Cute Fall/Halloween Puzzle Cover Tutorial

Remember the Train Cover I posted a week or so ago? I decided to attempt another one..but this time one that was more like fall or Halloween. Fall is my favorite season and I always enjoy carving pumpkins before Halloween. And so upon completing the first like this, I decided to take pictures to show you all how you too can make your own puzzle covers.

Puzzle covers are basically mail art that takes more than one envelope to make the whole picture. Therefore you have to have all the envelopes or you picture (puzzle) is incomplete. =)

The first step is to sketch the design on the envelopes. You need to take care to line up the design perfectly when laying out the envelopes. This give you a clearer and more professional look when they are all finished. Once you get that finished you need to ink the outline of the design. (Which I forgot to take a picture of...)

Next I always start by inking the design in the spots that are going to be the darkest. In this case, the cat on the pumpkin was the darkest spot. So I started there.

As you can see, I then moved on to the pumpkin. I inked in the eyes and mouth and then did some faint lines to show dimension. While doing this you need to be careful not to smudge the ink that is already down. (That takes some skill!) If you look closely you can see where I messed up on the pumpkin top. I hiccuped and the pen moved across an area I did not mean to.

I then worked on the pumpkin top, because it takes longer than the pumpkin itself. There is a lot of shadow and therefore lots of ink needed. If you look closely, you can see where I attempted to hide the mistake in the shadows. If I don't point it out..it is barely noticeable.

Finally I worked on the pumpkin remembering that pumpkins sometimes have "ripples" in their flesh. So there needed to be slightly darker spots and lighter spots to give a more realistic look.

That is the finished product right there. It is all inked by a Bic Z4 Roller ball. And looking it up just now to verify the name...I just found out that it comes in colors!! Guess what is on my to-buy list now??

Stay tuned next week sometime..I have another cover that will be going out to someone next week. and I want to make sure that I don't spoil the surprise! =)