Vampifan's Illustrations 03

This is my third and final post about my illustrations that I drew for the Vampire:the Masquerade role-playing game and I've kept the best till last in my very biased opinion. The common denominator in all of these illustrations is my Toreador vampire player character, Pamela Andrews. I am sure that many of you have been wondering, "what does Vampifan look like in real life?" The 28mm scale figure that I use for Vampifan in my ATZ campaign is a fairly accurate representation of me but this picture is much closer to reality, even if it was drawn in 1994. I still look pretty much the same today, still far too fat, but I have a lot less hair nowadays. This illustration was my answer to the question I'm sure many role-players have thought about - "what if my player character was real?" I saw myself as being a thrall to the all powerful Pamela, one of her minions who look out for her during the hours of daylight. She wouldn't have to use vampiric charm to make me fall in love with her because if she was real I'd be besotted as soon as I saw her. My NASA baseball cap came from when I first visited Cape Canaveral in Florida in 1990. I still own the V:tM T-shirt I'm pictured in and because I rarely wear it, it's still in excellent condition. This picture is very personal to me. A wish fulfilment? Absolutley!

Next up, is this three-quarter length portrait of Pamela and this was the first portrait that I drew of her. It is based on photo of Page Three model Linda Lusardi from the neck down. For those not familiar with the term "Page Three model" it refers to a young lady who poses topless in English tabloid newspapers like The Sun or Daily Star. They almost always appear on page three of the newspaper, hence the name. In the Linda Lusardi picture that I liked, Linda was wearing a white leather jacket, and her cleavage was not as pronounced as Pamela's. Both changes were easy enough to do (well they were for me!) but I did give myself a lot more work to do by making the leather jacket black.
From the neck up it is my imagination at play.
So, who is Pamela? Pamela was sired in 1970, so she is a very young vampire. She is extremely self-confident, happy-go-lucky and seemingly carefree. She has an unshakeable estimation of her own worth and she revels in her vampiric abilities. When she does fail in some task, she is quick to find someone or something to blame other than herself. She tolerates the Camarilla, but only because it suits her. She is very loyal to Clan Toreador but because she has a bit of a rebellious streak, she has a certain amount of sympathy for the Anarchs. She has no desire to be a leader but neither will she be a subservient follower of others.

This illustration shows Pamela wearing a costume that is so brazenly sexy and revealing that I'm sure she'd turn the head of almost any red-blooded male with a pulse. Once again, my inspiration for this illustration came from Linda Lusardi. Yes, it is true that I had a huge crush on Linda during the 1980's until she retired from the glamour scene. I have a photo of her wearing this very costume but not in this pose. My pose for Pamela is far more in-your-face than Linda's... and far more revealing! Pamela is a very extroverted person and she enjoys dancing, particularly disco dancing. This is just the sort of costume she would wear to visit a night club. It is not the kind of outfit to wear if you want to blend into the background and not be the centre of attraction. Pamela, however, has fantastic Presence. I spell Presence with a capital "P" as it is one of the three vampiric clan disciplines available to all Toreador vampires. Pamela is extremely well-versed in this powerful discipline.What makes this discipline so powerful is that it can affect many people at once. She became very adept at affecting people's emotions. It is fair to say that she has a great affect on my emotions - lust being the primary one!

I'll sum up this illustration in three words - Pamela does demure. Doesn't she look so cute and innocent here? This is not the look of a monstrous killer who could rip your throat out in the blink of an eye. However, you should remember the word "Masquerade" in the title of the role-playing game. The most important rule of any vampire's life (or should that be unlife?) is to hide the fact that vampires exist from humans. So the fact that Pamela looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth is all part of the Masquerade and perfectly acceptable vampire behaviour.
This illustration was not inspired by the lovely Linda. I can't remember exactly where I first saw the photo my drawing was based on. It could have been in the fashion section of my daily newspaper. I have no idea who the model was but I liked her pose and as soon as I saw her I thought of Pamela. The model in question was much more flat chested, as a lot of fashion models are, so I have enlarged her breasts so that they are Pamela sized. A 38D I believe! The face is all my own work and I love her expression in this picture.
I mentioned the Camarilla fan club last time and I showed you four of my illustrations that appeared on the front cover of the fan club's newsletter, Nightlife. I also mentioned that each clan produced their own newsletter for their particular members. When I first joined the fan club, the Toreador newsletter was expertly produced by another graphic designer, Debra, whom I became very friendly with. She lived in Norwich but resigned after a fallout with a bunch of London-based players. So I was eventually put in charge of the newsletter. After just one issue I learnt what a thankless task it was. For a clan noted for its artists, writers and poets I got very little feedback or contributions. I don't know how Debra put up with it for so long. After three issues I, too, resigned, utterly fed up with the apathy displayed by so many people.

