The backstory
I started Dark Lantern Design in 2020 from my kitchen table during lockdown. I'd been drawing animals in my sketchbooks for years, mostly as a stress-relief thing after long shifts as a vet tech at a clinic in West Asheville. When everything shut down, I figured I'd digitize some of my sketches and list them on Etsy as clipart. Just to see what happened.
The first month I made $47. The second month I made $200. By month six I was pulling in enough to cover rent. I quit the clinic in March 2021 (on good terms, they were happy for me) and went full-time on illustrations.
My process hasn't changed much since those early days. I sketch in a Leuchtturm1917 notebook with Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils, then ink with Micron pens in 01, 03, and 08 weights. The analog sketch gets scanned on a Canon LiDE 400 and brought into Procreate on an iPad Pro for coloring. Final vectors get traced in Illustrator.
The name "Dark Lantern" comes from a type of old lantern with a sliding panel. You could close the panel to hide the light, then reveal it when you needed it. I liked the idea of small, hidden things being uncovered. That's sort of what these drawings are. Tiny creatures given their moment in the spotlight.
These days I live with two cats (Mochi and Rutabaga), a bearded dragon named Sergeant Pepper, and roughly 400 Copic markers. The studio is a converted back porch with good natural light and a space heater for mountain winters.