Pencil {October 2020} #4: Happy Halloween!

  

Comments: And, we made it to the end of the month. Happy Halloween! I know it looks a lot different this year, with Covid-19 and all, but I still hope to have a fun day anyway and I wish the same for everyone else. For today’s artwork, I was influenced by an old painting I did a few years back, which I’m certain I referred to as the “spider bride.” I wanted to redraw this character, and I finally got around to doing it. I tried to exaggerate the proportions of the character a little, because I wanted her to appear a little more ghostly (hence there are no feet).

Pencil {October 2020} #3

  

Comments: Adri and I recently watched Over The Garden Wall. I’ve been hearing about it for a while, and I wanted to watch it this year. So I picked up the DVD while it was on sale at Barnes & Noble. I really loved the series, and it’s one of my favorite shows from Cartoon Network to date. My artwork for today is partly inspired by the spooky and whimsical feel of Over the Garden Wall, but it’s not influenced by any scenes from the show—so you don’t need to worry about spoilers if you haven’t watched it.

Pencil {October 2020} #2

  

Comments: Today’s artwork is this pumpkin. It’s kind of a simple one, and it’s based off of a ceramic candy dish I got way back in early September. As soon as I saw the shape of it (a jack-o-lantern), I knew I wanted to draw it with a candle in the opening in place of candy. For reference, here is a picture of the candy dish.

Pencil {October 2020} #1

 

Comments: Last year, in October, I did a series of pencil drawings. I had a lot of fun with it, and I ultimately decided to break out my pencils and give it another go. So every Saturday in October, starting with today, I will be sharing a piece of Halloween themed artwork from my sketchbook. Today’s image is one of my favorites. As I was thinking of what to do this month, I made approximately three versions of this same scene. One drawn in ink, painted with watercolor, and finally in pencil (which was the image I was most satisfied with).

Middle Grade Novels to Read This October

It’s October, a.k.a. one of my favorite times of the year. It also means fall is here, and I have my fingers crossed that cooler weather is on the way. But I digress, let’s talk about some books. So throughout this year and the later part of 2019, I’ve been enjoying a number of middle grade ghost stories. I’ve mentioned them on the blog, but I wanted to put my current favorites onto one post. Adri is joining me today, with recommendations and comments of her own about some of the books on this list.

  

Small Spaces and Dead Voices by Katherine Arden 

Breana: I found these books because I read Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy. I really enjoy the way the author blends spooky elements with issues relevant to the target audience. Plus the story within the story could have been its own book, and the ghosts of the series always appear in surprising ways and places.

Adri: Since I agree with what Breana said, all I’m going to add is: both books are great. They have just the right amount of spookiness and touching friendships.

The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown 

Adri: I’m still left speechless by The Forgotten Girl. It’s a chilling ghost story that incorporated real life history in the form of segregated cemeteries. I really loved the author’s note at the end, where she detailed her inspiration behind including the cemeteries. It added a timeliness touch to the story.

Breana: The Forgotten Girl is one of my favorite ghost stories. Brown did an excellent job with the supernatural elements of the story, and I enjoyed the perspective of the main character. The ghost was in-your-face scary at times. Not because she was evil, but because of the gradual escalation of her actions. All around, it’s a fantastic story.

Ghost Squad by Clairbel A. Ortega 

Breana: Ghost Squad had the fun quirkiness of Ghostbusters combined with a cast of lovable characters. The ghosts took on both a haunting and a cherished role in this story, which was one of my favorite aspects of the book.

Adri: I finally got around to reading Ghost Squad after Breana, and I couldn’t put it down. I agree. It is a fun story. I loved the relationship she had with her dad and family spirits. Her adventures with Syd and eventually Babette and the cats were all the more enjoyable because of the magical elements.

The Sisters of Straygarden Place by Hayley Chewins 

Breana: I read this book as an ARC. While there were no ghosts in the story, The Sisters of Straygarden Place needed to be on this list for a myriad of reasons. The atmospheric storytelling had a spooky and downright eerie quality to it, and the setting was as mysterious and dangerous as the characters.

Midnight at the Barclay Hotel by Fleur Bradley 

Adri: I’ve already reviewed this book with Andrea. There’s not much else I can say about it other than that I enjoyed it immensely. The mystery drew me in. There was a good balance of eerie and lighthearted moments. I said it in the review and I’ll say it again here: it was definitely a page-turner.

