Artwork

The following are some of my own artwork. They are mixture of draw digital images and physical media.

Dragons

I have always had an interest in dragons. I was affected by the song “Puff the Magic Dragon” as a child. I also read a lot of fantasy literature. Dragons show up frequently in my work. I taught myself how to draw expressive lines and shapes with dragon faces and heads.

bathdragon fishing_dragon

Various Monsters

One of the secrets of drawing monsters is you cannot draw them wrong. All the mistakes add up to something more monstrous, so when you make one you can just add to it. I enjoy the idea of monsters not so different from ourselves, with similar interests, fascinations and problems.

cavedweller1 EPSON016 frankenselfie WalkingYourMonsterInTheCity bugmotorcycleescape octopusfortea pearant1

Spookiness

My favorite attraction at Disneyland is the Haunted Mansion. As a kid I used to have dreams the ride was much more elabortate, much longer, and quite a bit more frightening. One of the things I like on the ride are the portraits in the hallway. Not the ones that change shape, but the tiny little drawings of various ghosts and ghasts and ghouls. I wanted to capture that feel in the some of the following images.

brownsuitghast pumpkinscarecrow skeletonmaid witch1

Holiday

Christmas is a favorite holiday for me. I like the wonder and the magical lore surrounding it. We hang a few of these on the wall at Christmas time in our house.

Confused_Elf santa1 santadragon Snowman1 snowman2

Musical Moments

The first two images here are from a Chris Thile’s Acousticampe 2025, an acoustic music camp put on by Chris Thile. The first is of one of the camp attendees taking lead during an end of camp jam session on the Jimmy Martin tune “Hold Whatcha Got” while Chris Thile takes bass. The second image is of a performance with Brittany Haas (fiddle), Chris Thile (mandolin, or course), Bela Fleck (banjo - what else?), Chris Edridge (guitar), and the name of the bass player escapes me.

holdwhatchagot masters

These first of these two images is from the montly bluegrass jam session in Maltby, WA. The second image is a request to illustrate a photo of their jam circle from one of the Maltby jam attendees.
maltby_performance_07_03_2025 michelle_ruis_jamcircle

Curious Characters

All of these are various characters that I imagined and drew at some point.
GirlRobotGardener guitarbird hittingthebooks longface longface3 magicping marsboyrobbie maskmaker moonface newsuit papercuts pugandfair2 theradio tricycle1