Riley Walters is a concept artist who graduated from the Experimental Animation program at the University of Central Florida. She has always had a focus on the fantasy genre in her art, and (as an autistic person) her special interest in zoology merged with this love of fantasy to create a passion for creature concept art. The fantasy tabletop role-playing game, 'Dungeons & Dragons', has been a staple in her life since high school, when her older sister first started running a campaign; and making art of characters in the campaign led to Riley finding a professional niche in doing the same for characters in other people's role-playing game campaigns.
Statement"My Friend Wanted To Have You For Dinner"
In the fantasy genre, particularly games, the Mimic is a creature that gets rather underused. It changes into objects to trick its prey, but doesn't get much more narrative use than a one-off monster. Considering this, I have been playing around with the idea of a Human-Mimic symbiotic relationship. What if a group of people domesticated Mimics the way ancient humans domesticated dogs? In this piece, one such person has their Mimic disguised as a tile in the floor. This is part of a growing body of work focused on Human-Mimic symbiosis.
"The Way of the Scale"
In 'Dungeons & Dragons' 5th Edition, monks are hand-to-hand fighters whose spiritual connection gives them access to some magic. Monks follow various teachings, referred to as Ways. I toyed around with ideas for a monk character and found inspiration in the antagonist of Disney's "Moon Knight". I thought, "what suits the role of a monk whose power related to a scale motif and the theme of the balance of good and evil? Why not a reptile?", and this gave way to a concept of a Lizardfolk monk following a Way centered around balance.
StateFL
