My 31 Illustrations Of Vampires For This Year's Inktober

We both loved the fall season and Halloween. She would always look forward to this time of year the second spring arrived. One of our last conversations was about Halloween and how I had an interest in attempting InkTober that year. After she lost her battle to cancer, I didn’t even think about the October drawings. It was the furthest thing from my mind. The rest of September flew by without a thought passing. Then, October 1st hit and on a whim, I drew a picture.

The beauty of any craft is that you can get lost in it. I found the daily drawing experience to be a therapeutic process. I had just lost a parent and there was this creative escape, just waiting for me. The process, though, was a mixed bag. The only thing I kept consistent was a color palette – red, white and black. As the month progressed, I grasped at any idea I could to make sure I had a drawing each day. Some not even starting until 11 PM at night! Then, near the end of the month, I started drawing the Universal Monsters each day, which inspired me to develop an overall theme for 2019.

Enter summer 2019. I toyed with various ideas... local legends, cryptozoology, in-laws.. until I arrived at pop-culture vampires. I plotted out who I would like to draw – making sure I had a good mix of characters to choose from each day. Come on, who would want to draw 31 different Draculas this month? Fortunately, as similar vampires' stories and characters can be – they also have vast differences. This kept each drawing fun and interesting to create.

The final touch was to have a consistent style that would unify all of this year's drawings. It was an easy choice – classic comic books. I have been an avid comic book reader for the past 30 years. Hell, that is what got me into all this in the first place. In recent years, I have been a fan of the EC Comics, which seemed to be a fitting inspiration for my little vampires.

As October comes to a close, I am more than happy to close this coffin and move on to the next project. Maybe I will be even more ambitious in 2020 – who knows. Regardless, this has taken me back to last year, when I first told my mom about my plans to draw scary things each day. I do hope that wherever my mom is now, its an eternally autumn and she is enjoying a walk in the leaves.