iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Here's some art! More NPCs, haunted houses and eldritch flesh for the Liminal Horror scenario I'm working on

Ink drawing over photo collage depicting a 20something man with shaggy black hair, piercings, and abstract wavy line tattoos on his arms.

Ink drawing over photo collage of a dilapidated farmhouse in an overgrown field.

Ink drawing over photo collage of a blue-collar-looking man with a beard and trucker hat smirking at the viewer.

Ink drawing over photo collage depicting abstract, otherworldly biological objects sitting on trays in an underground space. One hovers in the air, dripping.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

One of these bad boys, already a decade old when my grandpa gave me his old one in 2004ish. I created many an elaborate MSPaint scene on it, and eventually accumulated enough yard sale CD-ROMs to upgrade to Windows 98 and play Thief: The Dark Project on it, which was formative to my whole deal.

An NEC Versa laptop from the mid-90s. It has an 800x600 screen and weighs somewhere between 14 and 35 pounds

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Trying a slightly different thing for a scenario I'm working on for the Liminal Horror Summer Jam. Classic small town doomsday cult cosmic nightmare stuff. More to come!

Ink drawing over photo collage depicting the front of a dive bar with mountains in the background.

Ink drawing over photo collage depicting an autopsied body, skull open, with a decidedly alien-looking organ in place of the brain.

Ink drawing over photo collage depicting two hapless investigators being jumped by a spindly, eldritch arthropod under a bridge.

Ink drawing over photo collage depicting a haunted-looking middle-aged woman at a bar.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Two extremely different pieces of art you've made. See, it's only MOSTLY fiddly pen and ink stuff around here.

Gouache and ink painting of a fishperson knight and his crustacean companion being ambushed by goblins in the woods, based on D. Jeffrey's Mosschester.

Pen and ink drawing of a car stopped on an empty desert road at night. Its headlights shine on a mysterious, organic winged shape hovering in the road in front of it. The car's door is open, and no driver is visible.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

If you see this, quote the energy you bring to Bluesky

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

It's done! Much like our diminutive heroine, I've reached the end of this particular quest. Shout out to every dungeon synth artist; I must have listened to most of them while working on this.

Ink illustration of a small ruined castle on a mountain spire. A huge, sinuous, dragonlike creature curls around the tower, peering down at a weary warrior approaching up stairs carved into the rock. The sky is full of dark stormclouds, but a sunbeam illuminates the scene.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Ruining family craft night with the sculpey Nuckelavee

Small clay sculpture of the Nuckelavee, a nightmarish monster from Orkney folklore that looks like a skinless, cyclopean man merged with an equally skinless horse.

The creature was said to emerge from the sea and poison the land with its caustic breath.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

The beast begins to emerge...this one is taking weeks so all y'all get is progress pics for now

Close-up of a work in progress ink illustration showing the head of a dragon-like creature looming over a collapsing castle ruin, with thick, dark clouds in the background.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Working at this scale kinda makes me feel like I'm building this damn thing stone by stone

Closeup of a work-in-progress ink illustration showing a partially shaded castle ruin with a dragon looming over it.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Did someone say it's make a terrible comic day?

A terrible three panel comic about me learning that seaweed is a protist, not a plant.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

In the early stages of my largest ink illustration to date and it's terrifying/very fun to work this big

Photograph of a large work-in-progress ink illustration featuring a dragon-like creature curled around a ruined castle tower on a clifftop. A small figure wearily carrying a sword approaches the tower from stairs cut into the rock.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

This is probably the hardest illustration to post on the internet for aspect ratio reasons but it remains one of my favorite compositions I've done. Go read @mollytanzer.bsky.social 's Jirel stories, they're fantastic

Pen and ink illustration of Jirel of Joiry staring down the demon Illuyanka, from "Jirel Meets Death" by Molly Tanzer. Jirel wears an archaic tunic, cloak and sword, and stares defiantly at the tusked, snake-maned, leonine face of the demon, who coils its snakelike body around her and puts a massive paw on her shoulder.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Artists, show what built your style! Alan Lee, Angus McBride, Gustave Dore and Hayao Miyazaki are the big four for sure. More comments in the alt text.

