Monday, November 4, 2013
Jorge Mascarenhas - Halloween Memory
Having lived mostly of my childhood in Brazil and Mexico, made Halloween basically non-existent. I've only dressed up once for Halloween, and that happened in my college days. I've always liked the villains instead of the heroes, and one of my favorite comic villains was Harvey Dent/Two-Face. So in his honor, I've did some elaborate makeup, bleached half of my hair and used a light colored contact lens on my left eye.
Thanks Kristina for inviting me to participate! I had a blast!
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
Tim Paul - Childhood Memory
I loved Halloween as a kid. My mom worked in a fabric store and would make all our costumes. Usually the one I would wear was a hand me down, but i didn't care. For kids, they were really good costumes. There were several clown costumes (before clowns became creepy), a green and brown Robin Hood costume and a reg and gold velvet bull fighter.
We'd get dressed up, take a pillow case and go out for hours when it was dark, getting candy.
I actually have one of the clown costumes we used to wear.
We'd get dressed up, take a pillow case and go out for hours when it was dark, getting candy.
I actually have one of the clown costumes we used to wear.
Bryndon Everett - Halloween Memory
As A kid I loved the film Forbidden Planet. And Wanted to go as Robby the Robot for Halloween. I made a costume from a box, drier vent tubes, tinfoil, and battery-powered Christmas lights....The illusion was complete!
The green mohawk and black eye had nothing to do with the costume, and everything to do with having cool parents, and being a terrible mother's worry as a 6-year old.
Kristina Carroll - The Face in the Window
The Face in the Window Charcoal 18 x 24 |
The Face in The Window
(A quick and dirty Halloween Story and Illustration by Kristina Carroll)
"Three in the morn. The soul’s midnight. The tide goes out, the soul ebbs. "
-Ray Bradbury from Something Wicked This Way Comes
She lay in bed staring
at the ceiling. She could probably move if she wanted to. She tried to tell herself it was only that
she was afraid to wake her husband, not that there was a larger dread lurking
at the edge of her vision. A growing certainty
should she turn her head toward the window, there would be something there and
the moment she saw it, acknowledged its
existence, was the moment it would be
free to attack.
She turned her head
toward the window next to the bed.
A face stared back at
her from outside.
She woke up with a start. It was 3am. Again.
The woman stared at the ceiling for a few minutes but knowing
she wouldn’t get anymore sleep that night, rolled out of bed and walked to the
living room. She sat on the couch, glanced at her desk in the corner, with its
piles of hand-written outline notes and a few chapters stacked around it on the
floor. She turned on the TV and sighed.
The dream had started a few months ago. It was always the
same: paralysis, fear, look, face in the window, wake, 3am. It didn’t matter
how many times it happened, it was always new in the dream. It was always the
same fresh terror.
The worst part is that it was happening with more and more
frequency.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Carly Janine Mazur - Scary Story
9" x 15" oil and acrylic on board |
The Lamppost
The
inky black of the side street was broken only by a single light. Its amber glow
touched down on the recently disturbed side walk. The concrete had within the
circle of light only one tenant, a young man who could barely have stepped foot
into his twenties. His solid form created an oasis of shadow contained by the
light. The lamppost stood above him, a sentinel in the dark. It was doing its job
well.
The lamppost’s warm light fell upon the messy mop of hair that capped the still head of the young man. The light slid deep into his increasingly pale skin, and collected on his cheeks and forearms. He was well lit from above, and not a visible inch of him was outside the reach of the lamppost’s light. The mercury vapor bulb continued to shine. Years of wear had done little to hamper its effectiveness. It was a good lamp; it did its job well.
As the night drew on, the ground beneath the young man continued to darken. This was not by fault of the lamp. The dark spot was fluidic, and flared with the reflected amber light. With deep red hue, the darkness continued to spread. It trailed off beyond the faint boundary of where the light met the dark.
The young man began to stir. Tonight, the constant drone of the lamppost’s bulb was accompanied by a soft gurgling. This could be traced to its source, deep within the lungs of the slumped figure. His tensed shoulders loosened against the grey steel of the lamppost’s supporting pole. It was a very sturdy pole, and it had aided the lamp in its years of hard work. Held aloft by the pole; the lamp shone on in the dark night as it had for years and as it would.
