a Halloween Illustration for LOCAL ASTURIAS Fanzine
Illustration Collab with other local Illustrators from Asturias :
from Ideation to process to final illustration and application!
We are a group of 4 friends who run a collective of Illustrators here in Asturias; although we created the group on 2019, it has been difficult to do group activities (ah! Thanks crazy 2020 lol) besides weekly meet-ups to paint outdoors or draw together indoors when it was raining; but finally this October we decided to have our first collective project as a group! Yay!
We created an open-call to all the local illustrators, inviting them to participate on the Halloween 2021 special collab, the rules were pretty simple: A4 size illustration, using the colors black, orange, white (the paper) and an additional color of your choice. The theme was anything related to “Halloween”, the deadline was by October 25th.
Our first idea was to be able to create a small local exhibition on a local cafe or gallery, but as the due date was approaching, we found ourselves on a pickle, as finding a place to exhibit and organizing the printing of everything was a major task that might take more than 5 days; thus we planned on designing and printing a fanzine, besides posting the images on instagram. The fanzine idea was Ruben’s (@rugidoillustration), which was such a great alternative! Besides, he took care of designing and making the whole fanzine from start to bottom! (You rock, man!), so here I will show you my process and the final results! Putting it all together into the fanzine :) !!
Ideas for the Illustration
When I think of Halloween, I think about kids going out, knocking on doors, sometimes with their parents, sometimes with their friends, having fun, getting candies, and overall happy times, full of light and mysteries! So my additional color was none other than yellow, which always makes me smile.
The sketch
I wanted to include a cat! 🐈⬛ , for obvious reasons (if you don’t know it yet, I’m a future crazy cat lady, and I have already assumed that role lol. Besides the cat, I wanted it to have some pumpkin, cause Halloween 🎃!
Sketch done with red and yellow, I used a black liner to define the lines.
As you can see I changed my mind about the face of the cat, I wanted it to interact with the Pumpkin and create a circular visual.
Clean lines and final drawing
I used my HUION light table to trace over the lines on a clean piece of watercolor paper. Once again used my trusty red and yellow to draw the sketch to be painted.
Color and fun
I used Winsor and Newton gouache and Raphael brushes to work on this illustration. Here is the scanned image:
Just the scanned gouache painting
I used a big flat brush to paint the backgrounds and main areas, and used my trusty Raphael round N4 to paint smaller areas.
I used some fine brushes (6/0, 2/0) to fo all the tiny details, notice the fine lines on the black coat, and the buttons!
This is almost the final illustration!
As you can see I covered all the borders and areas to fit into an A4 size, also I increased the color contrast, and made the blacks more intense. :)
This is the final Illustration!
As you can see here, I needed to add the lights, which is part of the fun on a Halloween night 👻! I played with the opacity of the brush to make some spots of yellow and orange.
Putting it all together
I cannot commend enough @rugidoillustration ‘s design work on the magazine, he did it voluntarily and put together the work of 16 illustrators, we are all based in Asturias, some are starting out on the career, some are already veterans and some are curious about it, but all the images together managed to assemble a peculiar fanzine, as all the works are very varied.
The fanzine is not for sale, as this was a project just for fun, but it can be downloaded upon request if someone is interested; I made a quick reel collecting all the illustrations on my Instagram. If you would like to see all the photos of the fanzine and photos of the illustrators who collaborated in it on our instagram @ilustrando.Asturias .
I had a great time with this whole thing and all the illustrators involved are super hyped with the result. I do hope this post was entertaining and fun for you guys! 🤩 see ya next time!
Go out, explore and happy painting! 🎨
you can follow me on Instagram to see what I am currently working on :)
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If you need inspiration and wonder the materials I use, here is my Amazon shopping list. If you buy from the link I get a small commission free from cost for you :) thank you!
