Narrative-driven digital illustration : hand-painted with digital tools Adobe Fresco and Photoshop, NEVER AI tools. Every piece on this page begins with a concept and ends with a deliberate visual argument: world-building that rewards a second look, characters with personality readable at a glance, and environments that tell you exactly where you are and how to feel about it.
This work spans creature design, environmental illustration, character concepting, and brand illustration — built on the same foundational craft that drives professional concept art, but given room to breathe as standalone pieces. Painterly, intentional, and entirely human-made.
TOURISTS
DIGITAL PAINTING (Adobe Fresco)
A hand-painted digital illustration exploring environmental storytelling, atmospheric night lighting, and creature design.
Adobe Fresco and Photoshop.
No AI tools.
Adobe Fresco and Photoshop.
No AI tools.
This piece demonstrates a range of concept art fundamentals: mood-driven color palettes, dynamic light sourcing, organic creature silhouettes, and narrative environment design. The kind of visual development work that translates directly into game production pipelines, from early mood boards and biome concepts to creature sheets and key art.
TAKING A CHANCE
DIGITAL PAINTING (Adobe Fresco)
This kind of work reflects what a strong freelance practice actually looks like: iterative problem-solving, exploring multiple visual approaches before committing, and consistently delivering results that serve the client's brand. Long-term client relationships in illustration aren't built on a single strong piece : they're built on reliability, creative investment, and the ability to adapt your visual language to someone else's world without losing the craftsmanship that got you hired in the first place.
This piece is a showcase of several high-demand concept art skills: multi-character composition, expressive creature and costume design, dramatic underlighting, and a rich painterly texture that gives each character distinct personality and silhouette. The kind of work that drives tabletop game illustration, indie RPG development, animated series concept work, and fantasy world-building projects.
This piece is a showcase of several high-demand concept art skills: multi-character composition, expressive creature and costume design, dramatic underlighting, and a rich painterly texture that gives each character distinct personality and silhouette. The kind of work that drives tabletop game illustration, indie RPG development, animated series concept work, and fantasy world-building projects.
MAINE; 2075
DIGITAL PAINTING (Adobe PHOTOSHOP)
A large-scale digital painting, hand-painted entirely in Photoshop with no AI, designed to function as both a standalone panoramic piece and a three-panel triptych. Soon to be on display at the Portland Museum of Art, March 2027 through November 2027.
"Maine, 25 years after the apocalyptic collapse of the United States due to hyper-capitalization. Mainers, stuck in their old ways and ever willing to relearn a hard lesson, care for irradiated lobsters with performative, cult-like fervor. Being creatures that can overcome old age, these kept lobsters become kaiju-scale behemoths. These behemoths are then turned into roadside attractions for visitors willing to travel to see them.
The three panels read left to right. The left panel features a ruined robotic lumberjack welcome sign dated 2055 : a 'hat-on-a-hat' monument to the impulse to commodify everything, including Maine itself, for tourist consumption. The center panel depicts the lobster behemoth mid-ritual, the cult in full ceremony, the state of things in 2075. The right panel delivers the gut punch: one of the cult members is a tour guide, caught in a camera flash. The cycle that ended the world, still turning."
The three panels read left to right. The left panel features a ruined robotic lumberjack welcome sign dated 2055 : a 'hat-on-a-hat' monument to the impulse to commodify everything, including Maine itself, for tourist consumption. The center panel depicts the lobster behemoth mid-ritual, the cult in full ceremony, the state of things in 2075. The right panel delivers the gut punch: one of the cult members is a tour guide, caught in a camera flash. The cycle that ended the world, still turning."
This piece demonstrates wide-format narrative composition, environmental world-building, and the kind of layered visual storytelling that concept art directors look for in senior-level hires. Each third of the canvas carries independent readability while contributing to a single cohesive scene; a skill set directly applicable to game UI panoramics, cinematic key art, and title screen illustration. The creature design, prop work, lighting continuity across panels, and crowd staging reflect a full range of production-ready concept art competencies.
Above are explorations into the ability of the concept to influence visual development outside of the original style and piece.
