u/Capyhero

Hi everyone! Since the start of October, my illustrator u/nickthagreek has been sharing Inktober illustrations for Capyhero, the new illustrated fantasy series I’ve been working on! It’s a great way to keep ourselves highly productive while I wait for the editor to get back to me. Here are a few of the fountain ink illustrations as a fun preview. Hope folks enjoy!

And if anyone is digging this, please visit www.capyhero.com to see a lot more art and character profiles, project updates, etc.

Thanks!!

🌲🤎🩵🌲

For Inktober, I'm excited to share pages from Capyhero with new ink illustrations. Here is a small but meaningful moment... when Capy met Penda and a friendship was born ❤️. Hope folks here enjoy her as an important character!

I also learned that my friend's rabbit that Penda is inspired by is actually a lion lop bunny, not a pure lop eared bunny 😄

Hi everyone! I posted this to the other Redwall sub and got some wonderful responses there. Would love to see if folks here at Eulalia feel the same or any different. Sorry if you already saw this!

As I wait for the manuscript edit to come back, my illustrator and I have been working on the all-important book cover. One of the core principles for Capyhero is to have everything be hand made and give absolutely no chance of ai generated writing or art. Nick (the project's illustrator) is a traditional artist and is doing all of Capyhero's 100+ illustrations in fountain ink. In that vein, we'd like the book cover to also be created through traditional methods.

Nick has been brushing up on his painting skills as we plan the front cover. Here's a practice piece (gouache paint) of Jake, the Piper, a minor character from the book.

I’m loving the natural brush strokes and handling of lighting and fur rendering. It’s been great to see this and imagine our main protagonist, Capy, receiving similar treatment for the cover as well.

How do folks here feel about traditionally painted book covers versus the much more common digitally illustrated covers these days? And especially fans of Redwall, does this practice painting speak to you? I'm certainly happy to evoke that type of nostalgia with Capyhero.

But part of me worries about how book covers these days are super vibrant, graphic, and have heavy contrasting elements. Would a traditionally painted cover not be attention-grabbing enough? If you were to see a book at a bookstore with a cover like this, would you be interested or would your eyes just pass over it because all the books next to it are "louder"?

And what do folks here think of this practice piece of Jake, the Piper? Nick and I are quite fond of him 😄

Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone! Would folks like to see one-a-day Inktober illustrations by Capyhero's artist, Nick? We're trying to get through many of the 100+ planned illustrations in the book by trying to keep up with Inktober. Let me know if you like this and wouldn't mind seeing more 😄.

edit: I understand that this is an ethology and welfare focused sub about capybaras and that this may not fit. While Capyhero is a anthropomorphic fantasy tale, the thematic underpinnings of the story are very much rooted in environmental mindfulness and our relationship with animals and nature. The illustrations of the animal characters purposefully respects anatomical accuracy, as this is actually very important to the overall "point" of the story. I can't give too much away, as a big part of the joy I hope Capyhero brings has to do with discovering the world and what it means alongside our young, brave hero, Capy. But please let me know if this does not belong here and I will take it down quickly. Thanks!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share a wonderful, traditionally painted image of Jake, the Piper. He's a minor character from the illustrated fantasy novel I'm working on, Capyhero.

We're currently developing the book's cover and Nick (the project's illustrator) is practicing his painting skills. He's the traditional artist doing all of Capyhero's 100+ interior ink illustrations and we'd like the book cover to also be created through traditional methods.

Anyways, I believe Jake is a field mouse. He plays in a musical woodland duo with his friend, Janis. She's a woodpecker who pecks her drum (pictured in the last image, which is a page spread from the book).

Hope folks here enjoy! ❤️

Hi everyone! As I wait for the manuscript edit to come back, my illustrator and I have been working on the single all-important image. The book cover.

One of the core principles for Capyhero is to have everything be hand made and give absolutely no chance of ai generated writing or art. Nick (the project's illustrator) is a traditional artist and is doing all of Capyhero's 100+ illustrations in fountain ink. In that vein, we'd like the book cover to also be created through traditional methods.

Nick has been brushing up on his painting skills as we plan the front cover. Here's a practice piece (gouache paint) of Jake, the Piper, a minor character from the book.

I’m loving the natural brush strokes and handling of lighting and fur rendering. It’s been great to see this and imagine our main protagonist, Capy, receiving similar treatment for the cover as well.

How do folks here feel about traditionally painted book covers versus the much more common digitally illustrated covers these days? I will openly say, we're happy to evoke *Redwall-*esque nostalgia with Capyhero. Is anyone here working on a book and thinking of doing their book cover traditionally as well? Any lessons learned?

Part of me worries about how book covers these days are super vibrant, graphic, and have heavy contrasting elements. Would a traditionally painted cover not be attention-grabbing enough? If you were to see a book at a bookstore with a cover like this, would you be interested or would your eyes just pass over it because all the books next to it are "louder"?

