birthday wishes, IF, inktober, and Halloween

In honor of my birthday yesterday, I did a sketch of a little girl and her cat, just before she makes a wish and blows out the candles on her cake.

Here's a close up so you can see the girl and cat better:

Then today I realized that before she could be in that picture, we needed to see her the year before, making the wish that brought her toy cat to life. She also wished for her cat to be able to talk. She didn't bargain on the fact that Kitty would lots of opinions and like to talk all the time! Also, since the Illustration Friday prompt for this week is stripes, I decided to give her a stripey cake (the cat's tail has stripes too):

October and inktober are over, but the art lives on here on my blog! Here are the last 4 inktober drawings* - they're all cell pics, as I didn't have my scanner with me while traveling:

Day 28: It was a swirling, whirling, ghosting kind of day!

Day 29:It was Hug A Sheep Day! This ghostie is hugging her best sheep friend.

Day 30:It was Candy Corn Day! Did you know that ghosts love candy corn? Nom! Nom! Nom!

Day 31: Happy Halloween! Got home from my trip just in time for Halloween, but missed a few trick-or-treaters because I had to go out and get candy. My final inktober drawing was the teal and orange pumpkin sign I made for our door. I drew 30 days of ghosts and two pumpkins on the last day! We only had one kid who needed allergy free treats, but it was totally worth it to see his smile and to see/hear the parents freak out that someone had thought to get treats that their child could have (we gave him Halloween notebooks, pencils and glow in the dark stickers):

Happy Three Days After Halloween and the end of inktober! Hope you all had a creative month!

* To see my inktober ghosts from the first 14 days of the month, click here. Or if you want to see my inktober ghosts from days 15-27 (including writing and illustrating ghosts), click here. I had lots of fun drawing ghosts all month. I think my favorite one is Day 12 - still makes me laugh! Though I also really like Day 22. My dad likes them all (he's biased), but his favorite is Day 27 (the first image, without the cat - though he also likes the second one, with the cat).

Inktober and fun holidays - Happy Black Cat Day!

It's still inktober. I usually pick a different subject for each week of inktober, with an overall theme of Halloween. However, this year, I decided to draw ghosts for 31 days. Yay ghosts! Here are my ghosts since my last inktober post (in reverse order starting with today - most of these are cell pics, as I didn't have my scanner with me while traveling):

Day 27 (today): Happy Black Cat Day! I didn't know it was Black Cat Day when I did my ink drawing of a ghost hiding in a hollow tree, but then I found out, so I did another drawing of a ghost and a black cat hanging out in a tree:

Day 26: Happy Pumpkin Day! Didn't know it was pumpkin day when I drew my picture yesterday, but my little ghost was getting ready for a pumpkin party, so it worked out well.

Days 24-25: Monday Morning Ghost Traffic and a Big Tuesday Pancake Breakfast! (What? ghosts have to get to work, and they like pancakes too.)

Days 22-23: Once A Reader (or a painter) Always A Reader (or a painter).

Days 20 - 21: Ghost Writers work long hours and like to take naps to dream up their next story:

Day 19:  Pug among ghosts:

Days 17 -18: Ghost Kitty needs to find her friends and decorate her pumpkin! These two drawings are from my Halloween Activities for kids page. There are six activities, including Dot to Dot, matching ghosts, pumpkin decorating, finishing a drawing, finding a pumpkin and ghost in the pumpkin patch, and a leaf maze (all featuring Ghost Kitty from my new Halloween story, Glide and EEK! ).

Day 16: Ghost and Ghost Kitty - also from the Halloween Activities page. (Note: the original file doesn't have the dot in the center. Not sure why it's there when I upload it. Weird!) Click here if you're looking for Halloween Activities to do with kids (or for yourself, just for fun).

Day 15: Pfft! (I think the ghost is upset at being last, or is ready to be done with this post.)

Happy Black Cat Day! Happy Inktober! Happy Haunting!

inktober, Trick Or Reaters, Halloween Activities for kids, and Illustration Friday

Happy October! Happy Inktober! I've been making lots of art for inktober again this year. My theme for the month (so far) has been ghosts. (Note: I post my inks every day on social media if you want to see them in between blog posts. The current art is pinned at the top of my twitter feed after I post each day.)

