the “Little Witch” series and Inktober made it fun to use the prompts for the character.
Here is the Little Witch as a pre-schooler….as I mentioned yesterday, I might switch to watercolor; I actually used watercolor and the Arteza brush pens together.
I am still trailing the other October lists for now. As I write this, I have one of the Hallmark channels on TV to help with the holiday transition, even though I don’t want to transition yet. I’d love to wallow some more in post-Halloween, pre-Thanksgiving vibes and enjoy November for November.
It’s hard to transition in the State of “endless” summer. Autumn creeps slowly into my part of Florida. The overnight temps creep downward and daytime temps are around 80, for now. We actually do have autumn here and trees will lose their leaves. It’s very comical. One day the trees have leaves, and the next, they drop them like PJ’s dropped on the floor before a shower.
Today’s prompt is “Haunted.” I am trying to use the Arteza brush pens that I normally use for Inktober, but they aren’t performing very well on the textured Arches paper. I’ll probably switch over to watercolor on the next one.
This is another sketch in my “skull” sketchbook. I love this refillable journal. It’s black Italian leather and it was made by Innovative Journaling. It comes with two refills of Arches Text Wove paper. The nice thing about this refillable journal is that I can use the paper that comes with it, or make my own refill from paper that I choose. I love the black leather with skull beads. Perfect for my Halloween themed sketches.
Today’s sketch is based on my interpretation of last month’s Drawlloween list. The first day was “Monster Self Portrait” which, I think the intention was to make a monster self portrait of ourselves, but that light bulb came on and I remembered the Norman Rockwell self portrait. I recently did a sketch of Cary Grant and I laughed thinking about Frankenstein painting his self portrait but it looking like Cary.
Now that I look at this, I should have made Cary green, too. It Frankie more flesh toned. I don’t know why Frankie is depicted as green anyway. I like the version from “Penny Dreadful.”
This is just a sketch and hasn’t been polished digitally. But this is where a lot of my ideas start.
Frankie paints his self portrait…”My Halloween Journal
I did work a little on my little witch series while doing the “TheyDrawtober Challenge.” The food challenge took up more time than expected, and I wound up doing that challenge on Procreate and as you can see from last month’s posts.
In the meantime, monsters, witches and other beasties were sidelined. I have been debating on posting them in November, or holding off on them for now. Although it isn’t October, it is still before Thanksgiving, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to post a few fall themed sketches and maybe a monster here or there. There will be time enough for holiday posts after Thanksgiving.
Those of you who follow my Little Witch series might remember that Cleopatra (aka Kitty) passed away last year of an unknown neurological event right before Inktober. We were all grief stricken and it was hard for me to put a kitty in the series last year.
This year, there are two new grandkitties that my daughter adopted. Plus my son also has a diabolical kitty that I could add so kitties will be making a comeback. Cleo was found by my husband and I and was the family kitty even though she came here to Florida with my daughter. We all still miss Cleo.
So back to the story….
The Litttle Witch made some caramel apples. She put one out to have as a snack, and to see how they taste before packaging them up as gifts. However, the Dragonet and Toffee, the muted tortie kitty, have other ideas.
This sketch was done on Arches text wove paper in my refillable Innovative Journal . It’s black leather with skull beads. Really cool!
This illustration was done for the “scary great” challenge on the “They Draw “ website. It is based on the Scottish Prayer:
“From Ghoulies and Ghosties, and long leggity beasties, and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord Deliver us.”
I did a painting over 12 years ago illustrating that same prayer and gave it to my husband. The original location was a cemetery in Philadelphia and it was a plein air painting that I started and converted to an illustration. That painting inspired the illustration below, but this one is a compilation of several cemetery sketches I have painted plein air over the years.
Some people may think it is a bit macabre that I sit in cemeteries and paint them. A cemetery is the final, unavoidable stop on our life’s journey. We can choose to avoid them, but cemeteries can be exquisitely beautiful, contemplative places where you can sit and enjoy nature. The whisper of trees and grasses blowing in a breeze, the chirps and calls of birds, crickets, cicadas, and the busy activity of squirrels and other creatures. Painting in a cemetery can be a mindfulness lesson of living in the moment…and enjoying it.
And usually, no one bothers you there, either. And they are quite beautiful this time of year.
The link to the website is below, should you wish to see I there and leave a comment or “Like” it.
I have to say, this one was so MUCH fun. I played with many different Procreate features and brushes and I had a blast. This totally went an entirely different direction than I was thinking but once I drew the cauldron, it was just me being intuitive and right brained the rest of the way.
gina's sketches 
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