And what do folks here think of this practice piece of Jake, the Piper? Nick and I are quite fond of him 😄

Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone! As I wait for the manuscript edit to come back, my illustrator and I have been working on the all-important book cover. One of the core principles for Capyhero is to have everything be hand made and give absolutely no chance of ai generated writing or art. Nick (the project's illustrator) is a traditional artist and is doing all of Capyhero's 100+ illustrations in fountain ink. In that vein, I’d also like the book cover to be traditionally painted.

We've been brushing up on painting skills as we plan the book cover. Here's a practice piece (gouache paint) of Jake, the Piper, a minor character from the book.

I’m loving the natural brush strokes and handling of lighting and fur rendering. It’s been great to see this and imagine our main protagonist, Capy, receiving similar treatment for the cover as well.

How do folks here feel about traditionally painted book covers versus the much more common digitally illustrated covers these days? I'm trying to evoke that Redwall nostalgia with Capyhero. Do people still like that, or would it not stand out enough against the slew of super vibrant book covers these days? If you see a book at a bookstore with a cover like this, would it not grab attention enough because the books next to it are "louder"?

And what do fans of animal books think of this practice piece?

Thanks for reading!

I usually don’t like Capy’s that are too anthropomorphized, but I gotta admit, this is pretty cute 😂

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share a page spread I'm really fond of from my project, Capyhero. This is a scene featuring a musically-inclined woodpecker and her mousey pipe-playing partner.

The illustrations are by u/NickThaGreek, fellow Redditor and animal artist. He does everything by hand with fountain ink on paper. I take the scanned artwork and fit it into the prose. There will be around a hundred illustrations spread throughout the 300-ish page novel.

Anyways, just thought folks here would enjoy the beautiful ink rendering of the woodpecker. It's a bit of fantasy, but we're trying to respect anatomical accuracy as much as we can. I think it looks absolutely wonderful and I can hear the soft tapping of her beak against the skin of the tabor 😄. Happy to hear what anyone thinks!

Hi everyone! I really like how the page spreads in this chapter are looking and I think folks here would enjoy the beautiful traditionally drawn fountain ink illustrations of our beloved borzoi, Lupine. She is a Longgirlye and one of the main characters of Book 1 of the new fantasy series I'm working on called Capyhero.

On these pages, she makes her introduction*.* Please have a look and let me know what you think! The art is by fellow Redditor and illustrator, u/NickthaGreek. I'm the author and if anyone has any questions on the story, our process, or anything at all, I'm happy to talk about it! <3

Hi everyone! I've been waiting for the editor to get back to me and in the mean time, I've been noodling with the interior design of the book in Affinity Publisher and recently made a font change from Garamond to Crimson Pro (I was told Garamond performs poorly in book print media because of the hairline thinness in some of its letters).

To get a sense of how the book might look when printed, I used a subtle cream paper texture and painted some edge and spine shadows. I'm liking how it's looking, but curious if anyone has any thoughts.

Some folks on other subs provided helpful critiques on my old Chapter 1 and I have tried to self-edit it to read a bit better. If anyone wants, I'm happy to hear further critique or feedback on this new version of Chapter 1 that I've shared here.

I've been calling Capyhero an anthropomorphic fantasy, but I just learned that may be incorrect. Yes, the story has talking animals and animals that wear garments and armor and wield weapons, but no one has been anatomically altered to bipedal forms. That was very intentional, as the way the world works is meant to stay true to anatomical accuracy of real animals. Would it be more accurate to call Capyhero a "feral fantasy"? I guess I'm a little apprehensive because I've never really heard that used as a genre before.

In Redwall, the animals are generally portrayed with anatomical correctness, but they're handled similarly to Capyhero. Is Redwall considered anthropomorphic or feral fantasy?

Thanks for reading! I'm happy to answer any questions on the layout or the story (like all authors are eager to 😄).

Hi everyone! I've been waiting for the editor to get back to me and in the mean time, I've been noodling with the interior design of the book in Affinity Publisher and recently made a font change from Garamond to Crimson Pro (I was told Garamond performs poorly in book print media because of the hairline thinness in some of its letters).

I've also been continuing to mess with the page layouts and how everything looks with the integrated illustrations. Is the new Crimson Pro font overpowering or still underpowered compared to the line weight of the ink illustration?

In Affinity, I used a subtle cream stock paper texture and painted some edge and spine shadows to try to get a better sense of how the book will look when printed.

Anyways, I'm curious if folks here have any thoughts on the font selections and the general look of everything. I've heard some folks in other subs say that the font and paragraph indentations might be signaling a "formal" book instead of middle grade. Not sure what that means exactly.

Also, if anyone has experience in publishing, do you foresee any issues with my design? I know that ePUB reflowable text will be an issue with some of the text-wrapped illustrations, but I would probably create a new version of the book specifically for ePUB.

Some folks here provided great critiques on my old Chapter 1 and I have tried to self-edit it to read a bit better. If anyone wants, I'm happy to hear further critique or feedback on this new version of Chapter 1.

