
Dapper Cadaver

Cartoonist, Designer, Illustrator



Self Portrait, Digital, Laura Fear, 2023

Helena, digital painting, 2023, Laura Fear
Recently I have switched careers and relocated. I am much happier now and get to do something creative every day at work. Right now I am taking more time to draw and paint in my downtime. I’m trying to make my art more grandiose and spend more time on it. Here is a painting of Helena I recently completed.

My yearly contribution to Northwest Animal Companions charity auction.




For a while I’ve been drawing cute little illustrations of classic monsters in everyday situations. I started thinking “when you live forever what do you live for?” Probably video games, and not much else. In my opinion, imortality seems pretty depressing so I tried to draw Dracula in a “depression den.” I took a look around my couch and noticed the things I have laying around and thought about drawing that, but had to modify (Dracula probably wouldn’t have a bunch of potato chips, more like blood bags).

“And we’ll love again, we’ll laugh again, we’ll cry again, and we’ll dance again. And it’s better off this way, so much better off this way…”
My favorite album of all time is Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance. I remember the first time I ever listened to it, on the floor of my bedroom as a 12-year-old fledgling goth girl. I fell in love, and it changed my life. For those not in the know it’s a concept album following the story of a man whose lover died. To be reunited he has to send the souls of a thousand evil men to hell. In the end they are reunited briefly, only to have his sins catch up with him and the two are executed in the end. Heavy stuff.
The album artwork was something that always struck me as beautiful, of the lovers in a final painful embrace. And I always loved the rough texture of the watercolor and the imperfect red wash of blood covered in faded black marker done in a rush. It was a challenge to emulate this texture on my tablet and mimicking the drawing style of Gerard Way as close as I possibly could. I erased as little as possible, tried not to vary the width of the markers so things could bleed into each other, and kept all of the sketches and blue lines.