Bookmark Set 001 (2024)
A set of finely detailed bookmarks – a project that was incredibly fun from start to finish. The goal for these was to give a nostalgic Scholastic Book Fair kind of vibe with the cheesy, pithy taglines…but with my signature dark art style. Aside from the cicada one, which I just really liked the idea of, they each pull subjects from one of my ongoing series: Born of Giants, Lonely Universe, and Tree Folk. I’m hoping to work on another set of these in the future!
Micron 005 Fineliners on crappy sketchbook paper
Cleaned up and lettered in Photoshop
Printed w/ pigment ink on Red River’s heavy Palo Duro Etching 315 museum-grade cotton fiber paper
Sealed w/ clear vinyl for durability, thick tactility, and protection against smudging book pages
About “Lonely Universe”:
Lonely Universe follows the wanderings of young human Carmuke and their dog Tobee as they explore the rich, varied, ruined remains of a long defunct galaxy-wide robotic empire. Steeped my usual inky details and a hint of retro-futurism for flavor, each new locale is a stop on their solemn pilgrimage through the stars. Despite succumbing to their doom thousands of years prior, the bodies of the robot citizenry still remain. Frozen in place for eternity, they’re preserved in the pose of whatever they were doing when the kill signal spread across the galaxy and eventually reached them. An interstellar Pompeii. Superstition and fear prevents the scattered pockets of humanity from recolonizing the mechanized worlds, but some, like our curious protagonists, inevitably yearn to learn more of what came before…
About “Tree Folk”:
Trees have long been a fascination for me. Growing up in a family that valued nature and exposed me to some of the most beautiful environments in the country through camping and backpacking, their variety and majesty captivated me. My father tapped trees to boil down for syrup on our small property every year and our woodstove was our main source of heat in the winters. This interest still pervades my life from my bonsai and woodworking hobbies to the the art I create in both fantasy and realism. Inspired by the woodsy inhabitants of some of my favorite fantasy worlds, this series of illustrations explores my own take on arboreal humanoids.
About “Born of Giants”:
Born of Giants is a worldbuilding series that follows the developments of a young civilization as it literally builds on the bones of the past. In a time long past, colossal godlike humanoid creatures fought terrific battles across the continent scarring the landscape in the process.
Ages later, the remains of their bones and metalcraft are woven into the plains, regrown forests, and mountain ranges. As humans spread across the globe they built up deep mythologies to help explain the remains of what certainly must have been gods. They approach these megastructures as revered holy relics, natural resources for construction, indicators of societal status, and the foundations of their urban centers themselves.
Each image in this series explores a little corner of this world – interesting remnants from the Age of Giants and how the people in that region regard and transform those remains.