I’m Happy to say that I’m finally done this sketch challenge with a couple of Trick or treaters!
So in hindsight, I think this went okay, with only about three duds in the lot and several that I really liked. As always, I think I probably put more effort into it than it deserved. but it was rewarding in the end. As always, there are a few images I definitely intend to recycle as finished pictures.
I definitely like the vampire bunny.
The one downside of these Halloween Sketch Challenges is you start recognizing numerous cliches. This list was chock full of them. So I was not looking for the second to last prompt, Cauldron Crones. First, because the list had about three prompts that could involve witches and second I’d done way too many pictures of witches in front of cauldrons.
This one was okay, but after a while, you can only do so many variations on a theme.
Today’s Prompt, Sunday Bloody Sunday, was one that I wasn’t looking forward to. For one thing, I hadn’t the slightest idea what to do with it. I’m pretty sure it was trying to get me to draw a slasher film reference. However, since slasher films are a flavor of pornography I refuse to touch I had to go elsewhere.
I ended up looking up the lyrics of the U2 song the title comes from. The 1972 incident reminded me of Reg Shoe and the Fresh Start Club from Discworld, which led me to a revenant demonstration.
It came out mostly okay, though I have a sneaking suspicion I unintentionally drew a piece of conservative propaganda.
I’m really pleased how today’s prompt, “Franken Friday” turned out. I got an early start on it and the initial sketch flowed really well. If it wasn’t for a comedy of errors regarding the pen I’ve been using for this challenge and having to go replace it I would have finished it about an hour earlier than previous efforts.
At risk of starting one of those clashes of pedants, to me, Frankenstein is the doctor end of story. So when I have to do Frankenstein the doctor has to be there. (Not that I don’t enjoy drawing the creature as well. While there are obviously other great Frankensteins, for me it’s a toss-up between Colin Clive and Peter Cushing. While with Clive’s performance, I keep finding myself wanting to slap his doctor upside the head, I still find myself leaning towards his well-meaning doofus Frankenstein, rather than Cushing’s hubristic villain. In a way, Clive’s Frankenstein is one of the only “good” mad scientists in media.
Despite that I find myself using Cushing’s Frankenstein as a model for my version of Dr. Pretorious. Thanks, to James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein and to a lesser extent, Cartoon Network’s Mary Shelly’s Frankenhole I’m finding the Doctor as important to the myth of Frankenstein as Igor. In the version I’m imagining right now, Pretorious is Frankenstein’s lab manager who both supports and enables him. He’s far more amoral than his boss, but at the same time, while more grounded lacks Frankenstein’s inspired mad brilliance… I think I’m going to play with this train of thought more.)
I was not looking for to today’s prompt, “I know a Sarcophoguy”. Mainly because ever seeing the Mummy’s Hand, I’ve been sick to death of gauze wrapped, shambling revenants. The problem is when you’re doing these quick sketches there’s really no other options. Still, I keep trying to come up with better ways to deal with that limitation.
