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  • Rhodonite Wings Crystal Island


    Gouache on paper.


  • Crystal Island Shop


    Gouache on bristol.


  • This illustration was drawn for Robin Laws’ Yellow King RPG‘s Paris book, featuring a Carcosan take on the Parisian Opera Ghost, sailing on Lake Hali beneath the Garnier Opera House. It was created in watercolour and coloured pencil, and took inspiration from the art of the era, including the symbolist and late romantic painters, as well as sculpture and poster design.


  • I adored Annihilation‘s visual approach (among so much of it, gosh I just adored it overall really!) but as we walked out of the theatre, Matt and I realized we’d seen a similar visual theme at work elsewhere: at the MAC (Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montreal) when we caught a career-spanning solo show of David Altmejd’s work. I’m going to share here with you some images from both, because I think the interplay is really neat!

    For the record, the images below are going to flirt with body horror in a big way.

    First off, let’s look at some key scenes of Annihilation (click to see the source file larger):

    Now, let’s admire some of David Altmejd’s work:

    Let’s take a good look at some of his figurative stuff:

    And for one final comparison, let me share with you the close-up concepts of the horrifying bear’s head in Annihilation:

    And a few final pieces of Altmejd’s that really heck me up:

    I’m not crying theft here – I’m just always delighted to find themes, and for anyone who loved the visuals of Annihilation, the art world does actually hold interesting and relevant art for you!

    Thanks for your time! Comments are open!

    3 responses to “Annihilation and David Altmejd – an aesthetic of evolution, transformation, horror and beauty (TW: body horror)”
    1. Tom Findrik Avatar

      Totally agree,,,,,,,resemblance is stunning,,,,,,,coincidence ?Yes and no.
      Artists are creatures indeed.

    2. Gillian Avatar

      Darn, this is great work! Going to bookmark this artist. Hope I can see them in person some day.

      1. Shel Kahn Avatar
        Shel Kahn

        I would go back to see his work again on a dime! Def let me know if you see there’s an exhibit coming!


  • Inktober 2018


    I took it as an excuse to draw my own characters for a month straight, using preprocessed rag paper I tore down to size and a limited set of art supplies:

    Those waterbrushes are filled with different dilutions of sumi ink, making it fun and easy to do greyscale washes.


  • I had the good luck, back in 2016, of being part of the excellent team making Numizmatic Games’ Nintendo Switch release Light Fingers, as the concept artist, and one of my favourite parts of the whole project was designing the game board!

    You can see the final board here in motion; my concept design process follows:

    We planned out the board from a distance first:

    Once we had a better idea of what the zoomed-out view would feel like, we started to fine tune – and to come up with different types of tiles:

    Then I created a rough version of the board’s mockup – a kind of visual menu folks could pull asset categories from. This isn’t mean to look like the final game board, but more to guide folks creating that board:

    With approval on this, I tightened up the drawing, flatted it (filled it with temporary colours), and then we tested a LOT of different colour schemes:

    This is the final game board mockup I left with the Numizmatic crew:


  • Curse of the Goddess Illustration


    Illustrated for 13th Age Glorantha, featuring historically inspired clothing, weapons and accessories. Drawn with graphite and painted digitally.


  • After and Before Crystal Islands


    Watercolour on cream rag paper.


  • The Isle of Pelursk


    The Isle of Pelursk is a mixed media piece from 2018, inspired by the Canadian Shield, twisted pine forests and strange lights at dusk. Created in graphite and Photoshop.


  • This illustration was drawn for Robin Laws’ Yellow King RPG‘s Paris book, set on the balconies of Notre Dame as investigators attempt to survive a gargoyle attack. It was created in watercolour and coloured pencil, and took inspiration from the art of the era, including the symbolist and late romantic painters, as well as sculpture and poster design.