CLOCKWORK SCALAWAG
DIGITAL PAINTING (ADOBE FRESCO)
A quick hand-painted character concept for a tabletop RPG. A clockwork ranger with augmentations, painted entirely in Adobe Fresco. No AI. Two head variations included, demonstrating the iterative design process standard in professional character development pipelines.
The character design balances cultural textile detail, mechanical augmentation, and expressive figure work. The intersection of costume design, prop design, and character personality that makes a concept sheet useful in production. Dynamic pose, strong silhouette, and a clear read at thumbnail scale. The kind of deliverable that translates directly into TTRPG sourcebook illustration, RPG character select screens, and narrative game key art.
SWIFT RIVER AT NIGHT
DIGITAL PAINTING - PHOTOSHOP
A hand-painted digital study built using direct observation from a night exploration of the Swift River in Coos Canyon, Maine. Painted entirely in Photoshop. No AI.
The technical focus here is extreme value control: isolating luminosity in near-total darkness, rendering wet stone and an uncomfortably river with minimal light information, and building a convincing sense of depth from almost nothing. The creatures at the edge of the light are intentionally vague, I wanted to introduce just enough to activate the viewer's imagination rather than define the threat. I wanted to indulge the human imagination and nudge it into a state of uncomfortable primal fear of what is in the dark by including some vague creatures at the peripherals of the light, mirroring the human's imagination to create monsters from the peripherals of our own minds understanding and perception of the world through our own experiences. That restraint is a skill in itself, and one with direct application in horror game environment work, atmospheric world-building, and any project where an environment/setting is expected to carry the mood of a piece.
MAINE'S DEADLY FOG
DIGITAL PAINTING (ADOBE PHOTOSHOP)
A hand-painted digital illustration reimagining Botticelli's Birth of Venus; the figure recast as an ageless coastal sea hag or spirit, embodiment of the gulf of Maine's murky weather and guardian of Maine's wild shoreline.
Painted entirely in Photoshop. No AI.
Painted entirely in Photoshop. No AI.
The composition carries a deliberate split narrative: the left half depicts the fate of those who disrespect the natural coast, ships broken in fog and tentacles; the right holds a lighthouse. The lighthouse is a respectful defiance, offering safety only to those who respect the wilds of the coast. Classical fine art reference, original creature and character design, and environmental storytelling working together in a single image.
This piece demonstrates figure work, dynamic weather and water rendering, costume and adornment design, and the kind of thematic layering that elevates illustration beyond decoration into genuine narrative art. Directly applicable to fantasy key art, mythological character concepting, and world-building projects rooted in folklore and regional identity.
Above are explorations into the ability of the concept to influence visual development outside of the original style and piece.
FEAR
DIGITAL PAINTING (ADOBE PHOTOSHOP)
A personal digital painting exploring interior environment storytelling, figure work, and the use of color as emotional language. Hand-painted in Photoshop, no AI.
The piece uses a deliberately constrained palette: reds and greens in tension throughout, controlling the emotional temperature of the scene without announcing themselves. The figure is an uncanny and slightly exaggerated human. It's easy enough to recognize it as a human, distorted enough to unsettle. Environmental clutter rendered with enough specificity to feel lived-in without breaking its gestalt presence in the composition. The single artificial light source isolates the figure against a space that the eye instinctively wants to look away from.
This is the kind of painting that demonstrates range. Interior environment work, psychological atmosphere, figure distortion, and narrative color theory. Skills that translate directly into horror game concept art, psychological thriller visual development, and any project where the environment itself needs to function as a character.
BABA YAGA
DIGITAL PAINTING (ADOBE FRESCO)
DIGITAL PAINTING (ADOBE FRESCO)
"CAMP NOBOS 2023"
adaptive brand illustration for a friendly camp outing in Maine
adaptive brand illustration for a friendly camp outing in Maine
I am Maine-based but almost all of my work has been remote, working with teams in many time-zones across the world. Available for freelance illustration, editorial work, narrative concepting, visual development, and personal projects with ambition.