Now the gurgling, caused by the dark hole through his abdomen, slowed. The wound was ragged and deep, and well lit on the surface. The depths of the hole were lost to the pervasive dark. The deep red of his blood seeped into his once white shirt. Perhaps a surgical lamp would have revealed more of the grievous wound, but the lamp had done all it was required to. The lamp was not ambitious, nor was it able to be. It was a good lamp, and it did only the job it was made to do.
Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween!
5"x7"
pencil on board
This is my son's costume tonight:
Batman, Superman, and hard to tell but Darth Vader shoes
Jensine Eckwall- Halloween Memory
Halloween 2001, I was 10 years old and deep in the throes of Harry Potter obsession. I was living in England (in Surrey, not far from the Forbidden Forest sets) and I had the nerdy mop haircut and round glasses-- gathered from the books, the films hadn't come out yet-- so the stars aligned perfectly for my costume. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed when my 11th birthday rolled around and I didn't get my Hogwarts letter.
I really enjoyed being a part of this blog, thanks so much to Kristina for inviting me!
Narciso Espiritu - Halloween Memory
My favorite Halloween Memory takes place in 2008. Wait.
It's important to note that I've been attracted to caution tape my whole life. How could you not be? Since I was around 10 or 11 years-old, I loved testing boundaries set by the fleeting existence of yellow vinyl tape. It's not even that I didn't know what was behind them. It was either wet cement, a construction site, a crime scene-- whatever. It was just a thrill, I guess. Maybe I have a problem with authority.
So, then, on Halloween 2008, I decided to dress up my younger brother, four years younger than me, as this caution-tape-clad vigilante. I took picture of him flailing around in the costume throughout the night, and after reviewing the pictures that evening, something clicked. This thing that was kind of lingering in my mind, this "Caution Tape Crusader," was realized right in front of me.
I've been off and on, but I am creating a comic, "Tales of Caution," around this character, who I just call "Caution" these days. I wasn't able to add color to these in time, but I will probably in the near future. The first image is how my brother dressed that night in 2008, and how the character first looked. The second image is a drawing I did of the character in his current form. I've been putting more time into it this year and, I can tell it's going to be a lot of fun. (There's a few illos of the characters on my website, if you're interested in how they look in color!)
Happy Hallows!
Scott Murphy - Happy Halloween!
Dracula Strikes Again! 16"x20" oil on canvas. |
Been overwhelmed with work the past few weeks so this one isn't quite on target for todays challenge, but i'd rather post something than nothing at all for the finale.
This is a painting I just wrapped up for a class assignment with the MFA program i'm doing.
It was for a 1970's Eerie magazine cover.
Also, Dracula has always been one of my favorite characters through his many incarnations.
I particularly enjoy the Christopher Lee version.
Jeanine Henderson—Halloween Memory
Anyone who knows me knows that Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday, though it wasn't actually until art school when I got really into it—I think because I started to hand-make elaborate costumes that I'd plan months in advance. Then, once I got to NYC I kind of took it all to a new level...
There were a few years I lived in a huge, old, creepy Brooklyn brownstone that was pretty much made for Halloween parties—so, of course I threw some huge bashes! I'd choose a theme & hand-make decorations to cover the house top to bottom, fully transforming it into another world. We'd pack a full house, and even created theme-related "photo sets" for guests to have their pictures taken upon arrival. I have to admit, they were pretty kick ass parties!
So, needless to say, I have countless "favorite" Halloween memories—but thought of my Voodoo Halloween party of 2008 for today's image. The house was transformed into a swampy, creepy, fog-filled land of dancing and debauchery. I dressed as a Voodoo Queen: I pinned dreadlocks to my head (bought at my Brooklyn corner store!), strung chicken bones around my neck (real ones I'd bleached), and hung tiny shrunken heads (carved & dried apples!) from my waist. And, we built a life-sized coffin for a creepy, fun photo op. Definitely one my my best Halloweens ever!
Happy Halloween, all! And Thanks, Kristina for putting together and inviting me to participate in this group. It's been a fun month!
