Hallows Eve

This is my main piece for this year's Artmares show; it's the one I did first and it also took the most time. (Though I'm very happy I was able to play around with all the ideas I had and produce three new works total.)

There's no deeper meaning to this piece other than drawing whatever seemed fun at the time, and adding little elements and design choices as they came to me.

One thing I did while working on this piece was to research the history of Halloween. I found out that originally people carved turnips rather than pumpkins, and they used them as lanterns to go door-to-door on All Saint's Eve asking for gifts in exchange for prayers on All Saint's Day. Pumpkins weren't used until the tradition was brought to America, where they are a native crop and easier to carve since they're larger.

I thought it would be cool to include a turnip lantern, as well as something I remember from my Trick or Treat days, the McDonalds' Halloween pail.

Interesting how some people have deemed Halloween a Satanic holiday when it was originally such a religious affair, huh?