From my sophomore drawing class at CCS. A loose, expressive pencil study of a market‑side figure — leaning thoughtfully over a wooden stall filled with produce. The draped clothing, bent posture, and hand‑to‑chin gesture are suggested with minimal strokes, emphasizing mood, gesture, and atmosphere rather than detail.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

From my sophomore drawing class at CCS. A loose, expressive pencil study of two standing figures — rendered in warm red‑brown linework that captures gesture, posture, and movement. The crossed arms, tilted heads, and layered garments are suggested with minimal strokes, emphasizing rhythm and character rather than detail.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

From my sophomore drawing class at CCS. A detailed pencil study of a figure with wavy hair and layered jewelry — gray pencil throughout, with careful shading emphasizing the folds of the dress, the clasped hands, and the halo-like circle framing the head. 

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

From my sophomore storyboarding class at CCS and set in later chapters of Spell of the South.

Dora, now performing under the stage name Cathrine, has risen to fame by giving everything to her career and keeping fiercely private, until a man who loves her presses closer than she permits. The scene opens at her dressing table with the first words of the exchange — ‘You don’t know’ — her guarded expression carried in the mirror.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

The shot holds as the line completes: ‘…anything about me.’ Repeating the composition with only small shifts slows the pacing and keeps the tension in her stillness.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

The suitor appears in the mirror behind her as she turns — the reveal staged entirely in the reflection, her emotion breaking the held frame: ‘You’ve known me only three weeks.’

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

Cut to the reverse angle — a close-up on him as he answers, ‘Three weeks? Cathrine,’ — shifting the scene’s weight to his point of view for the first time.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

The closing two-shot: he sits beside her and reaches out while her crossed arms and turned body hold him off — blocking that carries the emotional stakes as he says, ‘I’ve known you my whole life.’

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

Meet Dorathy Anne Carver — better known as Dora — the young protagonist of my original short story Spell of the South. The story unfolds in 1913 in the fictional town of Roadsway, Kentucky — a small, majority-Black community where Dora’s father pastors the church. In the wider world, the Great Migration is reshaping the South, jazz is rising in the cities, and Louisville pulls at small-town imaginations like a magnet. Dora is a talented singer with second sight — a gift her father fears comes from the devil — and she longs for the wider world beyond Roadsway. She’s the first character I’ve developed end-to-end from my own writing into illustration.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

From the Spell of the South storyworld. A demon holds a woman’s face as she grips a cross, apples and a human heart stacked beside her — drawing on the African American folklore of striking a deal with the devil at the crossroads.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

December 22, 1913

Dear Auntie Eula, Uncle Benny, and Cousin Joy,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and safety, as I have sent this letter on the day of your departure in hopes it might meet you as you arrive.

Miss Annie May at school is helping me write this, she seems quite pleased that I’ve taken an interest in my studies. She’s a tall lady, stern, but smart. Momma says I should be grateful for her, seeing as it’s hard to find a teacher as good as her outside the city, but she really just seems like a know it all. The other students at school say she’s “thin and tall as a willow” and I guess I’d agree. She towers over nearly all the other teachers at school. What’s school like for you, Joy? I’m sure you’re fitting right in, you were

A digital illustration of a filled coffee cup, developed as part of client branding work during my graphic design internship at Jaime Uribe & Asociados (JUA) in Medellín, Colombia, August 2025. Rendered entirely in fine ink linework and cross-hatching, with the coffee itself left as a solid silhouette against the shaded ceramic, then isolated as a flexible brand asset for use across different backgrounds and applications.

A digital illustration of a smartphone, developed as part of client branding work during my graphic design internship at Jaime Uribe & Asociados (JUA) in Medellín, Colombia, August 2025. Rendered entirely in fine ink linework and cross-hatching, depicting a simple photo-and-message screen layout, then isolated as a flexible brand asset for use across different backgrounds and applications.

A digital illustration of a crossbody saddle bag, developed as part of client branding work during my graphic design internship at Jaime Uribe & Asociados (JUA) in Medellín, Colombia, August 2025. Rendered entirely in fine ink linework and cross-hatching, with hand-stitched detailing along every seam, then isolated as a flexible brand asset for use across different backgrounds and applications.

A digital botanical illustration of an orchid, developed as part of client branding work during my graphic design internship at Jaime Uribe & Asociados (JUA) in Medellín, Colombia, August 2025. Built entirely from fine ink linework and cross-hatching, then isolated as a flexible brand asset for use across different backgrounds and applications.

A figure painting from a freshman drawing class at CCS, based on a live model. I worked the study in blue and green hues to explore how color carries mood.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

A vivid pencil drawing from my freshman drawing class at CCS. The apothecary interior features a wood-grain table, fluid-filled bottles, book-lined shelves, a pinned corkboard, and a window seat where sunlight flows through sheer curtains.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

The cover of my Wonderland card series from my freshman year at CCS. The composition layers Alice and a rabbit, a woman holding a baby pig, a large keyhole, and bottles into one scene — a tableau of iconic Wonderland imagery.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25