Brilliant People

The great Austrian-born filmmaker Billy Wilder once said "The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian."

On making another European witch - an Austrian this time, I was thinking about how much I loved my trip to Vienna when I was 6 or 7 years old. What a magical place. Plus I just happen to think that the German language is the most attractive, fantastic sounding language. Yes, I know, German is spoken a little differently there, but it's still German, and I love it. ;)

This witch came together very quickly because I'd already designed her and had her clearly in my mind ages ago when I did the witch illustration. Can you point her out?! Unlike most of my character designs which try to embody as much of that culture as possible, this one is a little more vague. I've made her tall, strong, authoritarian, confident and with a big red almost beehive hairstyle. Her Edwardian brooch has a skull on it and she wears stripes. Her 'familiar' (witch's pet) is a black Great Dane. I photographed her next to a can of Red Bull because it's an Austrian drink, created by an Austrian entrepreneur! Didn't know that now did you?! (I didn't either until 2 weeks ago).

I usually share many work-in-progress photos so that you can see how she was created, but this time I am holding some back... partly for this reason! Rest assured, you'll see so much more in my upcoming book. Hope that doesn't cause any disappointment and that you enjoy these photos below.

Don't forget, you can see all my characters from my project - Good Witches Bad Witches ™  here!

In other news.... 

Flown up front with my pilot friend in his Cirrus back to San Francisco again! See the exciting night landing here!

The US election happened earlier this week, which meant that as a Greencard-holding resident here in the US I could observe the election, but not vote. I went to the polling booth here in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, and was thrilled to be invited inside for a minute or two and shown how the machines worked.

And also Halloween, my favourite time of year has come and gone, and I shared a post about what I got up to here.

On work related matters, stay tuned (that means keep checking in on at the Facebook page and Instagram) to see more of the exciting sets I am building for Good Witches Bad Witches ™ ....!

Please scroll past the note for my Austrian friends to see photos of the new witch - the Austrian Witch (die österreichische hexe)!

Liebe Freunde in Österreich,

hier habe ich eine Nachricht für Euch….

Mit sieben Jahren besuchte ich Wien und verbrachte dort eine ganz wunderbare Zeit. Was für ein schöner Ort ! Dahin möchte ich gerne zurückkehren und mehr über Österreich entdecken.
Als Künstlerin arbeite ich an einem Projekt „ Good Witches Bad Witches“ und modellierte dafür Hexen aus der ganzen Welt. So sind bereits Hexen aus England, Schottland, Frankreich, Italien und anderen Ländern entstanden.

Und diese ist nun die österreichische hexe.Ich stellte sie aus Fimo Material und Draht her. Sie sollte ein bisschen furchteinflößend sein, doch hoffe ich, sie gefällt Ihnen dennoch.

Für Ihr Interesse an meinen Arbeiten und Charakteren möchte ich mich sehr bedanken. Wenn Sie mehr darüber erfahren möchten, können Sie auf meiner Facebook Seite, meinem Instagram, oder über Twitter Informationen erhalten.

Vielen Dank!

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Me and My Monsters

As a seven year old English girl, innocently drawing vampire bite-holes on my neck using my mum's eyeliner, I never imagined living where the screen monsters I adored came from. I loved 'American Werewolf in London' (and anything Rick Baker was involved in) so much that I wore out the VHS tapes. I grew up with Hammer Horrors and adored Bela Lugosi.

This Halloween almost passed me by. Of course I celebrate it all month with as many Halloween themed events I can get around to, but this year was different. Work and deadlines overtook everything and I sat gloomily in front of my computer working on Halloween night. It was at 9 pm that I glanced at a news story which floated my way. "Visit the 'Best Halloween House in LA'" was all I needed to read. Threw on a Snow White costume and was heading there 5 minutes later. That's another thing I love about LA - I'm right smack in the middle of everything worth knowing about, come Halloween.

The house in question belongs to director Rich Correll. For the entertainment of trick-or-treaters he decks his house and garden with his seriously impressive horror film prop collection, complete with lighting and skeletons dancing on the roof. Actors as zombies and terrifying clowns emerge from behind tombstones in the thick fog that passes across his front lawn. An animatronic witch stirs a cauldron at the front door. A towering Bigfoot looms over visitors in the hallway and Jack Torrance (AKA Jack Nicholson as murderer from 'The Shining') grins at you as you leave with sweets. Another sinister costumed character hands out more candy to the massive crowds which gather outside.

Yes - it really is the best Halloween house in LA.

It was too fantastic to share with photos alone, so I took a quick video (which I've uploaded to my personal YouTube account here) as well.

Note that the Tall Tales Productions YouTube Channel is here.

I was probably away from my work only an hour - but what a cool way to do Halloween in a flash.

Here's a greeting from the Texan witch of Tall Tales ('Good Witches Bad Witches'). Enjoy the photos below and check back soon for more updates on 'Good Witches Bad Witches'. I have a new witch I just finished sculpting which I will share very soon...

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