This picture represents a scene from my first V:tM campaign. You may remember last time when I was talking about the gamer in my group who played a Tremere vampire. He called her Arian and he was the worst kind of power gamer imaginable. The term Min/Max was so apt for him as he tried to gain every advantage possible. Once he learnt that vampires could gain power by draining the blood of a lower generation vampire he was on the rocky road to Hell. In V:tM such an act of depravity is called Diablerie and it is severely frowned upon by all clans of the Camarilla. When I began my campaign every player chose to begin with an 8th Generation vampire, the best that was available to starting characters. After quite a while of gaming (this was a long campaign) Arian had reached 6th Generation through Diablerie and was looking round for a 5th Generation vampire to drain. I was getting fed up with his lust for power so set a trap for his player character. Pamela contacted the Toreador Justicar Madame Guil about Arian and they set a trap for her. Not surprisingly, he fell for it hook, line and sinker. Arian and Pamela travelled to the highlands of Scotland where a dormant 5th Generation vampire was supposedly buried. Arian skillfully overcame all of the traps placed in the underground tomb and found what she thought was a vampire Elder. She drained him of blood and calmly walked out of the tomb. Pamela wisely held back as Madame Guil had brought along a group of human special forces soldiers. Arian went down in a hail of gunfire. Being a powerful vampire, the bullets didn't kill her but they immobilised her long enough for Madame Guil to stake her. My illustration shows Pamela with Madame Guil drinking a glass of Arian's blood as she hangs above them, staked through the heart. Suffice to say, that incident ended that particular campaign.

By now, you're probably wondering if all of my illustrations are black and white? Clearly not, as this picture shows. I began a new V:tM campaign when Steve Jackson Games brought out a GURPS version of V:tM. GURPS has always been my favourite role-playing game, so when White Wolf allowed SJG to produce a version of their best selling RPG I was delighted. Here was a chance to start afresh and learn from the mistakes of the past. I still kept Pamela as my PC but now she started play as a 7th Generation vampire. White Wolf had brought out the Elder's Handbook so starting with a more powerful vampire was an option. The GURPS campaign did not last as long as the White Wolf campaign. Converting characters over to the GURPS system took far longer than creating a character with the White Wolf system. But at least it ended on a happier note with no in-fighting.
This illustration was done to use as a portrait on my GURPS character record sheet. It is not based on a photo but comes entirely from my imagination and I am immensely proud of it. The original illustration was drawn in pencil, than coloured in with coloured pencils. Finally, I went over the drawing in pen and ink. When I became more competent with desk top publishing I was able to scan it into my computer and add airbrush effects with a program like Paintshop or Photoshop. The portrait also served a second purpose. It gave me a pose to work on for when I sculpted my own 28mm scale figure of Pamela to use in my GURPS campaign. The result of my sculpting can be seen in the photo below. I've sculpted a lot of figures in my time. Some are good, some are dire, but this sculpt of Pamela ranks as one of my best ever. If I was to be brutally honest, I'd have to admit that the head is just a tad too big for the body, but hey, I'm only an amateur sculptor. Sculpting Pamela was as much a labour of love for me as drawing her was.

 

Vampifan's Illustrations 02

Here is more of my vampire artwork that I did in the mid-1990's. At that time I was a member of a fan club for the Vampire: the Masquerade role-playing game, which was devoted to the seven "good" clans of the Camarilla. In alphabetical order, they were Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere and Ventrue.
The fan club offered two newsletters, one covering all seven clans and another, which concentrated solely on matters relating to whatever clan you belonged to.
Anyone who knows anything about the clans of V:tM will not be surprised to learn that my clan of choice was Clan Toreador. They had the greatest appreciation of the arts and many of their vampires were artists, dancers, musicians, poets and writers. As a graphic designer and art lover myself it was a no-brainer that I opted for Clan Toreador.
This hulking brute shown here belongs to Clan Brujah, the rebels and anarchs, although they also embrace philosophers and great thinkers. The logo on this vampire's T-shirt reads "Nightlife," which was the name of the Camarilla fan club newsletter. If I remember rightly it was published once a quarter.

Next up is a member of Clan Gangrel. The Gangrel are the most animalistic clan, with many of their kin possessing disturbing animal features and behaviour. They are a nomadic clan but because of the threat posed by the werewolves, most of them are forced to remain in urban areas where vampires proliferate.
This portrait would work equally well for a Brujah but the Brujah vampire that I drew could only be a member of that clan.
Note the ankh necklace he wears. The ankh symbol is a common motif found in the World of Darkness, as the setting for all of White Wolf's rpg's was known.
This illustration, the previous one and the next two, were used on the front cover of successive issues of "Nightlife" fanzine. I'm quite sure that it was precisely because of the work that I did for the Camarilla fanclub that I was offered the job to illustrate Valentina Nightingale's book, Darkling, I Listen. I did not get paid for any of the work that I did for the Camarilla; I did it purely for the pleasure. I don't think anyone who works for a fanzine does it for the money.

