Roxane Lapa Fantasy Illustrator

Hi, I’m Roxy. I’m a fantasy and scifi illustrator, specialising in book cover art …though I’ll happily illustrate most things. I’m also a qualified graphic designer with 20+ years of experience, I also make my own brushes, and art-related YouTube videos.

Artist Bio

I’m a digital illustrator and brush maker

I’m a fantasy and science fiction illustrator from South Africa. I typically illustrate digitally using my graphics tablet, and I’m jokingly referred to as a bit of an art program slut because I love them all for different reasons. I make my own brushes, mostly for Paintstorm Studio, Rebelle Pro, Corel Painter, and Clip Studio Paint. I do occasionally use traditional media too.

My background as a Graphic and Web Designer

I graduated from the DSSA (Design School of Southern Africa) back in 2001 and worked for a small ad agency up until 2006. At that point, my 3D artist husband and I decided we wanted to work from home and try to build something for ourselves, so we formed Coza Web Design, a family owned design business, which still pays some of our bills.

In the past few years, my illustration career has slowly taken over most of my time, but I do find that my design background has been quite useful. Not least of which is being able to build my own website, and when I illustrate book covers, I can offer the full package (professional typography with files made up per printer spec), rather than just the pretty illustration.

SFF Illustrator and Concept Artist

My specialty is fantasy and science fiction illustration and concept art, but I’ve also done illustrations for historical fiction, portraits, and even educational drawings. Most of my illustration work has been for book covers and internal book illustrations, but I’m also hoping to get work illustrating for TTRPG manuals and card art in the future…and more books. I love books.

Other things that are important to me

I write a bit.

I’ve always had a love affair with books. In fact, one of my first jobs was in a bookstore. As a child I did a lot of creative writing, but now days I stick to non-fiction, mostly working on articles for my blog, but I have also written two non-fiction books.

I’m a Christian.

Not the judgy kind. Not the holier than though kind. Not the perfect kind. I’m just a flawed follower of Jesus trying to do the right thing, sometimes failing. I think Jesus is awesome, and it’s because of his example that I try to love people as much as I do. Any light and strength you see in me is Jesus shining through me. Without him, I would be a very broken and lost person.

I’m a wife.

I completely LOVE my husband. He’s handsome. He’s hilarious. He’s kind. If you want to see just how amazing he is, he’s also a partnered Twitch streamer. In the gaming world he’s known as Mr_W4RpATH. We both love PC gaming, so I often hang out on his stream in the evenings playing games too. He also happens to be a very talented 3D render artist, and often helps me on projects where his skills are needed (like 3D book mockups).

I try to be better.

I love animals, but I also love people. I get that from my mom. She’s always had a deep interest in psychology, so we’ve been having long discussions about the human psyche and how to be better humans since I can remember. Sometimes, I learn something about myself, like that I have an INFJ personality type, and I’m an HSP, and sometimes I just learn how to understand and deal with people better. My core belief is that each person I meet is a special soul that is precious to God, so I try to treat them that way. That’s not to say that I always win in that regard, but I really do try.