Artist, Eva, Starts off Gothtober 2021!!!

Gourds and Goths, START YOUR ENGINES!!!!

This is just a lil’ preview of the entire image. Visit Gothtober and click on DAY ONE to see it Allll.

Gothtober has begunnnnnn! The very first day of the calendar starts with a lovely drawing by artist, Eva Azenaro Acero. Here’s what Eva had to say about this kickass illustration they made:

“For this year’s gothtober theme, Truckstop, I decided to go with a trucker witch! She drives across the country with her familiars -cyclops cats, embodiments of the three fates- looking for haunted places to explore. I used procreate for this piece, and added in a few little gears because if she’s not brewing up a potion, this little witch loves working on her truck!”

Wanna see some more great work from Eva? Check out this recent set of scrawls in no less than the New Yorker! And if you want to follow their process and see MORE beautiful lines and colors, check out their ol’ INSTA!

Happy Gothtober everyone! Right now we have the MOST Gothtober in front of us, can’t WAIT to see what each day reveals!

Gothtober Day 17: Creepy Cooking with Family Chambers!

Visit www.gothtober.com and click on DAY 17 to see mouthwatering recipes from The Family Chambers!

Have you been serving up the same old crusty casseroles? Are your salads in a slump? Are your desserts drab? Well, not any longer! Hard at work in their laboratory of flavors is the Family Chambers, with delectable dishes you can make for everyone you love! The holidays are almost here, if you want to impress, look no further. 

Featuring such fresh and healthy ingredients as dead eyes, braised beast, lice and nutmeg, every recipe in this volume promises not just a feast of sumptuous tastes, but dishes that are good for your health. It’s also worth mentioning that this cookbook has a whole new take on SIMPLE SLUGS! Everyone knows how to make them, but it’s really hard to get them just right, and you’ll learn the secrets to making this family favorite: no more mushy slugs, what a relief!
So take a look and start planning your get-together today with meals that come alive… literally.

Find out more about the The Family Chambers  here! 

Gothtober Day 8 Drawings from Nora Rachel

Visit www.gothtober.com and click on DAY 8 to see drawings of the Frankensteins by Nora Rachel!
I bet you didn’t know that “Frankenstein” means “Stone of the Franks” in German, eh? It was a castle that sat near the Rhine River, and a fellow named Konrad Dippel lived in there, trying to make a potion that would help people live past age 100. He was a pretty weird guy, the stuff he was working on was going to be called “Dippel’s Oil.” There was a rumor that Dippel would go out at night, dig up and then experiment on bodies, you know… for research.
There are some who believe that Mary and Percy Shelley visited nearby this location and that it was the inspiration for Mary’s character, Dr. Frankenstein.
The story of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, was written when Mary was merely 18, and published two years later in 1818 to critics who gave it reviews that were beyond harsh. However, stories of a gothic nature were all the rage, so people kept buying and reading the book, and it’s now considered to be the very first science fiction novel.

Even though body modification and transformation has existed since humans have been around, something about science gave people the heebie jeebies and they just couldn’t view it as “natural.” The Bride of Frankenstein film gave consciousness and voice to society’s misgivings about technology.

Today we’ve got people walking around with artificial heart parts, robot knees, botoxed foreheads, liver transplants, all kinds of Franken-stuff… we’re getting closer to throwing out all that “Icarus” baggage and living longer/happier lives through the applied sciences.
Here then, are portraits of two icons, the”forbidden” creatures of the undead: One of Dr. Frankenstein’s creation (the monster itself) and another likeness, that of the monster’s bride.
 See more of Nora Rachel’s art for view and for sale right HERE! 
 Read Nora’s bio and other Gothtober contributor’s bios here! 

Gothtober Day 6 Comic Pages with Jenn Paige Gordon!

Visit www.gothtober.com and click on DAY 6 to see two gorgeous comic panels by artist, Jenn Paige Gordon!
It’s Gothtober’s 15th year of counting down the days to Halloween, this means it’s our Quinceañera Celebration!

Quinceañeras tend to incorporate a lot of symbolism into various aspects of the day, from the quince court to the reception.

One tradition calls for the quinceañera to wear flats during the ceremony.  She will continue to wear them to the reception and during the time leading up to the traditional quince waltz. Just before the waltz, a changing of the shoes ceremony will take place.

So what you’re witnessing in these wonderful illustrations from Jenn Paige Gordon is the BEFORE and AFTER of the little witch’s shoes!

A pumpkin-ghost-ghoulish hat’s off to Jenn Paige Gordon for joining our 15th year Calendar!
 Read Jenn Paige Gordon’s bio and other Gothtober contributor’s bios here! 

