“Flagbearer”, June 2020 version This is a painting that I’ve been working on, on and off, for several years. I started her because I was enamored with Lupita Nyongo’s character in Black Panther, and wanted to do a trace of her face to do work on facial structure and rich Read more…
This painting is called “Oracle.” I’m embarking on a totally new artistic adventure: translating my artwork into digital painting. For a long time, I’ve wanted to invest in a new tablet, and get painting again. I recently got a new Intuos Pro, and have gone absolutely wild since. It’s been Read more…
Rebekkah Before Nkros This is my best and most recent painting. It is a portrait of Rebekkah, a character who appeared out of nowhere after I returned from Ghana. She had a short story to accompany her, which I wanted to also turn into a novel, but it never came Read more…
Sundiata’s Daughter When I began sketching this, I was really looking at a way to make a statement through clothes. I wanted to use extravagant color schemes and an insane–if not garish–blend of traditional African textiles and old 19th century clothing. On top of it, I included odd and fantastical Read more…
The Swordwife Unveiled It took me several tries to get this image right, and there were many discarded paintings in my folder by the time I was finally able to say that this one was completed. I was spinning this tale around and around in my mind for months, and Read more…
Persephone This portrait was the first image I did without an sketch to back it up. I went directly to the tutorials at Furaie by Linda Bergkvist and I started painting. Persephone is a favorite character from a novel that I just revived about an assassination plot. In the novel, Read more…
Ophelia Enthroned This sketch actually dated back much farther than its painting does. I believe I first imagined this concept in 2004 with the other Ophelia paintings, but it took considerable time and rethinking to make this image work. Again, Ophelia is a character from a short story (who also Read more…
Portrait of Abigael Still on a Serpent of Souls kick, I painted this portrait of Abigael to really work on a face–and a distinguished face at that. In the story, Abigael is the young princess–the youngest and only daughter of the King’s first wife and Queen, Phaedria. She plays games Read more…
Eilsette: A Portrait One of my most long-going novel projects is “Serpent of Souls” a fantasy trilogy complete with epic prophecies, immortals, apocalyptic promises, and invisible faerie worlds. Eilsette is one of the main characters from this novel, a mischievous and raucous immortal girl who follows around the prince of Read more…
The Cowardice of the King This image was drawn and painted to accompany Serpent of Souls. It depicts one of the final scenes, in which King Mazern Damien Korial of Diamond nearly kills his daughter, one of the main characters, Abigael. Artistically, the image was extremely difficult, because I was Read more…
My Reflection In high school, I was really, really into Victorian style clothing. I loved looking up old fashion sketches and incorporating new themes into my own dresses, designing elaborate bustles and corsets–all the delights of a wishful goth kid. This image wasn’t designed with the dress in mind though. Read more…
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe This image has always been one of my favorites. It was unconnected to a story until I really started to work on it. Since then, I did some work on scenes and ideas, but I never fully developed the world that these three Read more…
Ophelia: The Queen and the Storyteller The character Ophelia was originally from a short story that I wrote in early 2004. Her premise, though, was taken directly from another novel-length project that I have since completed. Their stories are very similar, with perhaps a larger element of the mythical in Read more…
Nightingale My earliest paintings are almost exclusively of faces, outfits, and poses. I was most interested in drawing figures that were well dressed and good looking–and a lot dangerous. Nightingale, unlike a lot of my other paintings, is not associated with any short story or novel concept that I was Read more…
Ophelia Dancing For a long time I really struggled with getting bodies and faces in movement. I still struggle with it today, but in this painting I was actively working to try and fix it. My character “Ophelia” rose out of a short story that I wrote, and for the Read more…