The Count Takes Mr. Flappington Out For Walkies

Hey, it's another vector drawing!

This drawing kind of reminds me of when I was a kid. My dad would catch a junebug, tie a tread to one of its legs and hand it to me. The junebug would take off flying, and I'd walk around the yard holding onto its "leash." Take that, PETA!

I'm starting to like working in vector more and more. I didn't much like it the first time I dabbled in it, mostly because it took so incredibly long to draw anything. But the more I use vector, the faster I get. I did this one in about 3 hours or so. A far cry from the days it took to do this one in 2009.

The Count and the bat were drawn in InDesign. I then imported them into Photoshop where I added the painterly background (including splatters), because that's something you just can't do very well in vector.
Here's the original sketch of the Count. Note that originally he was going for a stroll in the sun, with an umbrella to prevent him from "sparkling" (call me old fashioned, but in my day vampires burst into flames when exposed to the sun). I decided that walking his bat would make a more interesting drawing.

Bat Batsterson

I tend to draw a lot of big lummox type characters. I especially like the visual of a giant character supported by tiny little wings.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.



Here's the digital sketch. Pretty much the same as the final drawing, other than adding his right arm and trying to make his body look heavier and more pendulous.

Batboy

Another experiment in a looser and more painterly style than my usual hard-edged pen & ink look. I learned a lot about what not to do in a digital painting!

I spent a lot of time trying to make his wings look translucent. They came out OK, but there's definitely room for improvement.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.