This year, West Elm Kids did a collaboration with the legendary Ed Emberley and released an adorable Halloween collection. If you’re unfamiliar, Ed Emberley is an American artist and illustrator that has made over 80 award winning children’s books for over 60 years. He’s probably one of the most influential people in my life as it was through his books that nurtured my love for drawing and ultimately the arts in general, which eventually led me to pursue the career I have as an adult in the design industry. His way of breaking down illustrations into easy-to-follow basic shapes, made drawing approachable and instilled the confidence that anyone could draw.
Seeing the great West Elm collection brought a super wave of nostalgia and I figured this year, let’s pay a little homage to the beloved Mr. Emberley. Over the years I’ve been quietly collecting some of the books I missed as kid and two of them in particular served as the inspiration for this years Pumpkin adventure:
Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Halloween and Ed Emberley’s How to Draw Monsters and More Scary Stuff
Making the pumpkins was pretty easy and simple. I just spray painted the base colors (I reused the plastic pumpkins I had from last year) and just cut out construction paper, drew the details with a paint pen/marker and used some pipe cleaners for added details. Also, pro-tip, because there was so much black, I used black colored glue sticks which helped blend in with everything.
I started with replicating the Frankenstein monster, witch, bat, werewolf, and vampire that’s featured in the How to Draw Scary Monsters cover.
but I also really liked the all-black look of the cover of the Halloween book, so I made some smaller pumpkins and fashioned them after some of the illustrations found in there.
Anyway, a simple and easy nostalgic way to celebrate Halloween! If you are interested in more about Ed Emberley, a few years ago, there was a great retrospective book that was put together by Todd Oldham that celebrates his legacy. Would make a great gift!