Heepo is a character that came about as a bit of a joke honestly. I love traditional, sort of Dungeons and Dragons style fantasy settings and silly monsters and adventure and wanted to create a character that I could sort of just drop into those types of situations. With that I have used the character as an exploration device, making these faux book covers of random adventures. I just really find the idea of a sentient potion bottle being the creature that explores the dungeons, fighting baddies and restoring fallen heroes along the way.
The first adventure for Heepo was this illustration I had drawn in August of 2022 for the monthly patreon print. I had sketched the character a couple times prior in some rougher iterations but eventually when it came time to make a new postcard we thought it would be a fun concept to return to and sort of that was how Heepo was truly born.
You can see between this and the next appearance the design changes slightly but overall I was pretty happy with it as it stood so never felt much push to alter it too drastically.
I wouldn’t get back to Heepo until March of 2024 but I was so thrilled to do so. It’s always a fun challenge trying to create a scenario that has enough meat on its bones to allow me to make a compelling image. This thought process goes into the whole piece as I decided this time we would also incorporate a book title and a treatment for it to really push thenovel feel of it.
Ultimately I just found the idea of drawing a big, glowing serpent eye too compelling and so the “Cult of the Serpent” was born. with that nailed down I ended up refining Heepo’s design bit to bring it a bit more in line with my style and something I think would give a more fun freedom for different expressions in future illustrations they may appear in.