No. 03 · Character design · 2026

Six heroes,three worlds.

Original characters I designed for a casino game, an open-world computer game and a fantasy novel, each one taken from the first pencil line to finished art.

World I · A casino game

The house cast.

Four original characters for a premium online casino: a host for every table. One shared art-deco world, one gold-and-velvet palette, four silhouettes you can tell apart at the size of a slot symbol.

Drawing the character in pencil — **Sketchbook**Silhouettes first: a cast only works if each one reads in black.

Pencil concept sketches of the four casino characters: silhouettes, head studies, costume details — **Sketchbook**Silhouettes first: a cast only works if each one reads in black.

The four casino characters standing together on an art-deco stage: Vera Velvet, Baron Blackjack, Madame Roulette and Jack Spade

Pick a character and the four cards shuffle · tilt the card · tap it to turn it over

Slot conceptThe House of FortuneLine up three of the cast

World II · A computer game

Mara Kestrel, the Dust Courier.

The protagonist of an open-world, post-apocalyptic RPG: a courier who crosses the wasteland with a satchel of letters and a one-eyed scout drone. Built like an AAA hero, from thumbnails to turnaround, gear and in-game screen.

Pencil sketchbook page for Mara Kestrel: silhouette thumbnails, action poses, head studies with goggles, wrist computer and drone studies — **Sketchbook**Twenty silhouettes to find one. Then action poses, goggles up and down, the drone and her wrist computer.

Mara Kestrel full-body concept: patched mustard and rust jacket, harness, courier satchel, goggles, scout drone

0°

Turnaround · drag the slider, 0° to 180°

Inventory7 / 9

Brass gogglesSees through dust storms

Gear sheet · everything she carries is a story beat

In-game screen: Mara walking down a cracked highway through a sunset wasteland towards a ruined city, her drone ahead

Current questDeliver the letter to Rust Harbour

HPWaterRad

III

World III · A fantasy novel

Isolde of the Ashen Wood.

A thorn-witch and mapmaker for a fantasy book: the woman who charts a forest that rearranges itself every night. Designed for the page, from ink studies to the cover and a chapter plate.

Illustrator's sketchbook spread for Isolde: poses, cloak silhouettes, braid studies, blackthorn staff and raven studies, watercolour swatches — **Sketchbook**Cloak shapes, braids, the blackthorn staff and her raven, with the three colours the book is printed in.

Book cover: Isolde in a rune-lit forest at night

Book oneThe Ashen
Wooda novel

Endpaper · a map of the Ashen Wood

Book oneThe Ashen WoodIllustrated editionCharacter design & illustrations
by Anna Biela

Chapter OneThe key thiefEvery key in Hollowmere went missing on the same night, and every one of them turned up in the same tree.Isolde found them at dawn, threaded on a ribbon of bark, a raven asleep on the branch above them with a ring of iron still in its beak.“You,” she said, “are going to be trouble.”The raven opened one eye. It did not disagree.

Corvin and the ring of keys

Chapter FourThe map that movedThe map had been still for a hundred years. Tonight, under her lantern, the ink began to breathe.Paths unrolled like ribbons. A river she had never seen poured silver across the parchment and the runes rose off the page in a slow, glowing smoke.Somewhere ahead, the forest was redrawing itself, and it was drawing her in.

Chapter IV · The map that moved

Chapter NineWhere the ash fallsBeyond the last birch the trees were grey to the root and the snow that fell was not snow.The Thorn Keep stood where the map said it would, black against a pale sky, every window shut.Corvin landed on her staff, ruffled, and dropped a single key into her palm. It was warm.

The Thorn Keep

End of book oneIsolde returns in
The Thorn Keep

Endpaper · the Ashen Wood

The forest remembers every path you have ever walked.Isolde draws them. A thorn-witch and mapmaker with a raven who steals keys, she has spent her life charting the Ashen Wood. Then her oldest map begins to move, and the paths it shows lead to a keep that has been locked for a hundred years.Book one of the Ashen Wood trilogyCover art, character design & illustrations · Anna Biela

Front cover

Name: Isolde of the Ashen Wood
Calling: Thorn-witch & mapmaker
Familiar: Corvin, a raven who steals keys
Magic: Her maps redraw the forest

Click the right page to turn it, the left to go back · or swipe

Character design · casino · games · books

Need a hero for your world?

Slot casts and mascots, game protagonists and NPCs, book characters and covers, with everything around them: sketches, turnarounds, character cards, props and in-game art.

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