Sarah Waites's avatar

Sarah Waites

@illustratedpage.bsky.social

149 followers 264 following 106 posts

Artist and mapmaker. She/her. Commissions open!

theillustratedpage.net/design/
www.kickstarter.com/projects/sarah-waites/the-romance-writers-oracle-an-inspiration-deck

Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Specifically, a pack on Artstation from Grafit Studios that has over 800 poses of this one model. So I may end up using some of her poses for future cards!

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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You can use morphs to change the body shape or buy specific models that are larger, but I still feel like the 3D has issues with the bending and limbs that are accentuated with larger bodies. So I skipped the entire 3D reference thing and bought a photo reference pack.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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I'm posting this one to Instagram later today. For my Romance Writer's Oracle deck, "The Mate" is the fated mates trope, shifter romances, etc. The golden thread represents fate. I often use 3D model references for my artwork, but the 3D models are skinny by default...

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Oh my gosh! I was a Scottie too! It's so rare for me to run across another in the wild.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Thank you! I love her -- she's a sweetie even if she can be a load of trouble when she's awake.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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A rare drawing not for a specific project -- just my parent's dog curled up with a book. I'm getting this made into a t-shirt to give to my mom.

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Reposted by Sarah Waites

Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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The most recent thing on the artists Behance is labeled “generated images.” I agree this piece looks like AI.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Thank you! I’ve got a whole bunch of marbled paper textures I’ve been layering in. Plus some glitter textures, metallic textures and whatever else I’ve got handy! It can be hard not to go overboard lol

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Gender, tropes, and the romance genre is probably a whole topic in and off itself. I've thought about it a lot in relation to the project, and I'll probably talk about it more when I share cards drawing from very gendered tropes/archetypes.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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I went with "Ranger" as the name of the card because I didn't want to deal with the gendering of cowboy/cowgirl, and "cowpoke" just didn't have the right vibe.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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This card from my upcoming Kickstarter project, The Romance Writer's Oracle, is the source of my current profile picture! When I was devising the structure of the deck, I decided to focus each card on a character archetype and some associated tropes. This is essentially the cowboy card!

2 replies 3 reposts 8 likes

Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Sharing this again for the morning crowd. For the last year, I’ve been in the process of making a romance genre card deck. I’m now halfway done with the art and in Kickstarter pre-launch!

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Reposted by Sarah Waites

Reposted by Sarah Waites

Renay⁷'s avatar Renay⁷ @renay.bsky.social
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I’ve been watching this project develop and honestly it could be useful for so many different creative projects! Highly suggest bookmarking this if you do any writing, game modding, etc.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Thank you Renay! It's been wonderful to share this with you as it develops.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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I’ve got 19 out of 40 cards done! It’s coming along.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Thank you! I’ve really appreciated your feedback on the project!

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Reposted by Sarah Waites

S.L. Dove Cooper's avatar S.L. Dove Cooper @dovelynnwriter.bsky.social
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Anyway to distract myself and share a shiny with you all. The incomparable @illustratedpage.bsky.social made the cover for Snow As Soft As Feathers.

There’s no release dates or preorders, but hey lookit my pretty, pretty cover. 😍

(Yes, I’m aware I’m doing marketing wrong.)

6 replies 10 reposts 14 likes

Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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A rare personal project map! I created this for my own Dungeons and Dragons campaign and have been working on it on and off since September 2023.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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In between the line art stage and the color stage, I created a grayscale. I like how it turned out as well!

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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I've got a new map I can share! This map is for Yvette Bostic's Call of the Element series, and I got to showcase some different fairy realms that aren't in the same physical dimension, separated by swirling, colorful magic.

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Reposted by Sarah Waites

Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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A map of the hidden, magical town of Axia for Melissa Erin Jackson's upcoming cozy fantasy mystery, A Mythical Case of Arson! I don't often do cartoon style animals, but I love how these turned out! They are a dragon, pegasus, and baby yeti. The dragon is my favorite.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Here's the sketch to finished map! Alexa always calls their sketches "potato maps," which I get a kick out of. This is the stage where I ask questions, make my own sketch, send it over for feedback, make changes, etc until both the author and I have a good idea of what's on the map and where.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Thank you to @alexapiper.bsky.social for writing up a post on the process of working with me to create a map! It was fascinating to see the author's perspective and wonderful to know that the questions I ask help build the world.

This map is created for Alexa Piper's new release, Guiding Purpose!

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Reposted by Sarah Waites

Adri Joy's avatar Adri Joy @adrijjy.bsky.social
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For anyone interested in actively making Worldcon and the Hugos less fucked: there's an unofficial "Business Meeting" discord chat that is hashing out proposals to unfuck WSFS and Hugo admin going forward. It's currently open to all WSFS members, but not really being publicised: discord.gg/v2fX2STw

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Happy Valentine's Day! I can now share a map I made in January for Clarissa Wild's special edition Kickstarter of Evil Boys, a dark romance.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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Stopping by to share a map I made for Jess Belmont's fantasy romance, Midnight Dream! I love how the star and moon designed turned out.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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I've got roughly a fourth of the art done, although I'm contemplating redoing a few of the cards. I've been working on the art since May, so there's a couple of older cards I'd like to rework. Anyway, you'll probably see more updates about this as time goes by!

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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I've got 32 cards confirmed and am hoping to add a few more. The deck will be accompanied by a small guidebook (either a print version or a PDF), and I've already got descriptions for all 32 cards written. The art in the previous post is what I'm intending for the billionaire type card.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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I think I've talked vaguely about a project I've been working on? Anyway, I'm ready to say a bit more about it in public -- it's a deck of writing inspiration cards aimed at romance authors. The deck will feature various tropes and character types, and I'm aiming to make a Kickstarter this fall!

4 replies 7 reposts 21 likes

Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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So not only does she have to worry about cancer while having two young children, she has to worry about being fired for taking time to seek treatment. It's so horrendously dystopian. And I think what's happening to HISD is only the start -- these tactics will be used in other states.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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In the midst of all of this, I've found out my sophomore Algebra I teacher has cancer, and HISD has denied her FMLA leave. Due to using eight of her ten days on maternity leave, she only has two left.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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A janitor's husband got cancer, and when she took time off to care for him, she lost her job -- the new administration doesn't allow employees to take more than ten days off, even when that means violating the Family Medical Leave act.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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In one of the top high schools in the district, DeBakey, the students went until mid-October without an AP Physics teacher. Students from AP Physics II were being made to teach the AP Physics I class, and the PTA was fundraising to hire video instruction.

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Sarah Waites's avatar Sarah Waites @illustratedpage.bsky.social
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The goal now seems to be completely destroying the Houston "Independent" School District. Teachers are being driven out and replaced (if they are replaced at all) with unqualified teachers' aids. School libraries are being closed and turned into detention centers.

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