Tokyo Vampire Circa 1980s
It seems that my series of Halloween Heads has started anew with the completion of a Japanese vampire on the heels of last week’s Phantom of the Opera. Halloween Heads are illustrations of monsters I’ve created in the superlative vector art application Affinity Designer. Generally, I try to stick to a classic stable of monsters, mutations and madmen from the movies, but I have made a bit of a departure with my latest addition.
Affinity Designer
I had started working up the bits and pieces of another monster just after Halloween back in 2021. I’m not sure what my original idea was, but I had what was essentially a digital rough sketch. It looked to be some sort of vampiric hipster with big hair. I abandoned it back in 2021, but I saw possibilities when I rediscovered the file a few days ago. For some reason the few shapes that included a face, fangs and the exaggerated coiffure looked vaguely Japanese to me so I decided to lean into it. My Halloween Head was going to be a Japanese vampire wandering the streets of Tokyo some time in the early 1980s. A few visits to an online translation program; a little research, and a few happy accidents resulted in 1980年代の東京の吸血鬼.
I made a few variations along the way that I like and thought I would share. Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.
As far as variations are concerned, sometimes I can’t leave well enough alone. Such is the case with The Phantom of the Opera. Although I am happy with the pipe organ background of the original, I thought I would show more of the phantom’s dank, subterranean lair.
The trick is knowing when to quit, and I would still be fiddling with the details of the sewers beneath the Opera of Paris if my Tokyo Vampire had not come along.
