I always tell my children that if there is something that scares them, they should learn more about it. Whether that scary thing is their classmate’s odd habits, or the structure of the roaches that crawl in the walls, challenging ourselves to understand the nature of something that is different is a key way to make it less scary.

So, if you are trying to create something that is scary in your art, the best way to go about it is to create something that will make your viewer uncomfortable by its very oddness, its very differentness if you will. Here are some tricks to make that happen.

How to draw a Scary Drawing in 3 easy steps

Use unnatural distortion to make your drawing feel wrong

An easy way to create a scary feeling of “wrongness” in your drawing is to take an ordinary object and distort it in an unnatural way. Think of the abnormally long fingers of the creepypasta Slenderman or Nosferatu. Our minds recognize when something is mostly normal, but just a little bit off, so that we can recognize the wolf in sheep’s clothing, so to speak.

Remove or change facial features to make your drawing feel creepy

Pivoting off of the distortion concept, you can easily draw something scary by removing parts of an object, or putting them somewhere where they usually wouldn’t be found. For instance, consider the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth. Or recall the Doctor Who episode “The Idiot’s Lantern.” In each of these instances, the artists have removed pieces of the characters’ faces, placed them elsewhere, or entirely erased them. It makes for some pretty creepy feels.

Use disparate meshing to make your drawing feel uncomfortably monstrous

Finally, meshing two disparate things together really rubs us the wrong way as humans. We’re uncomfortable when we see the discarded clones of Ripley in Alien: Resurrection. Or when we see the spliced together side show gaffs of carnivals long past.

The classic drawing party game Exquisite Corpse creates a scary result by default because contributors don’t have a clue what the previous person has drawn. It reminds us of the age-old warning not to play God. Not to make new life. Not to Frankenstein things together, lest we get a monster.

Combine these 3 drawing concepts to draw something scary

Throw these three principles together. Then, add some teeth, some smoke, and some other classically scary items, and you have yourself a frightening image.

If you follow this tutorial, please share your results with us! We’d love it if you posted the scary things you draw in our Facebook group. Don’t miss our other tutorial on how to draw a haunted house, which we have a video for as well. Sweet dreams!

The post How to draw a scary drawing appeared first on Homespun Haints.

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Demonic Possession in Oklahoma

William grew up in a rural town in Oklahoma’s panhandle. The son of an iron scrapper, William could have led a perfectly ordinary life, if the ghosts had let him. However, in this sleepy town, the ghosts are anything but restful. They want someone to notice that they’re there. And that someone was William.

On this episode, William takes us way back to childhood to tell us a story about his haunted travel trailer. We hear about William’s time at Tulsa Job Corps in 2013, and the impromptu informal exorcism that resulted. And exactly who (or what) was responsible for saving his life in that near-fatal accident?

About the Guest: William Walker

Today’s guest is a native of Wenoka, Oklahoma, AKA the Dust Bowl, AKA the harsh and lonely Oklahoma Panhandle. He currently resides near Diana’s stomping grounds, in the Tulsa Metro area. He dreams of owning a ranch, he even has a name for it: Walker’s Ridge. With William being a self-proclaimed “Big Foot enthusiast,” we’re really looking forward to seeing what types or creatures he will raise on his ranch.

Did Tulsa Job Corps campus used to be an asylum?

This isn’t the first dormitory demon we’ve heard about on this show, but it’s definitely the most explicit. We are having a devil of a time finding any details about the history of this building. Please drop us a line if you know any details.

More of our ghost stories from Oklahoma

• Live by the Signs: Weather Magic
• The Cursed Parking Lot at Tulsa Freedom Fest
• Finally, Diana’s Haunted Basement Ghost Story!
• Tiny Terrors in Tulsa
• There’s an extra person in this room.

What is a Black Mirror?

We actually have a Patreon episode about how to make and scry with black mirrors. Becky advises against it, but you know you wanna. Also, we saw black mirrors for sale in the Nickerson-Sneed House gift shop.

If a haunted travel trailer moves, does the ghost go with it?

Let’s turn this question around for a second. When you hear a brand new house is haunted, isn’t your first thought “maybe it was built on an ancient burial ground”? Yeah, of course, what else could it be? So when you have a haunted travel trailer, it HAS to be the land it’s on…right?

What do you think, have you ever experienced a haunted mobile home? We’d love for you to tell that story on our next episode, submit to be on the show now!

