Riley Neither - Art

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You can click on the thumbnails below for close-ups. This is mostly just character art, but I also sometimes do abstract art, paintings, and jewelry. You can follow me on Instagram to see a lot more, though I've never promised to post consistently. I also have a Redbubble shop where you can get some of my designs printed on almost anything you could possibly want!

digital drawing of an androgynous Asian person striding forward with their head up, eyes closed, and hands outspread; there are gold cracks on their right hand and forearm, left wrist, and their throat; stars spin around their hands and clouds billow in the background
This is a character in my short story Imagine a Thief with Golden Fire in Their Voice. I won't say more—don't want to spoil anything.
digital drawing of a young non-binary person sitting under a ceiba tree and looking up, with a large raptor (dinosaur) resting beside zim with its head in zer lap; both are dappled in golden sunlight coming through tree leaves above
This is Yeshet and zer raptor Tetziryah. Yeshet's one of the major characters in "What Springs from Bloodied Earth," a non-binary magician with a knack for animals.
digital drawing of two people; left, an androgynous dark-skinned person in a military uniform holding a saber, in shades of indigo over a white background; right, a woman wearing a dupatta, holding an aruval and a pistol, in shades of orange over a black background
Sinhi and Jaksa, Sync protagonists, siblings who have crossed paths for the first time in decades and don't know whether they're on the same side. (Technically, half-siblings, but they never really cared about the "half" part except as a means of allaying all the "Wow, you look nothing alike!" comments.)
digital drawing of two Indigenous characters; one is preparing a turkey for cooking and says, 'You wanna try?' The other says, 'I'm not sticking my hand in that.'
A couple of the protagonists of Dust and Lightning, ostensibly preparing a meal together.
digital drawing of a slender Black woman with dreads wearing headphones and typing at a computer
This is Corinne, a secondary character in Sync. She's autistic, very gay, and almost as obsessed with computers as with obscure audio romances.
colored pencil sketch of Jaksa, an older woman with curly black hair, a hooked nose, and a prosthetic left arm, with arms crossed, eyes closed, and a relaxed smile
A colored pencil sketch of Jaksa, one of the protagonists in Sync, in a rare calm moment. You can probably tell, I still haven't really got the hang of drawing those ringlet curls, but I'll get it eventually.
digital drawing of an old glowing Black woman reaching up to the face of a silver titan that blends into the spacy background, heavily stylized
This was originally an illustration for a flash fiction piece I wrote several years ago, but I rather like it in its own right. It was also originally done in markers; trust me, this digital version is much cleaner.
pencil and ink drawing of a young Indian woman holding the head of a mechanical dragon perched on the broken wing of a plane
This isn't tied to any specific story, just something I drew for the heck of it. Who needs an excuse for cool dragons and their mechanics?
digital drawing of two young Black women; at left, Sahar, in white and cream-colored armor, standing in a defensive stance and holding a sword; at right, Asra, sparkly teal dress and rose headdress, smiling as she reaches toward the sun
Sahar and Asra, from a novellete of mine that starts with a twist on the Sleeping Beauty premise and then leaps off in new directions. I'm not normally much for fairytales, but I'd be lying if I said I don't have a soft spot for some good queer fantasy romance here and there.
digital drawing of two people sparring; Saeed at left dodges a punch from Jaksa at right; Saeed is a thickly built man with a goatee and a scar on his leg, and Jaksa is an older woman with curly hair and one arm; the scar on the shoulder of her missing arm can be seen
Jaksa, Sync protagonist, sparring with her pilot Saeed. They spar regularly, and she splits it 50/50 whether to spar with or without her prosthetic arm; she likes to be able to hold her own in a fight either way.
stylized digital drawing of an old Black woman in a neon green dress; at left, a full-body image where she stands smirking with shadowy animals, a monkey, a large cat, and several butterflies; at right, her head and shoulders, with the shadowy monkey perched on her shoulder and fingering her beaded earring; she looks at the monkey and says 'How many times I tell you don't play with my earrings!'
This is the Demon Catcher! She only makes a brief appearance in one of my short stories, but she's such a good character, I ought to write more with her.

© Riley Neither