Illustrator Spotlight: Pascal Wijnberg

Eden's Rise introduces creatures that have never existed before: animals that evolved entirely underground, shaped by darkness and stone rather than sunlight and open sky. Two of them play a meaningful role in the story: the Purl Fox and the Skitterback. As I was thinking about how to make the world feel as real as possible, I decided I wanted ink drawings of these creatures: the kind of careful, naturalistic sketches that might have been made by one of the characters in the novel, as if someone had actually encountered one and tried to capture it on paper.

Finding the right artist for that required a different kind of search. I scoured Instagram until I came across Pascal Wijnberg.

A Designer Who Draws

Pascal is originally from Holland, now living and working in Perth, Western Australia. By trade he's a designer, someone who spends his days in front of a screen. Drawing became his way to step away from the computer, and what emerged from that practice is a style entirely his own: meticulous, patient, alive with detail.

It was that level of detail that stopped me scrolling. Pascal's drawings are immediately recognizable: every mark is made with care, the subject is studied closely before the pen touches paper. There is a disciplined attention to what a creature actually looks like that sets his work apart.

The Purl Fox and the Skitterback

Pascal created two illustrations for Eden's Rise: the Purl Fox and the Skitterback. Both are rendered as ink drawings: no color, no background, just the creature itself against the white of the page. The effect is exactly what I was hoping for: scientific in its precision, but with a warmth and character that makes each animal feel real.

What I love most about them is how convincing they are. Looking at Pascal's drawings, you feel as though he must have seen one. As if he tracked one down in some underground tunnel and sketched it from life.

Working Together

Pascal was wonderful to collaborate with. He came to the project genuinely excited: the premise of fantastical underground creatures intrigued him immediately, and that enthusiasm came through in the work. It was one of those collaborations where the brief was easy to give because the artist was already leaning in the right direction.

You can find more of Pascal's work on Instagram at @pas_draws.

You'll be able to view Pascal's drawings for this book once pre-order starts.