Rhapsodies

Inktober Day Sixteen – Carnival Carnage

by wpmorse on October 16, 2017 at 9:52 am

Posted In: Art

Well, I just hit the halfway point and am feeling good. Today’s prompt, Carnival Carnage was a bit of a puzzler for me. All I could think of was thinking about it was Mr. Dark from Ray Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes”. Beyond that, I didn’t have any idea how to make the carnival scary…. Beyond giving it a creepy vibe.

Mr. Dark is a bit of a challenge for me too. While Jonathan Price was great in the film, it was a little hard to be afraid of him since he looked way too much like my favorite high school teacher, Mr. DeCecco. But since none of you knew him, I’m going to go with it.

└ Tags: Halloween, Inktober, Pen and Ink, Sketch Challenge

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inktober Day Fifteen – Cornfield Capers

by wpmorse on October 15, 2017 at 12:58 pm

Posted In: Art

Today’s prompt “Cornfield Capers” only yielded two things in my mind, Children of the Corn and Corn Mazes. Since the only image I could think of for Children of the Corn was people crucified in the middle of fields, I went with the maze.

I think a lot of the prompts have been making lean towards the whimsical here. But my other idea was having something nasty sneaking up on the couple… And I think there’s a fine line between horror and victim porn.

In hindsight, I should have added some crows.

└ Tags: Halloween, Inktober, Pen and Ink

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Inktober Day Fourteen – Owl Be Back

by wpmorse on October 14, 2017 at 11:41 am

Posted In: Art

After groaning at the pun, “Owl Be Back”. (A stinker even by this list’s standards… For some reason, I had remembered it as “Owls Well That Ends Well”.) I was a little bit stumped. While an owl is a great thing to draw, I wanted something spooky. The problem is as a long time nature lover and occasional bird watcher, I’m not particularly afraid of Owls. (Beyond not wanting to be anywhere near their nests when they’re raising their young, of course.) In fact, I think they’re pretty cool.

Most of the Halloween or horror imagery I see of them usually has them somewhere in the background, almost as a decoration. Finally, I based my image on two Shakespeare quotes.

First from Macbeth: It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman,

And Second from A Midsummer Night’s Dream:“The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders
At out quaint spirits.”

So putting these two lines together I had an Owl looking over ghosts in a church graveyard.

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└ Tags: Halloween, Inktober, Owls, Sketch Challenge

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Inktober Day Thirteen – Friday The Thirteenth

by wpmorse on October 13, 2017 at 10:39 am

Posted In: Art

When I saw that Friday the Thirteenth the first thing I could think of was, “anything but freaking Jason!” Of course, I really couldn’t think of anything else, so this was a time-consuming challenge.

Ultimately I decided to go with superstitions such as black cats, ladders, and mirrors. I still I had two false starts in the process, and the one downside of blue pencils is they’re hard to erase.

I’m mostly okay with this one, though it might be the weakest of the batch so far. Regrettably, it feels more comical than halloweeny.

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└ Tags: Friday the Thirteenth, Halloween, Inktober, Pen and Ink, Sketch Challenge

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Inktober Day Twelve – Ah! Reel Monsters!

by wpmorse on October 12, 2017 at 11:30 am

Posted In: Art

I’m pretty sure the lame pun “Reel Monsters” means doing any movie monster I feel like. (Unless they really want me to do my own versions of the characters from the Klasky Csupo show.)

Anyway, this is too much like “do whatever you want” instructions which always gives me a bad case of “Baskin Robins Syndrome”. (the mental shutdown you get when offered a choice of 31 flavors and you end up getting chocolate because you can’t think of anything else.)

Finally, I had the idea to do a monster version of my favorite scene in Gods and Monsters. In it, James Whale (played wonderfully by Ian McClellan) remembers the filming of Bride of Frankenstein. Right before the famous, she’s alive, scream scene, we have this scene of Whale, Elsa Manchester (the Bride) and Ernest Thesiger (Dr. Pretorius) are chatting before they get into character. It’s hilarious seeing these two actors in full makeup acting all lovey-dovey. (sorry I can’t find a clip of this)

So I decided to see if I could recreate that vibe… only with real monsters.

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└ Tags: Halloween, Inktober, Pen and Ink, Sketch Challenge

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Inktober Day Eleven – Swamp Citizens

by wpmorse on October 11, 2017 at 12:05 pm

Posted In: Art

Today’s prompt, “swamp citizens” seemed designed to steer the artist towards some knock-off of DC’s Swamp Thing. I tried to avoid that by trying to think of other bits of Louisiana folklore, but all I was aware of was the Loup Garou and zombies (and I cant do that because the voodoo sketch comes up on the 25th) I eventually came up with this one about frog hunters. I think It came out okay… though part of me feels like I’m ripping off this Farside cartoon… and I have slight misgivings since there’s going to be a prompt about toads next week… But I’ll cross that bridge when I find it.