Watercolor illustration of the Amazons from the Iliad, riding into battle. Behind them, divided into a separate image, is a grey river landscape. By Alan Lee.

I had his illustrated LOTR as a kid, but also Black Ships Before Troy, an abridged adaptation of the Iliad he illustrated. I always loved his solemn, ethereal figures and misty landscapes.

Painting of some Celtic or Germanic warriors in the woods by Angus McBride. One presents a severed head to his chieftain.

Looking up historical reference when I was younger, you'd always come across his work, as he was an extremely prolific historical illustrator, but he always brought a fantasy artist's sensibility to the field. His characters weren't just mannequins wearing reproduced historical artifacts like a lot of that kind of work, but always had personality and incredible drip.

19th-century etching by Gustave Dore showing a scene from the Divine Comedy as Dante and Virgil explore Hell.

I can't remember when I first came across Dore but I knew right away I wanted to draw like that. The incredible range of values while technically only using binary black and white is something I'm always striving towards. Much of my style comes from trying to replicate his absurdly precise etching with absurdly imprecise ink pens.

Two panels from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. A gigantic god-warrior holds Nausicaa up to its face as she stands in its enormous hand, and she gently reaches out to touch its cheek.

Honestly I just stole my whole deal from Miyazaki's work on Nausicaa. I first encountered the manga in middle school after growing up on his movies, right as I started thinking about making comics seriously. I learned so, so much about drawing with ink just poring over those pages and copying technique, and the themes and design sensibilities in that comic have probably bled into my work as well.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Working on some stuff I can't show yet, so in lieu of that here are some ethereal black metal vibes from my time inside a cloud yesterday

Photograph of a foggy alpine ridge, rocks and scrub fading into the mist.

Photograph of a rocky trail through an alpine meadow, heading into mist-shrouded spruce trees in the distance.

Photograph of a mountain valley just barely visible through the cloud layer

Photograph of lichen-covered rocks on an alpine slope with low clouds and spruce trees in the background

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Here's some art! This is Shadowdark module cover for Doomed Zone.

Pen and ink illustration of a mob of medieval villagers standing framed by two buildings. They tentatively hold various makeshift weapons and face away from the viewer towards a windswept hill, where stands the silhouette of a menacing beast. Fog drifts beneath a dark sky in the background.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Alternatively, get me one of these and die in a grazing rights dispute

Photo of a concerned man wearing an early Medieval helmet with a comically large nasal guard

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I can't stop playing Dread Delusion, so here we are.

Colored ink drawing of Orlaith from Dread Delusion. She carries her huge greatsword over her shoulder. An ornate magical key floats above her left hand. The background is split between large glass tanks holding ancient corpses and a scene of huge mushrooms and floating islands beneath the sunlike Neuron Star. Its long flares wind through the magenta background.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Trying to remember how to doodle in my sketchbook for fun. Looked at some Moebius stuff and allowed myself a little stippling as a treat

Stipple-heavy pen portrait of a gaunt bald man with a piercing gaze.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Art formats I have never tried before: Scapula diptych

Ink illustration on two goat scapulae (shoulder blades): on the left, a knight wields a halberd surrounded by ivy vines. The Latin word INCREMENTUM (growth) is in the top corner of the bone.
On the right, a dragon breathing fire, surrounded by burning vines. In the top corner, the Latin word INTERITUS (destruction).

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Guess what lads I've got a little comic IN PRINT and IN COLOR and it looks pretty good

Photograph of a comic panel depicting an ancient warrior in bronze armor, wielding a battle-axe and menacingly stomping toward ls the viewer

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

For no reason at all, here's a lil Dune painting I did a few years ago

Gouache and ink painting depicting a Sardaukar from Dune being ambushed by a Fremen warrior bursting from the sand.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

The necromancer I did for UNDER THE SHADOW OF HELFAST SPIRE, a Shadowdark module by Bob Mason. I did all the class illustrations for this one and they're all really fun takes on classic TTRPG archetypes. The kickstarter is going swimmingly, check it out here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/bob...

