THE SHADOWS GATHERING
I Wanted to Show Dread Without Showing Violence.
This Is Page Three.
In Orvieto, Italy, I walked into a dovecote carved into an ancient stone wall.
It was quiet in a way that felt intentional. Dark in a way that felt old. Holes in the stone where birds had lived for centuries, generations of them, woven into the daily life of people who understood how to use what the land gave them. You could feel how tightly survival and beauty had been stitched together in that space.
It was humbling. And a little unsettling.
That feeling, quiet dread in a beautiful place, is something I've been trying to put on a page for fifteen years. This is the closest I've come.
“No dominion, however radiant, escapes the shadows gathering at its edges.”
This is page three of Falconeria: Trials of Ash. A fortress on a hill. The trembling of wings. An eye that has been watching long before we arrived.
I had a specific challenge when I designed this page. I wanted the reader to feel that something ancient and unavoidable was already in motion, without showing a single act of violence. No sword. No fire. No body. Just the architecture of dread. The fortress that has stood too long. The bird that knows something we don't. The eye that has been open while we were sleeping.
In the trembling of wings and in the low lament of the wind, omens whisper long before calamity dares to speak its name.
Falconeria: Trials of Ash is a twelve-volume graphic novel arc launching on Kickstarter Fall 2026. Ink and wash, custom hand drawn screen tones, a world built on fifteen years of craft and obsession. Follow the project at the link below and be notified when the campaign goes live.
