DELAYED UNTIL FURTHER CHALK DELIVERIES

Gah. I know. I'm late on the Halloween posts.

Sadly, I'm running low on vital colors (esp. black) and as I live in a remote wasteland devoid of all art appreciation (South Side wat upppppppp!!!!), I can only get more chalks if I go downtown to the big art store. And it's cold outside.

I'm hoping that perhaps tomorrow I can make it to the store to restock, but maybe don't hold your breath for a new muralcle until Monday (but why would you be holding your breath about new drawings? That's just weird).

Until then, enjoy this personification of pastels I wish I had!

Dia de los Muertos

Congratulations on making it halfway through this ridiculous journey of mine!

I'm still out of black chalk and I won't be able to make a run to the art store for a few more days, so I'm continuing my "large swaths of white space" drawings! Today: a skull for Dia de los Muertos!

I remember studying this in Spanish class in high school, eating sugar skulls and watching a documentary about people partying it up in a graveyard. Good times!

This muralcle was a lot of fun. I started with a badass skull drawing by the crazy-talented Thaneeya McArdle, but after I outlined and did the eyes and nose, I decided I wanted to decorate the rest of the skull completely freehand. I got to try out my totally awesome new neon Crayola sidewalk chalks and two hours later ended up with this technicolor beauty. Those eyes...mesmerizing...

Dave's first-view reaction: Spooky!

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Continuing my theme of scary stuff, books, and wildly-inpropriate-but-still-intended-for-children material, here's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!

The book kids read when Goosebumps just wouldn't cut it, Scary Stories was legitimately terrifying. I mean, one of the stories is where a girl wakes up with a pimple and then SPIDERS CRAWL OUT OF HER FACE.

And the illustrations. Oof. So, while I was drawing this, first I laid down the white background, and then I went back and highlighted a few parts again in white, so that the weird skeleton ghost face was juuuuust barely visible. It was the first time during this whole project that something I drew actually terrified me.

Dave's first-view reaction: [silence. walks away. "No reaction? I slaved over this and you don't give me anything?"] Wha?

The Walking Dead

Did you watch? You watched! DON'T TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED I'M STILL CATCHING UP.

To celebrate The Walking Dead's season premiere, today's muralcle is for the zombies walkers! I LOVE this show, although I just got into it a few months ago. I used to watch it while doing cardio exercises in my living room because every time a walker showed up on screen, I'd start going faster. I am one season behind and saving the next one until Dave and I can actually sit down and watch together.

This muralcle was soooo fun! Also: very long. I started with the white background and lettering, which took me, no joke, an hour. Rick and his guns took half an hour, and another half hour for the walkers. This is, of course, the cover to the very first Walking Dead comic, slightly simplified by my chalks. The walkers, for example, are a lot more detailed in the original image, but here I made them simpler and sketchier, which I actually like a lot.

Okay, I'm off to start season threeeee!!!

Dave's first-view reaction: WOAH. It was a book?

Witchy Pin Up Girl

Halloween pin up! This is the most risque the chalkboard wall has gotten since Les demoiselles. But also: how cute is she?! I would like someone to find me a pair of those swoopy black heels. Also, navy blue bustier dress. Also, sheer black puff-sleeve coat. (also, flying broomstick)

I tried my hardest to get her saucy look just right, but a time crunch plus the usual limitations of chalk meant she looks a little less devious than in the original image.* Still: so witchy! 

Dave's first-view reaction: Hey, sexy lady. ["Is that all you have to say?"] Hmmm... Very sexy lady.


*Which was itself a painting of an actual photo. That lady is someone's grandma. Just sayin.

Goosebumps

Happy Halloween, millenials! Today's muralcle is just for you!

Yes, it's GOOSEBUMPS! The best middle grade bump-in-the-night series ever. I can remember the fights and sobbing at school over who would be the first to take the latest Goosebumps out from the library. And they're AWESOME. I especially love how increasingly ridiculous the monsters got, as though you could literally see R.L. Stine looking around his house at random objects. I mean, camera? Typewriter? Expired tanning lotion? These are all 100% true villains of various Goosebumps stories.*

Side story! When I was twelve years old, I went to a fancy children's costume party (at Embassy Suites!!!) dressed as Kat from It Came from Beneath the Sink! What's that you say? You don't remember Kat? That is correct, because she is in fact not a monster, she is a 12-year-old girl who discovers an evil sponge beneath her sink, otherwise known as the worst costume in existence. I dressed as...a 12-year-old girl, which is to say, myself, and I carried a sponge around in a plastic container marked "evil."

I wish I could say I was making this up. Or even doing it ironically. I am not, and I was not. For two hours I heard every iteration of "Ooohhh... Did you forget your costume?" imaginable. Still don't know what I was thinking...