Triple T Day 8 Drawings Show-n-Tell!

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Visit www.gothtober.com and click on DAY 8 to enjoy a slideshow from the family known as Triple T!

The artist of the drawings is 10 years old and VERY into minecraft right now, and rightly aligned her pencil skills to go along with some dragon metamorphosis illustrations to go with this year’s Gothtober theme “Metamorphosis.”

The drawings are available for download so that you may adorn your home or office with poster reminders of dragons, eggs, and destroying the city, and napping! Who doesn’t like napping?

In other news, the photographer, the Mom of Triple T has shared some seasonal recipes from other blogs on her cooking blog, sloCooking, so if you want to check out free recipes for Scary Treats, Frankenstein Cookies, Halloween Cupcakes and more, give it a peek!

Here is also a wonderful recipe for Triple T Chocolate-Avocado Mousse, which debuted at the Avocado & Margarita Festival in Morro Bay, where the requirement was to cook something for the guests using avocado.

Revolt! Gothtober Day 4 with Jefe!

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www.gothtober.com DAY 4 is by Jefe!

He drew for us a Halloween Fairytale about a little girl who summons a demon to restore Halloween after mean authorities in her school try to take it away!

Jefe recorded his own voice, worked with iMovie and scanned in all of his original drawings to make this piece come to fruition.

When asked about his process, Jefe said:

Gothtober is a chance for us artists to stretch out and try new skills and dance on the wire between stunning success and abject failure (I do need more Halloween cookie recipes though, so keep ‘em coming?).

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Trivia:
• Jefe draws for a living. You can see more of his stuff here
http://www.jefflevineartanddesign.com/
• Jefe’s has a pretty good computer with Adobe Creative Cloud on it.
• Jefe came by his nickname honestly, since his middle school Spanish teacher couldn’t find a suitable equivalent to Jeff.

About working for a Gothtober due date he said:

1 days left, Ommigod! Ommigod! Ommigod! Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression Acceptance. Here some other personality takes over, or I was possessed, or I went into a fugue state, regardless I drew 50 odd panels and scanned them in. 

We’re happy that it all worked out, because DAY 4 is a fun-filled subversive story about what to do when “the man” tries to shut down your Halloween! Don’t let it happen to you!

Hand-Crafted Deck Tarot for Your Talons • Gothtober DAY 5

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Castle Leibenstien, where Christy and family came up with the idea of making home made German Tarock cards!

If you’re a Gothtober Crafter, you certainly have your work cut out for you now for Gothtober DAY 5 (Click the book titled Of Lice and Men). We gave you a needlepoint project, then we showed you how to carve and dry apple heads and now here’s another fun assignment! All the way from Germany comes a pack of cards you can print, cut out, glue sides together and you then have your very own Tarot Deck! 

Germany is getting darker and colder by the day, but fall there (called Herbst in German) is beautiful.

We have a Gothtober correspondent who can verify this information for us, she lives there! Yesterday was German unification day and The Chambers family will probably celebrate their long weekend by taking a walk in their local forest to photograph mushrooms (yes, the red ones with white spots featured in the cards).

The entire deck is hand illustrated by Christy Chambers. Yes, we’re talking ALL 78 cards, proving yet again that Gothtober contributors are a pretty dedicated and crazy lot, of which we are quite thankful. What inspired this ambitious project? Here’s her answer:

The crazy idea for the cards came from a short vacation at Castle Leibenstien this summer. When sleeping in a castle, there is no TV or Internet…. This can be alarming to a modern 10 yr old. So since we were unprepared for an unplugged evening, my mother and I started to make simple cards to entertain everyone. How fun it would be to have a fancy detailed deck made by our family! I started to research German traditional card games and found that the most popular game Tarock, is played with the 78 card tarot deck. The only problem is that everyone plays with different rules depending on which part of Germany you are from. Honestly, the game is so complicated I can’t even understand some of the rules!!! Anyway, I guess I will have to stick to fortune telling. Who knew that that would be the less complicated part. I started painting, and well, here are the cards!
You’ll notice also on Ms. Chambers’ Gothtober piece, a devil doll in the background. Naturally, we wanted to know more, here’s what Christy had to say about the little devil:
The Devil is a family heirloom from Brian’s side. We have no information about him but we love him. He seems to like playing cards, Nigel says he cheats, but I think one should expect that from the little Devil.Today at the flea-market or “Flomart” in German, we almost came home with a creepy gnome with an axe but the pair of them together would have clearly been trouble.

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Click on DAY 5 Gothtober 2014 to get your set of Beautifully Illustrated Tarot cards by Christy Chambers!