This Gothic-looking vampire is a member of Clan Malkavian. Every one of their members suffers from some sort of madness or lunacy. The previous two illustrations and the next one are based on photographs with a few modifications of my own so that they aren't direct copies. For this one, however, I had an actual model. Suzi Brooks was her name and we were very good friends at that time. She used to work in the same architects' office as my brother and it was he who introduced us. Suzi was unlike any Goth I had known as she was so full of life and was a great joker. We had such a lot in common and I was proud to call her a friend. When she learnt that I was an artist she was only too happy to pose for me. She did play V:tM, as well as numerous other rpg's. Call of the Cthulhu was her personal favourite. So, Suzi became my choice for a Malkavian vampire. We lost touch when she left the architect's firm that my brother worked for, but we did meet up again, quite by accident, when I attended the centenary celebrations of Bram Stoker's Dracula in Whitby in late 1997. She was engaged to a guy with the biggest mohican haircut I have ever seen. I often wonder what she's up to now? A lovely lass!

Finally, we come to my interpretation of a Clan Tremere vampire. The Tremere are the only clan to practice magic, or more specifically, blood magic. All of the vampire clans are secretive, but the Tremere are more secretive than others. Indeed, there are those who say the Tremere are not vampires at all, but human mages strifing for immortality.
In the UK, there is an insurance company called Scottish Widows and they have used a woman dressed in the hooded cape I've drawn for many years now to represent their company. I thought if she was a vampire she'd belong to Clan Tremere. I should stress that the person I've drawn never appeared in any advert or material to do with Scottish Widows but the idea most certainly is.
I've shown four of the seven clans, so what about the other three? Well, I have lots of illustrations for Clan Toreador and I'll show them in a separate post. Actually, all of my Clan Toreador illustrations feature one person in all of them - my player character, Pamela Andrews.
As for Clans Nosferatu and Ventrue, I never got round to drawing them. I did have plans for a Ventrue vampire. Clan Ventrue are the nominal leaders of the Camarilla, known as the blue bloods because they tend to embrace those from the ranks of the aristocracy or business leaders.
As for Clan Nosferatu, they were always going to be my last choice to illustrate. Every member of their clan is hideously disformed in some way. They are literally monsters. However, they are excellent spies and information brokers, so they have their uses. I admire beauty more than I admire ugliness so I deliberately put off coming up with a suitable illustration for a Nosferatu. It is a shame that I didn't get to illustrate all seven clans, but I eventually became very disillusioned with the way the fan club was being run and I never renewed my subscription.

This illustration was used as a poster to celebrate a vampire event being held in York. I can't remember what the event was called or who attended. I did not get to attend. I was given a brief of what to draw, which I followed to the letter.
I called this illustration "Helena Attacks." Helena is a Toreador of immense power, possibly the most powerful Toreador on the planet. She resided in Chicago, masquerading as a fledgling vampire. My client wanted a beautiful long-haired vampire for the illustration so for me, that meant Helena. Her male victim stands absolutely no chance of survival.
I've signed and dated this in 1995 and I'm pretty sure I drew it after my work for Darkling, I Listen. The other four illustrations that I've shown here were all drawn in 1994.

Vampifan's Illustrations 01

In my Christmas editorial I promised that I'd showcase some of my undead-related artwork on my blog. In 1995 I was contacted by Valentina Nightingale to illustrate a short anthology of vampire stories she had wrote. This was a dream come true for me as I was heavily into vampires at the time. This was the period that my Vampire: the Masquerade rpg campaign was at its height and I was actively involved in the Camarilla fan club for the game. Valentina sent me the five stories that would appear in the book and gave me free reign to illustrate them as I saw fit, with the brief being one full page illustration per story. So I present to you the five illustrations in the order that they appear in the book, which was called Darkling, I Listen.

 THE KITE FLYER
"The city at night is a wonderful place to be when one is looking for something to warm the soul..."
Andreas loves the night-life of Phidean's Drift - what vampire wouldn't? When he meets an old friend, he learns the story of the Kite-Flyer, an enigmatic young man, who is ridiculed for his beliefs and desires. Desires that only Andreas can help fulfil...
In my illustration, Andreas is the guy in the leather jacket. The dude in the cape is the Kite-Flyer, a young Goth who wants to be a vampire but most of all, wants to fly. His attempts at becoming a vampire end in failure and his attempt to fly ends when gravity teaches him a harsh lesson after he jumps off a tall building. A bunch of rubbish bags break his fall but he still smashes all his limbs and his mind becomes that of a 10-year old boy. I chose to show Andreas granting the Kite-Flyer his ultimate wish - to fly. This is my least favourite illustration for the book, not because I think it's bad - simply because I think the others are better!

