Valley of the Silk Sky concept art

Concept Art: Pocalo

Concept Art: Pocalo published on

This is one of the earliest pieces of concept art I created for Valley of the Silk Sky, nailing down the visuals for what the web structure of Pocalo looked like. There aren’t any cities or settlements visible here because I hadn’t gotten that far yet.

Valley of the Silk Sky - concept art

Concept Art: Pocalo

Concept Art: Pocalo published on

These sketches are all based on real microscopes of centuries past. I wanted to start with a working microscope design instead of just making something up whole cloth, but I wanted it to look substantially different from a modern instrument. Thankfully, past humans had come up with some looks that fit nicely with the VotSS… Continue reading Concept Art: Pocalo

Valley of the Silk Sky - Hali and Razi doing a science

Portraits: Hali and Razi Doing a Science

Portraits: Hali and Razi Doing a Science published on

This piece started out life as a character design sketch. Later on I went back and redrew parts of it to make it consistent with the final designs for Hali and Razi, and then added color to finish it out. This was colored with marker, watercolor, colored pencil, and acrylic paint.

Valley of the Silk Sky - Halvanylila

Portraits: Halvanylila

Portraits: Halvanylila published on

Another piece that started out as a concept sketch, trying to figure out what Harcos look like from behind. A black & white version of this drawing was featured in the 2015 Queers & Comics Conference playing card deck fundraiser. This particular version is ink lines printed out onto blue charcoal paper, and then hand-colored… Continue reading Portraits: Halvanylila

Valley of the Silk Sky - Chadsen portrait

Portraits: Chadsen

Portraits: Chadsen published on

This particular portrait started out as a concept sketch for what a typical runner’s outfit might look like, using Chadsen as a model, even though xer character design hadn’t been totally finalized at that point. I went back later to ink and color the sketch, and made some corrections to Chadsen’s appearance to match xer… Continue reading Portraits: Chadsen

Valley of the Silk Sky - waystation concept art

Concept Art: Cashel Waystation

Concept Art: Cashel Waystation published on

Here’s the original concept art for the Cashel Waystation, as well as the inks for our first peek at the interior on page 21. As you can see, this ended up being very close to the final design. Sometimes it takes several rounds to work out the look I’m going for, but with the Cashel… Continue reading Concept Art: Cashel Waystation