Graveyard Shift 04 - Lauren's Car

Visual arts convey a LOT of info via clothing and props. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few things that Lauren's clothing and vehicle can tell us:

• She wears scrubs, so she's some kind of medical professional from the latter part of the 20th century to present.
• If she were a nurse in the 1940s or 50s, she would be wearing one of those sexy nurse costumes.
• If she were dressed like a nun that would put her sometime after Florence Nightingale revolutionized nursing (mid 1800s) to early 1900s.
• Also, I put her in tennis shoes ("trainers" for you blokes across the pond), that shows she's on her feet all day and values comfort and utility.
• She drives a car, so:
• We know that she's not in the wild west (or some other time period).
• She's not riding in a Model-T, so that moves the timeline up into the 20th century.
• She's not riding the bus, so she's at least got enough money for a car.
• This also indicates that she values her privacy, or at least works someplace that doesn't have bus routes.

But what KIND of car should she drive?

What you drive says a LOT about who you are, or at least the "who" you are trying to present to the world. I have a buddy who loves driving a Dodge Charger (I think he got hooked when he watched The Dukes of Hazzard as a kid). But he's also had a Dodge pick-up and a Jeep. And those suit his personality. I, on the other hand, prefer a non-flashy sedan that blends into the crowd. As a young man, I had too many speeding tickets to ever want to draw attention to myself these days.

But let's get back to our lady vampiress, shall we?

I browsed through my runtime directories to find out what I already had on hand. I had a lot of sports cars and racecars. I had a cool 1961 Corvette convertible, but that's a vintage car that's got a hefty price tag. Would a humble nurse be tooling around in a hot number like that? Especially one who wants to fly under the radar?

That got me thinking about cars that could be described as "basic," "reliable" or "unassuming." I thought, maybe an Audie or something like that. Or maybe an old sedan or station wagon. Browsing my own stuff, and then checking out Daz3D and Renderosity didn't really find anything that leapt out at me. Sure, there were lots of nice cars, but none of them said "old reliable" to me by having a boxy, almost clunky shape.

Looking deeper, I found something that clicked, and it was neither boxy nor clunky: A VW Bug.

© 2023 Mike Mitchell
First render with a VW: it was not used.

The first one I found was a nice, modern bug with a sunroof. This was okay, but something jus wasn't right about it. Even though the sun roof was great for me because it would make lighting her face a lot easier, it seemed too expensive and nice for a struggling vampire.

So I dug deeper and found one from 1969, and it was perfect! Rex thought so, too. Here's what he said when I showed him the rough draft of the splash page with her driving to Victor's house:

I love that you placed her in a VW bug.

It has just the right amount of retro to fit a vampiress-nurse.

© 2023 Mike Mitchell

The above is basically the first panel of the story, although I am going to go back and add a few shadows on her face.

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