The wolf you just passed, Baedrick, was the very first serious thing I ever made in digital art, using Clip Studio Paint.
Book One of Rabbits, Updated to have Flowable Text, available now on Amazon Kindle (other platforms coming soon.)
Get Book Two of Rabbits is getting an updated file with fixes and flowable text for readers. Mid-2025
Get Book One of Monsters is also getting an updated file with fixes and flowable text for readers. Late-2025
I have been leveling up my artistic skills. I'm a lot further along than this current example and it is a nearly full-body piece of artwork. I am brainstorming clever titles for it but this will certainly become one of my book covers. It is one of the characters in the 4th installment. I was originally creating the screaming ferret art with the lightning staff that you'll see below. Look, I had no idea that I could make artwork like this. This is why it takes me so very long to make progress and get things updated. I am a one-person independent creator with a fear of trusting others into helping me expand on this story world.
Click/Tap the image of the books below to go to its page with more art and information! (Updates to book 4 COMING SOON, including a whole drawn comic I had made 15 years ago.)
COMING SOON SECTION: (Last updated 2024/SEPT/18th)
- I tried working on maps, but my lack of free time prevents it.
- Book 4 WAS 80% done, I am adding multiple chapters to the story. Cover art is ~50% done. you passed it. The blonde wide-eyed female-looking character will replace what was going to be the book cover. Look, I got better at artwork, I can't help it!
- An index with the factions, characters, monsters, cities, and so forth would be part of a MAPS section. This would take months of dedication to put together so I may not get into it without help. Yes, I am seeking help on this dream of mine. My books are deep and full of lore and though I do have a 75,000-word file of just characters and places for my own reference points, putting that into a system, like a wiki, is beyond my skills. Hopefully some day in the future, fans of this series will show me how it's done and they will have my blessing.
- I am CASUALLY creating a chronological log for the major timeline events of The Exiles (~1500 years worth that leads up to the present day where the books take place). This will be another side project on when I need a break from the main books or art. I plan to create some backdrop art for this and will post it on this site. I am experimenting with layout ideas and having fun with making the art of land or cities.
- I am halfway through editing Book Two of Rabbits. I have uncovered an otherwise hidden habit of mine to repeat pronouns in a sentence. The redundancy was pointed out by my readers and I thank you so very much for showing me! I strive to improve.
I am making progress,
At learning how to,
These art pieces were going to become the 4th book's cover. I have since improved on my art and I am making a whole new piece. Rebranding!
hand paint leather, metal,
and even cracked glass.
I have since made much progress in teaching myself how to paint metal, leather, and fur in mere days.
There remains much work left to do, but this is where the artwork for the next book is at, for now. I've been tinkering with different backgrounds. I have also been quite busy and am finding it difficult to find the time to work on this as much as I wish.
"The Fingerprint...
Four days marching into the misery leaves only the blistering desert spanning this lonely horizon. Two colors set the contrast between Vaelia and Celestiae, ivory of the baking sand and the deep blue of the cloudless sky. Each dune hiked is a mountain, which can swell half a mile from trough to crest.
Wind carves across the sands, dividing half a dune with its other. Any spoor left by their march erodes within the moment. An implacable gale blows only the undulating track across each rising bluff, the fingerprint of nature’s breath.
The first day into the desert was one of timeless misery. Cecil will not soon forget how hot his fur became, despite the insulation. The sensation of baking had lasted until they reached the end of the rocky plateau.
Leading them, the wildebeest had marched callously and confidently through the heat. Experience is what drove the guide, and knowing that things would get easier once the wind hits.
That wind has hit them, and for days it has not let up.
...of Nature's Breath."
The equipment he wears underneath his attire is not heavy or constricting; the vexation with it comes from the struggling cadence within the machinery. The air his lungs push through the tube sounds to be fighting rhythmically against a whirring, busted filter. Out of paranoia, he regularly elevates his arm to check if the warning light is on, but it broke that first day through the heat. He, nor his companions, have any real way to know if they are breathing in the rusty sands. Not unless someone’s breath tastes of baked, dry blood would anyone know they are about to die.
If not for their guide advising otherwise, Cecil and his companion would have set camp as soon as the cooling wind struck.
“One cannot rest when the sand dares not.” the wildebeest said at the end of that first day. “Moments into that nap, you become buried beneath these finest grains, never to be found. The sand feels too blissful when its warm embrace envelops your exhausted body.”
The times they rest last but a moment — to catch their breath. Any longer and the peak vanishes, sending the weariest to their doom.
The wildebeest had promised at the minimum five days without sleep. It has been four. Their guide had confessed only the day before, “The mountain we seek ought been well exposed and safe with caves and settlers.” As though he recently witnessed such mountains, they have yet to grace the bleak horizon.
Turin "Bleakbite" Shadoath
He has the scent of Her Blessed Chaos. The shriek of The End's Shadowsteel has called to him. What foolish Meal thieves his opportunity for reprieve will eternally rue the day they enticed the toothy jowl of this vengeful beast.
Please offer me any feedback! I only just taught myself digital art and how to make a website. :) lpbernard@iumentissaga.com