CUT
 "It was the first on November, in the year nineteen hundred and sixty-seven when Nathan Lee Wallace first saw her..."
A white haired lady haunts the graveyard where Nathan's father is buried; though she is not strictly human, she knows more about the virtues of human love than any mortal. Only Nathan knows who the true vampire in his life is - and it's not the woman who waits patiently by his father's grave...
This was the illustration that I most enjoyed drawing for the book. Less than a mile from where I live is High Usworth Church. I spent some time during the summer of 1995 sitting in the church's graveyard sketching the scenery to ensure it looked right. The weather was perfect and I was on an emotional high throughout that summer as I worked on the illustrations. Ah, happy memories! I'm also very pleased with how the little boy, Nathan, and the white-haired lady have come out. I'm immensely proud of this illustration and it is without doubt, my favourite in the book.

LIGHTS
"Lights: like little flames swimming in a pool of darkness..."
In a deserted church on Angel Street, a hundred candles burn. It's Hallowe'en and the city is alive with lights; at a costume ball, no-one knows the real nature of those whose identities are hidden by masks. Loneliness, madness, and love; angels and devils... there is more than one person out tonight who has something to hide...
This beautiful woman is Oriana, whose name means "the girl with the white skin." She is the heroine of the story and she attends the Masquerade ball dressed as Salome in her seven veils. More than anything else, I love drawing beautiful women, so this was a project that was right up my street. I'd love to say that I had a live model pose for me for this illustration but Oriana is a combination of photographic reference and imagination. I'd nominate this as my second favourite illustration for the book.

LISLE, COUNTING 
"Lisle is a vampire. She lives in a flat above a bookshop and plays games with dice and human lives. Lisle dresses in dead girls' clothes, and dances all alone..."
When the pain of living becomes too much to bear, death can sometimes seem like a blessed relief from mortal memories, but Lisle knows this isn't always true. Lisle knows that fate is as unpredictable as the throw of a dice...
Here we have a vampire who choses her victims purely randomly by throwing a ten-sided die to generate a phone number. If the victim answers her call and gives their name, she looks it up in a telephone directory and pays them a visit later that night. I suppose if anything was to date this illustration (other than me dating it by my signature) is the cover of the British Telecom phone directories. They look a lot different then to what they do now. The walls of her apartment are covered in pages from her favourite vampire novels and in a bit of continuity with The Kite-Flyer, she also lives in Phidian's Drift.

THE MOON-CALF
"Picture this: the year is 850 AD, it is night..."
Jake Ingrams is a Paranormal Investigator: he makes a living from solving mysteries, but even he has never come across anything like the Moon-Calf before. A house full of secrets, and the dark memory of sacrifice; a plea for help from a stranger and a fearful memory from his own past... all these things Jake will have to face, if he is to succeed at putting the stranger's mind - and his own - at rest...
This is the longest story in the book and I chose a scene from chapter two to illustrate, where young Jake is taken by his parents on a visit to Raincliffe Hall. There he sees a mysterious face in a window but when his mother notes that the weather is taking a turn for the worse, Jake looks away for just a second. When he looks back at the window the face has gone but he is left with a feeling of dread. My brother is an architect and I have a keen interest in the subject myself, so it was an easy task to come up with a design for Raincliffe Hall. This is my third favourite illustration for the book.

DARKLING, I LISTEN 
This is the illustration that I drew for the front cover of the book, but it wasn't used. It did not bother me that it got turned down as I wasn't 100% happy with how it turned out. It's not as good as any of the interior illustrations, in my mind.
For each illustration, I worked out the design in pencil. This usually took a few attempts to get right. I have a home-made lightbox that I use, so that I can place a drawing on top of it and cover that with a blank sheet of paper. The light shines through the paper, allowing me to trace it onto a fresh sheet. Once I have the preliminary sketch done to my satisfaction I go to work on it with pen and ink.
All illustrations were A4 sized but are A5 sized in the printed book. I used a variety of Rotring technical drawing pens for all of the fine detail work in the illustrations. For large areas of black, I used a brush and black ink.
From start until finish, each illustration took roughly two weeks to complete.

Here is the front cover of the actual book and you can see that Valentina has decided to use a photograph instead. I met the girl she used on the cover when I attended the wedding of the publisher, Jon D Inman. She is a Goth girl called Oona Leppington and she used to live in the city of Durham, not far from where I live.
It would be nice to end by saying the book was a bestseller, but sadly, it wasn't. I don't think many copies were sold. I do remember it received a very favourable review by noted spoon-bender, Uri Gellar, in a magazine devoted to paranormal mysteries. He had some very kind words to say about my illustrations, which pleased me no end.
Anyway, this is my one and only claim to fame; illustating a book of vampire stories. I can happily live with that! I'll post some more of my illustrations soon, including the work I did for the Camarilla fan club.