A Monster of a Project: Christmas is stocking you Halloween!

Illustation ProcessArt and IllustrationEditorial IllustrationCharacter Design

Nov 11

Every so often, a project takes on a life of its own.

What began as a lighthearted Halloween sketch quickly transformed into something far more complex. This "Happy Holidays" piece started its journey as a fun nod to the spooky season, with playful nods to Halloween’s eerie charm.

Yet, as the holiday season seemed to creep closer and closer—almost like a monster stalking its prey from the shadows—the sketch evolved, blending the two worlds in a way that felt both unexpected and fitting.

It all began with this rough sketch, a simple idea that grew into a creature of its own.

A rough pencil sketch of the Frankenstein family in a department store, showing the initial composition and character poses for a potential Halloween card. — The initial sketch. I was focused on capturing the 'character acting' — the Bride’s stoic annoyance, the Doctor’s frestration, and the Monster’s holiday shopping fatigue.

Now, I love the idea of this classic monster family stuck in a mundane, modern situation. I'm a huge fan of the 90s Addam's Family movies starring Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, and Christopher Lloyd, and how they're not just monsters, but people having to deal with everyday life—relationships, marriage, money, children, relatives, horticulture, and the odd black widow killer. We’ve all been there.

The idea of them, or any family, dealing with the stresses of shopping has been a font for comedic inspiration before, and I thought I'd take my turn at it. The challenge was getting all that character-driven storytelling into a single image.

I moved on to the ink, which is a key part of my hybrid process. I love the tactile feel of traditional inking before I move into a digital workflow.

A clean, black and white ink drawing of the Frankenstein family holiday scene, showing refined lines and details before digital color. — The final ink drawing. The details really started to come together, but the complexity had grown, and the deadline for an October Halloween release was long gone.

As you can see, the piece got more and more detailed and... I'd overshot the mark for Halloween. I’d have to wait for the next Halloween season to come ‘round again.

But then, as October rolled into November, I started seeing holiday decorations pop up. That all-too-familiar feeling of the holiday sales season being pushed up earlier and earlier got me thinking.

That's when it clicked.

This family wasn't just spooky; they were stressed. They were the perfect stand-in for that universal, "Happy Holidays" exhaustion.

With this new narrative, the piece wasn't a "failed" Halloween card—it was a successful holiday card. This pivot gave it a new, stronger concept, I think. I moved to the final phase: digital color. I focused on creating that "atmospheric color", blending the warm, festive reds and greens with the slightly sickly, fluorescent glow of a department store.