Dave's first-view reaction: Goosebumps! I'll look at your drawing in one day. [???] Because I used to read these books in one day. [?!?!] Get it? GET IT?**

*For those who don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the series, that would be Say Cheese and Die, The Blob That Ate Everyone, and My Hairiest Adventure.

**Nope.

Dracula

Long before there were sparklvamps and Buffy, there was Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Admittedly, my Bela Lugosi knowledge mostly comes from old timey YouTube clips and that movie version of Plan Nine from Outer Space with Johnny Depp, but with all the vampires biting (pun!) through pop culture these days, it's nice to know the roots.

This muralcle was so fun! I've wanted to do a life size muralcle for a while, and as soon as I saw this photo of Lugosi, I knew it was perfect. Click through for a photo of Dracula menacing our dog!

Dave's first-view reaction: Whoa! Muuwahahah!!!

Young Frankenstein

It's aliiiiiiiive!!! IT'S ALIIIIIVEEE!!! IT'S-- okay. Here is where I admit  that I haven't seen Young Frankenstein. I know! It's terrible. What am I even doing drawing this muralcle?

If I really had my stuff together, I would use this as an opportunity to watch it, a la, Die Hard, which turned out to be the best decision of my holiday season. If I really had my stuff together, I would have watched it while I was doing this muralcle. And yet...

But I'll watch it! For real. Until then, I'm enjoying imagining various scenarios involving Gene Wilder as a mad scientist and a top-hat-wearing Frankenstein (some sort of Eastern European gala ball?).

Dave's first-view reaction: [slow claps] ["You know, I haven't seen it."] Oh, hey, me neither. Can we watch it? ["Sure."] [fist pump]

How Hallowe'eny!

Witch! Two cutie vintage babies! I am sleepy and want to do something else now.

Dave's first-view reaction: Good graysh witch! Graaayshush... Grshhuss... Good grshhh... Huh. That's hard to say.

Nightmare Before Christmas (Halloween Edition)

It's my second Nightmare Before Christmas muralcle! This time, focusing more on the nightmare than the Christmas. Since I already did Jack Skellington, I decided to do this muralcle featuring my favorite crazy trick-o-treaters, Lock, Shock, and Barrel!

I love these three, especially how they are so weird and immoral that they scare the already weird and immoral residents of Halloweentown. And although they are psychopathic monster children kidnappers (twice!), they're just so gosh darn adorable.

This muralcle was tough to pull off. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any great photos of these three,* and the only one I could find was weirdly cut off and so dark that I had to fudge the colors. But, I gotta love the clay-maysh: they always come out looking eerily 3D.

Dave's first-view reaction: Awww, they're so cute and creepy!


*Unless you count this borderline sexy fan reimagining...

The Gashlycrumb Tinies

A is for Amy who fell down the stairs
B is for Basil assaulted by bears
C is for Clara who wasted away
D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh...

I'm following up yesterday's Addams Family muralcle with another spooky cartoonist, Edward Gorey! I had a lot of great choices for a Gorey-themed muralcle, but ultimately I decided to go with the world's most inappropriate picture book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies.

So many adorable children! So many terrible accidents! Such deadpan little faces, subconsciously aware of their fates...

I really loved the grayscale on this picture. It's my first muralcle that was just black, white, and gray, and it was fun keeping things to such a limited palate, especially after the color-bomb that was yesterday. Also loved debonair Death with his umbrella and floating scarf. Not to mention the kids' perfect little Brit-tot outfits.

Dave's first-view reaction: Awww. That's so cute. ["Really?"] Yeah. ["Do you know what The Gashlycrumb Tinies is about?"] No... It's something bad, isn't it? Please don't tell me. I don't want to know what happens to those kids.

The Addams Family

Duh-duh-duh-duh [snap snap], duh-duh-duh-duh [snap snap], duh-duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh-duh [snap snap]

I could go on, but...you get the picture. Yes, they're all together ookie, the Addams Family! Although the 90s movies will always hold a place in my heart,* I decided to go with the original Charles Addams cartoon, which I actually used to read as a kid and which is actually very funny (and completely not appropriate for children).

This muralcle was soooo much fun! I thought it would be a quick, cute little drawing, but it ended up taking something, like, three hours from start to finish. Still, so fun! I think because it was colorful and yet still relatively simple, and because it turned out just the way I hoped. Plus, Lurch's expression made me laugh out loud.

Dave's first-view reaction: What a creepy family! [pause] That kid on the side looks like Bob's Burgers.**


*Wednesday Addams, you are my spirit animal
**He's got a point.

Norman Rockwell Halloween

My last foray into Norman Rockwell territory did not go well, but when I saw this uh-dorable Halloween-themed cover, I knew it had to have a place in the countdown. As usual, love all the details, from the peek of poofed-out pink dress under the sheet to the dog's happy waggy tail. The original, which feature more chalkboard-unfriendly details, is also worth a look, just to see the old guy's spectacles flying off his face (he is also decidedly less rotund than in this picture).

