BIOGRAPHY
♦ They/Them ♦
Hey there! I'm Tori. I often go by my artist handle Empyrisan.
I'm a freelance artist, specializing in illustration, character and creature design, concept art, and world-building. You may be familiar with my work as an art asset artist for Flight Rising, creating a handful of familiars, icons, and genes seen on the site's dragons. My lair of dragons on Sorneith are known as the Empyrisan Kinship!
I'm currently going through a slow and steady (and often frustrating) healing process, for all aspects of my health. My main focus lies in learning to create art first and foremost for myself. After going through countless burnouts making art for monetary gain and social media validation for years, as well as coping with depression and ADHD, I decided that I had enough. I needed to relearn how to love creating art again. I needed to gently care for myself for a change and realign with my values. These days, I'm indulging in my love of drawing dragons — particularly eastern lungs — and sharing my work for those who care to see it.
My personal projects are kept mostly a secret for now, but I would love to one day share them with the world.
I enrich my art and my life as a whole by delving whole-heartedly into my interests in biology/zoology, world mythologies, creative writing, tabletop roleplaying games, tarot reading, KonMari-style tidying, and the seasonal gunpla. If it can spark my imagination and provide me with some peace of mind, I'm bound to be enthralled and hyperfocus on it for hours and days at a time.
Favorites
Films
- Finding Nemo
- Klaus
- Kung Fu Panda
- Jurassic Park
- My Neighbors the Yamadas
- Lilo & Stitch
- Rango
- Spirited Away
- The Fall
- Tokyo Godfathers
- Where the Wild Things Are
TV Series
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- The Legend of Korra
- Beastars
- Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
- My Hero Academia
- Our Flag Means Death
- Prehistoric Planet
- Steven Universe
- Wander Over Yonder
Video Games
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale
- Hades
- Pokémon
- Later Alligator
- Shadow of the Colossus
- TLoZ: Breath of the Wild
- Undertale + Deltarune