Usually I draw pictures of plants and other nature things. I’ve never tried my hand at drawing images from my imagination, but I wanted to do a “Rural Fantasy” series. So I needed to get over the need for realism and let more creativity flow to do it.

Once the images began to take form in the material plane, I began to see more. Drawing is so similar to writing. Both involve bringing the imagination out to a form that can be witnessed by others. Both require letting go of internal editors or critics, the voices of whom would rather nothing ever see the light of day, it seems.

With a finished drawing on my hands, I had to decide how to sign it. All of my nonfiction writing is done under the name “Madison Woods”. My fiction is under “Ima Erthwitch”. But at the time of the first drawing’s completion, I didn’t have a fiction pen name and so it is signed as you see it below. Rather than assume another fictional artist’s name, I’ve decided to just keep all of my artwork under the same name, whether it is fantastical or realistic.

My Rural Fantasy Art

The first one is titled “Tree Priestess” and I finished her last year after carrying a vision of her around in my head for I don’t know how long. She appears in some of my prints and notecards now.

The current drawing is called “Water Priestess“. You can follow along with my progress over at the Water Priestess page. I’ll update it as I can with pictures of the next steps until it’s done. When it’s finished, I’ll post a pic of it here, too.