I also love this picture because it reminds me of an age-old saying: "When a little kid tries to scare you by dressing like a ghost and shoving a Jack-o-lantern in your face, you freak out."

Dave's first-view reaction: Huh. What's goin' on here? ["Well, there's a little girl, and she's dressed up as a ghost, and she's scaring that old guy. I mean, sort of scaring. He's being a good sport about it."] What about the dog? ["He's just hanging out, being happy."] Just like our dog!

Night of the Living Dead

"Baaaaaaarbraaaa... They're cooooooming for yooooou!"

Ah! I love this movie so much. The original zombie flik, it's one of those old horror movies that is just as creepy and entertaining today as it was back in the sixties (I mean, I assume). Also, how awesome is Ben, the preternaturally calm, resourceful, and damn likeable hero?* And how annoying is Barbra? I mean, I get that when your weird brother turns into a zombie, that's sort of a traumatic thing to deal with, but can't you even put on your own not-sensible shoes?

I try to convert as many people as possible to Night of the Living Dead, although it's not easy. In college, I found a VHS copy** and got Dave and his roommates to watch all of fifteen minutes of it before they decided that "fear is not really an emotion that should be encouraged." As a compromise, they let it play in the background of our Halloween party, partially obscured by a sheet so that all you could see were shadowy blobs trying to eat each other. Actually, pretty scary.

This was another lickety-split muralcle, and despite how simple it is, I love it! Creepy zombie little girl, complete with dead eye and prim Peter-Pan collar. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but it's also HUGE, taking up more than half of the chalkboard wall, and every time I look over it's like this giant, green, floating head staring back at me.

Dave's first-view reaction: Woah. That is creepy. I got the shivers.


*Spoiler alert! Highlight for more Ben-related thoughts: OH EM GEEEE HOW CRAZY IS IT THAT HE GETS SHOT AT THE END?!?! I mean, really, all the crap he goes through and survives (like a badass, I might add), and then he gets shot by a bunch of rednecks?! Maybe the only horror movie ever that is more heartbreaking than it is scary. UGH.
**I'm not actually as old as that sentence makes me sound.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween madness continues with Halloween!* The movie that was so proud it managed to snag its name that it repeated it ten times.

I actually saw Halloween for the very first time last year and it was soooooo sweet! Little Jamie Lee Curtis! Crazy little psycho kid! William Shatner mask! Adorable.

And, I'll admit, this muralcle is also sort of a ploy to ease into the Halloween season, since it's just, like, hand, knife, crazy pumpkin face, letters. Which means: forty-five minutes! A new muralcle record!

Dave's first-view reaction: ["Hey, what was your reaction?"] What's it from? ["Halloween."] ??? ["You know, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Myers, weird white mask." *stabbing motions*] Is it scary? ["Meh."] Haven't seen it.

*Reader PSA! Although I have very strict guidelines from Dave about what is and is not chalkboard-wall-appropriate for this Halloween countdown, there will be a few muralcles that probably aren't so kiddo-friendly.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

“What if I did a countdown to Halloween?”

“No.”

“I think it could be fun.”

“No.”

“It wouldn’t have to be all bloody and gory. It would be cool!”

“No. I don’t want anything scary on the wall.”

“But, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Nightmare Before Christmas! SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORROR!”

[sigh] “Okay, fine. But I don’t want to see Chucky or anything.”

"Well that would be ridiculous. It's not even Halloween-themed."

And that, folks, is how I got Dave to agree to a Halloween countdown on the chalkboard wall!

See, all summer I've been busy with family visits, road trips, and editing my manuscript,*  but in the last few days, I turned in my last edits, we made it home, and Chicago got cold enough to ensure our family won't be coming to visit for at least eight more months. 

So what do I do with all this free time? Let's see what the puppy says:

TUG TOY FOREVERRRRR

Nope! Thirty-one chalkboard drawings, all counting down to one of my favorite holidays, Halloween.

I'm starting with a heavy-hitter, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown! As usual, despite having Charlie Brown's name in the title, this is all Linus's show, as he waits in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to arrive (metaphor? kids' cartoons shouldn't be this existential). 

I melded this image together from two separate images, which is why there's a Charlie Brown on the left AND ALSO a kid wearing a ghost costume filled with holes, which fans know is the costume worn by, who else?, Charlie Brown! Yes, there is a metaphysical mystery in the chalkboard muralcle. This does not bode well for the next thirty days...

Dave's first-view reaction: Nice, love.**

SO MANY MORE PHOTOS AFTER THE JUMP!!!!

*Hey, I have a real job! Or as much as you can call "sitting in my pajamas writing about history and magic" a "real job."

**Setting a low bar. Strategic.