Inklands Studio didn't start with a trip. It started with a move — to a small fishing village on Vancouver Island whose beauty and uniqueness I didn't fully understand yet, and couldn't have from the outside.
The first coloring book was my way of capturing that: something people could interact with and actually experience, not just look at. I spent time talking with people who'd lived there for years — not just the landmarks every visitor already knew, but the smaller, more sacred details only locals carry. Some of it made it onto the page. Some of it stayed exactly where it belonged.
It was the long-time locals, more than any visitor, who got the most excited — because most travel keepsakes only ever show the highlight reel. Inklands tries to hold both: what a place is known for, and what it actually is.
That first book has since grown into a small studio — illustrated coloring books, journals, planners, and guides, each one still made the same way, starting from something real. I use both traditional illustration and modern creative tools to bring it to life, but every piece — the direction, the details, the decisions — is still entirely mine.