Illustration

Ramek the Machine Slayer

Aegeon, Digital, Illustration /
Ramek the Machine Slayer sitting on a destroyed mechanical predator with an anti-materiel rifle propped up next to him.

Ramek the Machine Slayer first appeared in Aegeon #1, in the short story “Ramek, Machine-Slayer” by Buffalo Jenkins. Since then he’s become a mainstay of the publication, answering fan mail and offering short commentaries on each of the stories.

I’ve decided on a whim to create a fan illustration of Ramek, resting after a successful hunt. The publisher of Aegeon was kind enough to feature it in the fourth issue. As usual, Ramek was drawn in ProCreate on my iPad Pro M1. This time I’ve saved several versions of the drawing in progress, allowing me to show you this slideshow:

Ramek01

Ramek thinks you should check out my merch.

The Map of Heaven

Aegeon, Digital, Illustration /
A pen & ink surrealist image showing da Vinci's Vitruvian man from the front and behind with a superimposed whaling harpoon. In the middle, there's an inverted pyramid with a human eye at its base, above a muscle car. In the background, there's a geodesic dome, and behind it, the Arizona desert.
The first illustration in what is hopefully going to be a long collaboration with the Aegeon publication. This one is for the short story “The Map of Heaven” by Jason Lupus appearing in Aegeon #3. Drawn in about 24 hours in ProCreate on an iPad Pro M1. The final version in the book has a slightly modified layout. Several products featuring this illustration can be found in the shop.

Giornale E Caffè

Digital, Illustration /
A pen & ink drawing of a street café in the historic city center of Verona.

This is probably my best work so far, if I do say so myself. Drawn in ProCreate on an iPad Pro M1 in about 40 hours. It shows a real café in the historic city center of Verona called Giornale & Caffè. In front of it, there’s our family (seated) and our two friends who run the place. This work was printed in a limited run of three A2-sized prints on 300gsm Hahnemüle rag paper.

Pebble

Illustration, Traditional /
A pebble with the image of ponte di Castelvecchio in Verona drawn onto it with brush pen and white gouache.

We found this flat, almost perfectly rectangular pebble while on a walk under ponte di Castelvecchio in Verona. I decided to draw the very same bridge onto it in brush pen (Kuretake Bimoji) and white gouache.

Experimenting with Watercolor Pencils

Illustration, Traditional /
A drawing of a shiny, metallic beetle, with a purple and blue thorax, and a golden carapace.
Wanting to add some color to my traditional drawings, I dug out my old Staedtler watercolor pencils I’ve had since I was a kid. I drew this beetle from photo reference on watercolor paper. I did the inking using my trusty Kuretake Bimoji brush pens. Their carbon ink is not only very black, but also totally waterproof. If you like the beetle, why not check out its store page.