Illustrapedia Challenge for October

The next challenge (October) for Illustrapedia is "Halloween". I thought this might be a bit tricky, because it's one of those conventional events of the year, and all too easy to draw some conventional stuff.

So, I've tried to think of a theme (as I usually do with these challenges) that centres around a story. Nothing concrete yet, but I had this idea about a boy (who may be good or bad) who invents a machine for Halloween. As I haven't decided the boy's true intentions (good or evil), I therefore haven't decided the purpose of this machine. All I know is that it involves the real witches, ghosts and ghouls of Halloween being invited to try the machine out.

The basic thumbnails of my idea:


I like drawing machinery, so this was a bit of an excuse to include some type of bizarre contraption! I still need to tweak the machine a bit. For instance, I'm not sure if the main body (box) should actually be a coffin. And I want to add some more cogs, levers, etc. The idea of a clock (coupled with the cogs) seems quite good, which shows the approach of the witching hour!