We hope this trend of middle-grade ghost stories continues well into the future. So that’s it for today. What ghost or spooky stories have you been reading lately?

Happy Halloween + Pencil #3

Today is October 31st. So before I begin I just have to say Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a great day.

The last pencil artwork I specifically worked on for October was this one. It was, of course, inspired by a cupcake, and I’m calling it Be Careful with the Cookie. In the earliest sketch, I was planning to do a pretty basic cupcake with sprinkles. However when I started playing around with the composition, I noticed that it was kind of plain—which was the same issue I initially had with Halloween in a bottle for $5.99—which wasn’t what I was going for since I wanted the eye to be drawn to the cupcake.
Ultimately I kept the bat-shaped sprinkles, although they’re very small, but I added a cookie to the very top, as well as curls of smoke rising from the eyes and forming a skull. I like this one much better that way. The rest of my process mainly dealt with deciding what the cookie should be shaped like, and if I should add any color to it (you can see some of my thought process in the sketches). Being prepared allowed me to streamline the actual drawing process. Be Careful with the Cookie ended up being one of my favorite pieces to work on.

Pencil #2

The next picture I worked on was a flytrap in a flowerpot shaped like a skull. I couldnt think of a good name for it, so I guess it'll just be Flytrap In A Flowerpot Shaped Like A Skull. So it is what it is. As for the process for this one, it was pretty straight forward. My inspiration was mainly this air plant I have. It sits on the side of a faux skull. I had the thought “Well, I want a flowerpot shaped like this,” and the idea sort of developed from there. The final artwork doesn’t deviate much from the sketches I did for it. I’m happy with how it looks.

Pencil #1:

When I first sat down to brainstorm about what I was going to do, art wise, in October, I already knew I wasn’t going to participate in Inktober. I wanted to work in pencil instead of ink, and I wanted to get them done before October. And that’s what I ultimately decided on. Note: I’m not posting these in order, so I know the dates on the pictures aren't in chronological order.

The first drawing I worked on is called Halloween in a Bottle for $5.99. The idea behind it is along the lines of being able to buy a little bit of Halloween that’s, of course, in a bottle. You can see some of the early sketches I did for it. There are some pretty big difference between where the idea began, and where it ended up. Originally, there was supposed to be a bow, but then I scrapped that idea in favor of the box. And the box went from being simple and clear to decorative.

What are you working on this October?

Belated Quarterly Recap: July-October

Yikes...

To be honest, I completely forgot that I was supposed to do a quarterly recap at the beginning of October. It wasn't until the twenty sixth that I was looking through the September and early October stuff, only to discover that I never actually drafted this post. Whoops. And it was so late in the month, that I decided to lump October with July, September, and August. 

So, without further ado, I'm going to jump right in and start with reviews...

July Reviews:

• Wintersmith
• Love Charms and Other Catastrophes
• The Torn Wing
• Riverkeep

August Reviews:

• Thieving Weasels
• Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World
• The Traitor in the Tunnel
• Mortal Gods

September Reviews:

• The Reader
• Visual reference Guide: Architecture
• Fangirl
• A Corner of White

October Reviews:

• The Witches
• Cloudwish
• Burning Emerald
• Grand Forks
• Hourglass

(Weekly meme labels can be found on the features page)

Other July Posts:

• Favorite Genre Characteristics Part 1
• Favorite Genre Characteristics Part 2
• Cover Reveal: Hear the Wolves by Victoria Scott
• Quarterly Recap April-June
• Happy Fourth of July

Other August Posts:

• How My Blogging Has Changed Since Way Back In 2013
• Hobbies are Subjective
• Netflix and Books Tag
• Favorite Fictional Friendships
• Pre-release Blitz: The Flame Never Dies
• Release Day Blitz: United by Melissa Landers
• EP Summer Carnival

Other September Posts:

• Seasonal Books
• Whats on My TBR+Obscure Books & Movies

Other October Posts:

• Weekend Tidbits #8 It's October
• Music Monday Halsey
• Music Monday Ryn Weaver & Tove Lo
• Music Monday Halloween Edition
• Where Do you Buy Books?
• Creatures of the Night Book Tag

It's been a busy couple of months that's only bound to get busier since the holiday season is underway. But, I've read a lot of good books across the past four months. Some were new and others were older releases that I've been meaning to get to. One thing I want to do is read more contemporary novels since I don't regularly read from that genre, and continue getting to more of the backlist books I want to read.