“Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution — more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.”

― Lisa Cron

I am driven to tell stories, to find them, to share them, to create them. Sometimes a character comes to me and tells me what to draw and write down, sometimes it’s up to me.

Check out my 2022 Portfolio PDF
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Lugh’s Mastery

A short film created for the Beltane Fire Society as part of an online celebration of Lughnasadh – a pagan holiday in late Summer. While the feast day of Lughnasadh honors Lugh’s adopted mother, Tailtiu, Lugh is the god who started the holiday, and this animation honors his legend.

“Lugh’s Mastery” is a retelling of one of the myths about Lugh, the god of crafting and skills. He famously approached the magical city of  Tara on a mission to join the court of the king. He had to prove he had skills to contribute, and upon sharing his many skills he was allowed in, extolling the virtues of learning many different crafts to the Tuatha Dé Danann, the people of the city.

My Role

Beltane Fire Society approached myself and two others to animate parts of the stories celebrated at Lughnasadh and we decided to neatly divide them and work independently. This enabled us to have complete control over our own stories – making it easier to work remotely, as was required, and also express our own creative vision. To complete this animation I did:

  • Concept development and art
  • Character design
  • Writing and editing script
  • Storyboarding
  • Background painting
  • Animation
  • Sound and visual editing

To see an in-depth look at my character design work for this short film, check out that portfolio!

Reds & Whites

This animation was created, from start to finish, by my colleague Dima Nowarah and myself within the span of three weeks. We worked with traditional media, Procreate, Photoshop, After Effects, and Premier Pro.

The brief came from Scottish non-profit, Beltane Fire Society. In the wake of COVID-19, they wanted to take their typically larger-than-life live performance ritual and translate it into an online format. I proposed an animation that established and explored the relationship between two concepts – ‘red’ chaos, energy and ‘white’ order, strength.

On the night leading into May 1st, every year, these two concepts are embodied by two groups of people. Dima and I decided to tackle the complicated union between concept and personhood, and animated this piece that transitions between abstract and solid form.

My roles throughout this short film:

– Direction
– Concept development and art
– Storyboarding
– Animation

The Seven Crows & The Bone Key

I have a collection of original Grimm stories. Whenever I’m want for inspiration, I leaf through the pages and get lost. On one of my trips into these stories, I discovered a very short story – The Seven Crows, sometimes written as The Seven Ravens, and fell in love.

A story that is ultimately about familial love, it starts with a flippant father and ends about ten paragraphs later with a happy ending. I needed to know more – there were so many tiny details that could easily be gateways to a full and beautiful world. I decided to take matters into my own hands – this project is a learning one. I take time every so often to explore the world, the story, and the people in it.

My roles throughout this personal project:

– Concept design & art
– Character design
– Storyboarding
– Worldbuilding