Happy Halloween, all! And Thanks, Kristina for putting together and inviting me to participate in this group. It's been a fun month!
Aaron Miller - Happy Halloween!
The Possessed | oil on board | 5x7 | 2013 | Aaron Miller |
Happy Halloween everyone! I'm really glad I was invited by Kristina to be a part of this awesome group. (Thanks Kristina!)
I'm sure we'll take a break from work tonight to catch a scary movie. I think I saw Paranormal Activity 4 on Netflix.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Kristina Carroll - Equinophobia
Equinophobia Charcoal 18 x 24 |
Irrational Fear - Engulfment and Abandonment
"Engulfment and Abandonment"
20"x24"
acrylic, watercolor, pen and ink on board
Engulfment and Abandonment are normal fears,
and we all oscillate between the two.
We all want to fit in and be accepted,
all the while being radically different and special.
Aaron Miller - Childhood Fears
Succubus | Oil on board | 5x7 | 2013 | Aaron Miller |
For some reason or another I became afraid of horror movies as a kid. Even lame ones. And at some point I couldn't even watch the Incredible Hulk. I just avoided all contact with the subject.
Recently I came across the show that sparked the fear. It was a Hammer Horror episode, The Two Faces of Evil. The scene where the Doppelganger slits the drivers throat in the car. That was it.
Years later at a birthday party my friends forced me to watch Nightmare on Elm Street. While I don't remember enjoying the movie it did sort of break the fear of these movies. And I started watching them like everyone else.
Carly Janine Mazur - Trypophobia: Fear of Small Holes/Repetitive Patterns
2.5" x 3.5" oil and acrylic on board |
Trypophobia: a combination of the Greek trypo (punching, drilling or boring holes) and phobia (fear/morbid fear).
This particular phobia is very young--coined 8 years ago--in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This particular phobia is also known as repetitive pattern phobia, in which people become repulsed by looking at clustered holes such as honeycomb, lotus pods, coral, et cetera, or repeating patterns seen in large amounts of grains/legumes, amphibian egg clusters, and the like.
It's a very interesting, unique phobia to me, because it is so out of the ordinary. It is mainly described as a primal reaction relating to visual signs of danger. What that danger could be, who knows!
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Jensine Eckwall - Frigophobia- Fear of Becoming too Cold
Upon first researching frigophobia, I was surprised and fascinated by its correlation with other, largely gender-based psychological disorders. It is associated with koro, a culture-specific syndrome where male sufferers believe their genitals are retracting into the body and will disappear. Coldness is associated with an overabundance of yin, the female element.
In China and Singapore, when women are notified of the illness (it is traditionally believed that working women are particularly susceptible, triggered by stresses like pregnancy), they tend to withdraw from the workforce, avoid exposure to the elements, and alter their diets as opposed to psychotherapy.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Jeanine Henderson—Pogonophobia: Fear of Beards
Narciso Espiritu - My Favorite Horror Story
"CANDYMAN"
I remember, growing up, I wasn't particularly scared by horror movies. Jason and Freddy didn't get to me. Nor did murderous clowns or slimy leprechauns. For a long time, I just didn't get them. Or I hadn't seen one that was well done and had more than one layer. Maybe I have to rewatch some classic horror films.
I watched Candyman in 2006, and I had to take it back. There could be a horror movie that was more than cheap thrills and gratuitous nudity. Candyman was the first movie that really haunted me.
(Runner-up: Funny Games)
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Alice Stanne - What Terrified You as a Child?
As a child I was really freaked out by closets, what could be inside them. Different closets had different fears of what could be inside. My bedroom closet had a monster, my grandmother's closet led into a dark abyss, and maybe giant spiders behind the doors to the eaves. Though now it's mostly just a habit, I still do not sleep with a closet door even the slightest bit of open.
I got a little over ambitious this weekend, decided my idea would best come across in a book so you can open and close the closet doors.
I got a little over ambitious this weekend, decided my idea would best come across in a book so you can open and close the closet doors.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Friday, October 25, 2013
Scott Murphy - What Terrified You as a Child?
A couple days behind here, but I had a little extra time today to slip this in.
