I suddenly realized that my Halloween drawings art lessons round-up was missing a crucial piece: a cute, easy vampire drawing! Dracula was not amused that he was left out, and thus this tutorial was born.
As background, I am a teacher and artist named Lillie who is happy to bring you instructions for how to make everything from a witch drawing, to a wide-eyed pumpkin drawings (easy step-by-step guide included). I hand-draw every single illustration on this site, for your learning enjoyment. Let’s start today’s task!
Vampire Drawing
What follows is my formula for creating a not-too-scary vampire or Dracula cartoon. As I explained with my spider drawing tutorial, feel free to change any part of these instructions to fit YOUR tastes and style. Just because I’m a teacher, it doesn’t mean that all my artistic choices need to be followed exactly!
1. Draw sneaky eyes and sharp teeth.
I always start my creative drawings with big cartoon eyes, but in the case of Dracula, I added heavy eyelids and dark eyebrows to indicate that he is up to no good. After inking in the nose, we move to the absolute most important detail of a vampire drawing: the sharp, pointy teeth! I put them on a smile, so it wouldn’t be too scary for kids.
2. Add pointy ears and glossy, dark hair.
For hair, Dracula usually is drawn with a V-shaped “widow’s peak” above his forehead, and dark, glossy hair that’s combed smoothly. To add a dash of cuteness to our blood-sucking vampire, I inserted a curly cowlick at the top of his head!
3. Sketch a high collar, big cape, and bow tie for your vampire drawing.
Dracula is a Count, which is basically like royalty — so all aspects of his outfit need to be high-end and dramatic. The key features are a high, stiff collar, a dark cape billowing in the wind, and a red bow tie.
4. Ink in blue or another odd color for the face.
What color are vampires’ skin? Sometimes they’re depicted as pale white, but often they’re colored in an icy blue, mint green color, or even light purple in order to indicate their supernatural and non-human characteristics.
4. Color the outfit with dark shades.
In order to look like a vampire, our fellow needs dark-colored clothes — besides the red tie and cape lining (which gives great juxtaposition against the moody shades of the rest of the outfit). Normally the outside of the cape is inked in with black, but to add excitement, I chose some pleasing alternatives similar to those in our easy bat drawing.
For the cape, I selected midnight purple, which went nicely with the midnight blue of the hair, and deep magenta of the collar. Picking a different color for each part of the outfit adds visual interest.
5. Add shading and highlights to the body and clothes.
Shading and highlights are key to vampire drawings. Why? Because the shadows create a creepy mood, while the highlights add the “shine” from the slick, oily nature of the high-class Count’s fancy outfit.
Focus your shading around the neck area so the bow tie really stands out in contrast. Next, add stark white highlights of shine (like we did with our candy drawing) to Dracula’s hair to make it glisten, and to the tie to show it is expensive silk.
6. Create a creepy background.
Evoking a scary context is key to giving a Halloween vibe to our vampire sketch. I suggest using dark colors around the edges, and adding in some moody cloud drawings.
If your drawing is more elaborate, put in some spider web drawings for pizzaz. Now you’re done! Good job!
VIDEO: How to Draw Dracula
Vampire Drawing, in Sum
I hope this easy vampire drawing tutorial helped you create art you and those around you love! If you want more, check out my cute ghost drawing tutorial. Enjoy!
Want more? Browse my free printable Halloween coloring pages for kids, teens, and adults for a fun art activity.
The author and artist, Lillie Marshall, is a National Board Certified Teacher of English who has been a public school educator since 2003, and an experienced Reiki practitioner since 2018. All art on this site is original and hand-drawn by Lillie. She launched DrawingsOf.com Educational Cartoons in 2020, building upon the success of her other sites, AroundTheWorldL.com (established 2009), TeachingTraveling.com (founded 2010), and ReikiColors.com. Subscribe to Lillie’s monthly newsletter, and follow @WorldLillie on social media to stay connected!
