Mood Vine House
I was sorting through some old papers and found this sketch. I have no idea what this was supposed to be for, but I wrote “mood vines” in the upper right corner, so clearly some thought went into it…at some point.
Man of the Wilds
I’m currently illustrating Poems from the Night Watch by Arliss Ryan, a forthcoming poetry collection about the constellations. The poems for Lupus, Canis Major, and Canis Minor explore the domestication of the dog, so I’ve been researching how prehistoric people might look as well.
Save it for a Rainy Day
Back when I was working on Castle Whatsitsname, I knew I wanted sentient gargoyles for the castle’s security system. I never got far enough in the story to actually introduce them, but I’m saving them up and one day I will.
Carcassones
I hadn’t heard of either the game or the city when I was 16 and my art teacher let the class use the classroom lockers as a canvas. I painted these swallow-tailed silhouettes above a roiling ocean scene and named them carcassones. I mean, what else was I going to paint, plain old birds?
Griffin, Griffon, or Gryphon?
I first saw it spelled “griffin,” but if you learned about this mythical creature from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you probably called it a “gryphon.” I’ve seen other spellings over the years, and I figured when griffins get drunk they go on rants about how even they don’t know how to spell their name properly […]
The Ruhnmother
My first attempt at a long-form comic, Castle Whatsitsname, included a “wise old wizard” character with funny eyebrows. When I began to revise the story, I realized we didn’t need another Gandalf/Obi-Wan/Dumbledore, but we sure could use more venerable old women. You know, the kind who’s everyone’s grandmother on the outside and tougher than an […]
Goodbye, Dumpster Fire
I think we’d all like to light 2020 on fire and send it off a cliff to Hell. This is the last thing I drew in 2020, at five minutes to midnight as I waited for what will hopefully be a brighter year for all of us.
Knockoff Santa
Ever find a painting and wonder how it came to be? My partner and I booked an AirB&B in this lovely little Victorian in the mountains which contained a dark and moody oil painting of this old Santa-like man. I sketched the figure, unable to capture his brooding nature with the limited tools I’d brought […]
Come Play in the Snow
Many years ago, I drew a friend’s dragon character and learned the hard way to never, ever, ever try and draw every single scale. About halfway through this snow leopard, I wondered whether I had made a similar mistake. She’s worth it though, and she knows it.
What Was Kept
Many of my dreams involve complicated travel to bizarre places. In a recent such dream, I was on a boat sailing towards this island on some kind of tour. I woke up before we actually set foot on shore, but retained enough of the dream to sketch it later that day. I have no idea […]