Challenge # 49 : The darkest time of the year

Goodmorning Darksiders and a happy fourth Advent !
This will be the last challenge for this year, with "The
darkest time of the year" as a theme. You can give your
own twist to this challenge so twist it as much as you
can :D

I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all
participants and readers. Your nice comments and your
contributions make this challenge blog into a really nice
place to be ! I will be wishing you a Merry Christmas
now, and all the best for the new year.

Challenge # 48 : A dark Christmas bubble

Hello all and thank you for participating in last
week's challenge ! I think it is so great that you
take time to do these challenges even though you
probably more than enough to do, making Christmas
cards, setting up menus, decorating the house and
what not. And thank you to our readers who take
time to check out the participant's blogs !

This week is going to be a bit different. I am not
setting a theme, but a form ! This week i would
like to see your bubbles. A bubble is the size of a CD
but not a CD. So trace around a CD and use that
as your base for a dark Christmas bubble. And if
you are satisfied with what you have made you can
even hang it on your Christmas tree :) A digital bubble
is ofcourse also a possibility.

So, happy third Advent and happy creating !

Challenge # 47 : The three ghosts of Christmas

Can you believe it the second sunday in Advent tomorrow ?
Time flies by so fast it is almost not more than a flash !

But enough of this, we had very cool and scary and bad
Santas last week ! I am glad you enjoyed this dark theme
and i am sure there are a lot of people that enjoyed going
to the blogs to see the entries.

This week has a theme that you probably expected to pop
up at one point this Christmas : the ghost of Christmas past,
the ghost of Christmas present and the ghost of Christmas
future. You can use all or only one and you can do whatever
pops up in ur head. You can use any form or medium you
fancy so go have fun with it.

Good luck and happy crafting this week and not to forget :
Happy second Advent !

Challenge # 46 : Bad Santa !

Hello all readers and participants of the Darkside
Challenges. Those of us in Europe : it has been
a wet week indeed ! Those of you in the US have
surely had a nice week with Thanksgiving. And after
Thanksgiving follows Advent : tomorrow will
be the first sunday in Advent wich means that
Christmas-preparations officially start.

Christmas is the celebration of (new) light in the
world but The Darkside would not be The Darkside
if we would not come up with a dark challenge, though.
Therefor, this week's challenge is Bad Santa ! I am
not thinking about the movie with that title, but i
am thinking about the dark side of the bigbellied
merrymaker. In this post :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joulupukki you can
read about this dark side of the celebrations. So
get out your thinking cap and put it on ! Afterwards,
make your piece and show us, we are so excited
to see what you come up with :)

Happy crafting, happy Advent !

Challenge # 45 : The nightmare before Christmas

Goodmorning Darksiders !

Last week we have not had many contributions, but it
is not the quantity, it is the quality that counts :) Thank
you to those who played and thank you to those who
visited blogs and left comments.

As Christmas is drawing nearer we will have a focus
on that the upcoming weeks. The first of our Christmas
themed challenges is : The nightmare before Christmas.
This does not mean you can only use Tim Burton's film
as inspiration, but anything and everything that this
challenge-title means to you.

Here is a nice read if you are interested in the background
of ghost stories at Christmas. Especially the comments
are nice. www.wwaytv3.com/scary_ghost_stories_for_christmas/4/5211#comment-26424

Challenge # 44 : Mythological Horrors

Hello to all readers and participants ! Every week i enjoy
all your contributions very much, it is really a joy to visit
your blogs, your pieces inspire me :)

I am sorry for posting so late, but i had some issues with
my connection to the wide, wide world of internet. But as
i like to say : better late than never, so here is the challenge
for the coming week and a half. This week's challenge is
called Mythological Horrors. Some suggestions maybe ?
How about zombie unicorns, vampiric pixies or the one
and only Kraken ? You can surely come up with much
better ideas , so i am looking forward to your posts.

Be creative, happy crafting !

Challenge # 43 : Day of the Dead / Dias de los Muertos

To everyone who participated in The 13 days of Halloween-
challenge : thank you so much, and to all the readers who
did not participate in the challenge : i am sure you enjoyed
checking out all the posts because they were fabulous again !

This week there will be the following theme :
Day of the Dead / Dias de los Muertos or the related
themes : All Saints, All Souls. Depending on where you live
there are different ways of celebrating this holiday which
is in essence the same thing. For more information you
can check out the Wikipedia page on "Day of the Dead".

So take your pick and make something beautiful again :D
Happy crafting !

Challenge # 42 : The 13 days of Halloween

Thank you to all who joined us in our challenge last week,
and thank you to all who visited blogs and left comments,
i hope you had as much fun with this challenge as i have had !

