A little tribute to my favorite silly Vampyre <3 A BAT! Dagger that is visually far afield from it's inspiration, but I do like to cram ideas together.
I was intending to do a straight up nice paint of the throwing dagger used on screen and in my fan art piece from the Jackie Daytona episode of The Shadows tv. But I wanted to add leaves like this little throwing dagger (bottom left) and a nod to Hammer with my favorite candelabra from their studio sets. I started looking for a silhouette and just found myself pushing a bit more to the decrepit, overgrown castle with my Vampyre Bat design.
The leaves were a bit distracting from the handle, I started to balance my design to be able to get away with the bat elements, the thorns, and this idea of berries standing in for drops of blood, crystalized maybe? I needed that glowing saturated red. I felt like this tonal design saved the organization on this one- push everything together and let the darks of the thorns hold the center.
I tried to bring the leaves in, but the attention is everywhere. So I brought the berries to the center with the thorns and the light. Just designing, deciding the whole time and trying to convince myself it is working. So in the end I really like what's come of this dagger- it IS more Hammer style than Shadows- is there something left there to paint? I will think about that.
I love old horror films so this is my comfy zone, it calls to me. If a horror film has a "gowns" credit, then I'll watch it ;) If it's too scary my god, I can't really deal. Maybe I should also rewatch Son Of Frankenstein from Universal- beautiful sets, visual look to that as well. XO