Finishing Touches
You’re nearing the end – time for those little touches that bring it all together. Step back and look at your piece critically. This is where dry, no-nonsense Rusty comes in: don’t let sentiment blind you. If something isn’t working (that neon green you thought would be cool looks out of place, or the ghost is getting lost against the sky), address it. Darken it, lighten it, paint it out and redo if you must (acrylic opaque layers can save a troubled area; gouache can cover mistakes; even paper collage – glue a fresh bit of paper over a section and draw anew). It’s better to bite the bullet and fix it now than always feel it’s subpar.
Common finishing moves:
Highlights: Add small bright highlights where needed – maybe the edge of a crow’s feather, the top of a slimy goo blob, the glint in a monster’s eye. Use a gel pen, white paint, or eraser to pull out tiny highlights. This can make elements pop from the dark background.
Depth enhancements: Maybe push the background further back by glazing a bit of blue or gray over it (to make it recede and seem faint). Or strengthen a foreground outline with a darker stroke to bring it forward.
Signature style element: Consider if you want to incorporate something like a border or hand-drawn lettering saying “Happy Halloween” in a spooky font. This can frame the piece nicely. Or maybe some scrollwork or cobwebs in the corners as a finishing frame.
Cleanup: Erase any obvious pencil lines that were meant to be guides (unless the sketchy look is part of your style – which can be cool too). Clean up eraser crumbs, fix any smudges (a kneaded eraser can often lift surprise smudges on a sky area, etc.).
If you’ve used pastel or charcoal, spray fixative lightly so your work doesn’t dust off over time. If watercolor/ink, ensure it’s fully dry before storing or scanning.
Take a moment to appreciate what you made – does it convey the Halloween vibe you wanted? If yes, excellent! If not, note what could be better and apply it to the next one. Honestly, doing a series of smaller Halloween pieces can be more beneficial than one giant magnum opus. Each one you do, you’ll get better at capturing that spooky magic quickly and effectively.
Finally, remember to have fun with it. Halloween is a playful holiday at its core. Even the dark, creepy aspects have a sense of fun – it’s okay to have a sense of humor in your art. A dry, witty detail or a visual pun (skeletons having a tea party?) can give your work personality. Don’t force humor if you’re aiming for pure horror, but a little twinkle in the eye of your piece can engage viewers more. I often include an Easter egg or two (or should I say a Halloween egg?) in detailed scenes – like a tiny hidden ghost or a reference to a favorite horror movie – something that rewards a closer look.
Now, you’ve got the toolkit to create some killer (pun intended) Halloween illustrations. From horror aficionados to casual viewers, your traditional art skills combined with these tips will produce work that stands out from the generic digital crowd. So light that candle, put on your favorite spooky soundtrack, and get creating. This Halloween, the most haunting images won’t be on screens – they’ll be on your sketchbook pages, drawn by hand, with love and a dash of madness. Happy Haunting!
Skulls and Bones: Drawing the Undead Truth
Let’s face it – nothing says “edgy artist” quite like a well-drawn skull. But beyond the cool factor, mastering skulls and bones is incredibly useful for all kinds of art, from realistic portraits to fantasy creatures. In our gritty art journey today, we’re zeroing in on skulls and bone structure – how to study them, draw them, and use them in your art without it looking like you slapped a sticker on. I’ll share practical techniques (no sugarcoating) on drawing convincing skulls and skeletal forms, whether you’re aiming for anatomical studies, gothic vibes, or creature designs. So grab a pencil and maybe a femur (plastic, I hope), and let’s get bone-deep.
Know Your Anatomy (No Shortcuts, Sorry)
I’m not going to lie: drawing bones well means learning bones well. You don’t need a medical degree, but a basic understanding of skeletal proportions is game-changing. A human skull, for instance, has some key landmarks – the round cranium, eye socket cavities, cheekbones (zygomatic arches if you want the term), the nasal opening, jawline, etc. Before trying to draw a skull from imagination, spend time looking at references. Use multiple angles: front, side, 3/4. Notice how the skull’s width compares to its height, or how the jaw fits in. It might help to remember a few rough measurements, like the eyes are roughly in the middle of the head height, and the width of the skull at the widest (parietal bones) is about 2/3 its length from front to back – things like that. But beyond numbers, draw what you see, not what you think you know
. That’s a golden rule. Our brains have symbolized images (you say “skull” and a cartoonish image might pop up in your mind) – but when drawing, especially from observation, shut that off and really observe the contours, the asymmetries, the way light falls on the hollows.
A great exercise: if you have access to a model skull (many art schools have them, or you can get a replica), draw it from different viewpoints. As one guide suggests, do a frontal view, then rotate 45° for a three-quarter view, then profile, and so on
. Draw at least 4-5 angles. This will train you to grasp the 3D structure. Even better, try the exercise of rotating and drawing from memory: draw a skull front, then imagine rotating it slightly and draw that – then check against a real reference to see where you were off. It’s tough but will reveal gaps in understanding.
And it’s not just the skull. If you want to incorporate bone structure in figures or creatures, study the skeleton overall. Learn the major bones: skull, ribcage, spine, pelvis, arms (humerus, radius, ulna), legs (femur, tibia, fibula), and hands/feet. No need to memorize Latin names, just the shapes and how they connect. Understanding the skeleton helps massively with figure drawing and creature design. For example, if you’re drawing a zombie or a wraith, you might hint at the ribcage under the skin – if you know how ribs curve and attach to the sternum, your depiction will be far more convincing than random chest lines.
