I don't usually do "scary" pictures, especially not explicit horror. It seems that I don't resonate with the darker side, preferring to make bright and comforting pictures full of wine and flowers and misty blue hills. But every so often I get a chance to do something a bit less sweet. The impulse for creating this little scene was the architecture and the shadows in the original reference image. It looked ominous without being outright spooky. I was also inspired by the vampire stories of Anne Rice, which took place in architecturally fascinating New Orleans. I used the brick rendering watercolor technique that I had done for years as a professional architectural illustrator. The lady in the doorway is a vampire but I didn't need to put fangs and blood to get the idea across.
You never know, I might do some scary or horror pictures again but I would want them to be cliche'-free and genuinely frightening or disturbing, not the usual standard creepy procedures. This one's for Halloween, after all.
“Vampire in the Doorway” is watercolor on illustration board, 7” x 10”, September 1990.
No comments:
Post a Comment