Its been a while since I posted up new art, but after the holidays things got crazy busy at my regular job, and I haven't been able to find the time or inspiration for new work.

Well thanks to Deviant Art, my dry spell is over. They are hosting a contest featuring none other than Tim Burton's latest flick Dark Shadows. Based on the cult 60s TV show, the movie looks to be right up my alley. Johnny Depp plays the main character Barnabas Collins, an 18th century vampire who turns up in 60s era America to find that everything has changed, and of course the wackiness ensues. Depp looks to be in top form, channeling some of my favorite roles of his from previous Burton films such as Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hallow.

The contest is simple: draw a portrait of Barnabas as portrayed by Depp in the new movie. I went with a fairly straightforward idea of doing a period portrait, so I brushed up on some turn of the century artists such Ingres and Gainsborough who were considered neoclassical painters. Also, being a big fan of Rembrandt, I decided to apply his use of darks and spotlights which I thought would work well with the atmosphere of a vampire portrait. I didn't have much time to work on this as I found out about the contest rather late, but still I had lots of fun with this one!