Hello! I am JosieDearly, and I am a digital illustrator.

I specialize in character design and illustrations for storytelling in roleplaying and literary mediums.

I’m detail-oriented and focused on creating character art that accurately portrays them and shows their story, all before the viewer gets to open the book. I help bring life to a character and draw audiences in to learn more.

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Want to work together?

Send me an email at [email protected]!

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Table of Contents

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Digital Illustrator Portfolio

Character Design

This is my first commissioned character sheet, requested by an old friend and long-time follower of my art journey. I had estimated this would take a month to finish, and that was exactly the amount of time I spent delivering on this design.

Because of the level of detail I was able to achieve in such a timely manner, my client expressed his gratitude:

“Thanks for getting things done so quick too. You're definitely one of the best artists for communicating and working with!”

While the actual character is fairly simple, much of the time was spent on the details, such as his armor, the colour palette, and the living shield with a face grown out of its wooden facade.

An original piece inspired by painterly children’s books depicting folkloric creatures, I created the Birch King to push my design skills. I want to evoke old fairytales that were both whimsical and chilling, and draw my own brooding giant that a child would marvel at while their parents stared in horror.

I employed a wide variety of painting techniques and innate tools available to the program I currently use, Clip Studio Paint, in order to achieve the dappled light on the leaves and the fluffy texture of the cloak. While I could have cleaned up the linework, I kept it messy, even going so far as to subtly keep the sketch layer in, as it fit the unkempt nature of the creature.

Cecil and Finny were born from a single idea: filling a “void in my heart” by adopting a Soulwyrm. This design was meant to fit into a specific setting that another creator made called Kyomi, a monotone purple city floating in a void, full of the strangest people that are most likely ghosts, if not something else. It borrows some of its aesthetic from modern Japan and Japanese alternative fashion, and so I designed a half-kimono with a white bodysuit, opened wide to accommodate for Finny and his home, the literal void in Cecil’s chest. Much of the design was meant to show off the void heart as much as possible without making it seem sensual.

The talismans tied to Cecil’s sash evoke ideas of maintaining vitality (as having a void in your chest has interesting health complications), and bringing comfort wherever they go. One talisman depicts Finny breathing out some kind of energy, which alludes to Cecil’s most likely cause of death: heart failure due to lightning strike.

Illustration

One of my last pieces in 2024 was a digital painting of my client’s Elden Ring character, who was a fusion of two armor sets in the game: the Cuckoo Knight and the Carian Knight sets.

They had laid out their character design in the form of item descriptions they had written based on those in-game, which made it an exciting challenge to initially design. The additional challenge was the execution: I hadn’t properly painted in years prior to this, but I am very proud of what I managed to achieve, especially as this was done during a very tumultuous period in my life.

This ambitious scene was sketched, coloured, and shaded in 5 days. I had a very simple and straightforward prompt to work with: “a cartoony raven telling a story over a beer at a tavern”, and so I was free to add the details in as I please.

While I was asked to include a small crowd around the raven, I made sure to keep their designs as simple as possible so as not to take attention away from the raven. Using limited palettes, and body language that framed the piece and led the viewers eye down to the raven, I kept it the star of the piece, while also maintaining the warm, cozy atmosphere.

Though only 3 characters are in full colour in this piece, this is the largest ensemble I have drawn so far, with a total of 12 characters packed into this evocative image. Both I and the client knew this would be a difficult piece to pull off, but I love a challenge.

While I did save myself time and effort only shading most of the characters in red, I composed the piece so each silhouette was distinctive and didn’t blend into each other. Look closely enough and you can trace each outline with careful use of rim lighting.

As for the main characters, I am invoking an inheritance of power, from the large and bloodthirsty god down to his loyal servant, to his eager pupil and warrior. This power is the “gift of hunger”.

The client, who is a loyal repeat client that I continue drawing for, praised the piece as he watched it develop, and at the end all he could say was:

“I pushed you to your limits, and once again you exceeded them.”

Miscellaneous Illustration

While I am primarily character-focused, I am including this piece to show that I have stretched my boundaries before, and will do so again as the project requires. This is a map I drew for a tabletop game I will be running later this year. It is intended to be a final arena, with the goal of reaching the central obelisk and disabling it. In order to reach it, players need to defeat three bosses to create stable bridges to the center.

I was inspired to start this game, and draw this map, by Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory. As time and how it corrupts is an important motif in this game, I elected to include the giant warped clocks around the landscape, as well as design the arena’s mechanics to work like a ticking clock. Every so often, the three energy bridges tick clockwise around the obelisk, and are guarded by powerful constructs. The player must defeat each construct to freeze the bridges and allow himself passage across.

Comic Illustration

Despite my limited experience with making comics, I aim to expand on my existing illustration and character design skills by tying them together with storytelling. Graphic novels were my earliest inspiration for drawing, next to animated movies of the likes of Studio Ghibi and early 2000s Disney. In both I absorbed the way of storytelling through visual and movement, which I still reflect in art I’ve made, and art I’ve yet to materialize. For now, below are my best comic works.

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