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I painted this for a friend who feels a kind of kinship with this historical figure. I know this is not the usual image of this particular character, but I wanted to show him with somewhat the appearance of the man who inspired his legend. I also wanted to get away from the usual murky blackness which usually surrounds this character, because to a night creature's eyes, the evening is more pale. I dressed him in white, which is the color of the dead used in some theater, and also in the East, where it is considered an unlucky color for the same reasons that black is considered unlucky in the West. Vlad's lineage includes the ever elusive Gypsy, whose trade routes ranged from Egypt to India. I thought white was more appropriate and ghostlike. As a vampire, he walks the line between the living and the dead, and this spirit like existence makes him more of a ghostly figure to me. He was not a count, but a prince, and so I wanted to show him in regalia that seemed more fitting a creature of his station. Of course the bats may seem a bit campy, but a better symbol does not exist for the blood thirsty spirit that may fly from dream to dream, crouched upon the victim to feed on that life force. Somewhere between the proud, vicious, warrior prince and the legends that keep his name alive, there is Dracula.