I was scared of lots of things as a child...again with the overactive imagination.
But, one thing that really scarred me as a kid was the movie E.T. I'm really not even sure why, but ever since I was shown the movie at a very young age it sparked an intense fear of the character and aliens in general. My grandfather also had a weird leathery stuffed version of the character that sat on the couch and would just stare at me. I've still never seen the movie again to this day.
Kristina Carroll - What Terrified You as a Child
Run 18 x 24 Charcoal |
Growing up, nearly every place I lived in had multiple floors and several of them required me to climb or descend stairs in order to get to and from my room either on a second floor or a basement. Even my ancient grade school had several floors with trembling creaking wooden stairs that I had to use to get to the bathrooms next to the creepy boiler room. While the worst stairs were always any basement stairs (obviously), pretty much any stairs seemed to trigger every scary story I had ever heard up to that point. Going down them was like a slow decent into inevitable horror- I knew something was going to be waiting down at the bottom. (Especially when my bedroom was in the basement and I would go to bed after watching Unsolved Mysteries. ) Going up stairs, I was always being chased. Even now I occasionally have to feed the compulsion to run up stairs instead of walking.
Narciso Espiritu - What Terrified You as a Child?
(Okay, so I am supa-supa-late, but I'm starting! And I'm going out of order, but I don't necessarily think that matters here. I can say that I have finished or nearly finished all the challenges, and I will be posting them daily until Halloween. Since there's a total of six challenges, I think this will work out quite well.)
"BITES"
This Childhood Fear is based on the the first time I met a dog when I was maybe five or six-years old. This is all contrary to my behavior towards dogs now, because I love canines. When you're still learning about the world, though, it isn't best when the first dog you meet is a German Shepherd watchdog at a warehouse. No no. I was terrified of being bit by a dog, and the rest of the dog came with the dread of being attacked, so it was a long time before I was comfortable with dogs.
This Childhood Fear is based on the the first time I met a dog when I was maybe five or six-years old. This is all contrary to my behavior towards dogs now, because I love canines. When you're still learning about the world, though, it isn't best when the first dog you meet is a German Shepherd watchdog at a warehouse. No no. I was terrified of being bit by a dog, and the rest of the dog came with the dread of being attacked, so it was a long time before I was comfortable with dogs.
Since then, I've romped and rolled with all kinds of breeds. I have many favorites, but I have a soft-spot for shorties (terriers, Corgis, Bostons, Pugs, etc.) and Rottweilers. Weird combo, I know.
.n
Jeffrey Alan Love - What Terrified You As A Child?
When I was little my parents made me watch "The Wizard of Oz" with them. When the flying monkeys showed up I ran screaming from the room and hid under a bed for hours. I have never watched "The Wizard of Oz" since...
Jensine Eckwall- What Terrified You as a Child?
As a kid, I had a lot of anxiety surrounding talking on the phone. I have no idea what I was so scared of (being misinterpreted? Talking to the wrong person? Not being able to see their face?) but I really dreaded it, for a long time.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Jorge Mascarenhas - What Terrified You as a Child?
Albert Einstein. Seriously! Every summer my parents would take us to this beach house in the small town of Ubatuba in Brazil. The room where me and my sister would stay had this hideous Albert Einstein painting. It was painted with mostly whites, his eyes where completely black and had the creepiest vibe. I refused to go into that room when the painting was hanging, so I always had my dad remove it. A handful of things scared me as a kid, but none would compare to the degree of terror I felt around that painting.
Daniel Nyari - What Terrified You As A Child?
Growing up in Austria, the Holiday tradition of Krampus was still heavily practiced, although the Austrian government actively restricted it deeming it inappropriate for children. For those unfamiliar, Krampus is a beast-like creature that comes around during the Holiday season (sometimes accompanied by Saint Nicholas), visits the homes of naughty children, beats and takes them away. The tradition is often accompanied by something called Krampuslauf in which celebrants, fueled by alcohol run around town scaring civilians. Parents would often allow these miscreants in homes of children and give them a "good scare in the name of fun". The idea of a home invasion terrified me and when it happened, it would always result in me trying to hide, being chased around and eventually hit by chains and bundles of birch branches.
