Ryan Van Dongen
LightNews LightNews
banner
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
Ryan Van Dongen
@ryanvandongen.bsky.social
5.8K followers 870 following 95 posts
he/him | Concept Artist | Freelance Illustrator
📍 Philadelphia
🚫 No ĀĪ
📧 ryanvdon@gmail.com
Portfolio & Prints: ryanvandongen.art

🔗 https://linktr.ee/ryanvandongen
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
Ryan Van Dongen @ryanvandongen.bsky.social · Oct 18
Hello bluesky, I’m Ryan and I draw monsters and stuff
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
coreybrickley.bsky.social
I used to use detectors before realizing they are also basically LLMs and hallucinate answers just like any other LLM
yiannisbab.bsky.social Yiannis @yiannisbab.bsky.social · 12h
Just because I keep seeing those "I checked this piece and it's written by AI" - this is an old article of mine, before AI was available. So could we not?
February 16, 2026 at 4:24 PM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
Some sort of owl demon. been having fun with markers
Owl demon creature sketch on tan-toned paper sketchbook. Drawn using grey Copic alcohol-based markers and Arteza white acrylic markers
February 16, 2026 at 1:58 AM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
Beasts all over the shop…
Copic sketch marker and Arteza acrylic marker drawing of eyeless hairless Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne on paper
February 14, 2026 at 12:24 AM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
grey marker sketch featuring sleepy Coco Rose
Grey Prismacolor marker sketch of aerial view of a fortress. A small dog is asleep next to the sketchbook
February 10, 2026 at 5:17 AM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
pablonotpicasso.bsky.social
New personal piece- inspired using a 3D/2D workflow to quickly get a “finished” looking image without getting too lost in overworking. Next post in the thread includes a pan around of the set in blender and some thoughts on process! #visualdevelopmentart #darkfantasyart
January 19, 2026 at 12:42 AM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
"Nightmarish rituals crave a newborn. Find one, and silence its harrowing cry.”

My Ch 6 “Alba” artwork for Apokalypsis. An illustration of Queen Yharnam in front of Mergo's Wet Nurse and the pale moon, standing at the end of the Nightmare of Mensis.

#bloodborne
Queen Yharnam in front of Mergo’s Wet Nurse. The Wet Nurse’s blades form the Eye rune, above a vision of the Yharnam Stone (Mergo’s body)
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
“Here we stand, feet planted in the earth, but might the cosmos be very near us, only just above our heads?”

My Ch 2 “Cosmos” artwork for Apokalypsis. I wanted to show #Bloodborne Great Ones arranged like a twisted divine vision, something you might see while making contact with Yharnam’s cosmos 🌌
Bloodborne’s Great Ones, posing in the stars above the blood moon. As a nod to the surgical history metaphors permeating throughout the game outlined by Charred Thermos and other lore hunters in the Bloodborne community, I also chose to arrange the Great Ones like a human anatomical diagram, mostly of the endocrine system: brain (Brain of Mensis) and tonsils or amygdalae (Amygdala) at the top, then lungs, thyroid, and thymus (Ebrietas), kidneys (Rom’s corpse and Rom’s living form), uterus (Mother Kos, carrying her orphan), backed by the circulatory or nervous system (Moon Presence).
November 19, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
coreybrickley.bsky.social
one of the dumbest, greediest mfers alive
November 27, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
teradiamart.bsky.social
It's my birthday today 💫
A retweet or a like would make me very happy (:
November 26, 2025 at 11:44 AM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
"Good hunter. This may sound strange, but... Have I somehow changed?"

My Ch 5 “Sonno” artwork for Apokalypsis. An illustration of Lady Maria and the Doll's connection across dreams/realities, and linking the state of death with dreaming in #Bloodborne
Lady Maria asleep in her chair, mirroring the Doll, asleep in the Hunter’s Dream rotated 180 degrees.
November 22, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
My “Tempo” / “Time” artwork for RoundTwo’s new Bloodborne lore book Apokalypsis: Blood. For Chapter 0 I decided to depict a pivotal event in the history of Bloodborne - the burning of Old Yharnam
In front of the fires, which are still crawling with beast patients, a blood-starved beast hangs while Djura watches from high up above on the clocktower.
November 16, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
dusky-woods.bsky.social
Hello, travelers. I am also a new artist here.
An uncertified druid with a sloth as my spirit animal (but I love wolves) I make fantasy & surrealism art, love peculiar creatures, DnD, and moody art subjects.