Tomorrow, on sunday the 18th of october, the 13 days of
Halloween begin. It is a period of time filled with creepyness
and excitement, a period where you can finish off the
last of your Halloween preparations ; think about your
Halloween dinner, decorations and all the other things
that you are planning on this holiday.

So this is your challenge for the coming two weeks :
The Thirteen Days of Halloween. You can express
yourself in any possible way you can think of, we will
be waiting here to see what you come up with ! And if
you want to enter with multiple items, you are more
than welcome :D Happy crafting !

Challenge # 41 : Halloween Decoration

Goodmorning one and all !

A big thank you to all participants of last week's
challenge. Very gorgeous things have been created
again, even though it was a difficult challenge :)

This week is going to be easier again, i challenge
you to make a Halloween Decoration. It can be
anything that you made that will adorn your
house during Halloween.

I will give you a few examples :


some candy baskets,


a bouquet of button flowers,


an altered Sylvanian.

So you see, it can be anything at all. Go on and

make something and show us all ! Happy crafting :)

Challenge # 40 : Surreal

It is so nice to see the contributions to our challenges,
i really enjoy bloghopping to all your blogs and see the
pretty things you make ! Well done !

Last week's challenge gave us all a possibility to get
some Halloween preparations done. This week we
will be venturing into the surrealistic world. Your
task will be to create something with the theme
"Surreal". You can choose any medium you like
this week, so put on your thinking hat and enjoy
where this challenge will take you :)

Happy creating !

Challenges on Saturday

The challenges on Art on the Darkside will be posted
on saturdays from now on. Thursday is a bit of a
difficult day and i will have much better time doing
it on saturdays, so you will have to wait two days
to learn what the new challenge will be :D

Challenge # 39 : Halloween ATC's

Last week's contributions were fabulous again.
You recieved a really difficult assignment but
you made the most of it, fantastic job all !
Be sure to visit the other participant's blogs
for inspiration because they are worth visiting.



This week's assignment is much easier : as
Halloween is approaching, we ask you to make
Halloween ATC's. The can be dark, eerie,
unsettling, anything you can come up with.



Here are some examples of ATC's i made
earlier. If you are not an ATC-person you
can do the alternate assignment : make a
Halloween Card. Size and form are up to you.




We wish you all inspiration to make the best out of this
assignment and are looking forward to seeing all your
dark creations.

Challenge # 38 : be careful what you wish for

Hello to all of our readers and participants ! Another
week has come and gone and brought us lots of
beautiful and meaningful art and we are about to
embark on a new art-journey. Do not forget to
check out the other participant's blogs for
inspiration :)

The theme for this week is "Be careful what you
wish for". Normally this would be followed by :
you might get it, but i let that part out so that you
can finish the sentence any way you want.

A few weeks ago i spoke about mind-mapping
and to give an example would be a logical next
step, right ? Normally i would make a more
elaborate map but this time i will make a small
beginning for the sake of this blogpost :

"Be careful what you wish for" :

* you might get it
* eventhough you will not get it
* children's stories about three wishes

* wishing for "good" things
* wishing for "bad" things
* desires; what are your dark desires ?
* dreams; what do you dream of ?

* what if you get what you want ?
* how will it change things ?

* spooky - / ghoststories
* wishing wells
* wishing spells (witchcraft)

Challenge # 37 : lurking in the shadows

Hello everyone, i hope you had a nice week (with our
challenge) and that you are up to another one ! The
creations from the past week are as stunning as ever
and i want to encourage everyone to go take a peek
at the various blogs.

This week's challenge is : lurking in the shadows. What
you can come up with is totally up to you, any form
or medium is allowed, so let your imagination take
you for a ride !

Challenge # 36 : Black

Thank you all again for your contributions and comments on
last week's challenge. It was a hard one and a dark one and
it is about to get even darker ! This week's challenge for you
has the theme "Black", so not only the colour black, but
anything black. I am looking forward to seeing the things
you can come up with.

I do not know if you guys do this too, but i usually make a
(mental) mind map what a challenge means to me, it helps
me make the most of my work and i often amaze myself by
the things that come up while mapping.

If you want to read more about this check this out :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

Have fun with creating your art !

Challenge # 35 : Halloween Outfit

Goodmorning ! It has been two weeks since my first
post and i want to thank you all, but especially June
for the warm welcome i recieved ! Last week's moth
theme was really scary and the contributions were
once again very cool :D It is so much fun to see all
your pieces of art :)

As you will have guessed it is thursday again ... and
that leads us to our next challenge, which is :
Halloween Outfit. You can choose any medium you
would like for this challenge and decide whether it
will be your own, someone else's or any other kind
of outfit. There are no restrictions.

