Interviewing Ramona

By Alex White

- 4 minutes read - 776 words
An illustrator and letterer for indie ttrpgs!

I think this is my first interview with someone who isn't designing games per se, but who works in the ttrpg field. Hopefully the first of many!

Please tell me a bit about yourself

Hi! I'm Ramona (she/her) a.k.a Alderdoodle. The elevator pitch would be that I'm a lettering artist and illustrator helping wonderful indie games look their best with intricate page decor, character sheets and ornate illustrations.

The slightly longer version would be that I've been doodling since I could hold a pen, I started learning calligraphy and lettering in 2017 and when I discovered the world of TTRPGs a few years later, the worlds collided and now here we are.

logo for Alderdoodle. The title in gold and white on a black background. above is a pen drawing a series of connected lines, below is the subtitle in white 'lettering and illustration'

What do you like best about designing art for games?

Getting to connect with so many people and stories all while being paid for doing what I love. When I first started doing calligraphy, I very quickly decided that weddings was not my favoured terrain, so to be able to find this space where I can combine drawing and playing has been incredible. I don't design game systems or write adventures and I don't really want to, but sneaking my page decor bits into as many of those games as I can? That I do want to. Watch out games designer. I'm coming for your game too.

What are you working on at the moment, and what excites you about it?

I would say that usually my home genre to work in is fantasy, but looking at my current/recent commission list you wouldn't know because sure there's your usual high-fantasy, but also medieval horror, 80s cartoons and a street-level psychic RPG thrown in the mix too and I love it all. There is so much variety, not just in genres, but stories and settings too, created by people from all over the world and I get to be a part of that?! No one pinch me. This is amazing. Much love to all the creators who looked at all my fantasy themed stuff and said - nah, I bet she can do this other thing too. Eternally grateful.

Can you tell me more about your process when doing your illustrations?

If it's layout decor, cover or logo commissions, it usually starts with 3 or 4 concept sketches, one gets picked (or we mix and match elements from the different sketches to come up with the final concept) and then it gets refined into the final piece.

four sketches for the Stygian Library

For personal pieces, I'm my own art director and already know what the vibe is that I'm after, so it's rare for many different sketches to appear in the process.

For character sheets, it's like playing themed tetris with shapes you create yourself. I love looking for pre-existing things that relate to the theme to get inspiration for character sheets. For example, when I drew a scary themed d&d sheet, I looked at shapes of old gravestones and cathedral windows. When I did an art nouveau one, I looked at that style gates and doors, because their shape lends itself well to that of text fields and then it's a just matter of adding pizzaz. Pizzaz hands It's like jazz hands, but holding a pencil.

Character sheet for D&D with a very gothic feel, a sense of gravestones, rose windows, and creepy trees

What do you like to blog about? Any that you think more people should read?

I blog less than I should in terms of appeasing any SEO gods, but when I do it's mostly posts from the POV of an artist working in the ttrpg industry, who also happens to play the games. Oh and that one post where I wrote out a d&d Christmas one-shot I wrote and ran for my friends, where the narration was mostly done in rhyme. It was really fun.

I've also been asked to write a tutorial about how I'm creating page dividers, so stay tuned for that one if lovely little page decor details make your heart beat faster.

Is there anything you would like to promote right now?

My ko-fi freebie library! Roughly once a month or so, I add art bits to it that people can use in their projects (personal or commercial.) It can vary from book covers to character sheets to page dividers and more. I release everything as pay-what-you-want, so even if the budget is tight, hopefully you can still find something that suits for the low low price of free.

examples of art such as page decor sets, progress clock trackers, swords

Where should people go to follow you, and to find your products?