Fangs for Spring

Bindlegrim appears to be having a hard time working in the spring pastel palette this season. No bunnies populating this blog. Instead this classic-style German Jack O'Lantern has been snagged by some not so welcome company --- when a black cat joins the latest promo art for the upcoming Spooklight series.

Bindlegrim is also on flickr and pinterest...

Halloween Gives Me the Creeps!

There has been a big sigh of relief here in the Bindlegrim labs - as the Creeps have walked off the production slab, and nestled snug in sealed packages ready for new homes. As of tonight there are 3 listings at 3-day auctions on ebay for your consideration, just in time to arrive before Halloween week! Oh, but what shall it be? There are Creeps (Shadow Edition), Creeps (1st Color Run), and Creeps (12-sided lantern). Well obviously the main idea here appears to be giving you the Creeps! Links are listed below in order of first to the last listed.

1: Creeps (Shadow Edition) Full set JOL, Witch, Bogle, Cat, Devil, Clown, as stark soot-faced minimalistic design versions. Silhouettes lend to their mystery and fit a classic to modern Halloween decor style... with translucent facial features that glow in the dark. The diecut characters are made of 2-play acid-free museum board (same as Bindlegrim 12-sided lanterns): Vintage-Style Halloween CREEPS SOOT FACE Candy Box Lantern WITCH CAT DEVIL CLOWN

2: Creeps (Color Run) is a first edition 5/5 print run of this artist-designed diecut series .This is for the complete set of six characters, on vintage-style slot-and-tab candy container/lanterns offering printed imagery on front, sides, and back, and of course those translucent eyes for that after dark glow:  Vintage-Style Halloween CREEPS Candy Container Lantern Set WITCH CAT DEVIL CLOWN

 

3: Creeps: (12-Side Lantern) - A very special limited edition return of the Bindlegrim 12-sided vintage style Halloween lantern with Creeps imagery! If your counting this very special 5/5 limited run is the eighth Bindlegrim 12-side lantern and was unplanned but the idea spilled over from the candy container/lantern project seen above - here re-introduced on full-color translucent vellum scenes: Vintage-Style Halloween CREEPS 12-Side Lantern WITCH CAT DEVIL CLOWN SCARECROW

So that's all for now all you autumn-minded folks! Please accept the deepest of apologies for squeezing these in so close to Halloween... but auctions will end Wednesday, October 23rd, and I can be sure to ship on Thursday in time for next week's celebrations.

Happy Halloween from Bindlegrim...!!!

A Litany of Space Witches

Would that he could, Bindlegrim would most certainly be visiting The Halloween Trunk Show in Denver this weekend  (details at bottom) however, Bindlegrim is happy to be offering some limited edition lanterns online. These were held back just for the Halloween season, and this is perhaps the last gasp for the 2012 Halloween. Two of these lanterns end on eBay this Sunday night September 30th - that's October Eve!

1: The Cornish Litany #/9 #/3 : This lantern (listed together with a set of 12 postcards) features verse of The Cornish Litany originally seen on postcards from Cornwall in the early century. This lantern features a Bindlegrim-esque take on this frightful prayer, and I was happy to see this get a nod this year from the Pumpkinrot blog:

From Ghoulies and Ghosties
and Long-leggetty Beasties
and All Things that go Bump in the Night,
Good Lord deliver us!

Read more about the lantern (and related postcards) from this blog entry Lanterns for Ghoulies and Ghosties or see more images in the following flickr gallery:



2: The Space Witches #4/5 was quite honestly just a riot to create! This lantern features 12 different images based on plastic candy containers of witches and rockets. Bindlegrim expanded this idea to take a journey into outer space, traveling with these witches and their black cats, to encounter aliens and other problems - like white mice running loose inside your space helmet!

Read more in this past blog entry A Cyclonic Cavalcade of Witches and Rockets or
view the following flickr gallery:


So, in the meantime, there has been a red pen marking up the proof copy of the new book. And promise to get the news out as soon as that is available, with some offers for a number of free copies! Until then, best wishes to all those attending the multitude of shows that are coming up just around the corner, such as The Halloween Trunk Show (Saturday, September 29th: 12 noon - 6pm at Leo's Garage 1563 S Pearl St., Denver 80210),  Ghoultide Gathering, and Halloween & Vine.

