Painting the Imaginary
I'm Hope, an illustrator based in South Dakota, and Loreländ is my ongoing attempt to document the creatures that live in imaginary places.
The Field Note series started as a personal project — a way to treat mythological creatures with the same reverence a naturalist might give a rare bird or undiscovered species. Each piece is researched, painted in watercolor and India ink on cold-pressed paper, and printed on birch cardstock so it feels like an artifact rather than just a print.
The creatures I paint come from folklore and mythology across cultures — Greek sirens, Scottish kelpies, Chinese dragons, Norse beasts, and everything in between. My goal is for each piece to feel like it was pulled from the field notes of someone who actually encountered the creature and lived to sketch it.
I've been on Etsy since 2013 and every sale still genuinely means a lot. If you're a collector, a mythology nerd, a fantasy reader, or just someone who thinks the world is more interesting with monsters in it — you're in the right place.