Pen and ink illustration depicting a halfling necromancer riding on the shoulders of a zombie. She has a gleefully crazed expression as she points her unwitting steed onward with a hand holding an obsidian ritual dagger. A huge crescent moon is visible in the background.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

If I had to pick! Honorable mention to Warcraft III and every 3D Elder Scrolls, which consumed probably 10% of my teenage years

Screenshot of my Steam Library showing the covers of my favorite games: Control, Disco Elysium, Elden Ring, Red Dead Redemption 2, Valheim, The WItcher 3, Kenshi, Noita, and Outer Wilds

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

I've completed a comic adaptation of one of my favorite Clark Ashton Smith stories, THE ABOMINATIONS OF YONDO, which turns 100 this year! It's my first comic in full color, which was a hell of a learning experience. It's available now digitally or in print by mid-March. lizardbrainart.bigcartel.com

Comic cover with the title "THE ABOMINATIONS OF YONDO" in a jagged, flowing script. The image shows a broken statue in the middle of a desert, leaning off its pedestal and half buried in sand. Details of the statue suggest it may not be depicting a human. The long, bony legs of an unknown creature creep out from behind the statue.

Five triangular comic panels depicting a fist-sized insect approaching a sitting man, a huge ruined temple with flying creatures nesting in its destroyed upper level, a salt-lake shoreline with a multilimbed creature visible behind a salt pillar, a red rock canyon filled with strange, broken statues, and a violently red sunset over a blasted desert landscape.

Four panels depicting a man, wandering in a desolate waste, noticing an uncanny shadow behind a rock.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Here's a little preview of my first comic in FULL COLOR which I have been working on for a little while now. It's a short one and should be out in a few weeks.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

A knight called by the deep, now an eternal guardian of the sunken city... This is from a few years ago and I don't think it ever made it on here.

Gouache painting depicting a knight rising out of a murky green ocean. Their armor is dripping with slime and embellished with coral-like growths. Their helmet resembles a cephalopod and many eyes are visible behind the tentacled visor. Eldritch monoliths protrude from the waves in the background.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

It is #PortfolioDay once more. I'm a traditional illustrator specializing in pen and ink. I've contributed to a number of fiction publications and TTRPG projects, and I am currently looking for more work!

Pen and ink illustration depicting a crater in the middle of a sparse pine forest. A glowing meteor sits in the depression, and facing it, a woman kneels, head upturned towards the starry sky.

Three large, eldritch beasts approach through the trees towards the meteor. The first has many tall, jointed legs and a bony head. The second is serpentine, with a loop-shaped head fronted by tendrils. The third is a dark, six-limbed figure with a featureless bullet-shaped head and glowing eyespots on its chest.

Two adventurers, an elf and a dwarf, traverse the ruins of an ancient underground city while a shoggoth lurks on the cavern roof above.

Pen-and-ink illustration depicting four monsters bursting out of a vintage TV set: the werewolf from An American Werewolf in London, the creature from The Thing, half-human and half nightmarish alien, the dripping Tarman zombie from Return of the Living Dead, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon reaching toward the viewer.

Pen and ink illustration depicting a huge, goatlike demonic warrior against a black background. He holds a flaming sword in one hand and a small imp warrior in the other, kneeling in subservience. Other imps with a variety of appearances and armaments fly around him.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Art vs artist 2025 edition. A year of creatures of all types and trying to remember how color works. We survived another one, y'all.

9-square grid with a photo of my morose-looking face in the center. It is surrounded by 8 detail shots of my artwork: (clockwise from top left) a werewolf, a warrior battling an undead monstrosity, a woman staring down a snake-haired leonine demon, a woman's head on a crab-like body with a mischievous expression, an eyeless lich on a firelit throne, a warrior battling a variety of skeletons and demons, an elk crossing a mossy log in the deep forest, and a huge spindly-legged monster amidst pine trees.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

ADORATION OF THE METEOR This one is straight from the dome. Felt very good to do a finished piece that wasn't a commission and wasn't for some personal comic or worldbuilding project, but just pure weird stuff from my brain. It's been a long time.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Working (slowly but steadily) on a big personal piece. Trying to remember how to make art that isn't "for" something.