Tips for learning bones:
Use anatomy books or online resources (there are many free reference images). Eliot Goldfinger’s Human Anatomy for Artists is a classic, but even a Google image search of “human skull diagram” helps.
Simplify forms: skull can be seen as a big ball (cranium) with a smaller wedge (face/jaw) attached. Ribcage as an egg shape, pelvis as a bowl. Breaking it down to simple volumes helps you draw from different angles.
If you’re inclined, draw cross-contour lines on the bone forms when practicing – like wrapping lines around a femur cylinder or around the dome of the skull. This will train your brain to see them 3-dimensionally.
Step-by-Step Skull (From Construction to Shading)
Let’s draw a skull together in theory. Imagine it step by step:
Basic Shapes/Layout: Lightly sketch an oval for the cranium. Add a vertical center line and horizontal line halfway down for eye level. Mark the jaw by adding a smaller oval or box shape at the bottom of the big oval (the jaw shape varies with angle, but roughly a U shape from front view, or a wedge from side view).
Refine Outline: Start shaping the cranium – it’s not a perfect oval, it usually has a slight flatness on sides where the temporal region is. Indicate the cheekbones coming out from roughly the mid-eye level line (if front view, they’ll be out to the sides; if 3/4, one will overlap). Draw the jaw contour – note from the side, the jaw angles up toward the ear hole area, from front it looks like a U or a rounded square shape.
Eye Sockets & Nose: Place the eye sockets on that halfway line – they’re like concave egg-shaped holes. Leave a bit of a bridge between them for the nasal bone. The nose opening is like an upside-down heart shape (or a pear) in the middle below the eyes. Draw that lightly. Remember at 3/4 view, these become skewed – one socket is more oval and the far one foreshortened.
Teeth area: This can be tricky. The upper teeth attach to the maxilla (upper jaw bone) which is fixed to the skull, and the lower teeth to the mandible (lower jaw). Sketch a gentle arc for the row of teeth. Don’t draw every tooth yet, just outline the general region – maybe two parallel curves for top and bottom rows. From front, you’ll see a bit of the curvature and from side, it’s more of a shape.
Details & Landmarks: Now indicate the smaller things: the brow ridge above the eye sockets (skulls often have a protruding brow ridge, especially male ones). The temples on the side (between eye socket and where jaw hinges – there’s a shallow depression called the temple). The zygomatic arch (cheekbone) usually visible extending from outer edge of eye socket toward the ear area – draw that curve or angle. And the mastoid process (a bump behind the jaw by ear – small but shows in profile).
Refining jaw & chin: The chin area on a skull is not as pointy as a skin-covered one because there’s no fleshy lips – it’s kind of a bony U with the teeth sockets above. Draw the suggestion of the individual teeth now if you like: usually we see divisions or vertical lines. There are about 16 teeth on top row visible (including molars) but often you can simplify by shading that area or only hinting at a few divisions to avoid a cartoony look. Less can be more here.
Erase guides, firm up lines: Clean up your construction lines gradually, firm up the correct outline and shapes.
Now, shading:
Light Source: Decide where the light comes from. Let’s say above and to one side (common for dramatic skulls). This means under the brow, inside eye sockets, nose hole, and under cheekbones will be dark. Go in and shade those deeply – they are essentially holes, so if light doesn’t reach, they can be near-black in value
. Use cross-hatching or smooth shading depending on style.
Planes: The skull has a lot of planes. The forehead is relatively smooth but curved; the cheekbones catch light on top and cast shadow below; the side of the head will be in shadow if light is from one side. Shade with respect to these planes. Use firmer pressure or darker medium for core shadows (areas facing completely away from light) – e.g., the hollow of the temple or under the jaw. Use softer shading for curved surfaces like the dome of cranium. You want to convey volume – one tip is to imagine light gently gradating across round forms. Hatching can help follow form: hatch lines following the curve of the skull can differentiate a smooth forehead from a sharp edge of an eye socket.
Teeth and jaw: These can be left lighter or mid-tone but with shadow between them. Often, artists fill the inside of the mouth with dark (since behind the teeth is empty space). That creates contrast making each tooth silhouette stand out. Draw a subtle shadow under each tooth’s edge if the light is above – that helps separate them. But don’t over-detail every single tooth with outline or it can look like a piano keyboard. Suggest more than render; maybe draw the canines and a couple incisors clearly and just shade the rest.
Highlights: If you’re using charcoal or pencil on toned paper, add a touch of white highlight on the forehead, the bridge of the nose, the cheekbone’s top, and maybe the rim of the eye socket where light hits. This gives the skull a nice dimensional pop. On white paper, you leave those areas as the paper white.
Texture: Skull bone is relatively smooth but can have subtle texture or crack lines (sutures where plates meet). You can lightly draw those sutures (they’re like squiggly lines) on top of the cranium, but if the style is realistic, keep them faint. The surface often has tiny pores and pits, which can be suggested with fine stippling or just the grain of your paper showing through shading. Don’t draw polka dots though; if doing stipple technique, do it across forms to simulate matte texture
.
Stand back and see if your skull reads well. If something’s off – maybe the proportions – measuring now can help. For instance, are the eye sockets too high or low? Common mistake is making the skull too tall or the face part too small. A quick check: the distance from chin to brow is usually similar to brow to back of head. If your drawing looks goofy, measure and adjust.