Show Your Face on Friday - Matilda as Tim Burton might see her!

Hello and Welcome to Magpieheaven, followers and friends. Once again it's Friday, my favourite day of the week and time for one of my favourite blogs, 'Show Your Face on Friday' with Kim Dellow. Just in case you don't already know, Kim hosts this 'link-up' where she invites anyone who wants to try their hand at creating portraits of any kind to share what they have been creating. It doesn't matter what style; what medium or what shape or size - all you have to do is make sure that the face is your own work and not created by a template or special stamp. Please click here to find out more about Kim's blog, which is a really great place to be inspired. In November the theme is to be 'in the style of', but I'm sorry, I couldn't wait until then. I had an urge to leave my comfort zone this week - in more ways than one - and try something really new for me! I love the films and animations of Tim Burton. His work embodies the essence of modern Gothic to me and, with Halloween coming up at the end of next month, I've been thinking about the creepy charm of creations like 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and 'Corpse Bride'. I don't like the typical supermarket Halloween offerings of plastic witches' hats, fangs and monsters' heads dripping with fake blood, but I do love the excitement of glowing pumpkin faces in the windows on our little crescent and the giggles of the children trick-or-treating. Tim Burton really explores that need we all have to engage with our fears and dance among the shadows. 'Edward Scissorhands' really captured my imagination, and 'Ed Wood' has to be one of my all-time favourite quirky films! I challenged myself to create a portrait of my daughter Matilda in the style of Tim Burton!

This is the photo I used of Matilda on her way to work last February with a big red, London bus in the background. She is twenty-one now, but she still loves Halloween and dressing up and this year she and her friends are going to a Halloween themed evening at Dickens' World in Rochester, so I'm hoping she won't be too cross with this caricature in the style of Tim! Maybe it will even give her some ideas for her costume.

I think Matilda would agree that one of her best friends is our cat, Daisy, so she has been given the Tim treatment too! I used a 6B pencil, Graphik fine line, Inktense and Pan Pastels to turn my daughter into this spooky creation! I'm now beginning to imagine all kinds of stories around this young lady and her cat. I have scanned the image into my computer so it might possibly appear on a little wooden Halloween house, peeping through a tiny window. I'll let you know what I eventually decide to create using it! Have a great weekend and a lovely creative week and thank you for stopping by Magpieheaven today. I really appreciate your continued support and your company.