A sampling of illustrations I've painted in Procreate, a favourite digital painting application for me. Painting on the iPad, I was able to paint in off-hours, away from my bulkier desktop setup. I started painting this way while my child was a new-born and I had very few hours to myself, except for waiting them to fall asleep during bedtime.
Museums inspire me and a favourite is the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. There's a statue of a mythological Thai creature called a kinnara and I used it as the basis for this fantasy painting of a kinnara levitating a mystical egg. The statues in the niche in the back are also from one of the upper galleries of Hindu cosmology.
I was commissioned by John McDaid to complete an album cover for his concept album, Heart Sutra.
I envisioned a drowned city where ghostlights still occasionally shone from windows and sharks and other deep sea life circled a large pulsating, glowing heart. I also really really wanted to do something with this specific colour scheme in mind, as I love how the vibrant reds and teals play against the darker backdrop.
This pair of paintings stars my child, the one and only Doombringer, to give them their nom de internet. The first is Doomy on a snowy day, clad in bright winter snowgear and their favourite Peppa Pig hat. The second is them in an imaginary landscape inspired by Oregan and Idaho's geography, and was painted right before the eclipse of April 2024. This second painting was particularly important to me, as it was the last painting my mother saw of mine before she passed away on her road trip to see the eclipse.
Child in the snow, wearing a snowsuit.
Child watching an eclipse at the point that the Baily's Beads are visible.
I love an old-fashioned Dungeons and Dragons monster as much as the next girl, and a long-time favourite is the Beholder. Beholders live in many different regions but I gave this one a cenote for a home. She wanted a nice quiet place to place her egg sac. That's right, this is a Momma Beholder. (Technically Beholders are genderless, but I think it's funny to say Momma Beholder, and I'm gonna keep on saying that.) They gestate their eggs in a single use womb which weirdly sits behind their tongue, and they have to chew it off. Obviously this is a silly and fun thing to try and depict, and I had so much fun painting all the eyeballs.
Sometimes I enjoy painting fan art from shows I particularly enjoyed. Below we see: Elphaba (Wicked), Lucienne (Sandman), Ed and Stede (Our Flag Means Death), Kate and Anthony (Bridgerton), and Ted Lasso (Ted Lasso).
Elphaba, from Wicked
Lucienne, from Sandman
Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and Stede Bonnet, Our Flag Means Death
Kate Sharma and Anthony Bridgerton, Bridgerton
Ted Lasso, from Ted Lasso
One of my influences for figures is Leyendecker, and I admire his crisp illustrations of humans and the textures and wrinkles of their clothes. I created this particular fan art of Our Flag Means Death as an homage to one of Leyendecker's illustrations for the Post, entitled Flotsam and Jetsam. To create this, I gridded out the original and then sketched it and painted it inside Procreate.
I often like to use photographic reference I've shot myself and paint animals from excursions at parks or zoos. I'm also fond of various wildlife cams, such as the Brooks Fall bear cam near Katmai.
A tapir at the Woodland Park Zoo.
A betta fish named Vesuvius. RIP Murderfeesh.
Monkeys at the Woodland Park Zoo
Otis the Bear at Katmai.
Sam, a black cat.
I also enjoy painting food, and often ask friends if I can paint items they've whipped up in the kitchen.
Seasonal orange marmalade preserves.
A ploughman's lunch: olives, pickles, meats, cheeses, bread.
A slice of cherry pie and a sneaky Twin Peaks reference.
Landscapes are another favourite subject, either from my own photography, from playing Geoguessr, or asking friends if I can paint their vacation snaps.
A small weir on a pond at Kubota Garden in Seattle.
A stylized view of the Canadian Rockies at night, inspired by the paintings of Lawren Harris and a road trip to Banff in the darkness.
Riverside at Yellowstone.
A schoolbus opens doors to warmth in the cold Canadian pre-dawn.
A humpback jumps over waves.
An alley stair in Croatia.
Mystical standing stones on a Scottish hill at solstice dawn.
Experiments, silly things, meeting doodles I painted because I found intriguing elements emerging.
Ocean waves lap the beach shore.
Pink and purple pansies planted by Penny.
Alien fronds and pods wave in a green current.
Smooth Jazz Eel
