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I have spent many Holidays and many Halloween's at Whitby enjoying the beautiful scenery, exploring the lanes that twist and turn like a maze. Eating fish and chips by the harbour with the backdrop of the St Mary's Church and the haunted ruins of Whitby Abbey, which overlooks the whole town.
The town and surrounding areas are steeped in history and due to its wild moors near by the scenery is very atmospheric. It's no surprise that it has and still does inspire artist, poets and writers. Bram Stoker, who arrived in Whitby in July 1890, was himself greatly inspired by his visit to this wonderful wild location. He spent many days exploring Whitby, including its library where by chance he came across a book that contained a history of Vlad Tepes also known as Dracula 'son of the dragon'. So with the haunting background of the bat filled Abbey, the weather worn graveyard of St Mary's Church and that book found in the library it's no surprise that Bram was inspired to write one of the best Gothic masterpieces ever written.... 'Dracula'!
To make your own version you will need MDF or die cut shapes, paint, inks, glue, cars, pages from Dracula or photocopies, glitter, crackle gel and texture paste.
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| 🦇 Dracula's Castle🦇 |
I painted all my shapes firstly with matt black paint then added paints, texture pastes and glitter.
To give me an idea of where the arched Gothic Window would go I painted that area grey.
To create a 'Whitby moon' I painted card circles with inks and added crackle gel. Once dry and crackled I added some glitter to add some sparkle. I did a batch of these as they make great moons for cards or tags.
To create a background behind the window I used pages from an actual book of Dracula. This was a modern book which I found in a charity shop. It has seen better days and already had pages missing. I would highly recommend photocopying pages so not to damage treasured books! I inked the pages to age them with green and grey inks and added acrylic paint blood splats!
Using the Gothic window as a guide I cut out a window shape which I glued onto my background. I then added a layer of crackle gel. Once dry I rubbed in some blue paint to bring out the details of the cracks. I then added a mixture of texture paste and glitter to create a Textured stone wall.
Once my Textured wall had dried I added the moon, window and all my painted shapes to create the scene of Dracula's Castle. As a finishing touch I adding silver highlights and glitter to Dracula and the window to create moonlight.
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| 🦇Dracula emerges by the light of the full moon🦇 |
Dracula's Castle🦇 |
| The arrival of Dracula in Whitby aboard the doomed ship Demeter🦇 |
As I did before for 'Dracula's Castle' I painted all my shapes with a base of black matt paint. Then added paints, texture paste and glitter.
The ship I painted a blue/grey and I added red acrylic blood splatters. I then added a layer of crackle gel. Once dry I rubbed in some dark blue paint into the cracks and some dark orange around the bottom of the ship. This gave the look of old cracked porcelain.
Close up showing crackle detail.
The background for this piece I chose as it was about the poor fated Captain on the doomed Demeter! This was inked to with grey ink and splatted with acrylic blood. I also added acrylic blood to the wolf's mouth, see image below.
I then glued on my paper background and my painted shapes to create the scene of the stormy ship Demeter doomed arrival to Whitby!
The background for this piece I chose as it was about the poor fated Captain on the doomed Demeter! This was inked to with grey ink and splatted with acrylic blood. I also added acrylic blood to the wolf's mouth.
I hope you enjoyed my 'Kat makes' and it inspires you to create your own.
