Carolyn Paplham

@cpaplham.bsky.social

134 Followers 229 Following

Graphic designer & illustrator, probably in need of a nap.

A cartoony drawing of a happy little harbor seal. The seal's color scheme (purple, white, gray, black) represents the asexual pride flag.
A collection of ten tiny, joyful dragons illustrated in the color schemes of various LGBTQ+ Pride flags. From the top, left to right: traditional rainbow pride/gay, bisexual, transgender, lesbian, pansexual, asexual, gender queer & agender, non-binary, aromantic.
A hand-lettered illustration, reading “guilty of the sin of empathy.” The color scheme is composed of bright oranges, yellows, and blues. “Guilty” is illustrated in the style of a cursive ribbon, while the words “of”, “the”, and “of” again are in a thin sans-serif style. “Sin” is in a simple but elegant heavy serifed style, while “empathy” is in a bold and commanding but slightly playful style. There are four-pointed concave sparkles sprinkled throughout.
A photograph of an iPad with the app procreate open. There is a seal sketch on the canvas in the process of being digitally inked. The seal is a jolly little fellow.
A child's drawing (me, I'm the child) of a jack russel terrier—the titular character from the 90s PBS show "Wishbone." The drawing was made in March of 1999, so Wishbone is surrounded by shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day.
An illustration of a jack russel terrier—the titular character from the 90s PBS show "Wishbone." Wishbone is smiling with his tongue hanging out, and as surrounded by tiny drawings of various items from the show. Books, plastic lawn flamingos, basketballs, and the like.
A loose, colorful drawing of a seal surrounded by fish and bubbles on a black background. The seal is a bright, aqua color with blue flippers, a blue snout, blue spots, and orange and yellow detailing. The fish and jellyfish are various neon colors, with muted blue bubbles filling in the space in between.
A drawing of Detective Pikachu, drawn in a digital watercolor style. He is wearing a deerstalker cap and enjoying a cup of coffee. He is surrounded by empty mugs and to-go coffee cups.
An acrylic marker painting of a phoenix. The phoenix is yellow, orange, red, and gold with purple feathers around a blue eye. Behind it is a sunset-hued background of soft pinks, purples, and blues, with white rings and gold dots scattered throughout. The phoenix is painted on a 7" vinyl single, which is then mounted on an 8"x8" canvas painted with deep blues and reds, with gold stars.
A sketch of a seal pup winding up to pitch a baseball. The pup is wearing a green baseball cap and green baseball glove. Underneath the seal is hand-lettering of the word "overhand." The text is drawn in a blocky, sans-serif style, with a three-dimensional effect.
A pastel-hued sketch of a seal pup napping on an inner tube, floating on the water. The seal is wearing sunglasses and resting comfortably. A smaller inner tube is floating to the left, holding a refreshing drink in a glass with ice, a straw, a lemon wedge, and an umbrella. The word "drift" is hand-lettered in script in the upper left corner.
A photograph of a tiny weekly calendar. Each day-space is filled in with a different doodle. Monday is a witch-mouse, Tuesday is Moffel the late seal as an angel napping in heaven, Wednesday is a wolf sitting in a forest, Thursday is a wolf howling in a forest, Friday is Space Badger floating in space, Saturday is a raccon head, and Sunday is a goose wearing a scarf and standing in a winter landscape. Above the calendar is a seal-plush pen case, with three pens sticking out of the open zip compartment.
A retrospective illustration collage for 2025. The center is a black and white selfie of the artist, and arranged around the center is a collection of 8 images, each a segment of an illustration created by the artist over the previous year. All illustrations can be found on this bluesky account.
A grey seal pup wrapped in christmas lights with a star strapped to its head. Ornaments are scattered on the ground, and the pup is joyfully singing, presumably carols.
A small, winter-set illustration. A red fox wearing a blue-ish green scarf is trudging through the snow, and has come across a small, wrapped present in a drift. The sky is lit with stars and the faint aurora borealis, while snow falls gently all around.
A large assortment of hand painted ornaments. Some feature abstract floral designs or “dripping paint” designs, while others feature dogs and seals painting rainbows or holding sketchbooks.
Three hand painted ornaments featuring a cat surrounded by multicolored paw prints, a dog painting a rainbow, and a seal painting a rainbow.
A screenshot of the app procreate. The project canvas is light tan, and has a loose sketch of a harbor/common seal pup.
A photo of a black-footed ferret napping, sprawled out under a heat lamp. Only the lower half of the ferret can be seen, as the rest of its body is in a tunnel.