My own contribution is this Batterina in her orange
tutu and her batty personality ;)



I choose a 3D piece this time, but of course yours can be
2D, no worries about that. I hope that you will have as
much fun with this one as i did and i am looking forward
to see your contributions popping up :D

A Little late with this one ...

But hoping you might be able to come up with something for the challenge so here it is ...

MOTH'S

You may use this spooky specimen or use another image :) I hope you will have fun.
Many thanks to Meikoningin for the wonderful challenge last week and such a lot of fabulous makes, thanks everyone. Meikoningin has some more amazing ideas for us coming soon
in the meantime , here is your moth :)

Challenge # 33 : Halloween Pennant

Goodmorning everyone ! Thank you all who have
participated in last week's challenge, it was fun to
see what you have come up with again :)

And as is the case each week : a new thursday means
a new challenge. And it is quite a special one for me,
because it is my first one to host ! So i hope my challenge
for you tickles your imagination :) I atleast had fun with it,
so i am keeping my fingers crossed.

This week's challenge is : make a Halloween Pennant.
Halloween is still weeks away, but still it might be smart to
start making decorations because often it goes the same
way as with Christmas : you have lots of plans for cards
and decorations, but you end up not having enough time. If
Halloween is not your thing, you can choose to make a
"dark pennant" or a "scary pennant".



You can use this picture as a base for your pennant,
it is a really big picture, but you can ofcourse change
the size to whatever you like.



This is what i came up with myself, now you go do
your thing and enjoy yourself !

Challenge - Image

This weeks darkside challenge is to use this image to create something with. I love the gothic feel of this and hope to also get time to make something
have fun

image in the public domain

My own cobweb entry

this is one i made for this weeks challenge too
Black widow

Arachnaphobia ?

Well i don't believe we have done this one yet on darkside but i thought you may enjoy a chance to get in amongst the spiders with a little look at ....


COBWEBS !!!
Have fun with this challenge and enjoy taking it and making it creative - You do NOT have to use this image, any cobwebs you care to create are fine

challenge pic from me

we are short on entries so far so made my own for this challenge of ATTIC
hope you like it

Challenge Darkside

This weeks darkside challenge is

'IN THE ATTIC '

Where does your imagination take you when you picture a dusty old attic in that haunted old house?
Have fun !!!

Most Haunted

thanks for all the wonderful challenge entries for the wolf challenge ... woohooo how amazing these were
this week i wanted to try the theme of

Most Haunted Houses

Darkside Wolves

Thanks to all who have joined in the challenge this week. It was a short one so please feel free to submit any others for the GARGOYLE CHALLENGE but as promised i wanted to update properly with a full week for the challenges again so here is this weeks challenge.

WOLVES
create something that is based on the Wolf or werewolf and have some fun !!

New challenge

So sorry to be so late getting started again with challenges. Life has just been so hectic.
I would like to leave this one for you all even though its late

Challenge

This weeks challenge is GARGOYLES and will run until Thursday and then be changed for a new one

Mirrors

This weeks darkside prompt is "MIRRORS "

Think : hall of mirrors, ghostly mirrors ... anything with reflections etc

Have fun and be creative.

NOTE
There will be no challenge next week due to circumstances and i will be taking a few days off from blogging

Junes Tattoo

I set the challenge ( see post below ) this week for TATTOO ... i meant to post this piece that i made a while back myself but couldnt find it. Now i found it so here is my own contribution :) which is a mixed media 4 x 4 collage

Tattoo challenge

There are so many beautiful kinds of art out there but one that is underrated is the art of tattoo's they have a look entirely of their own. I do not have any body tattoo's but i do admire the artwork that they are.
Tattoo's so often embrace the dark side too so this week we will honor them with choosing

TATTOO STYLE - OR TATTOO'S as out theme for the week,
all you need to do is take a look at some tattoo's online and then bring this into your art somewhere, whether its digital or physical art the word TATTOO is just a seed of the idea so go with wherever it takes you and come and post the results

Puppeteer

How about this weeks Challenge .... I would like you all to become puppeteers.
Your mission this week is to create your very own work which will include a puppet or ventriliquist dummy, marionette or something along those lines.
Last weeks challenge did not inspire much so i am hoping this one will.
Have fun

Darkside Challenge -

This weeks challenge is by special request from my lovely friend Joan who's artwork I really admire. Do stop by and see her wonderful work here if you get chance. ( Joan i shall email soon i promise )
Anyway here is the weeks Dark challenge

BLACK KNIGHT'S &/or DARK RIDER

Ghosts of the Sea

This weeks darkside challenge is all about the sea

The theme in my mind is ... titanic, ghost ships, ghostly shapes on the sea, dark mermaids,anything along those lines will be acceptable

New Challenge - ROSE & THORNS

Hi all, As you know i am struggling with things at the moment. My own health is suffering now too but i do want to leave a challenge or two when i can and its exciting to see the entries so i hope you will join in with this one. I will place the challenges when i can until things settle more. I hope this is ok with everyone.
I am off to visit docs tomorrow. so will find out whats what soon. Adam is doing ok and things are much the same. Thanks to my lovely friends here for all your comments :)

Ok here goes ... here is the new challenge ...