A Cyclonic Cavalcade of Witches and Rockets

Okay, so "cyclonic cavalcade" was taken from a trailer for the old Godzilla movie full of similar styled hype... but as I was writing the copy for tonight's ebay listing - I could hear that same excited voice in my head as I was writing an over the top intro for The Space Witches lantern, and it went a little something lie this: Blast-off to a retro-kitsch sci-fi galaxy where UFO aliens collide into the earthly other-realm of Halloween witches who with their black cat familiars terrorize space in light-speed rockets!!!

Well, all that soul-groaning copy aside, style #4 in the Bindlegrim hex lantern series did make it live tonight, and here is the link by which to set your space ship's navigation controls: 12 side WITCH ROCKETS CATS retro vintage style HALLOWEEN lantern #5/5 BINDLEGRIM

Here are some new photos from the listing, or see the previous blog entry for even more:

And here is a direct excerpt of the ebay listing with general information on the listing:

Spooky Vintage Style Lantern - #4 - The Space Witches 

12 Eerie Visions of Creeps and Chills, Glow for HALLOWE'EN Thrills!

This newest offering in limited edition Bindlegrim hex lanterns merges the cartoon camp of 1950's imagery with the spooky elegance of 1920s vintage paper lanterns. 

Lantern #4 - (Edition #5/5):
This vintage style lantern comes from a series created in limited edition batches, with each different batch containing distinctive pane imagery from the others. This particular style has only 5 made with this particular imagery. And any lantern produced is identified inside the frame - this lantern reads:  "The Space Witches" (#5/5) 2012 Bindlegrim with the artist's Halloween signature.

The frame is created with acid-free museum board. The pieces were Made in the USA and hand assembled by the artist. Each work is packaged in a cellophane bag and also labeled with its number in the edition. The images are laser-prints on vellum for durability. The orange looks great with an orange battery operated candle or a 3 watt flicker bulb. Small holes in the top piece are present for hanging the lantern with soft wire or strong thread if you prefer a battery operated candle.

The Space Witches:
The imagery for this lantern was based on classic candy containers that combined the imagery of witches and rockets. Bindlegrim expanded this idea to create original pane designs, 12 different ones in all, that take the journey into outer space with these witches and their black cats, to see what happens, encountering aliens and other problems - like white mice running loose inside your space helmet - or what if your cat gets stuck on the moon?! Witches and aliens terrorize each other! Cats and mice take their earthly battle into space! Other mischievous witches speed about in helmets and goggles..., they poke the moon in the eye with their broom..., and they crash on dark planetoids!

Space Witches (Halloween Lantern #4)

An unexpected visit came today from a host of 1950s retro-kitsch black cats and witches riding space rockets, (and some not-so-happy aliens), making an appearance at the Bindlegrim studios. This is style #4 vintage-style lantern (imagery with a ton of tiny details) that will have a possible listing this weekend...!

The gallery widget above examines each of the 12 panes (which are each different from one another) in closer detail... and here are a half-dozen photos showing the imagery in the round...

Also...  a short side note to stay tuned for a couple of Bindlegrim bagatelles. Here is some imagery from the second one under development..

There seems to be a bit of a jazz theme happening here. What started out at first as a grumpy moon covering his ears from the sound of raucous skeletons, instead transformed into a high-spirited band leader directing his quartet of band musicians.  I would hazard a guess that "Rumble Bones" is picking on a selection of tunes found on Bindlegrim's vintage Halloween music radio:

Free Printable Halloween Party Set

Continuing the last post of fun holiday content I was fortunate to create during  my contract job at office.microsoft.com. I also wanted to share this seasonal design set of stationery items for Halloween that you can download for free and customize in both color and content.  (Note - these were items created while working with the Microsoft Office extensive library of free clip-art... to create content for the free download template library).

