A History of Halloween...ads.

I like halloween. Im always charged with the task of drawing something creepy/ (halloweenie?) for somebody or something. As a plus, Im occasionally paid to do this. Here are such pieces.


1) Last years web ad for something called "Halloween Events". This was an online posting of, you guessed it, events around town for halloween. Simple. I figured what says halloween more than severed limbs, guts, and pumpkins. This was the first major event in teaching myself digital color: the point where I realized it might be something I could actually do well at some point. A simply drawing was done, in what I consider the best drafting material, cheap bic pens. After which I resampled the original blue color of the illustration to red, and proceeded to build layer upon layer of color and depth. Again, simple stuff, but Im really happy with the outcome. I especially like that "come hither" look under that ghoulish palor.


2)This was an ad for this years halloween "hotspot" South Street. Yahoo, no kidding. Everybody thinks that South Street is the halloween/any holiday hotspot. Not exactly, but whatever this is ad sales not common sense. In any case, This ad required true day of the dead imagery. Here's where the common sense thing comes into play, because "Dia De los Muertos" is on the 1st-2nd of november, and Halloween is October 31st, go figure. Dey boff got skulls so go fig'ya. Im not big on the type, but its what interested the client so it stayed. Otherwise I like the overall composition of the ad. Actually, what I liked better was the original sketch (below). I wish we could have just run that. Perhaps this ad would have made a better illustration.