Some More Light Painting

After V's 2am feeding Saturday I decided it was a good time for some light painting. Here we have a skull from Wal-Mart and a pumpkin I "painted" with one of those flashlights that projects skull. I like them.
Eventually I'm going to buy one of Pumpkinrots corpses and light paint that. That'll be great.

Thing Under the Stairs

The art of Joshua Hoffine.

Black Cat in the Pumpkin Patch

Black Cat in the Pumpkin Patch
Originally uploaded by Johnny AM

So, I'm in the kitchen washing something and I look out the window and see something sitting in our pathetic little pumpkin patch (3 pumpkins).
I couldn't quite make out what it was so I went outside and slowly approached. As I moved within 20 feet I finally realized it was a black cat. An ALL black cat sitting by the largest pumpkin just staring at it.
It was SO perfect I couldn't believe it!
I had to have a picture, unfortunately all I had was my phone. This is the best pic I could get. It does not do the scene justice because it's too far away and you can barely see the pumpkin.
But it was SO perfect. Thought I'd share.

Graveyard Quartet

Look what FINALLY Arrived!

Pumpkinhead DVD
Originally uploaded by Johnny AM

Can't wait to watch it.
A side note - according to the package tracker this thing sat in Phoenix for 4 days and then took one day to get here.
So, seems when you pay for speedy delivery you're just paying for them to not sit on it for 4 days.
Nice.

Mr. Merrick's Pumpkin

Warty pumpkin
Originally uploaded by Johnny AM

Went to one of two excellent local farm markets this weekend. Marker-Miller Orchards
This one is more for apples, they have pick-your-own apple orchards and tractor rides and THE most delicious apple cider donuts this side of Johnny Appleseed.
But they also have pumpkins and this year they have quite a few "warty" pumpkins. Creepy!
Next weekend we will take V for her first trip to Hill High Farm. This is where I go pumpkin nuts. They have ACRES of pumpkins, a corn maze, a haunted house and THE BEST pumpkin fudge you have ever tasted in your life!

First Props, Way Behind

I'm not making excuses, well...actually that's exactly what I'm doing, but a newborn can really put the kibosh on your prop making plans.
But, this is what I have so far. I gave the first groundbreaker some hands, teeth, fingernails and it's black undercoat. Don't think I was supposed to paint the teeth and nails, but whatever - it's my first one. Next I'll dry bush him and touch up the nails and teeth. I hate the chest still.

The only one I've gotten started is my first paper skull mold thing. This is a technique I learned from Spooky Blue. The skull is held to the spine with "Great Stuff". This is 100% newspaper and I've had the darndest time figuring out how to make realistic shoulders to attach arms. Season of Shadows new Haunter's Reality video finally gave me the answer. BUT - I'm thinking this guy will be the scarecrow. I have some ideas for the head and some different types of arms. Hard to explain, but it's in my head. I just hope I pull it off. Hope I finish something.

Finally, I have this guy.
This is my first celluclay project. Just your standard plastic cauldron pumpkin. I like it, I just don't know what to do with it. The bottom is too flat.

So, as you see - not much has been done this year so far and it's nothing ground breaking (heh) or particularly good. But I think they are decent enough to keep working on things.
I'll keep you updated on the progress, especially the scarecrow.

Ghost In A Jar - Video

Dave Lowe

Did you see my post on the Para Abnormal web comic site? If not go check it out, some hysterical comics on there and there's a new one several times a week.
But I digress.
The artist behind the site is Dave Lowe. An illustrator, set designer and prop maker, among other things.
The important part, of course, is his love of Halloween. He has some great tips, showcases and general bits for your haunting pleasure.

Season of Shadows Blog

The third installment of Season of Shadows "Haunter's Reality" series.
This is the best one so far with some great tips and techniques demonstrated. Definitely thinking I will buy a full or half skeleton as reference.
These videos are such a brilliant idea and I hope they keep coming all through the season. They are both helpful and inspiring.

Wish we had a Spirit store around here! That place looks great. We can't even get Target to get their act together. The display is still basically mostly empty shelves.

Standard Stuff, but I Couldn't Resist

Li'l skels
Originally uploaded by Johnny AM

Picked these up at the grocery store. Hoping to do some cool specimen jar props with a few of them.

