Coppola's Dracula

Bram Stoker's Dracula was a pretty big deal to me, movie-wise, when I was younger. I've been a huge fan of Dracula for many a year already, and this movie promised to be unlike any other before it. Well, it was. Visually, it was just insane. I mean, look at this guy! While charting a completely new course for the Dracula movies visually, it actually did a fairly impressive job of adhering to the original novel more closely than any adaptation had previously. Well, except for the whole bit about reincarnated love. No one's perfect. But Francis Ford Coppola's version of the Dracula story obviously had an impact on how we view the old vampire. If nothing else, this elderly version of Vlad was neatly impersonated by one Montgomery Burns in "The Simpsons". I mean, that's gotta count.

Not a whole lot to say on this one. It's not a leftover from Halloween; it's an idea I've had rolling around for a while now, and it finally got put to paper a little while ago. I had an idea for the elderly Dracula here to be doing something nasty, and to render him in a very stylized fashion- the long flowing gown and that crazy hair just lent themselves to lots of curves and sharp angles. Had I the skill, I could probably have rendered an even better take just by using french curves. As it is, I'm pleased with the results; the sketch itself went by pretty fast, and the Photoshopping took about 90 minutes or so.

Have a good weekend- next week, a look at my attempts at tackling another classic character. Not a monster, but he is often associated with royalty.

Music: "something i can never have" - nine inch nails