Here are my inktober ghosts so far:
Day One: A full page ink with my character Ghost Kitty surrounded by regular ghosts. Ghost Kitty is the main character in a short (not so) scary ghost story that I wrote and illustrated for Trick Or Reaters this year. It's called Glide and EEK! Click here to read it. 

FYI: I also designed a flyer for people to had out to trick-or-treaters so kids (and their parents) know they can go to Trick Or Reaters to read scary stories (at all levels of scary). Would you like a flier to hand out to trick-or-treaters? Click here download my flyer (shown below).

Days Two - Seven: Ghosts with patterns and/or a connection to nature.

Day Eight: Here's one of the ghosts from my short (not so) scary ghost story, Glide and EEK!

Day Nine: Cheep! Moo! Chirp! Boo!

Day Ten: Ghost Kitty says, "EEK!" This is another image from my short (not so) scary ghost story, Glide and EEK!

Day Eleven: Leaf maze! This is from my Halloween Activities for kids page. There are six activities, including Dot to Dot, matching ghosts, pumpkin decorating, finishing a drawing, finding a pumpkin and ghost in the pumpkin patch, and the leaf maze (featuring Ghost Kitty looking for her pumpkin). Click here if you're looking for Halloween Activities to do with kids (or for yourself, just for fun).

Day Twelve: "Hello Again!" says G.H. Ost. (Couldn't resist.)

Day Thirteen: Ghost + Penguins (part one). This is also for the Illustration Friday prompt for this week, which is ice. The penguins are on an iceberg ... oh no, here comes a ghost!

Day Fourteen: Ghost + Penguins (part two). This is actually tomorrow's inking, but since I'm going to be inking something for a different project tomorrow, I did it today and am posting early. (The penguins are still on the Illustration Friday iceberg ... and now the ghost is too.)

Am considering continuing the Ghost + Penguins story. Not sure yet, but there might be more to this story. But there will be no more to this blog post! This is the end! It's too long already!

*waves goodbye* Happy October! Happy Inktober! Happy (almost) Halloween!

a week of fun with type and Halloween words, plus adventure for Illustration Friday

The fourth week of inktober, a month long challenge to draw with ink every day, ended yesterday. This week was all about playing with words (just having fun with it - I never got to take typography, so I'm hoping these look fun instead of cringe-worthy). I also did a drawing today for the Illustration Friday prompt this week (adventure), and to start my theme for the last three days of inktober (aliens).

Didn't have access to a scanner this week, so these are all cell phone pics. Some of them turned out better than others (so hard to photograph type with a cell phone).

I have two favorites this week. The first is, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" Thanks to my dad for suggesting I draw this word!

My second favorite is "Witch Cat." I decided to do a word drawing for each of the first three weeks of inktober. (Witch cats were week two.)

Here's my pumpkin (inktober - week three), with type for teeth:

Here are the ghosts (inktober - week one). I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, as this was the first drawing for this week. Ended up drawing four ghosts. I think they look stronger together than any one of them by itself:

Had to draw candy corn - it seems to be one of the most controversial candies. You used to only be able to get it at Halloween, but they have it for Christmas now too (it's red, green and white). People either love it or hate it. This drawing does a good job of summing up how I feel about candy corn (mostly just candy corn made by Jelly Belly):

It's not Halloween if there aren't a few bats around, right?

To round out the week, I decided to draw a monster. Couldn't decide between a monster with text on his head, or monster as a word, so I did both:

There are only three more days of October and inktober! I decided to draw aliens for the final three drawings of the month. When the Illustration Friday prompt, adventure, was announced, I tried to figure out a Halloween adventure and came up with this:

Not sure who is going to have more of an adventure, the aliens exploring a new planet, or the ghost going for its first ride in a spaceship. Wonder if the aliens know what they're in for?

Since I started with aliens and a ghost (subject of inktober week one), I might have to have a witch cat and a pumpkin in the other two alien pictures!

