DIGITAL PAINTING | DARK FANTASY | LESBIAN
As Dark Things Love Cover Detail
Twisting the genre: the vampire as victim
As Dark Things Love is available at Tantalizing Tales.
This short story is set in the 1920s. Why the 20s? This dark fantasy is a sequel to the horror story The Darker Half of Twilight published at Redemption earlier this year. That one is transgressive, so think twice before reading it. It’s one of my favorite three stories I’ve published here on Medium.
I love the 1920s aesthetic and the unusual approach I made to the vampire genre in that first story: vampires as victims with lives of pain rather than the powerful masters we expect in modern tales.
I don’t start my painting until the story is finished. I decide on a scene I particularly like. Sometimes, it’s the feeling of the scene. Sometimes, it’s the colors. Maybe it’s just that I get to paint something I’ve never painted before, or maybe I’ve taken inspiration from a reference.
In this story, I was excited about painting the auto, but I started with it on a misty street. That look didn’t give me the feeling I craved. Instead, I developed the encroaching dark halo of trees around the two women. I also liked the shock/rapture on the young face — that was a happy accident…
