Woodland Alphabet, A-H

Since completing my Coastal Alphabet, I've wanted to do another version with a woodland theme. I kind of want to re-do Elm and Hazel, but I'm still a bit on the fence.

If I get the money soon, I'm hoping I'll be able to get these printed as either flashcards or a poster, especially since my nephew is half Japanese and bilingual and will turn 1 later this year. I think it'd make a pretty cool gift!

Brown Bears

I haven't done a pattern repeat in a while, and I wanted to draw some bears. So, here's a pattern repeat of bears. :D

Mythos

Practicing my creature/character design skills with some classic beasties from mythology. (The bouncy Cerberus is my fave)

Knight of Wands from my Tarot deck. Just the Kings and Pages to do and then I'm done with the court cards!

Knight of Cups, from my Tarot deck

Pact of the Eidolon || Read here!

Dylan ‘Didi’ Kelly spent his adolescence in a secure psychiatric hospital after killing his father as a boy. Now a young man and recently transferred to a new hospital, his childhood friends and former co-inpatients soon find his new residence—and waste no time in breaking Didi out. However, they barely get to enjoy their newfound freedom for five minutes before they’re falling into a mysterious pool in the forest. They are taken on a journey through their dark pasts, discovering not only the truth about the cult they grew up in, but also the mystical significance of the pact they made to escape it, and what it means for the future—their own, and that of the world itself.

…Sooo I’ve been working on this graphic novel for the last year (although the characters have been in my head for way longer), and I’m finally ready to start sharing it online. It’s a dark fantasy/horror story about trauma, healing, love, found family, witchcraft, cults, body horror, mystery, and a bunch of other stuff. If that sounds like your kind of thing, please check it out!!

Contraband

Back on my pirate bullshit again!! Thanks OFMD and OPLA for making me relapse

It's fungi season!! Don't eat these, you'll die

Yellow-Feathered Light

I had this idea in my head for a while, but I was inspired to finish it after I read @boykeats's poem 'Trans Man's Hymn'. If you haven't read it yet, you definitely should, it's beautiful

Idk if I like how this came out. I like the bird, though.

Knight of Pentacles

Another installment of my Tarot deck, this time featuring my design for the Knight of Pentacles. I’ve always felt that the knights in the Tarot could have more interesting mounts, so I decided on a figure riding a camel for this knight. The Knight of Pentacles is associated with hard work, perseverance, material wealth, strength, endurance and duty, so the camel was the most natural animal I could associate with these qualities. My knight herself is also not a typical one; I was inspired by the people of the Atlas Mountains in Algeria and their traditional dress. The jewellery and clothing are so opulent and rich in a way that reflected the Knight of Pentacles association with material wealth.

It’s interesting to note that the horses in the Rider-Waite deck are moving differently depending on the suit–the Knight of Swords’ is racing ahead, the Wands’ is leaping, and the Cups’ is riding gallantly up to a stream. The Knight of Pentacles’ horse is actually stood still, which is a symbol of his slow, methodical approach and reliability. I wanted my Knight to look relaxed, like she isn’t in a hurry, and instead seems to be enjoying the ride while she examines her Pentacle and its power.

Nomads

This is based on one of my earliest memories; it's a memory of a dream. I can remember a recurring dream I had while I was still in a cot--I was walking across the desert with a lot of other people, and we had camels and all of our stuff packed up. It's still a really vivid image in my mind.

Obviously, this is not a desert scene. I really love bison and I wanted to include one, and they're not exactly well adapted to the desert...I'm not sure they make particularly good pack mules either, but this guy doesn't mind.

Just some miscellaneous character illustrations :)

Another illustration from Understory, this time the sisters spending time in a  clearing.

Another Tarot card to cross off the list! Here is my Knight of Swords.

The Knight of Swords is intelligent, articulate and mentally agile -- but also quick-tempered, impatient, reckless, and lacks empathy. He represents an extreme of energy, in this case air--the element of the mind.

Heliotrope

I didn’t like how this turned out, but a few weeks ago I got a lot of ideas for symbolism in my characters’ stories. Didi, my MC, has Dissociative Identity Disorder. This means he has a system of personalities rather than just one--this is born out of trauma and involves memory loss, as each personality has a ‘job’. Each embodies a facet of the psyche, and has their own memories. I haven’t experienced multiple personalities, but I have experienced dissociation; to me it’s always felt like trying to find my way through a maze, or like my head is full of cotton wool. I liked the symbolism of the flowers, or the field of flowers--when I was a kid, I liked disappearing into the fields of rapeseed that were around my house, or getting lost in the cow parsley that was growing in the woods nearby. It’s comforting but also rather disconcerting.

A couple of illustrations from a children’s tale I’ve been working on for a while called Understory.

It’s about nature stewardship and family bonds; it follows two sisters who, after the magic Oak at the centre of the forest is cut down, go on a journey to retrieve a number of artifacts that will revive it and stop the forest from dying altogether.

Character portraits, from my graphic novel Pact of the Eidolon

Just a few of my characters; I have about 4 more protags to do, though I don’t know if I will do any of my villains’ portraits or minor characters’. I’m definitely going to do some full scale illustrations of creatures though, more to test/challenge myself. I have 0 confidence in my creature/monster design skills...

Anyway, from top/left to right: Dylan (Didi) Kelly, my MC, his surrogate sister Sadie, her half-brother Jason (Jay), Didi’s best friend/love interest Billy, and Shiva, their first tagalong.