More Vlad Hot Cocoa

In May I finished an illustration for a drink mix directory that was published by the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators in August. I called it Dancing in the Moonlight, and I had that old King Harvest song in my head the entire time.

(As an aside, just try and listen to that song and then get it out of your head. Not gonna happen. I had to download it.)

The illustration was part of the exhibit that PSI put together at Gallerie Chiz in Shadyside, and it will be in another exhibit starting in November at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

But I had an idea.

Next month I'm attending the Tri-Regional SCBWI conference in Gettysburg. They're going to do something called "First Looks" where illustrators send in three related images to possibly be included as part of a panel discussion. The images will be projected for everyone at the conference to see (no pressure there), and the panel (editors, agents and an art director) will offer their first responses to the images.

I really didn't have anything finished that I thought would be good enough, so I decided to create two new images to go with Dancing in the Moonlight. The images I've posted here are the sketches for those two images.

Due Nov. 1.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have some painting to do.

Dancing in the Moonlight: Complete

Here's the color version of the sketch I posted last week. I think he turned out pretty good, but I've been looking at him for so long I'm not sure anymore. He's getting some positive feedback, so I'm thinking he might be O.K.

He'll be heading for a drink mix directory which will go out to art directors later this year. Fingers crossed on this one.

Dancing in the Moonlight

So you remember that Frankenstein hot cocoa idea I was doing for the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators drink mix directory?

Yeah. It wasn't really working for me, so I canned the idea and started over. I dreaded having to sit down and work on it for some reason. I still might use it somewhere someday, but right now it just isn't happening.

I decided to stick with the hot cocoa idea though. I was thinking a lot of people drink hot chocolate in the evening before bed, and it would look pretty cool to have chocolate dripping off the teeth of a vampire, right? I also thought he should have some friends to enjoy it with.

But evening for a vampire is about the time when the party's just getting started, and I wanted to make sure I showed that. He'll be wearing printed pjs (not sure yet what the print will be) along with his bunny slippers, and everybody's dancing to that old King Harvest song. You know, the one I can't seem to get out of my head now that I've started this thing.