Vampire Bats

Scanned directly from my sketchbook, here’s a page of bats to celebrate Halloween. I started the page with the idea that I was going to fill the whole thing with bats. I wanted to push myself to come up with as many ideas as I could because I tend to start sketching and get lazy about it way too soon. As you can see, the first ones I drew at the top of the page are nowhere near as good as the ones that showed up on the bottom. (Click the image to see it biggie-sized.)

I’m working on painting a few of these little guys on my iPad. I found a fun new app called Auryn Ink that paints like watercolor. It even has a tilt function that, if you tilt your iPad, it makes the pigment collect in the direction you’re tilting. I’m playing around with it to use as the background.

The next page in my sketchbook is all about pumpkins. I’ve noticed in recent years that pumpkin nummies are a whole lot more numerous than when I was growing up. Pumpkin gobs. Pumpkin cake. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin donuts. Pumpkin Spice Latte. Pumpkin soup. Pumpkin rolls. I think all we had when I was little was pumpkin pie. It’s too bad this only lasts about two months out of the year. I haven’t found a pumpkin nummy yet that I didn’t like.