Hope you've had a great October so far and fun with inktober if you're participating! 

a ghostly week for inktober and ink for illustration friday

The first week of inktober, a month long challenge to draw with ink every day, ended yesterday. My first week was all about the ghosts! I even managed to ink a ghost for the Illustration Friday prompt this week (ink).

This ghost knows the best way to get through a rainy and windy day is to stay inside and read a book (it's my favorite ghost from this week):

This ghost wants to get in on the inktober fun for Illustration Friday by inking the wall (the ink on the floor was an accident):

The rest of the week featured a ghost in a balloon, ghosts having a party, a family of ghosts, another rainy day ghost, and a construction ghost:

 

 

 

 

For the second week of inktober, I'm taking on a different subject - witch kitties (kitties who belong to witches, not kitties who are witches). Here's a sneak peek at the first image:

Happy October / inktober!

ghosts and gifts for inktober, tbt, and if

Today is the first day of October, and the start of inktober, a month long challenge to draw with ink every day. It's also Thursday, which is the perfect time to post old images for tbt (Throwback Thursday), one of which is my pick for the Illustration Friday prompt this week (prize).

Let's start with a puppy prize from 2008 for tbt and IF (always good to start with a puppy):

There are a lot of people who would love a puppy as a prize! A puppy is an upgrade from the usual goldfish prize they give out at carnivals. Before you accept your puppy prize, just make sure nobody in your family is allergic to furry pets. If they are, please accept this goldfish (also from 2008, with an added fish):

Since today is the first day of October, it's time to change my avatar again (I usually change it every month). My avatar is a crop of another tbt image (from 2009):

And here's the full image it came from:

Last, but not least, since today is the start of inktober and the first day of the Halloween season, I drew this picture of a ghost with a tool belt (with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen):

I wanted to see what it would look like with color, so I added some digital color in a limited palette:

And just for fun, I did a full color version too:

Happy October everyone!

Dr. Seuss inspired artwork for his birthday, plus Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day

Today would have been the 111th birthday of Dr. Seuss! In 2012, I celebrated his birthday for the whole month, by creating weekly art inspired by his books. Found them today and thought I'd post them again for fun. I asked myself a series of questions to come up with what to draw from which books. Questions and art shown below:

Q: What if The Cat In The Hat had a brother or sister who liked eating fish?

Q: What if you combined the two Dr. Seuss books, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish? (You'd get the book: Oh, The Places You'll Fish!)

Here's a close up of the fish driving the car (FYI, the colors in both pictures are exactly the same - like the closeup below - not sure why the one above is different on Blogger!):

Q: What if Horton heard a Who, and also a What, Where, Why, When, and How? (He’s holding all those worlds in his trunk, and is a US Marshall offering them witness protection too - apparently I was also inspired by a TV show about WitSec.)

Q: What if Sue (from Fox in Socks) was swamped with sock orders and had to sew six thousand socks?

Sue sewing socks was my favorite of the group, because it was inspired by Dr. Seuss, but done in my style and with my characters helping Sue. My second favorite is Horton, but they were all fun to do.

Here's closeup of the cow helping Sue with her yarn:

And here's a closeup of the bunny, who is my favorite character from this drawing. Thinking about doing more art with this bunny, and maybe the cow, owl and bird too!

Final Q: What if the green eggs and ham were returned to Sam in exchange for a birthday cake? (Sam is a bit stunned by this development, BTW.)

Happy Birthday  to Dr. Seuss! All his wacky stories and characters have inspired me since I was a kid, and inspired these drawings too.

Today is also Read Across America Day. Read Across America is the NEA's program to foster a love of reading in children and teens all year long. The theme this year is, Oh the Places You'll Go!

And Wednesday is World Read Aloud Day, which celebrates the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories around the world.

I'm going to read a book to celebrate this week, how about you? Happy reading everyone!

p.s. For those who like to know about art mediums used, the first three images were pen and ink, then colored in Photoshop, image four was re-drawn and colored in Photoshop, and the last image is pencil and ballpoint pen with colored pencil.