Who was the 12 foot tall ram-horned man in William’s dream?

Although William was pretty certain he wasn’t the devil, or The Hat Man, he was still pretty scary. Oh, and he also appeared in his friend’s dream, because that’s definitely normal. Was he a sleep paralysis demon? When the creature said “tonight” what did that mean? We’re bamboozled. What do you think?

Thank you for listening to these real demon possession stories!

Oh, before you go, please email Sparky the electric eel, if you want to solicit an eel for some odd jobs. He’s available for electrician work, as a stud for your own electric eel, or probably whatever else you can think of. You’ll have to listen to the episode for the address, so he doesn’t get spam (he prefers shrimp).

Got your own shockingly cool ideas on uses for an electric eel for hire? Join us on our Homespun Haints Facebook group to liven up the discussion. Until next time, have a spooky day!

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The Monster in the Toilet Tormented Me as a Child

From a young age, my parents told the tale of woe of all the little children who sat on the commode for longer than their allotted 1.35 minutes. They warned me how my bare ass would be a tantalizing treat for the evil toilet monster, who somehow exists in every rural home.

Not an urban legend, but a rural one

In my adult years, I have met few others whose parents also scared them into spending less time on the toilet. But one thing all of us who heard these monster tales shared: we grew up in rural areas of Appalachia. I’m sure other areas of the world have beasts similar to the monster in my toilet of yore: you might could equate the toilet monster with the toilet snakes in Florida, the sewer gators in New York.

What Does The Toilet Monster Look Like?

Different from these more plausible creatures, the toilet monster does not have a specific form or shape. His color, his teeth, his number of eyes, are all left to the wilds of the child’s imagination. You might call the toilet monster a a one-size-fits-all nightmare.

We made this documentary video to help you visualize the unspeakable horrors that lurk below. You’re welcome!

Where Does the Toilet Monster Come From?

The toilet monster lives in your septic tank. If you’re on a sewer or use an outhouse, you may not have to worry as much about this particular cryptid. (You probably contend with other creatures.)

When anyone in the household squats down to use the facilities, they unknowingly lure the toilet monster out of his stinky cave and up through the pipes. Everyone who takes the risk of using an indoor toilet must finish their business quickly before the toilet monster can make his way to the surface.

How Does the Toilet Monster Attack?

If you are having a particularly bad day digestive-wise, or if you decide to use the throne as a library seat, this despicable plumbing-savvy monster rises from the murky water to do unspeakable things to your derriere. And, as my parents described to me in great details, once you’re in the clutches of the toilet monster, there’s no escape. He reaches straight up through the toilet seat and grabs you in your most vulnerable areas (I imagine quite like a bowling ball) and pulls you down into the toilet.

Where does it take you?

Stuck in the toilet monster’s clenches, you’re wrenched through the pipes, special delivery, into the septic tank. There, you scrabble for purchase in the slippery, dark depths. You scream, but no one can hear you. It’s too late. You’re fated to die a grotesque death on the fumes of your family’s farts.

Sewer Monsters From Antiquity

Apparently, the 2nd century book Aelian’s “On the Characteristics of Animals” contained the first known written account of a toilet monster. In that case it was an Octopus, but what else would you expect a rampaging animal from an ancient Greek sewer to be? I’m just glad to know my family wasn’t the first.

Is the Toilet Monster Real?

The answer to that question depends on your definition of “monster.” It may interest you to know that there are indeed real dangerous animals that can indeed come up out of your toilet and getcha. How fun!

A real toilet monster…snake?

Listen to this funny podcast episode, where I challenge my friends with this awesome quiz on the top three most dangerous animals that people actually find when they lift the toilet lid. I’m not sure how a monster snake of that size fits in the u-bend, but given the snake-to-seat distance, I’m learning to pee standing up.

Is the Toilet Monster a Hoax?

You’re probably thinking of the time one man convinced the entire world that there were alligators in the NYC sewer system. This awesome monster prank has even been commemorated in a bronze statue.

Speaking of an awesome monster prank…

If you wanted to perpetrate your own awesome monster prank, I suppose you could use suction cups to attach a fake pop-up monster to the toilet seat to scare your friends. Believe it or not, there’s a product for that. After all, who doesn’t love a good laugh at the expense of their friends’ lifelong trauma? Have fun pranking friends, you heartless monster.