Rough, gestural life drawings of various animals, sketched in back and white on a gray background. Clockwise from the upper left corner: a couple of red faced macaques, a couple of kookaburras, a couple of bald eagles, and a variety of ducks.
A photograph of the newly released graphic novel The October Girl, by Matthew Dow Smith. The cover is primarily a golden yellow, with an illustration of a young woman walking in the autumn wind.
A drawing of a happy harbor seal dressed as a witch and casting a magic spell. The seal is wearing a pointy witch’s hat while waving a glowing, star-tipped magic wand. Magic sparkles are emitting from the wand and drifting around the seal.
This image shows the wizard dragon from the previous post as a black-and-white sticker.
A drawing of a small dragon wearing a wizard hat and a scarf, with magic sparkles coming from its tiny claws. The dragon is inked in black and white with some black screen tone and solid purple accents. The background is a bright aqua green.
A cheerful mouse dressed as a pirate for halloween. It is wearing an eyepatch, earrings on both ears, a vest, tail jewelry, foot coverings, wrist bandages, an anchor shoulder tattoo, and a bright red bandana. The mouse is munching on a single piece of candy corn, and a trick-or-treat bag with a mouse-skull jolly roger on it sits to the right and has more single pieces of candy (eg. m&ms, mike & ike’s) in it. The background is a very dark grayish-blue and has vague shapes resembling a ship’s deck and rigging.
A four-color t-shirt design for the upcoming MDEV conference in Madison, Wisconsin. The design features various historic and contemporary video game paraphernalia, such as controllers, buttons, game cartridges, cables, and the like. A segment of the Madison skyline can be seen towards the bottom, located over the event logo and date and location info. The colors used are bright aqua, orange, and purple, with white in the event logo. Screentones are used to give the design a textured effect.
A digital-watercolor style illustration of an anthropomorphic red fox on the bow of a tugboat. The fox is wearing a scarf, oversized sweater, skinny pants and rubber rain boots. Fish are peeking out of the water and the Leo Frigo Bridge can be seen in the background. The location is the Fox River in downtown Green Bay.
An illustration of a lanky black cat and a small, purple bat running and flying through a pumpkin patch. It is dusk on an overcast October day, and a couple of the pumpkins are carved and lit as jack o’ lanterns. There are dried cornstalks standing and warm yellow lights strung up in the background. Despite being a digital illustration, the piece has the appearance of being colored with markers.
A drawing of Sonic the Hedgehog, wearing pool floaties on his arms and an inner tube around his waist, with flippers that share a color scheme with his normal shoes. He has a worried expression on his face—what has he gotten himself into now?
The same seal from the event promo illustration, but without the event info. The seal is smaller and centered on the canvas.
A simple illustration of a baby harbor seal chewing on its flipper (much like a human baby would suck its thumb). A yellow heart flats above its head. The illustration also includes information on the Brown County Library Pop Con, stating that the event is October 4th from 10am to 4pm, and that the illustrator will be in the artist alley and the seal on the illustration loves supporting artists. The promo image is punctuated by a bright red background.
A highly stylized drawing of a delightfully fat ringed seal. The seal is grayish-brown in color and has a spots-and-rings pattern on its back. It sits against a bright blue background. The seal has a heart over his head because he loves you.
An acrylic marker drawing of a green fox wearing headphones, suspended in a sky full of stars and hovering over a green crescent moon. Jagged lines ripple outward at the bottom, reminiscent of jagged sound waves. The drawing was done on a vinyl record.
An acrylic marker drawing of a purple seal wearing headphones and leaping over a stylized sun and ocean. There are fish in the ocean with sound wave patterns instead of scales. The drawing was done on a vinyl record.
A screen cap from the app Focus Friend. It shows a little bean person, aptly named “Mr Bean,” standing in a barren room with a teal rug on the floor.
A cartoony illustration featuring an opossum and a raccoon, hanging out at a toxic dumpster fire. The opossum is clinging to the side of the bin, holding aloft a set of metal sticks for roasting marshmallows. The raccoon is sitting on top of the half of the dumpster that is closed, triumphantly waving a whole bag of marshmallows, ready for roasting over the flames. The dumpster is covered in graffiti, stickers, and rust, with cans of spray paint tucked to the side on the ground.
A drawing of Perry the Platypus, or "Agent P," from the show Phineas and Ferb. The teal-colored, fedora-wearing platypus is posed ready for hand-to-hand combat, standing in a spotlight against a brick wall.
