Six Spooky Skillshare Student Projects to Inspire Your Halloween

There are few times of year as richly inspiring for making art as Halloween. Whether you want to design a costume, spook the neighborhood kids, or create some new, career-enhancing work, we’ve got some visual inspiration to get you on your way. We’ve rounded some of our favorite Halloween-inspired artwork created by Skillshare students, to help you have a more creative creepy season.

Bone-afide Art

Created by Skillshare student Arnaud Muller Fuega for Charlie Bowater’s Character Concept Art: From Initial Sketch to Final Design Skillshare class, this atmospheric work shows how expressive a character can be without benefit of facial features. The magic is all in the character’s posture, along with clever details such as the belt around the hip bones, a loose leg bone, and tin-can epaulets.

Stirring Up Trouble

“Communicate” is the key word in the title of Brad Woodard’s Skillshare class, Digital Illustration: Communicate with Color, Pattern, and Texture, and student Alison Hawkins does just that in this irresistible piece. The multiple patterned backgrounds work in harmony and support a gleeful coven of witches showing their holiday spirit.

Black as Ink

This work was created by Federico Tobon for Stefan G. Buchers’ Drawing Daily Monsters: Finding Inspiration in a Drop of Ink. Tobon found initial inspiration in the yellowed pages of an old dictionary, a design element that adds adds much interest to his inky monster. The character itself is expressive and suffused with attitude; that the creature seems more world-weary than menacing adds to its appeal.

Seasonal Symbols

Also created for Brad Woodard’s Digital Illustration: Communicate with Color, Pattern, and Texture class in response to a Halloween poster challenge, student Melissa Borel’s work employs iconic, logo-style illustrations and traditional Halloween colors, but still comes off fresh as a new dawn

Tongue Lashing

Whimsical meets sinister in this cartoon-inspired creation by Patrick Dias for Matt Kaufenberg’s Character Illustration: From Concept to Final Artwork Skillshare class. The artist manages to give a sense of motion to his primary character, who looks ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey.

Head Trip

Davide Tanka’s “Goblin” uses light and shadow to add mystery and intrigue to his monstrous creation. Created for Justin Goby Fields’ Digital Concept Art: Designing Creatures | Learn With Wacom class, “Goblin” mixes elements drawn from disparate sources: the creature’s face recalls classic movie aliens, but its leathery skin and head crest seem inspired by the dinosaurs.

Inspired by the season? Skillshare has thousands of classes to help you have the happiest Halloween (and beyond).

Header/thumbnail image credit: Skillshare student Alison Hawkins (detail)