Michael Ramstead

@michaelramstead.bsky.social

3290 Followers 16 Following

Fall Forever Illustration and Music

In a dark void, there is the corner of an orange monopoly-like board game seen from a player’s point of view. Each space contains individual artwork of classic Halloween imagery, such as candy, a staircase, a clock, a grave, a black cat crossing someone’s path, a slasher holding a knife, and some bats. A girl stands on the square with a grave and a paper cut out of a suburban front door emerges upward from the top of the square. The girl is colored monochromatically in purple and is dressed in a little leaguer costume. Behind her, on other board game squares stands a boy dressed as a mummy in green and a boy dressed as an astronaut in blue. All three children have frightened expressions on their faces. Above them, a pair of dice are being cast. In the darkness, the large glowing eyes of two game players can faintly be seen.
In a teenage boy’s dimly lit bedroom at night, a classic-looking grey alien lies down on its back on the bed. The boy is sitting at a computer desk against the back wall, with his back to us, the computer screen silhouettes his head. The room is decorated with sci-fi and alien posters including one for The Thing, the “I Want to Believe” poster from the X-Files, a Coheed and Cambria keywork poster, and an Invader Zim poster. The bedsheets have rockets and planets on them and there is a lamp reminiscent of a flying saucer. A mask of a girl sits on the floor near the bed. The image is dark and a sickly grey-ish orange with faded yellow highlights, unlike Fall Forever’s usual warm orange tones.
In an interrogation room, a teenage girl sits alone at a table. She looks down, distraught. Her wrists are handcuffed to the table. In front of her are photographs. One is of a body of a deceased girl on a morgue table with a sheet covering her body. Her face is disfigured. The others show a shovel and mask. There is also a file with some papers. The table is covered in leaves and spiky liquidambar sweet gum balls. Behind the girl is the door to the interrogation room and a one way mirror. In the reflection, a large creature can be seen looming over the girl. its head is the skull of some sort of animal, like a horse, and its head is crowned with twigs and branches. It’s fingers are sharp and pointy, and it appears to be wearing a kind of robe. From its back sprout branch like wings. The scene is lit from above by a warm, orange lightbulb, that bathes the girl in light. the rest of the image, including the reflection, is a cool teal color.
The first image is a drawing intended to look like a newspaper photograph. It is black and white and depicts a figure from the shoulders up in a mask collaged out of newspaper headlines with articles such as “The Ripper Claims 5th” and “The hunt is on.” There are only two eye holes and the mask is sloppily made, torn at the edges with no real craftsmanship or direction.
In a dim autumn scene at dusk, four trick or treaters walk down a street together in costumes and masks. From the left, the first is wearing a “That Isn’t the Moon” costume with a completely black outfit (Hoodie, jeans, converse) and a moon face mask. He holds a ghost trick or treat pail. The next kid is a Black girl in a Devilyn costume, with devil horns and a fancy red suit. She holds a witch candy bag and smiles at the moon mask kid. The next boy is dressed as the Groundskeeper, with a newsboy hat, an upside down jack-o-lantern bag as a mask, puffy vest, plaid shirt, jeans and work boots. He holds a jack-o-lantern pail. The final trick or treater looms over them all, a strange woman with gnarled hair and a dark ghostly body. Her disturning and smiling face can be seen behind a Kat mask that she is too big for. She holds a little kitty pail. Behind them is a suburban fall scene, wiith houses, lawns, some decorations.
On a bright orange day, the skeletal forms of three witches stand ominously facing the viewer. The witches are engulfed in flames, their pointed hats, gowns, and skulls appear as dark silhouettes. Their bodies are ravaged, one is missing an arm, the center one’s ribcage is exposed, and the last has a large gash through her hip. They stand on a manicured lawn sprinkled with fall leaves in an otherwise normal suburban street, hinted at by the simple geometric shapes of homes behind them.
A Halloween night scene shows three children in homemade costumes—a Dalmatian, a superhero, and a mad scientist—looking terrified at a crosswalk. Behind them, is their poor, run-down neighborhood. Across the street, the homes are well-kept and warmly lit with Halloween decorations and string lights, hinting that the better candy awaits on that side. In the middle of the street however, floats a ghostly crossing guard, wearing a tattered safety vest marked with a dark tire track. It holds up a bent stop sign to the children and it’s cracked glasses glow with eerie yellow light. The entire scene is bathed in a sepia-orange glow under a full moon, evoking both nostalgia and dread.
Standing ominously facing away from us and towards a horizon of silhouetted suburban homes, The Groundkeeper holds his rake in one hand as a pile of leaves burns beside him. He is dressed in his signature newsboy cap, bag mask that covers his head, ribbed puffer vest, plaid shirt, workman’s gloves, jeans, and boots. It is an overcast day, and the dark figure stands in contrast with the bright sky. Laves fall around him and the entire image is tinted orange.
In an orange lit room, a strange, long, dark arm reaches through the blinds of a sliding door to pet a black cat that walks up to greet it. String lights line the door and a decorative jack o lantern paper cut out is taped to the wall above the cat.