🎃 Meet Hattie: The Pumpkin-Head Witch

Every now and then, a character shows up fully formed. Not because I planned for her, but because she walked right into my sketchbook like she had somewhere to be. Hattie—the pumpkin-head witch with attitude, travel plans, and possibly a few secrets—was one of those.

She appeared years ago like this:

She started like this but I couldn't stop (artistically speaking) that this version wasn't quite 'the one.' 

While working on my portfolio this year, I was looking at last years work and kept coming back to this one: 

And just like that, it clicked. The spooky factor I was looking for.

There’s a certain charm to Hattie that’s hard to explain. She’s not spooky in the cackling way. She’s spooky in the "I've been around the block of the dead a few times, and I still like tea and quiet walks" kind of way.

She’s carved, imperfect and I have so many questions - is her broom second-hand? Does she might live in an old boarding house with too many keys? 

But she’s herself. Entirely.

And that really stuck with me.

I think Hattie resonates because she feels real—not polished, not perfect, but full of something I can’t quite name. Maybe she’s a little bit of all of us who’ve had to be scrappy, resourceful, and a little haunted to survive.

She has a past, even if I don’t know all of it yet. But I’m painting my way into it.