Allhallowtide 5

The season when monsters celebrate! Fifth and Final drawing in this series.
"Allhallowtide" is an old word that basically means the last days of October, up to November. Or rather: All Hallow's Eve, All Saint's Day, All Soul's Day.
--
This series of illustrations was inspired by my love of old Halloween art from the 1920's - 1950's. I wanted to capture the look and feel of vintage Halloween decor from that era... but populate the images with "my style" of monsters.
I started by planning the basic compositions, and came up with a chronological order for them, hoping they would flow, one into the next. The sketches were kept very loose, so I could still have the fun of making up the monsters on-the-spot, as I worked on each individual illustration. In other words I sort of planned the whole series in broad strokes at the start, and then made up the details, as I went along.
My hare-brained master plan was to end the series with this big, final image, on the day of Halloween. It was intentionally drawn and colored in a flat, graphic style to resemble the look of an old Halloween poster you might find at some rural County Fair in the 1930's or 40's.
Unfortunately, I made one strategic error... Which is that I drew and colored most of these pieces out of chronological order. Basically each day over the course of a week, I just jumped into whichever sketch-composition looked most fun to draw. It was all very whimsical... but foolish. Because naturally, each piece - in the mixed-up order that I was drawing them - became more elaborate than the one I drew before it. And as a result - "Allhallowtide 5" - which was drawn early but was supposed to be the grand finale... got a little out-classed along the way... by some of the previously numbered pieces... that were actually finished... after it.
Confused? I am.
Oh well, for what it's worth, I hope you enjoyed this little series of Halloween drawings.
They made my last week of October 2014 a lot of fun.