Little Witch (on the side)

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!

All Souls Day / Day of the Dead

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.

https://www.they-draw.com/illustrations/19877-scottish-prayer

Or you can just enjoy it here….

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! Thank you for following along with me for this month’s THEYDRAWTOBER Challenge. I am grateful to you, my followers!

Here’s a piece of virtual Halloween cake!

Witches Brew

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.

Candy

Well this was easy. I opted out of the standard wrapper candy and went with the ‘movie box’ candy. This is the kind of candy where we’ll go to the dollar store and pick up the movie boxes for a buck a piece and take them in with us. We saw “No Time to Die” last week and I bought the Swedish Fish and gave them to my husband to carry in.

He ate the entire box.

Root veggies

Ahhh, one of my favorite foods in the fall no winter. I love roasted root vegetables. I love taking carrots and parsnips, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes and beets and roasting them with chicken. There are so many baking pan recipes these days that are perfect for easy meals.

Hmm. Maybe that’s what we’ll have for dinner tomorrow.

PS….rutabagas…..OMG, peel them, simmer them in water, mash them with whatever butter you prefer, maybe a dash of salt and that’s all you need to do.

Heaven in a bowl.