A small digital painting of a fluffy white baby seal, lying on a snowscape with the northern lights in the sky. The brush strokes are very rough and loose, and incorporate various textures and hues into the seal and background.
A colorful illustration of two sneasels, pokémon that look like a slightly anthropomorphized cross between a weasel and a cat. The dark blue one is a standard sneasel, while the light-colored one is a Hisuian sneasel.
An illustration of a joyous, anthropomorphic otter. He is wearing a Donald Driver #80 Packers jersey and punting a football while green, gold, and silver confetti floats around him.
Two cartoony portraits, done in a vaguely retro style. The one on the left is of Vince Lombardi, sporting his classic trench coat and fedora while holding the Super Bowl Trophy that was later named after him. The one on the right is of Bart Starr, tossing a football and wearing his Packers uniform.
A digital-watercolor style illustration of an anthropomorphic red fox on the bow of a tugboat. The fox is wearing a scarf, oversized sweater, skinny pants and rubber rain boots. Fish are peeking out of the water and the Leo Frigo Bridge can be seen in the background. The location is the Fox River in downtown Green Bay.
A sticker design featuring a fluffy white baby seal with a stern expression on its face. The text reads "seal of disapproval."
Hand-lettered text that reads "Wisconsin can't be bought. No kings, no oligarchs."
A sketchy design that reads "I got drafted in Green Bay, Wisconsin." The letters are all hand-drawn and surrounded by a scattering of largely football-related doodles. Everything appears to be drawn on graph paper.
A comic-style illustration of a slice of pizza in between the pages of a book, much like a bookmark. The book says "Book It!" on the cover.
A video of a drawing of a bobcat that has an iridescent foil finish. The video shows the color-shifting effects of the foil.
An illustration of a cartoony bobcat, with a laser-toner-thermal-laminator-foil iridescent finish.
A digital sketch of two characters: Arthur, a human man dressed in a 1930s-style trench coat and John, an enigmatic monster who is implied to be intangible by the lighter opacity of the sketch lines. It is the same drawing as in the previous post, but with Arthur wearing a fedora.
A digital sketch of two characters: Arthur, a human man dressed in a 1930s-style trench coat and John, an enigmatic monster who is implied to be intangible by the lighter opacity of the sketch lines.
A digital-watercolor style illustration of an anthropomorphic red fox on the bow of a tugboat. The fox is wearing a scarf, oversized sweater, skinny pants and rubber rain boots. Fish are peeking out of the water and the Leo Frigo Bridge can be seen in the background. The location is the Fox River in downtown Green Bay.
An illustration of a woman joyfully running. The piece is in a bright, bold, cartoony style that combines sharp angles with organic curves. A highly-stylized sun and its rays make up the background.
This piece is a collage of various artworks created by the artist throughout 2024. At the center is an old selfie of the artist, and starting at the one o’clock position and going clockwise is: 1. a colorful, stylized illustration of a wolf, 2. a very simplified drawing of a seal holding a heart, 3. a slice of pizza in a book like a bookmark, with the words “book it!” on the cover, 4. three white birds nestled together in a tree hollow while it snows, 5. a seal wearing sunglasses and a life ring around its neck, 6. a bust-style portrait of Luz and King from the animated show The Owl House, 7. a retro, nineties-arcade-carpet style repeating pattern, and 8. a portrait of Link from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as he carries multiple dishes of food.
A collection of ornaments, hand-painted with posca markers on flat bisque blank ornaments. They are circle and star-shaped, and have floral patters painted on them in bright colors. The have had a layer of glossy paint varnish applied to both protect the surface and make the colors pop. These particular ornaments are Pride-themed with gay, trans, bisexual and asexual color schemes.
A screencap of two text bubbles in Apple messages, both from the same sender. First message: I saw an albino squirrel on the way to the dentist! Second message: I was heading to the dentist, not the squirrel.
An ornament loosely illustrated to resemble red and white enamel set in gold metal. It depicts a family of small white birds, two parents and a baby, cozied up together in the hollow of a tree as snow gently falls.
A collection of ornaments, hand-painted with posca markers on flat bisque blank ornaments. They are circle and star-shaped, and have floral patters painted on them in bright colors. The have had a layer of glossy paint varnish applied to both protect the surface and make the colors pop.
A collection of ornaments, hand-painted with posca markers on flat bisque blank ornaments. They are circle and star-shaped, and have floral patters painted on them in bright colors. The have had a layer of glossy paint varnish applied to both protect the surface and make the colors pop.