As an author, I love creating stories with interesting characters and the worlds around them. Lirien is one of those characters, and he started to take shape in my mind when I suffered from severe burnout. Back then, just the thought of starting a new book was overwhelming. That meant I had to figure out not just the story, but the characters, the world, and … well everything.

My burnt-out mind had a hard time handling that, so I played around with the idea of creating a character that I could turn to over and over again.

That’s how Lirien came to be.

I allowed his development to take time, because when you suffer from burnout, even thinking can be painful. All I knew about him in the beginning was that I wanted him to be fae … and the color red. Then I stumbled upon an image on Depositphotos, and things took off.

I used the image to create a cover, and this is what I came up with: 

Once I had an idea of who he was, more ideas came, and I realized I wanted to do more than just write a few books for him.

So, I decided to turn him into my major art project here on Words & Pencils.

In the beginning, it’ll be about learning the basics of drawing, but as soon as I’m able to take it to the next level, my focus will turn to Lirien. A few years from now, I hope this website will be filled with images of him and his world. Not just that, I hope to create webcomics, animations, 3D art, and so much more! There’s so much to learn, but I look forward to it all.

But I’m not waiting to start Lirien’s story. I’ve already written a few short stories for him, and you’ll find them on Patreon. You can download the first two for free by pushing the button below. It’s recommended to read them in order, at least the first few stories to get an idea what Lirien’s story is about.