Author & Artist

And finally, check out my buddy, Ashbane!

I decided to draw a quick piece of Darlene and Priscila from Intertwined. They don't show up much, just as background characters. Priscila works in the castle and her sister, Darlene, works part time in a jewellery store. I've never really spent much time considering what their relationship is like, but it's positive, though I'm sure they have regular sibling banters.

Heather and Henry both appear in Intertwined but Henry didn't have a design until now. I previously only described him as pale yellow, so that made choosing colours and markings for him interesting, especially when I wanted to use orange too. Anyway, I drew the two dancing together as we get to see a peek of this near the end of the book.

I decided to give some of Intertwined's background characters official designs. First up is Koa, the caretaker turned temporary guard. I realised as I drew him that someone responsible for guarding an imprisoned Rock Dragon wouldn't want to wear metal armour. So instead, he's been given some wooden armour and a leather vest, stuff that no Rock Dragon can manipulate. I also gave him a spear to cling onto to since I always imagined he'd be wrapped around one.

This week I decided to do some expressions from characters in my second book, which will be releasing later this year. From top to bottom, the characters are Clyde, Evangeline and Robert, and Kyle. It may or may not be obvious from this alone, but Kyle will be the antagonist of book two. As for Evangeline and Robert, they are Alita's parents and will show up a couple of times throughout the story.

After putting in a bunch of time trying to choose and design some potential pets for dragons, I decided to put together a quick lore piece of them. I'll admit I was trying to come up with a serious name for the slinkies, which I based on cats and the weasel family. But then I remembered that they, and weasels in general, look a little bit like slinkies on legs, so I named them as such. As for the bristleback, I based them on the extinct thylacine and a few species of wild canines (not domestic dogs though). It was a fun challenge to try and think of what a large predator would hunt on an island before being domesticated by the dragons. Thankfully, I've given Laili Island a few large prey animals, so it was in need of a large natural predator.

Well it's pride month again and I decided that I wanted to draw something for it. The first thought that came to mind was Luana and Alita and before I knew it, I had drawn a whole piece of them sleeping in on a lazy morning. I used the bisexual and lesbian flags for their pillows and blanket, since those are their personal flags. I find it nice to draw these two just being happy together every now and then.

I decided to do some fanart of Asbane's book Children of Draelia. I tried to do a shot of Skyscraper Tower, though architecture isn't my strong suit. I based the tower on Wuhan Greenland Center which, like Skyscraper Tower, is near a body of water and has a flat top. I ended up focusing on Shard and the sunset more than the tower. It was fun to try something different.

Got an urge to draw a character that won't show up for a few more books. He also got a slight redesign to keep the angle interesting. But this is Ari and his wings are the largest amongst his friends and family. When I eventually get to his story, his wings will be a factor to his story, but I won't spoil anything for now.

I found some old sketches of dragon beds and decided to whip up a quick drawing to show them off. The types of beds that dragons use varies a little. Richer dragons have four post bed frames with a large mattress and lots of pillows and blankets. Very poor dragons sometimes only have a couple of blankets to call a bed. The other two bed types are the most common. What a dragon uses depends on personal preference. Some like to curl up into a tight ball and prefer the smaller, rounder bed to help hold the ball shape, while others prefer to stretch out and use the rectangular base. Some even change their preferred bed type according to seasons and temperature.

Late in Intertwined, there's a scene where Evelyn takes Alita into the castle's gallery and they see three portraits of the most recent High Calns and their Prinzes. In the actual scene, these are depicted as full body portraits, but here I've only drawn headshots. It does show the passing of time and the crown across decades, as well as a little peak at how emotions can change in the case of Gerold and Griffin between their Prinze portraits and High Caln portraits.

The woes of character design… I actually love drawing my dragons and figuring out designs and colours and having them interact in the world. But sometimes, when drawing a character I've never done before, I really struggle with choosing something. This time, it was Tetra, a newer character who will be showing up in my second book. I knew from my time writing him that he was likely green, though I did test out some other colours. I also wanted to pull from the appearance of tetra fish in his design, hence the bright stripe running down his side. But exact colours? I was stumped. So I put this together to try and figure it out. I'm thinking I'll go with the middle option but all of the bottom row and the middle left colours are cool to me too.

Finally locked down a design for another dragon species relative, the basilisk. They are large snake-like creatures with venom and rattle tails. The fins on their backs and crests on their heads were pulled from the real life lizard called a basilisk, specifically the green basilisk. The fins are movable and larger on males than females. Aside from wyverns and raptors, these are perhaps one of the most terrifying creatures to stumble across.

Korbin simply smiled back at her. Modesty released her grip on his throat and stepped back from the bars. Korbin felt his throat before looking back up at her.

This past week, one of my co-workers left our job for new opportunities. It was a bittersweet time. Our other co-worker and I decided to make a farewell gift for her. I made this drawing of our dragons hugging for it and we got it framed. It went over well and we're all still friends, but we're going to miss working with her.

“Okay. I don’t really know what that means,” Luana said, turning back for the Manor. Markos’s words had confused her more than if she hadn’t asked for his advice in the first place.