{"id":36776,"date":"2021-11-09T03:18:46","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T08:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=36776"},"modified":"2021-11-08T12:43:13","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T17:43:13","slug":"countess-dracula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/11\/09\/countess-dracula\/","title":{"rendered":"Countess Dracula"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Lady Bathory\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/51654882368\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51654882368_796d635299_c.jpg?resize=618%2C800&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Lady Bathory\" width=\"618\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>Erzs\u00e9bet B\u00e1thory<\/em><\/strong><\/span> (1560-1614) was a real life Hungarian noblewoman and purported serial killer who may have engaged in vampiric activity. Her victims were female servants and minor noblewomen who had come to her for training and education. I&#8217;m not sure what training or education the noblewomen were seeking, but maybe they should have stuck with correspondence courses. According to one source I found, she is the holder of the <em>Guinness World Record <\/em>as history&#8217;s most prolific female murderer. She shattered that glass ceiling by killing anywhere from 80 to possibly 650 victims. The Lady was <em>busy!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Legend has it that <em>Bathory<\/em> believed that she could maintain her youth by bathing in the blood of virgins. Some of the accounts I&#8217;ve read dispute this as being the type of fanciful folklore that grows around horrific stories, but it might explain why four of her servants stood trial and were convicted for their crimes. <em>A Lady isn&#8217;t going to draw her own bath!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>She was not related to the more famous <em>Dracula<\/em> family although a fictionalized movie of her life titled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uUtyVg4a6zs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Countess Dracula<\/em><\/a> was made. She did have a nephew who was a prince of Transylvania.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>Lady Bathory<\/em><\/strong><\/span> is a belated entry in this year&#8217;s collection of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/albums\/72157711550014901\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Halloween Heads<\/a> which is a series of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/albums\/72157691131568290\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vector illustrations<\/a> I have produced in <em>Affinity Designer<\/em>. I started this one a while back; stopped for some reason, and forgot all about it. I found it while deleting some files I thought were unnecessary and decided to give it another go.<\/p>\n<p>Below is a screen capture of the <a href=\"https:\/\/affinity.serif.com\/en-us\/designer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Affinity Designer<\/em><\/a> program on a Mac. (It&#8217;s also available for <em>Windows<\/em> machines, and looks and works pretty much the same.) I have the <em>split screen<\/em> view on so you can see the illustration in color on the left, and the various vector paths which are the cartoon&#8217;s skeleton of sorts are on the right.<br \/>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"36778\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/11\/09\/countess-dracula\/lady-bathory-outline\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Lady-Bathory-outline.jpg?fit=640%2C360&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"640,360\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Lady-Bathory-outline\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Lady-Bathory-outline.jpg?fit=640%2C360&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36778\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Lady-Bathory-outline.jpg?resize=640%2C360&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Lady-Bathory-outline.jpg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Lady-Bathory-outline.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erzs\u00e9bet B\u00e1thory (1560-1614) was a real life Hungarian noblewoman and purported serial killer who may have engaged in vampiric activity. Her victims were female servants and minor noblewomen who had come to her for training and education. I&#8217;m not sure &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/11\/09\/countess-dracula\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4953,82,7],"tags":[3465,994,17,27,719,4794,3668,3989,3661,5,23,5197,724,1034],"class_list":["post-36776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doodle-tuesday","category-halloween","category-illustration","tag-affinity-designer","tag-blood","tag-cartoon","tag-digital-illustration","tag-dracula","tag-femme-fatale","tag-halloween","tag-halloween-head","tag-illustration","tag-joe-williams","tag-monster","tag-vamp","tag-vampire","tag-vector"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-9za","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21182,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2016\/10\/14\/i-count-on-affinity-designer\/","url_meta":{"origin":36776,"position":0},"title":"I COUNT on Affinity Designer","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a little Halloween doodle that I cooked up in my favorite vector art program Affinity Designer. Being that my son's school bus pickup time is just before dawn, I thought it appropriate to work on this icon of The Count! A couple of mornings before sunrise fiddling with shapes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Halloween&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/halloween\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Count in Affinity Designer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/7461\/30022386700_6c104c7673_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/7461\/30022386700_6c104c7673_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/7461\/30022386700_6c104c7673_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24464,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2018\/10\/07\/happy-birthday-tina-2018-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":36776,"position":1},"title":"Happy Birthday, Tina! 2018 Edition","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Being that Tina's birthday comes in October, I usually get a jump on Halloween by giving her card the theme of the season. Here is our dear cat Plywood as the undead count from Transylvania.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Drawer Cards&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Count Cat-ula","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1908\/45143591691_2d80f92f49_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1908\/45143591691_2d80f92f49_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1908\/45143591691_2d80f92f49_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":39189,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/10\/05\/flying-a-kite-at-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":36776,"position":2},"title":"Flying a Kite at Night?","author":"Joe","date":"October 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I was flipping through an old comic when I came across this advertisement which made me think of the truly terrible 1979 version of Dracula starring Frank Langella as the count and Laurence Olivier recycling his awful accent from A Little Romance as Van Helsing. What reminds me of this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Halloween&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/halloween\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/dracula-kite-1979.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/dracula-kite-1979.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/dracula-kite-1979.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45005,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/04\/30\/halloween-heads-the-mummy\/","url_meta":{"origin":36776,"position":3},"title":"Halloween Heads \u2022 The Mummy","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I know Halloween is 184 days away, but being a dyed-in-the-wool horror movie fan, I always seem to be in the Halloween Spirit! I started doing my series of Halloween Head vector illustrations almost 20 years ago with a simplified Frankenstein Monster done in Adobe Illustrator. I really started to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Halloween&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/halloween\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/The-Mummy-900x900-1-1.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/The-Mummy-900x900-1-1.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/The-Mummy-900x900-1-1.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/The-Mummy-900x900-1-1.jpg?fit=900%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44976,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/04\/23\/the-diplomat-from-grorfleplotz\/","url_meta":{"origin":36776,"position":4},"title":"The Diplomat from Grorfleplotz","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Once again I am ricocheting back and forth between analog and digital illustration. Today I am back in the digital domain with my latest Halloween Head which I call The Diplomat from Grorfleplotz. I'm not sure what the specific honorific would be for this diplomat from the far distant planet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Halloween&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/halloween\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/The-Diplomat-from-Grorfleplotz-full-frame.jpg?fit=640%2C680&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/The-Diplomat-from-Grorfleplotz-full-frame.jpg?fit=640%2C680&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/The-Diplomat-from-Grorfleplotz-full-frame.jpg?fit=640%2C680&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25979,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2019\/10\/29\/we-are-not-alone\/","url_meta":{"origin":36776,"position":5},"title":"We Are NOT Alone","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"My latest Halloween Head is a fellow with one hell of a commute. This visitor from another world is a vector illustration I whipped together in Affinity Designer.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Halloween&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/halloween\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/alien-process.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/alien-process.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/alien-process.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/alien-process.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}