#grundo

Buff

Neopets Battledome TCG (25th Anniversary Celebration Set)

Grundo (Lab Ray - Mallow)

I can finally share some of my illustrations for Upper Deck's Neopets Trading Card Game!! (As though the artwork hasn't been out for a while now, I've just been neglectful of social media!)

I was 12 years old when I first set eyes on Neopia in 2003. It was the first time I really saw what art and imagination could achieve when married together - an entire online ecosystem sustained by a community of creatives just like me! I've longed to be a part of it ever since, be it drawing for the Art Gallery or publishing comics in The Neopian Times, just hoping to work for The Neopets Team one day.

So when Upper Deck reached out about collaborating on the Neopets Battledome Trading Card Games I thought I had died and gone to heaven! From playing Neopets in 2003 to officially illustrating for them in 2023, this project has been something of a dream come true. It has been such an honour to see my art alongside not just the artists who defined my youth, but also other artists who grew up with Neopets as I did. If that 12 year old girl could see me now I know she'd lose her mind!

ID: two images. image one: a digital drawing done with a textured brush of my grarrl neopet piecemeal in its nugget form with its darigan form stood behind it. the posture of both forms (mouth open in a snarl, claws held in raptorial position) mirrors each other. the background is dark with purple flames silhouetting them.

image two: a drawing of a botanical grundo holding a toy prize capsule up to her face. inside a toy brown grundo stares out in her direction. the inside of the capsule appears brighter, and frames the green and brown of the top of her head against the brightened blue of the background. end IDs