ROSE AND OR THORNS

Thanks Vron

I just want to say a huge thank you to my lovely friend Vron who has worked so hard and done so many brilliant challenges here at art on the darkside. If it hadn't been for Vron this blog would not still be here and i know she has had much to do on her own too. I have so many things to look after including blogs and after my son fell ill , i have also had to more or less do full time babysitting too so when Vron said she would look after you all for a while, well it was a huge blessing.
Vron your kindness has meant so much to me and i really appreciate you keeping this blog going.

Unfortunately Vron now also has too much going on to manage the blog too so it may be a difficult one to keep up but because of all the work Vron has done and all the work you all do, i will do my best to keep the challenges coming. The hard part for me is adding the pictures each week.
Thanks to my lovely blogging friend Genie Sea ... I have now added a mister blinky on the right hand side of this blog. It means you can add your comment and blog link there instead of here

Thanks again
June

Here is this weeks challenge ...

Lets try the theme of ... MOTHS

Challenge - Gangsters

The challenege this week is gangsters. I will be interested to see the different takes on this.

The sampler of last weeks challenge will be done later.

Hugs

Vron xx

Challenge - Mannequin

Here is a new challenge for you - Mannequin. I remember the old films, where the police go down to the cellar, and all old mannequins are stored in the shadows. Suddenly one moves!!!
Here is your inspiration - lets see what you can do.....

Vron xx

Challenge - The Bench

Where is it? Who has sat on it? Who will sit on it? You decide!



Courtesy of Larparmit at Deviant Art.

Have fun

Vron xx

Challenge - The Kiss

Here is the new challenge for this week -

THE KISS - KISS OF LOVE OR KISS OF DEATH - You choose!

Lets see what you can all come up with, after the great entries last week. You can use this image if you want to, but it's for inspiration, so you don't have to.

Enjoy and have fun.

Vron xx

Challenge - The Cross

I have always been interested in how the image of the cross is viewed. Is it the "trinket of deceit" as Dracula states, or is it a symbol of love and hope as many people believe. What do you think?
This image can be taken either way, so I would love to see your interpretation of this symbol.



http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=319393

This challenge is not intended to make any religious statement - so feel free to use it in any way that you want to - let your imagination run wild.

Vron

Carousel Of Darkness ( CHALLENGE )

The flu virus hit me hard so just getting myself back together now and want to say thanks to all who entered darkside challenge shadows challenge.
I hope this weeks theme will be just as popular.

DARKSIDE CHALLENGE - CAROUSEL OF DARKNESS

You may interpret this one any way you wish , make art in Physical or in Digital, its your choice but i always found something a little creepy about carousels .. must be the inner dark child in me

Challenge Shadows

This weeks DARKSIDE CHALLENGE .. is simple but gives you a whole scope for ideas, materials and visuals.
The theme this week for you all is

SHADOWS ... How dark are your shadows ???

Challenge 8 Evil Eyes

This week i want you to try your hand at EVIL EYES ... they say the eyes are the windows of the soul ... So lets look deep into those evil souless eyes ... How evil will your eyes turn out to be ?

Dont forget this is open to all and any kinds of art work so get creating

Darkside Challenge 8 - Bad Ass Clown

This weeks challenge is :

The Dark side of the Circus ........ BAD ASS CLOWN !!! JESTER, FEMALE CLOWN !! .. Go folks see how naughty you can be

Stephen Kings awesome book and movie inspired this weeks choice

Darkside Challenge 7 - Another You

This weeks darkside challenge is all about YOU ... Another You !! ... Your alter ego .. or your doppleganger. Have you ever fancied being someone wicked ? Have you ever had your choice of fancy dress and chosen a baddy ? .... Well here is your chance to become whoever you wish ...

You can choose to actually portray an image direct from my 'Doppleganger poem (see below ) OR just go creatively wild with an artwork,picture,atc,painting,gothic arch,card,stampbord, anything you like with images of who you would like to be if you were wicked - vampire? fallen angel, witch,diva,baby jane,devil,gargoyle, sea monster ??? ... go for it !!!! I am dying to see what can be done with this

I do hope you will enjoy this one !!