The Halloween Stationery Set (with a sinister witch host, questionable apples, sneaky black cats, and innocent children turning into toads for a costume party) contains for Word 2007 (or later) the following - 1) Gift Certificate, 2) Party Flyer, 3) Stationery, 4) Party Menu, 5) Party Invitation, 6) Thank-you Cards, 7) Name Tags / Placeholders, 8) Address Labels, and 9) Envelope.

For this project the goal was to highlight Word 2007's ability to create themes that allows you change color palettes at the touch of a button. And was constructed from items available in their free MS Clip Art Library particularly: MS Clip Art - Style 1450. 

If you are interest in using using clip art in this manner, you might study the previous post that offers an instructional blog entry. And for more holiday-themed downloads (for both Halloween and Christmas) that are free from Microsoft, by designer Robert Aaron Wiley, please check out the Bindlegrim website for Free Stuff! 

A Brief History of The Pumpkin Dream (Part 4) - Cautionary Vectors

A continuation from A Brief History of The Pumpkin Dream (Part 3)

As the idea to illustrate "October Dreams: A Cautionary Tale" became an objective, a new problem developed: I had recently switched systems and my ancient web developer's student copy of Adobe Photoshop 5 and Illustrator 8 (from 1999...!?) would no longer work on the newer system -- and I certainly couldn't afford to buy those expensive Adobe programs and still complete this project. I was very depressed about this situation, feeling once again I was trying to take on another project beyond my means...

As I tried to figure out what to do, I thought I should at least dabble with some trial dowloads to see if it was worth the loss of funds (and touch up on some old skills). My first trial was with Illustrator CS5. And I thought it would be fun to see how well I could re-create, and accurately, some old vintage Halloween Decorations.

These cats are from a Beistle Halloween decoration from the 1950's: the top is a scan of the original and the lower image is a wacom pen trace (with some obvious color tweaks). I'm not sure I had really learned how to use the pressure sensitivity at this point - but I did appreciate Illustrator's ability to selectively drag out and increase line widths in certain areas along the line.

The next images is from a frightening looking pumpkin face from 1931 by Dennison. Again, I couldn't quite figure out how to use the pressure sensitivity to achieve fatter/thinner lines. With this guy I drew the shapes and used lower layers to ink in the color areas. And I believe I was using a new ability to paint vector swaths. (The upper version is scanned - the lower version is my wacom trace vector version):

In both instances I was happy with how accurately the images could be created into vector! This wasn't very helpful though, because Illustrator CS5 was still out of reach. (I wish Adobe would let you upgrade in installments toward having the entire suite. There was no way I was going to buy Illustrator which I needed first, then later buy each program separately and spend even more money to get needful Photoshop, Premiere, etc).

As I tried to figure out what to do - the trials continued with AI CS5 on my own work...

Mentioned previously, I had a sketchbook full of work from trying to develop a three-dimensional project. As raw material, it then seemed logical to recreate these sketches. I imagined this might then be a good way of developing and creating my illustrations for the poem. My first go was with this scarecrow sketch:

See also my additional test manually/digitally recreating pencil sketches in the first blog entry (Sketchy Beginnings that shows working with the main characters of the poem).

I really enjoyed this.. and may have been getting a tad better at using looser pen strokes and wacom tablet sensitivity with Illustrator... however, my trial period was running out.. and the money was just not there for it!

A friend noted that Painter by Corel was a good program for looser pen work, and it might cost less... and that seems like a good place to start the next entry. Part 5 will cover some testing with Painter and, after that, what became my final solution for my budget - freeware!

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On a side note (6/5/11), as I was writing Part 5, it occurred to me, I had tried a test of Illustrator's automatic sketch feature. It's a pretty nifty tool. Below is my sketch followed by the Illustrator output. (Note the settings were used to recreate an image that was as simple and graphic and possible, and the output was tweaked just a bit afterward using the new vector blob brush to smooth edges, and create large areas of black).

This was an important test, because as I was also searching for the right program, I was firming up my ideas for the style of illustration - and this was starting to narrow down a goal - to create a style that was reminiscent of old 1930s cartoon animation.

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A Brief History of The Pumpkin Dream: Part 5 - Monsters from the Id