Study of Venzell in Brown Ink

Study of Venzell in Brown Ink, 2025. Brown ink and gouache on vellum, 4 x 6 in.

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Lonesome Voyages was, alongside Ashes and Dust, going to have been an illustrated adventure game set in the world of Neith. Inspired by the COVID pandemic and Xavier de Maistre’s Voyage Around My Room, the game had two conceits: first, it took place in one setting, Venzell Andlauer Katzainer’s chambers in his family’s second home in the Zeelean Regency capital of Bardezant. Second, the player would have only controlled Venzell’s daydreams and fantasies. Every scene from the “real world” would have been non-interactive, scripted according to choices made by the player in the realm of fantasy.

“Is there anything more natural and more just than to put an end to it all, aided by someone who inadvertently treads on your toes, or drops some rather pointed remark in a moment of irritation occasioned by your thoughtlessness?”

— Xavier de Maistre

After accidentally fighting a duel against a student theologian, Reinhilde, Venzell is sentenced by an Enshrinement rector to 40 passages of house arrest. Passing the time with daydreams inspired by his collection of art and books, Venzell’s solitary journey could have gone in several different directions. “Guiding” him is an entity called Marra that visits him in his sleep, suffocating him and taunting him about choices he might have made differently.

Study of Galena Wrapped in a Sheet

Study of Galena Wrapped in a Sheet, 2025. Brown and sepia inks and gouache on vellum, 6 x 8 in,

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The character of Galena was drawn from many different sources. Her endless quest for increasingly intense sensations—and the use of heroic doses of alcohol and substances to approach such a heightened state—was inspired by the painter Francis Bacon’s biography and interviews. I also modeled aspects of her personality and speech on someone I once knew who was simultaneously a psychopath and a masochist: quite a combo.

A line from William Gibson’s Count Zero was also inspiring:

“And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.”

— William Gibson

Galena displays “inhumanity” through her inappropriate reactions to situations, whether it’s poking her nose into a painting she’s trying to figure out how to appreciate, laughing uncontrollably at a fistfight, or taking visceral pleasure in having large amounts of money stolen from her purse in an elevator car.

Study of Renata During the Binge (Full Body Version)

Study of Renata During the Binge (Full Body Version), 2025. Blue ink on vellum, 6 x 8 in.

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Renata is a character who shows up in several stories. In the original draft of The Vaster Conspiracy, I gave her a brief cameo in which she is passed out drunk in a banquette next to Dr. Rasteban at the Breslin Bay Old Colonist’s Club. In the second draft, I wrote a scene in which Vaster and Renata go on a binge together, with Vaster interrogating her about Dr. Rasteban’s dubious medical experiments until he gets so intoxicated that he forgets what they’re talking about.

The black square tattoo on Renata’s shoulder is a cover-up. This raises the question: if the rest of her body is covered with demonic sigils and arcane talismans, what was so dangerous that it needed to be completely blacked out?

The composition of this study was inspired by Caravaggio’s strong use of the edge as a framing device, as seen in paintings like Self Portrait as Bacchus and Conversion on the Way to Damascus.

Study After Ashera

Study After Ashera, 2025. Brown ink on vellum, 4 x 6 in.

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In Ashes and Dust, if the player solved enough puzzles and opened enough of the mysterious reliquaries, a new character would have appeared while the priestesses were sleeping during the second ashfall.

Arazue, waking up early to start cooking, finds an albino girl lying curled up in Leoba’s washbasin by the stove in the shrine’s kitchen. The girl is unable to speak and can only utter “ahh” sounds. The priestesses dress her in a spare, oversized shrine attendant’s uniform and try to figure out who she is and how she suddenly appeared in the shrine.

Leoba recognizes her from a prophetic dream she had in which a pile of ashes turned into a girl who uttered nonsense sounds before exploding. She decides to name the girl “Ashera” after a porcelain doll she had as a child. The doll, in turn, was named after a character from a popular book about an artificial girl made out of porcelain and imbued with the soul of the inventor’s daughter.

Teccla tries to teach Ashera how to speak, and she’s able to parrot a few words, but it’s unclear if she understands anything she’s saying.

There’s someone else who’s interested in Ashera, as well: a Zeelean nobleman calling himself “the Collector” who has been pursuing her and the reliquaries across the ashfields.

This drawing is a new pen and ink version of a sketch of Ashera done for the game in 2020.

Study After Priestess Arazue Zishangal

Study After Priestess Arazue Zishangal, 2025. Brown ink on vellum, 4 x 6 in.

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Arazue would have been one of the three playable characters in Ashes and Dust. A native of the ash-covered Rodinian region of Zabool, Arazue was raised in the faith of the Enshrinement and ended up becoming the first-ever ordained priestess of Rodinian heritage. She returned to her hometown of Zabool after the war to help rebuild the settlement’s looted shrine and aid the fractured, traumatized community.

Between Teccla’s random intellectualism and Leoba’s spacy scrupulousness, Arazue was the voice of reason of the trio:

“I can’t believe I have to say this, but we’re not spending the shrine’s food money on knives! And we’re absolutely not playing around with knives in the first place! What is wrong with you two?”

— Arazue

This drawing is a new pen and ink version of a sketch of Arazue done for the game in 2020.