21 September 2014

New Art - Ghostie Halloween

First off, welcome to my inaugural Studio Mikarts blog post!  This is my first non-scholastic art blog and I'm stoked to fill it up with awesome content!  Gotta pace myself, though.

The piece I'm featuring today was actually completed several weeks ago.  I know it's still summer but I'm just so excited for the holidays already!  Last year, I decided to start annually illustrating a Halloween card (like the Christmas cards I've done almost every year since 2007) so this is my 2014 entry!

Ghostie Halloween by AnimeGirlMika on deviantART

As with last year's illustration, this one features our Manx, Kiba.  He's just the perfect Halloween kitty: black witch's-cat fur with vampire fangs!  This year, I decided to assign our remaining household cats to the other major US end-of-year holidays (Kiki for Thanksgiving and Bear for Christmas) so those two will be featured in their own card illustrations later.

Another similarity to last year's Halloween card is the lack of text on the online version.  I added "Happy Halloween" to the illustration for my home-printed greeting cards.  These cards are available at the fan convention artist alleys I attend and also by special request online. 

The following are some in-progress photos I took while creating the piece: the inked lines, the base colors done in marker, and the final result with marker, colored pencil, and white gel pen.  The process was really satisfying and fun!

Drawing of a Chibi Cat and Ghosts with Basic Coloring
Base colors.
Lineart Drawing of a Chibi Cat and Ghosts
Line work.










Completely Colored and Shaded Drawing of a Chibi Cat and Ghosts
Traditional media all done!

What do you think?  Do you like cute black cats and ghosties?  What are your Halloween plans for 2014?