The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradburyoriginal artwork for his story of the same title
"Twas the night of All Hallow's and all through the room
Not a creature was stirring not even a broom"
~ 'Twas All Hallows Eve by Thomas James Martin
I love Halloween (almost as much as Christmas)! I love everything about it - the tricks, the treats, the decorations, carving pumpkins, scaring yourself silly (despite not being a big horror fan). It's a moment in time when you can walk into public wearing the most outlandish things and it's completely normal! Watching Hocus Pocus, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and reading Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree.
Every Halloween, my mother makes a big beef stew with chunks of potatoes and carrots, homemade bread and apple pie. The house just overflows with the scents of comfort food! My family comes over, neighbors and friends stop in to visit for a while - their halloween bedecked kids in tow. And where my house is so centrally located, we easily get over 100 kids every year!
But this year, I've felt very un-Halloweenie. My parents weren't going to come up because it's a Tuesday and Dad has to work tomorrow. I have drawing class tonight, so I wasn't going to be home. My niece was going to a friend's house, while my nephew was heading out to make mischief with his friends, so my sister decided to stay home this year. So I didn't buy candy, I didn't carve pumpkins...I didn't even decorate!
Now...well, Mum and Dad are up, Mum's baking as you read this. Both my sister and my brother (who's birthday was yesterday - happy 36th, Derek!) are coming over...and I still have a class...and there's still no candy...or jack-o-lanterns...and the house is still undecorated. And I'm sad, because I wish I had known - I wish I had decorated and bought candy and got into the Halloweenie groove!
Okay, I'm done whining; I'm over it...well not really, but I will get over it.
And by Lord and Lady, my house is going to be so decked out for Christmas, it'll look like the spirit of Christmas *heaved* her Christmas cheer up on it!
bat confetti that I found on my desk this morning - a present from my co-worker Deb!
Oh, and since I didn't post my "What I learned Wednesday" last week, I never told you that we learned about Negative Space and framing:
This is the negative space between chair legs that I did in class. And here is my homework for tonight - the negative space around my sewing machine (and of course, I couldn't get the digital the same as how I viewed it while I drew, but you get the idea):
and I caught myself putting in too much detail - I'll probably hear about it tonight! I'm not sure that I like negative space, but I understand how important it is.
Anyhoo, Happy Tricks & Treats, everyone!
3 comments:
Hi there Tiff,
I love the new Autumnal colours of your blog... it's been too long since I peeked in your corner of the world. Halloween passed by here without a trick or treater to be seen, without a bat flying overhead or a candy treat to enjoy as it sticks to the roof of my mouth.
And your latest, graphic drawings remind me of what I am currently writing to the students who study painting via correspondence... "allow the negative space to describe the forms in the foreground"... I seem to write this sentence allot.
take care, grache
hi tiffany,
yeah, i hear you. we have a pumpkin but did not carve it nor did we buy candy for the trick or treaters. in fact, we went out for indian food. halloween arrived too quickly and we just weren't ready.
cheers, shari
Very good bold sewing machine. Look at the lines, the contrasts between dark and light. Good! Yes a little bit less detail and explore these contrasts on the large areas. Play with those bold shapes :)
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