How a "Dad Joke" Became a Full Illustration: The Story of the Vampiress
Some illustrations start with a client brief. This one started with a bad pun.
Some illustrations begin with a client brief and a clear objective. Others start as a sketch, just for fun, with no greater ambition than to amuse yourself. This piece falls squarely into the latter category.
It began on a random evening as a loose sketch of two figures. The woman, a commanding, elegant vampiress, bore a deliberate resemblance to my wife—a classic, high-achieving businesswoman. The man, a weary figure held in her clutches, initially resembled, well, me. To complete the scene, I added a word balloon above the vampiress with a terrible pun that perfectly captures my specific blend of absurd, sometimes dark, "Dad humor."
It read: "I'm Type A, but you don't have to be."
I showed it to my wife. She thought it was funny. Not a laugh-out-loud funny, I should clarify, but a solid "chuckle funny," which, for any practitioner of Dad humor, is a clear victory.
The original sketch, complete with construction lines and the "Type A" pun that started it all.
Ordinarily, a sketch like that might just live forever in a sketchbook. But the positive response to it, and the fact that I was genuinely having fun drawing it, kept me coming back. In the in-between hours of my scheduled projects, I would return to this "just for fun" piece. I fleshed out the background, refined the details, and spent time on the ink work, all without a real deadline or client. It was simply a creative playground.
The piece evolved in the in-between hours, moving from a simple sketch to a fully-realized ink drawing.
There’s a unique freedom in these personal projects. They become a space to explore different styles—in this case, a more noir, gothic feel—without the pressure of a commercial outcome. This illustration became a reminder that sometimes the most engaging work comes not from a detailed plan, but from a bad pun that you just can't let go of. It evolved from a private joke into a fully rendered narrative piece, a testament to the value of creative play.
It is a core part of my mission to create compelling, character-driven illustrations that bring stories to life1, and sometimes, those stories begin with a chuckle.
I'm curious to hear from other artists or creators. Do your "just for fun" projects ever take on a life of their own? Share your experience in the comments below.
P.S. This piece is a great example of the conceptual and editorial work I love to do. If you have a project that needs a unique visual story, please feel free to get in touch.