Closeup of a work-in-progress ink drawing of a pine forest at night, lit from below by an unseen source. The shapes of large creatures can be seen among the trees.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Everyone's talking about how Del Toro's Frankenstein is about daddy issues but the main daddy issue is that Lars Mikkelsen's character looks EXACTLY like my dad to the point where I did multiple double takes to confirm it was not my actual father on screen

Lars Mikkelsen as Captain Anderson in Frankenstein (2025), a character who looks exactly like my dad. No comparison photo of my dad is necessary because you wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

I can finally show off probably my favorite piece I've done this year--the Halloween merch design for @moviemadness.org. Beyond stoked to do more work for the best movie rental/theater/museum/temple in the world. And those practical effects are sooo satisfying to replicate in ink

A green illustration on a black background, featuring the words "MOVIE MADNESS" in a font that suggests bad VHS tracking. In the center of the image, four monsters burst out of a vintage TV set--the werewolf from An American Werewolf in London, the creature from The Thing, half-human and half nightmarish alien, the dripping Tarman zombie from Return of the Living Dead, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon reaching toward the viewer.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

"The apparitions are getting worse. The air in the vaults feels like a thin curtain that could be ripped away at any moment. I do not know what door I opened in search of the afterlife, but I pray to all the gods it isn't the one our souls go to in the end." A quick one for the spookiest of seasons

Pen and ink illustration depicting a darkened doorway in a stone wall. A robed scholar scrambles away from the doorway in a panic, having dropped his writing implements, as a monstrous, glowing apparition manifests in the darkness beyond. At first glance, it appears vaguely humanoid, but has the suggestion of three heads, many mouths, and an indeterminate number of limbs.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Made a little block print. It's hard to find inspiration for personal work in these fucked up times, but a new medium always helps me. Spend time with the people, places and experiences that make life worth living, and return ready to take the heads of those who would steal those things from us.

Block-printed image in green ink depicting an arm holding a short sword bursting from the undergrowth on a forest floor. Above it are the words "FIGHT FOR LIFE"

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Poster I did for Movie Madness here in Portland for their Creature Features block. One of the largest ink pieces I've ever done!

Pen-and-ink poster illustration. A number of monstrous limbs reach out from behind a steel door, chained and padlocked. The words "CREATURE FEATURES" are drippily painted on the door. A creature that resembles a spidery crustacean with a human woman's head scuttles across the door, approaching the padlock with a key in one claw and a mischievous expression on her face.

Pen-and-ink poster illustration with digital color. The words "MOVIE MADNESS PRESENTS" cover the top portion of the image. A number of monstrous limbs reach out from behind a steel door, chained and padlocked. The words "CREATURE FEATURES" are drippily painted on the door. A creature that resembles a spidery crustacean with a human woman's head scuttles across the door, approaching the padlock with a key in one claw and a mischievous expression on her face.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Some pieces I did for an adaptation of Clark Ashton Smith's Tale of Satampra Zeiros a few years ago. Not sure if they were ever used but they were super fun to draw.

Illustration from "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith. Two thieves stand in a dark room surrounded by the silhouettes of various reptilian creatures. One man holds a lockpick and is looking eagerly into the chest of glowing treasure he just opened, while the other, holding a dagger, glances nervously behind him.

Illustration from "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith. Two men explore a dense, vine-choked jungle.

Illustration from "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith. Two men approach a small, simply built temple in the middle of a starlit jungle clearing. One swigs from a wineskin as he walks towards the doors.

Illustration from "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith. Two men confront a strange, protoplasmic entity rising from a large basin in the center of a small temple. An idol of the god Tsathoggua perches on a dais behind them, looking like a humanoid cross between a toad and a bat.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Turned 32. Spent some time with @esque-arts.bsky.social and the local mountain.

Photograph of me. I am standing on a dock with a cup of coffee overlooking a large lake surrounded by firs. Mt. Hood is visible in the background.

Photograph of Mt. Hood in the evening taken through a binocular lens.

Photograph of an ink sketch of Mt. Hood being held up in front of the actual Mt. Hood, out of focus on the background.

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Great minds...I literally proposed to my wife with these since neither of us like rings

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Simon Underwood @lizardbrain-art.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Our long-suffering protagonist wakes up to some new friends

Two comic panels showing an extreme close-up of a man's dirty, tired face as he wakes up. A large, pale insect is licking the dirt off his skin. They notice each other with alarm as the man comes to.

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