Scott Brundage- What Terrified You As A Child?
I read a lot of books about dinosaurs growing up. One, thinking it was being helpful in showing young kids the scale of how large a dinosaur was, used a house next to a silhouette of a T Rex to show it's size. Unfortunately, that particular house looked just like my parent's house. And the T Rex's face was level with the window that would have been my bedroom.
So... I was scared whenever my back was to my window for a good couple years.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Ricardo Lopez Ortiz- What Terrified You as A Child
As a child there was nothing scarier to me than the "Chupacabras", every night for about a period of 2 years there was "Chupacabra" sightings almost every other night. During that time, I would go to bed thinking that when I woke I'd find my dogs dead in our yard, with their blood sucked dry.
Tim Paul - What Terrified You as A Child
I was terrified of taking a bath at night, alone. I would spend all of Saturday watching horror movie double features. And when it was time to take a bath, my active imagination would kick in. I was convinced that if I ran the water, it would make to much noise, and some horrible monster, like a werewolf would come and kill me. So I would sit there naked in the empty tub. Eventually I would come downstairs pretending I had taken a bath.
Dawn Carlos - What Terrified You As A Child?
So when I was a kid, I had many many fears, but the one I recall having the most experiences with, was I was terrified of getting left somewhere. My mom spent a lot of time watching the Lifetime network and she'd see all these shows about abductions and kidnappings and drama-ey stuff like that, the usual stuff lifetime original movies usually covered and I was usually around playing with my toys when she'd watch those shows. I was also one of those kids who couldnt watch that one scene from Bambi and the scene in Dumbo, where he gets cradled by his mom through the cage. There have been a couple instances in my childhood where Ive experienced such fear, namely, getting lost and crying all over the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas, because I couldn't find my siblings right away, an airport one where I very very very briefly lost my mom in the crowd and this elevator scene...
I was in an elevator with my parents, being my unaware space-case headed little self, at my Aunt's house in Foster City,CA where I had spent every other summer growing up. We were headed somewhere, since we were riding the elevator down to the parking lot. Elevator goes DING! we arrive at the parking lot, and I dont look up enough in time to see the elevator doors closing. When I do however, I realise my parents are on the other side and i was still behind these giant metal doors and it was terrifying...when I was a kid that was. In hindsight, it was all pretty silly, considering there was only 1 parking lot floor, and i could have easily just pressed "P" to go down again. But it scared the crap out of me at that age, and I felt like illustrating this, rather than some spiky toothed alien snake thing, like the one from many 80's and 90's horror movies, coming out of the toilet bowl, which is why for a time, I refused to flush toilets. Until I realized that my mom being mad was more terrifying than all the terrifying aliens combined...
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Carly Janine Mazur - What Terrified You as a Child?
8"x10" oil and acrylic on board |
Like Bryndon, I had no irrational fears growing up other than the existential mystery of death after losing relatives and pets at a young age. Now that life is a little more complicated than it was in childhood, I have more complex fears that every adult has. My greatest fear is losing hope; losing that spark I work hard to maintain, giving into stress and anxiety and just plain giving up.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Anna Christenson- What Terrified You As a Child
When I was in elementary school they would have these fire safety education classes that the fire department would present. Usually with some fairly safe but mildly intimating movie about making sure your fire detectors worked. For some reason, they'd always give me nightmares for a few nights afterwards- where I was afraid my room would catch on fire, and then would be filled with water as it was put out, and I'd drown.
So- a somewhat dramatized version of those dreams.
Bryndon Everett - What Terrified you as a child
I am not trying to make myself sound all cool, but I really wasn't terrified of anything as a kid.
Not heights, not the dark, not death, monsters, ghosts, nothing. I was a little bit of an oddity, I suppose.
which works out fairly well, as this week has been SO hectic fr me that I really didn't have much time to create anything anyhow.
BUT I have sketched up this quickie, of the mighty Cthulhu respectfully dressed, acting as my official representative, to both literally, and figuratively bow out of this weeks challenge.
Please forgive me, I intend to come back with something worthwile next week.
