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Description
Day of the Dead (Dia de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico where the day is a bank holiday. The celebration takes place on October 31, November 1 and November 2, in connection with the triduum of Hallowfide: All Hallows Eve, Hallowmas, and All Souls Day. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed. Visiting graves with these as gifts, they also leave possessions of the deceased.
A common symbol of the holiday is the skull (in Spanish calavera), which celebrants represent in masks, called calacas (colloquial term for skeleton), and foods such as sugar or chocolate skulls, which are inscribed with the name of the recipient on the forehead. Sugar skulls as gifts can be given to both the living and the dead. Other holiday foods include pan de muerto, a sweet egg bread made in various shapes from plain rounds to skulls and rabbits, often decorated with white frosting to look like twisted bones.

This drawing was a joy to do from start to finish. Polychromos (my absolute favorite) colored pencil on Strathmore "greyscale" paper. Double click on "Download" to ZOOM in and see that paper texture. From a gorgeous reference photo by She was nice enough to give me permission to attempt this. Thank You Katrine
Please browse her great gallery.
Heres a WIP before I started messing with the background

Description
Day of the Dead (Dia de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico where the day is a bank holiday. The celebration takes place on October 31, November 1 and November 2, in connection with the triduum of Hallowfide: All Hallows Eve, Hallowmas, and All Souls Day. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed. Visiting graves with these as gifts, they also leave possessions of the deceased.
A common symbol of the holiday is the skull (in Spanish calavera), which celebrants represent in masks, called calacas (colloquial term for skeleton), and foods such as sugar or chocolate skulls, which are inscribed with the name of the recipient on the forehead. Sugar skulls as gifts can be given to both the living and the dead. Other holiday foods include pan de muerto, a sweet egg bread made in various shapes from plain rounds to skulls and rabbits, often decorated with white frosting to look like twisted bones.

This drawing was a joy to do from start to finish. Polychromos (my absolute favorite) colored pencil on Strathmore "greyscale" paper. Double click on "Download" to ZOOM in and see that paper texture. From a gorgeous reference photo by She was nice enough to give me permission to attempt this. Thank You Katrine
Please browse her great gallery.
Heres a WIP before I started messing with the background