It’s never taken me so long to finish a simple picture book.   After having had the massive heart attack in Iceland last year I do find it more difficult at times to sit for endless hours drawing cute, quirky goslings.  I love Pearl but I will be so happy once she is off to Boston.

Meanwhile…I found a fantastic vampire figure on the internet and absolutely love him!  For the moment I call him Vampire Capolan for some odd reason.  I will give him a more suitable name once I have a chance to give it some real thought.  The details on the vampire and the coffin are fantastic!   And I spent a grand total of $28 for them.

I bought a thin silky piece of blood red velvet to line the coffin to make Vampire Capolan more comfortable.   But something was still missing.   He needed old maps, money, documents, castle plans, letters, envelopes, posters, etc.   It only took me a few hours to find the appropriate images on the internet, reduce them down, print them, cut them out (or tear the edges to give a deckle effect), and antique them.  I also found an artist on Etsy that makes miniature leather bound medieval books!

I also found the perfect miniature wooden trunk in the studio that holds all the papers.

Here are the photos.