My Favorite Horror Story - Daniel Nyari
My favorite horror story is David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - the story [SPOLER ALERT] of High School girl Laura Palmer and her quick descent into hell via the incestuous relationship with her father. To cope with it she co-opts a language of cruelty and sexual intimidation, bent on destroying her innocence before the figurative monster of her consition can. She is the lost "Alice in Terror-Land", pinballing between abject despair, femme-fatale tough talk, canny seductiveness, and straight-up being a monster. What makes this story so tragic is that the film documents the last days before her eventual death and our collective knowledge that Laura's fate is certain eliminates any classical suspense, leaving us only with sadness. The story becomes a memorialization of a tragedy confirmed. A true nightmare.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
2013 Challenge #5 and #6 "Illustrate a Phobia." and "Halloween Story"
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."
-H.P. LOVECRAFT
Art for Challenge # 4 begins going up Monday the 21st. The subject is: "What Terrified you as a Child?"
Challenge #5 (for the week of October 28th) is: "Illustrate a Phobia".
Challenge #6 (for Halloween on October 31st) is: "Illustrate a Halloween memory or write your own scary story to illustrate".
-H.P. LOVECRAFT
Art for Challenge # 4 begins going up Monday the 21st. The subject is: "What Terrified you as a Child?"
Challenge #5 (for the week of October 28th) is: "Illustrate a Phobia".
Challenge #6 (for Halloween on October 31st) is: "Illustrate a Halloween memory or write your own scary story to illustrate".
Guest Art!
We've had some great responses to some of our challenges on Twitter so I decided we should take a post to highlight a few of them.
Taryn Cozzy has a creepy recurring nightmare of plunging into an abyss. You can follow Taryn at @appelope
Rebekah Bennington's answer for the What Lives Under Your Bed challenge is "What if we are the monsters?" Follow Rebekah at @rebekieb
Taryn Cozzy has a creepy recurring nightmare of plunging into an abyss. You can follow Taryn at @appelope
Rebekah Bennington's answer for the What Lives Under Your Bed challenge is "What if we are the monsters?" Follow Rebekah at @rebekieb
Friday, October 18, 2013
Kristina Carroll- My Favorite Horror Story
House of Leaves Charcoal |
I read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski a few years ago and it is not only one of the best "horror" stories I have ever read, it is one of the best books I have ever read. I have always been drawn to labyrinths and everything about this book is a labyrinth.
It's very difficult book to describe. There are multiple narrators, each with individual stories, who peel back layers of a core story: a family moves into a house where things immediately start going strange. Its clear this more than just a house. A black closet appears out of nowhere and it is discovered that the house measures larger from inside than out. Then a hallway appears that eventually leads to a massive underground labyrinth. Characters attempt to explore and then things get really interesting for not only the family, but each narrator that in turn attempts to uncover the truth.
But all this isn't really just a book... It's more like a three dimensional work of interactive art. The way the book is written is very unconventional. The words on the page are often rearranged to reflect something happening in the story. Sometimes it's the madness of a character. Sometimes it's the speed in which you follow someone down miles of stairs. Sometimes it's the passage of time. It's often hard to follow but when you finally solve the puzzle of how to read a passage, it is that much more intimate and rewarding a story.
Jensine Eckwall - My Favorite Horror Story
I wouldn't say The Green Ribbon is by any means my favorite horror story as an adult. However, when I was a kid, Alvin Schwartz's version of the story, as well as a similar poem by Shel Silverstein, chilled me. I pored over Dirk Zimmer's illustrations for the story in that "can't look away" fashion. I can practically see the influence in my work today.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Ricardo Lopez Ortiz - My Favorite Horror Story
My favorite horror story is easily "El Almohadon de Plumas"(The Feather Pillow) by Horacio Quiroga. It's the story of a young newly wed couple, were the bride falls suddenly ill after their honey moon and becomes completely bed-ridden. After some months she passes away, when one of the maids goes to clean the now empty room she makes a terrifying discovery.
I won't spoil the story for you all, since I can't tell a story quite like Quiroga can. You can read an english translation of the story here. Hope you find it as creepy as I did. http://www.anglo.edu.uy/gxcon/image/source0000002041/IMA0001010000028455.pdf
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