Concept
This painting was done around Halloween as a personal piece and exercise. I had wanted to paint some sort of establishing shot for a while but was drawing blanks for subject matter. Someone suggested that I do something festive for Halloween and Dracula's castle immediately came to mind.
I began doing research on various stories and images based on Dracula and started to refine my Idea of the story behind the painting. The angle I was interested in a style similar to "Castlevania" and "Vampire Hunter D" where evil is a plague scenario and the castle becomes a character embodying Dracula.
Design and Composition
Before beginning I gathered together a number of images that I thought depicted the castle in an iconic way. From there I started drawing a number of quick sketches focusing on the castle's outline. I thought the scene should be at night with a dramatic full moon casting the castle's shadow over the village. This created a primarily back lit scenario so I wanted to create a strong silhouette that would immediately read.
The composition of the painting was designed to frame the silhouette of the castle. I keep these initial composition sketches rapid and create numerous versions developing from the last. Keeping sketches loose helps me focus on the structure of the image without getting precious about a composition that isn't working. When I find a basic layout I am happy with I scan it and begin doing value and color studies over it.
With the moon as the only light source for the image, I developed the color in a primarily monochromatic blue green palette. Reinforcing the silhouette composition, I let the darkest values create the frame of the foreground and castle and saved the middle and high key values for the atmosphere and moonlight of the distant background. Also, placing the largest range of values around the castle helps strengthen that area as a focal point.
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