Happy Halloween & #Peachtober 2023!

It’s October 31st. So first and foremost, Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a great day. Now onto the bulk of today’s post.

Last year, I did an art challenge on Instagram through the month of October. However, this year I decided to change the way I participated in #Peachtober. I did do most of the 2023 prompt list. The main change was I didn’t post to social media and instead focused on making a single piece of art. So, for today’s Halloween post, I’m going to delve into my process. For the prompt list and the specifics about the materials I used see the notes section at the bottom of the post.

Some sketches (Right and left image)….

When the prompt list was released, I immediately started sketching and thinking about what medium I wanted to use. Last year, I went with colored pencil (Prismacolor Premier); this time I wasn’t as sure and considered acrylic paint—one of my favorite mediums—or a combination of markers and colored pencil. That, like my original idea, changed as I hammered out the details of what I was going to be doing.

Another sketch (Image on the right)….

So, what was I planning? Well my initial idea was a series of bottles for each prompt, but that was when I thought I would post almost every day to social media. Even during the early stages of developing that idea, the more I sketched the more my original train of thought turned toward what would eventually be my main source of inspiration: cabinets of curiosities. Not the Netflix TV show, but the actual concept of the thing. It allowed me to also incorporate (and organize) elements of my initial idea—with the various jars, bottles, and displays. Principally it gave me better direction with how I wanted to arrange everything on the page, especially as I moved farther from separate pieces and toward a single painting.

Here’s what the piece ended up looking like….

Painting process was pretty straight forward and took about four dedicated sessions across as many days. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the result.

So, once again, Happy Halloween and thanks for reading!

—Notes—

List of materials used:

• Canson Watercolor Paper 9in x12in; 140 lb/300g
• Liquitex Basics Acrylic Paint
• Sketchbook
• 0.7mm mechanical pencil

#Peachtober2023 Prompt List created by @furrylittlepeach **(The crossed out prompts are ones I decided to skip, simply because I couldn’t find a way to work them into the painting in a way I liked.)**

1.Bee / 2.Cosmos/  3.Sweet/ 4.Grub/ 5.Sprig/ 6.Eye/ 7.Crater

8.Dream/ 9.Blue/ 10.Citrus/ 11.Pencil/ 12.Nest/ 13.Ship/ 14.Garden 

15.Weather/ 16.Sidekick/ 17.Blush/ 18.Snooze/ 19.Candle/ 20.Bulb/ 21.Slingshot

22.Tunnel/ 23.Message/ 24.Wand/ 25.Coral/ 26.Ladybug/ 27.Pond/ 28.Chomp

29.Float/ 30.Moss/ 31.Spooky

Combined prompts: Float & Spooky; Tunnel and Grub; Garden & Ladybug; Nest & Blue 

Thought Corner: Halloween Art #2

Breana’s comments: Hello, hi, and welcome to the second and last part of the ultra-mini art challenge Adri and I are doing in the month of October. It’s also the 31st. So, Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a good day, and now on to today’s theme.

Today’s prompt: Pumpkin (or Jack-O-Lantern), jelly bean, and or sour gummy worm dinner

Breana’s comments: I knew what I wanted to do the second we decided on this one. My inspiration for it was a steak dinner. I wanted to incorporate all three options onto the platter. My two favorite shades of blue colored pencils also make an appearance on this one.

Adri’s comments:

I think I was hungry when we did this one. My first thought was stuffed bell peppers and canned cranberry sauce. So, for dinner I chose Jelly bean stuffed pumpkin with a side of gummy worms and sour gummy worm sauce. I wanted this to be murkier and somewhat moody, so I planned to mix colors with gray. But, in the end, I ended up with something brighter. And yes, more gold acrylic.

Thought Corner: Halloween Art #1

Breana’s Comments: While brainstorming ideas for what to do on the blog in October, I decided on something art related since it’s been awhile. And I knew from the start that I wanted to do something fun and colorful. I gave myself two prompts to fulfil on the second and last Sunday of October. Adri is joining me for this mini challenge as well.

Today’s prompt: Candy corn but make it lunch or an appetizer

Breana’s Comments: I wanted to lean into the whole idea of candy as food. I actually like candy corn, and I envisioned it here as part of a salad, taking the place of cherry tomatoes or some other kind of vegetable. I wanted to keep my color choices bright. And honestly, I like Prismacolor colored pencils True Blue and Light Cerulean Blue. I've also included my sketch page, where I was deciding whether or not I was going to use crayon, crayon + marker, or Prismacolor colored pencils.

Adri’s Comments: It’s been a minute since I pulled out my Reeves watercolor gouache and I felt it was time to do so. I too opted for a salad, but with giant candy corn strawberry… Stracornberry? Sorry. I was originally going to have a previous character I drew holding a plate. Instead, I ended up with something like what you see above. I tried to add some of my gold acrylic, but it’s not that visible in the photo.

Stay tuned for our second and final prompt challenge on the 31st! Until then, thanks for stopping by and happy reading!

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).

Acrylics...

Comments: It’s been a few months since I last picked up a brush with the intention of painting with acrylic paint. Recently, I was looking to improve on my use of lighting, so I painted this teapot. Acrylic is still one of my favorite mediums to use, because I prefer water soluble paints—like watercolor. For this one, I didn’t use a reference, because I wanted to see what I could do from memory. Arguably, my favorite part I worked on were the two random cherries at the bottom of the teapot. I like how they turned out, and I’ve thought about doing another painting of cherries or some other food related subjects. I have a few older photographs that immediately come to mind including a rough pastry I made years ago, as well as bacon. This piece taught me a lot and I hope to do more paintings like it in the near future.

What have you been working on lately?

Sketchbook: Alice (featuring The Nightmare-Verse by L.L. McKinney)

Comments: It’s been quite some time since I did something art related on the blog. As it so happens, I completely overlooked Our Thoughts Precisely’s blogiversary two years in a row, and so I decided to celebrate—belatedly—by sitting down and tackling one of the art projects that’s been on my mind for some time. I hardly ever draw fan art these days, but I’ve always wanted to make something inspired by Alice in Wonderland. I got a big dose of inspiration after I read A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinney. I took my inspiration from various elements within the series instead of any one specific scene (so you don’t have to worry about spoilers). Some of my initial ideas were too cutesy for what I wanted. When my main goal was to capture more of the creepy-horror-action-aspect (the nightmares, the sword and daggers from the book covers), which are pivotal parts of the series. 

Materials for this project…

• Ucreate 75lb, acid-free, lignin-free drawing paper
• Artist’s Loft Necessities colored pencils in the color Light Orange
• Art Minds Permanent Marker

What are you working on this week?