Creature Feature - The Greatest Show Unearthed

I stumbled upon Creature Feature last year while looking for some new music for Halloween.
After listening to "Greatest Show Unearthed" I was hooked, actually obsessed would be a better word, and I HAD to have the album.
It was very difficult to find a downloadable version but I finally did on an indie site and bought it. It's now one of my year-round go-to albums. The music is fantastic and the lyrics are clever and "In" enough to obviously be written by true horror fans.
You can sample some of their songs here and buy the album here. It's much easier these days.

Nosferatu

Flickr source

Mark of the Vampire

I just love this pic.

Source: site

Pumpkin Flashlight! Fun For All Ages!

Picked up these little flashlights at the ridiculously sparse Target display this weekend. They are basically just cheap flashlights with caps that have the pattern on them. But they look great at night and the baby finds them facinating!

Pumpkin crowd

Pumpkin crowd
Originally uploaded by Johnny AM

The Search for Pumpkinhead

Never did find this DVD over the weekend. Target, Wal-Mart, Circuit-City, Borders, Best Buy - none of them had it. I don't get it. They had the remake of Prom Night for crying-out-loud!
So I decided to order it from Amazon. SOLD OUT!
Imagine that, guess there is a market genius box-stores.
Moral of the story, ALWAYS order it off of the internet. Your local brick-and-mortar is probably useless and you'll end up waiting longer than you would have if you had just ordered it in the first place.
Live and learn.

We've Moved

After many meetings, much debate and at least one evisceration we,ve decided to move throughthepatch.com from its current home in Tumblr to Blogger.

Nothing against Tumblr it's simply that this beast is beginning to outgrow the limited capabilities of Tumblr without much tweaking.

Now, the problem with this is, there is no way to export the posts I've already made on here. So I will probably have a link to the old site and manually move most of the stories.

So here we go...

Pumpkinrot

Pumpkinrot! This guy is the real deal.

Best Halloween site I've ever seen. It's like he can see in my head and creates everything I dream about.

While randomly searching the Google for pictures of scarecrows I stumbled on his work and it changed the way I do Halloween. It was the first time I realized you could actually build props and there was a whole world of techniques and people I didn't know existed. People just as obsessed with Halloween as I am. Now I'm not happy enough with anything I've done yet to post it, but soon that will change and I owe a huge part of that to Rot and his work.

See what's festering at Pumpkinrot.

Spooky Blue & Thoughts on the Haunter Community

Spookyblue - Dogs, Cats, Halloween Haunts & Other Things of Varying Degrees of Interest.

This is one of my all-time favorite sites. It has fantastic haunt props and even better Howtos of each one. The Howtos read very well, they are informative and funny. His blog is great too and recently became more of the focus. This site was paramount in my initial run last year and will be for this years sophomore effort.

Well, as much as there will be a sophomore effort considering I pretty much spend almost every moment at home with Veronica (see post).

I've had the privilege of speaking with Spooky a few times since I originally posted this, one of the nicest guys you will meet. Seriously, great guy.

I have noticed since I started dipping my toe into the world of Haunters and Halloween lovers that almost everyone I have met has been extremely nice and helpful. Everyone has been more that accommodating with my questions and comments. It really is a wonderful group of people to know. Particularly Spooky Blue, Season of Shadows, Pumpkin Hollow and Pumpkinrot. All of whom have been like new friends.

Compare that to the other communities that I am heavily involved in, Linux and programmer/technologists -in-general where the nice guy to jerk-ass ratio is easily 50/50 and you'll see one of the reasons I prefer to spend most of my time in the company of my Halloween friends.

Thanks everybody!

Just on the edge of the wind...

the faint scent of autumn's approach.

I am happy.

Image source

Haunter Reality

Season of Shadows Blog

Loving this idea from one of my favorite haunters.

The great thing about Shadows site is that he goes deeper than most and explores the reality of the paranormal as well as creates amazing artwork.

For some fascinating reading that is usually WAY over my head, check out

windofthesoul.com

Little Pumpkin Feller

My new decor "Carnival Jack" arrived from Pumpkin Hollow's Etsy shop today. Fantastic art there. Plus he was packaged with stickers!

I love this thing, think I'll get a whole collection.

Quiet in the Fields

I turn to this game, A Murder of Scarecrows .

I've been playing this for years, There is something about the simplicity and eerie quiet of this game that really puts me at ease. In fact I can just listen to the sound of the crows and the swinging scarecrows and be relaxed.

I also love the artwork as well.

The sparse look of the graphics are inspiring and actually make me feel a little cooler.

Try it out.

Dead is Funny

Hysterically creepy comics.
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