Lastly, I've been calling Capyhero an anthropomorphic fantasy, but I just learned that may be incorrect. Yes, the story has talking animals and animals that wear garments and armor and wield weapons, but no one has been anatomically altered to bipedal forms. That was very intentional, as the way the world works is meant to stay true to anatomical accuracy of real animals. Would it be more accurate to call Capyhero a "feral fantasy"? I guess I'm a little apprehensive because I've never really heard that used as a genre before.

Thanks! Also happy to answer any questions on the layout or the story (like all authors are eager to 😄)

Hi everyone! I've been waiting for the editor to get back to me and in the mean time, I've been noodling with the interior design of the book in Affinity Publisher and recently made a font change from Garamond to Crimson Pro (I was told Garamond performs poorly in book print media because of the hairline thinness in some of its letters).

I've also been continuing to mess with the page layouts and how everything looks with the integrated illustrations. Is the new Crimson Pro font overpowering or still underpowered compared to the line weight of the ink illustration?

In Affinity, I used a subtle cream stock paper texture and painted some edge and spine shadows to try to get a better sense of how the book will look when printed.

I'm also looking at the font selection and design of chapter headers. I'm currently using Garamond for the Chapter Titles (couldn't put Garamond away entirely... really like how it looks) and Castellar for the Chapter Number text. I plan to have an embroidered patch illustration for each chapter, like shown at the top of Chapter 1. Is there too much going on there? Two different fonts, an illustration, a drop cap, and then the Crimson Pro body text.

Anyways, I'm curious if folks here have any thoughts on the font selections and the general look of everything. Also, if anyone has experience in publishing, do you foresee any issues with my design? I know that ePUB reflowable text will be an issue with some of the text-wrapped illustrations, but I would probably create a new version of the book specifically for ePUB.

Also, some folks here provided great critiques on my old Chapter 1 and I have tried to self-edit it to read a bit better. If anyone wants, I'm happy to hear further critique or feedback on this new version of Chapter 1.

Thanks! Also happy to answer any questions on the layout or the story (like all authors are eager to 😄)

Love these moss bunnies I found at a store. The mossy woodland vibe reminds me of Penda from the story I’m working on 🥰

🌲🌱🤎🌳🌲

I learned a little while ago that there was a difference in translation of an important bit of dialogue between the original Japanese and the English version of Castle in the Sky… curious what folks here think about this choice.

Hey everyone! With the manuscript complete and in editing currently, we’ve been using this time to try to build an audience (which is insanely hard 😭) and continue working through the 100 planned ink illustrations. I thought this sub might appreciate a look at some of the wonderful cast of animal characters that will appear in Capyhero Book 1.

Also, in the page with Dusty the elder chinchilla, I think what she says is perhaps touching on one of the most important underlying themes of the entire story and I thought you all might like her message.

Anyways, the cast includes…

- a capybara (of course)
- a commanding teddy hamster
- a surly raccoon
- a mysterious borzoi dog (but no one in the story knows what a dog is…)
- a wise chinchilla
- a coarse-voiced black and white tegu
- a brave and hopeful lop-eared bunny
- a grumbling squirrel
- a loving and patient squirrel
- a gigantic arachnid resembling a salmon pink tarantula and a ravine trapdoor spider but she is neither

And quite a few more I’ll save for now 🙂

Let me know what you think! And if you’re digging this, please check out the character art and profiles at Capyhero.com!

🌳🌱🌳🪾🌲🦌🐿️🦫🦡🐇🕷️🐁🌳🌲🌱🪾🌳

I wanted to share the beautiful fountain ink illustrations of Kariguu by u/nickthagreek, the artist of the anthropomorphic fantasy novel I'm working on. Kariguu is the Master Weaver of the village she resides in, crafting both garment and armor for the Pawfolk.

She is based on the salmon pink tarantula that has lived in my home office for nearly 20 years.

Here's the scene in an early chapter of the book where she makes her introduction. She is certainly not “just a spider who can speak.” There’s some strange… ancient, almost cosmic nature about her.

Hope fans of inverts enjoy this type of thing! Also included a recent pic of her 🥰 🕷️🥰

Hi everyone! Please say hello to Penda, the little lop-eared hero and friend we all need. Here are some amazing traditional ink illustrations by u/nickthagreek for a project I’m working on.

Penda is inspired by my close friend’s lop-eared bunny who she rescued many years ago. One of her defining traits is she always has 1 ear up and 1 ear down 🐇🥰🌳

Wonderful wide illustration for a scene in the first chapter of CAPYHERO by the fountain ink artist of the project, Nick Loizos (u/nickthagreek).

I love the feeling he captured and how it integrates so well with the moment Capy stumbles upon a strange statue in the forest.

Here’s an incredible fountain ink drawing of Capy from the anthropomorphic fantasy tale I’m working on, CAPYHERO. the artist works entirely with fountain ink pens and is a fellow Redditor u/nickthagreek. He is the illustrator for the book, which will have over 100 of his original works. The 2nd image is Another beautiful full page illustration showing our hero’s waking moments.

A lot more of his art and project info are at the www.capyhero.com website. If folks dig this art style for a new fantasy story steeped in mystery and heartfelt adventure, come check it out! 🙏