Effect of the toilet monster on adulthood

To this day, I am quick on the commode. A small tickle in the back of my brain still warns me if more than 80 seconds have passed while I’m engaging in fecal transfer. When my friends spend too much time in the throne room, I get antsy. Don’t they know how they’re toying with their own fates?

Have You Ever Heard of the Toilet Monster Before?

So, in case you did not grow up under the advisement of sadistic parents, you now are aware. Tell your friends about the monster in my toilet, who might very well be in yours. Be warned, be safe, and most of all, poop quickly.

The post What is the Toilet Monster? appeared first on Homespun Haints.

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Real Life Ghosts and Monsters

Do monsters eat negative energy? We know many children are able to see ghosts, but Michele and her sister held onto that ability well into adulthood. Which is why it’s so apropos that she lived in a house where a recently deceased former resident made her presence known through bizarre plumbing glitches. One night, after an angry, unresolved fight with her then partner, Michele’s sister went to bed in the guest room with Michele for solidarity. And it’s a good thing they were sharing that bed and not alone that night, considering there was suddenly, terrifyingly, something else in the room. Something that thought her sister smelled…tasty?

Episode Promotions

Our episode promo is from Lady Teal’s Curios. You might remember Lady Teal from several of our live séances, including the first, where we talked with tarot to haunted objects.

Other links to check out

The Pink House

Check out The Pink House, a touching memoir of triumph and sisterhood written by Michele’s mother.

A winery you should look into

Michele mentioned Hidden Hangar Vineyards, one of her favorite wineries in Texas. Check it out if you’re a Lone-Star oenophile.

About the Guest: Michele

Michele is a pilot, a writer and a sommelier. A sommelier, as far as we understand it, is a professional drinker who helps us philistines figure out how to wine. Not like in a course for credit, but usually on-the-fly, tableside. Michele tells us that the North-Central Texas climate is perfect for growing Tempranillo, a Spanish varietal red wine grape. As a sommelier, she might might tell us that Tempranillo grapes make “medium- to full-bodied reds of moderate to high levels of tannins and acidity,” taste like “a mix of red and dark fruits, including cherry and plum, as well as earth and herbal notes;” that “its acidity can sometimes be citrusy and orange peel–like,” and that its traditional oak aging is what causes the vanilla and cocoa flavors in the final product.

We, as novices, had to get that info from Wine Spectator. It would be too embarrassing to try to look this up on our phones while we’re trying to choose a wine to pair with our red meat and roasted root veggies. The sommelier saves the day and saves our face by educating us in a way that we could nod along to. “Yes, orange-peely, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”

Could the filled-in pool in the backyard cause occurrences of real life ghosts?

Would filling an in-ground pool with cement cause the type of weird plumbing issues Michele experienced in the bathrooms of her sister’s haunted house? There is actually a wikiHow for the appropriate way to fill in your unwanted in-ground concrete pool. Note that filling it with cement is not the advisable way. Recommendations include busting holes in the bottom of the concrete pool for drainage (otherwise the empty pool might float up out of the ground when the water table rises) and filling it with dirt, sand, or crushed rocks.

Even with proper drainage and filled with dirt, the structure may continue to settle for a long time. This makes it against building code to build a structure on top of the filled-in pool. We’re guessing that means if you neglected poking drainage holes and filled the pool with concrete, it’s going to settle quite a bit more, just due to the massive weight of a solid block of concrete buried in dirt. That type of settling might cause some havoc with the pipes buried under the yard. Although you would think that whoever put the pool there in the first place would have avoided putting it directly over plumbing, you never know.

But some of the plumbing issues at Michele’s sister’s house feel completely inexplicable by citing damage to the outside plumbing. For example, how did those wet footprints get up the stairs? How did the water suddenly turn colder than the tap water gets in a Texas Summer? The argument that the tragedy that occurred in this pool caused some paranormal activity to ensue seems equally worth entertaining. Especially considering how it all culminated.

Of course, then again, this podcast is no stranger to haunted pipes. Check out It Came up the Drain for more haunted bathroom action!

We hope this monster mashup got you in the spirit of Halloween!

Have you ever seen anything as weird as what Michele saw? What on earth could that have been? Join us on social to weigh in on these important questions. And, if you do have your own haunted bathroom, it’s pretty guaranteed you’ll have a spooky day!

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