In this video I’m painting a vampiric portrait on canvas as part of my Dracula portrait series, and I walk you through the whole process—from the first sketchy ideas to the final little details. I talk about the panel/canvas setup, the materials I’m using, and how I move from sketching into an underpainting so I can lock in values before I start getting precious with color. There’s also a very real “scary painting stage” where everything looks kind of wrong for a while (totally normal), and I show how I push through it with small, steady adjustments. I also go deep on stylization choices, composition tweaks, and my darker, limited color palette for this series—plus how I use red lighting as a mood tool. Since I’m working in acrylics, I share the way I mix Golden OPEN paints with regular heavy body acrylics to get more control over drying time and texture, and I give my go-to acrylic blending tips (including when mediums/retarder help and when they just make things slippery). If you’re into cozy process videos but also want the “why” behind the decisions, this one’s basically acrylic portrait painting + universal illustration brain.