Trick or Treat
"When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam, may luck be yours on Halloween."
~ Unknown
October has many things to love about it. The soft glowing sunshine, the amber and ruby leaves, and the cool smokey air which has a scent of melancholy and nostalgia - they all touch the soul with such fondness. I can’t help but be inspired by this magical month and Autumnal season. My new Halloween and Autumn greeting cards were launched recently in my online shop, and I’d love to share with you today the makings of one of those designs…
I love vintage Halloween illustrations and decorations. They’re intricately decorated in a naive fashion, and as a result have an unusual creepiness bestowed upon them. I was also inspired by my sister’s black cat ‘Pumpkin’ who is the sweetest little cat who wouldn’t harm a soul (he may even be scared of his own shadow!). It was this childlike innocence of an often feared and superstitious creature which led me to imagine a group of excited ‘Pumpkin’s’ trick-or-treating on Halloween night!
And so, sketching began…while drinking warming tea from pumpkin mugs and dunking giant custard cream biscuits!
From the messy red sketches, I then refined the sketch to use as a base for my colouring layers. To the right you’ll see a colour test palette which I created as a new layer. I usually test a few different colour palettes, to make the rest of the process easier - it can be tough making colour choices! So this part of the process helps ease any indecisions and procrastination. It’s a limited colour palette and I selected different tones and tints from the three main colours - yellow, green and red.
And here’s the final card! I loved working on this image as it was fun to design each of their costumes. You can see a time-lapse video of my process for this card over on my Instagram reels. Wishing you all a hauntingly Happy Halloween!
~ Rachel x