About the Author

Vampire Hunter Jude is written & illustrated by Taylor Holt, owner of Loomcomics.com. Tay is a graphic designer by trade and part-time comic inker. Her most beloved inspirations include: Lev Atamanov, Yuri Norstein, Soyuzmulfim, Ron Rash, Osamu Tezuka, Hiroshi Osaka, Katsuhiro Otomo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Taylor began drawing stories about Jude in her early college years.  It was published under the name Vampire Fetish in English (Inkblazers.com) and briefly in Japanese (Mangamoo.jp). The Japanese text above the Vampire Hunter Jude logo is a nod to her time at Mangamoo Japan.

How do you create Vampire Hunter Jude?

Drawing the Comic

I draw Vampire Hunter Jude traditionally. I’m an ink fiend–I’ve never touched an ink tool I didn’t like. I use dip nibs (Japanese, German, American calligraphy), rapidograph engineering pens, paint brushes & brush tip pens, liners (Copic, Staedtler, Microns, etc.), fountain pens, and good ol’ fashioned Sharpies.

I use ink tools to render hatch and stipple effects. I use fabric materials, medical gauze, cheesecloth, and straws to press, dribble, and spatter ink for special effects.

Midtones for Black-and-White

Many of my midtones are hand-rendered with ink: hatch, pattern, and stipple.

Gray midtones are applied with mechanical rub-ons known to architects and manga artists as “insta-tex” or “screentones.” I apply them one of two ways: digital Computones plugin or hand-cut tones.

The digital computones overlay the artwork on a separate layer in Photoshop, and traditional tones come in adhesive sheets that you cut and adhere directly onto your page.

Coloring Illustrations

I enjoy traditional mediums like paint, marker, and pencil, but I jump at opportunities to practice my digital, too.

Backgrounds are usually done traditionally cause I’m quicker with paint. I use colored ink, watercolor, gouache, egg tempera, oil, or acrylic. I like doing character art in markers, colored inks, and colored pencils.

You can see many progression pictures and wips on my social media. Search loomcomics!