September is the stepping stone to October and we all know what that means. Time to get ready for All Hallows Read. What better way than with a free poster or five?
This is my sixth year making free posters for anyone to share and use to advertise All Hallows Read. Free!
I'm trying something a bit different by hosting the files at dropbox. They're also at deviantart, if that's easier to download off of.
I don't put a year on any of the posters, so you can reuse any of the old ones you'd like such as:
2015 - Trees, Haunted Globe, Bats, and More
2014 - Raven, Grave Reflection, and more
2013 - Fairy Witch, Tentacle, and others
2012 - Spiders and Bats and Mummies
2011 - Universal Hammer Monsters
You can download the whole lot for this year from a file here right now if you'd like. I also included all of the past years in the dropbox file so you can add whatever you want whenever.
Now let's get to the new ones!
Pumpkin - Nothing says Halloween quite like a carved gourd (unless you've got a turnip around, pedantic)
Bones -You never know what you find when you open a book.
Tombstone - I wanted this one to feel like those old book covers from the 70's and 80's. Haunted nostalgia.
Graveyard - A statue reading a book inside a cemetery inside a book. Don't Blink, you might miss the best parts.
Bloody Wall - Sometimes you just need giant eyeballs, spiders and a touch of gore. It's Halloween, let's get spooky.
Once again, they're all free, all of 'em. So download the links, print, and decorate to your heart's content.
Enjoy!
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Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Refreshing Halloween Props
It's that time of year when I'm haunting through every store to get a taste of their Halloween treats. A few have gone -- Michaels, Menards, Home Depot, Spirit -- but a lot are waiting until Labor Day is dead and in the ground. *twitches thumbs*
While some things I buy as is a few often need a little bit of help so this weekend I took a few props and made them awesomer.
First was a Cyclops skull from Spirit. It's neat that it's ol' cyc with its mammoth skull influence but the fact it's a blowmold and the painting is meh I decided it needed some flesh.
It was a simple case of dipping paper towels in latex then spreading it across the skull.
After the latex dried, I just painted it. First I used a wood stain for the base but that was too light so I mixed in some brown and black acrylic with my sponge to give shadows and depth.
Cyclops looks a lot gooier now.
My other find came from Home Depot. A fun little secret is that it's really easy to get those cheap ass looking tombstones and turn them into something cool. All you need is paint and a sponge.
I found one with a carving I liked, but the paint job was meh sliding into snooze town.
First I added a layer of brown. Brown is vital to giving depth to tombstones. I know, that seems stupid, but trust me. If you want to mimic the look of old stone, brown helps to not only age but give it a heft.
After that, it was various shades of black or grey depending upon if I wanted to lighten or shadow a section.
Instantly better tombstone I managed in about an hour. When I don't have the time to carve one myself (which can take days to a week), I like to get a cheap one and fix it myself. The liberal application of paint can make any store bought tombstone look ten times better.
While some things I buy as is a few often need a little bit of help so this weekend I took a few props and made them awesomer.
First was a Cyclops skull from Spirit. It's neat that it's ol' cyc with its mammoth skull influence but the fact it's a blowmold and the painting is meh I decided it needed some flesh.
It was a simple case of dipping paper towels in latex then spreading it across the skull.
After the latex dried, I just painted it. First I used a wood stain for the base but that was too light so I mixed in some brown and black acrylic with my sponge to give shadows and depth.
Cyclops looks a lot gooier now.
My other find came from Home Depot. A fun little secret is that it's really easy to get those cheap ass looking tombstones and turn them into something cool. All you need is paint and a sponge.
I found one with a carving I liked, but the paint job was meh sliding into snooze town.
First I added a layer of brown. Brown is vital to giving depth to tombstones. I know, that seems stupid, but trust me. If you want to mimic the look of old stone, brown helps to not only age but give it a heft.
After that, it was various shades of black or grey depending upon if I wanted to lighten or shadow a section.
Instantly better tombstone I managed in about an hour. When I don't have the time to carve one myself (which can take days to a week), I like to get a cheap one and fix it myself. The liberal application of paint can make any store bought tombstone look ten times better.