Hope we can explore art together

#Illustration #DnDartist #fantasy
January 17, 2025 at 7:20 PM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
“Atonement for the wretches...
By the wrath of Mother Kos...“

My Ch 4 “Carne” artwork for Apokalypsis: Byrgenwerth’s fateful visit to the fishing hamlet where they found Kos washed ashore, crawling with parasites, and their actions would catalyze their spiral into the nightmare.

#bloodborne
Lady Maria, Laurence, and Gehrman from Byrgenwerth, already bloodied from a previous encounter, approach a mysterious cosmic creature washed up on the beach.
November 22, 2025 at 1:01 AM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
“Curse the fiends, their children too. And their children, forever, true“

My Ch 3 “Pietra” artwork for Apokalypsis. I wanted to depict Yharnam’s cityscape while emphasizing the corrupt, sinister character of the city, the cathedral’s Astral Clocktower, and surrounding architecture of #bloodborne.
The Astral Clocktower, backed by the blood moon, stares down from above like an eye in the sky. The composition, with the hand of the Amygdala, is a reference to Richard Tennant Cooper’s Illustration “A Giant Hand Roaming Through the Dark Streets of London” c.1912, a painting which depicts the London plague as a large shadowy disembodied hand, like the Amygdala on Oedon Chapel.
November 20, 2025 at 4:49 AM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
“Here we stand, feet planted in the earth, but might the cosmos be very near us, only just above our heads?”

My Ch 2 “Cosmos” artwork for Apokalypsis. I wanted to show #Bloodborne Great Ones arranged like a twisted divine vision, something you might see while making contact with Yharnam’s cosmos 🌌
Bloodborne’s Great Ones, posing in the stars above the blood moon. As a nod to the surgical history metaphors permeating throughout the game outlined by Charred Thermos and other lore hunters in the Bloodborne community, I also chose to arrange the Great Ones like a human anatomical diagram, mostly of the endocrine system: brain (Brain of Mensis) and tonsils or amygdalae (Amygdala) at the top, then lungs, thyroid, and thymus (Ebrietas), kidneys (Rom’s corpse and Rom’s living form), uterus (Mother Kos, carrying her orphan), backed by the circulatory or nervous system (Moon Presence).
November 19, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
Some closeups
November 18, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
chlowski.bsky.social
fury road freehand ink study (2024)
Sketchbook page with a freehand ink one page comic, study of the Mad Max Fury Road scène where Furiosa drives into the sandstorm
November 18, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
asrielle.bsky.social
WOO so honored to have been a part of this project and I can't wait for the full release 👀
endysis.bsky.social ENDYSIS ♞❄️ The Last Winter Knight ❄️ @endysis.bsky.social · Nov 2
Our timeloop otome game, Unquiet Grey, was ranked #2 in story, aesthetics and overall in Scream Jam 2025! I'm so, so proud of my team 😭

I've written a devlog about our process and what's to come, but for now, happy late Halloween!
endysis.itch.io/unquiet-grey...
Cover of Unquiet Grey. A greyscale image of a couple smiling is covered by shattered glass and the title text. "Fog. Tarmac. Grey and black. Slush on the side of the road, more dirt than snow." Screenshot of a foggy road with trees in the distance. "..." A screenshot of a woman holding a phone to her ear with a shocked expression. The image is in black and white with the colours inverted. "You'd think he was blushing if you were drunker than you are now." Screenshot of red-haired girl and a boy in a hoodie sitting side by side. The girl happily pets a dog while the boy smiles at her.
November 3, 2025 at 2:42 AM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
My Ch 1 “Blood” / “Sangue” artwork for Apokalypsis. For this piece I wanted to capture the visceral horror of the hunt, even with “regular” encounters of Yharnam like scourge beasts and large huntsmen, juxtaposed with the fearless hunter, a whole different form of terrifying and formidable beast… 🩸
A Bloodborne Yharnam hunter fights a scourge beast and a large huntsman beast with a torch and a threaded cane
November 18, 2025 at 12:33 AM
ryanvandongen.bsky.social
My “Tempo” / “Time” artwork for RoundTwo’s new Bloodborne lore book Apokalypsis: Blood. For Chapter 0 I decided to depict a pivotal event in the history of Bloodborne - the burning of Old Yharnam
In front of the fires, which are still crawling with beast patients, a blood-starved beast hangs while Djura watches from high up above on the clocktower.
November 16, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
tetzoo.bsky.social
Mainstream palaeoart often seems lily-white in terms of the diversity of its contributors. But pieces of palaeoart that rank among the -MOST SEEN- works in the entire field were examples of black craftsmanship. This week came news on the passing of Garfield G. Minott (1966-2025)... cont
Garfield Minott at microphone, holding sauropod model. Photo from Simcoe Muskoka Family Connections Black History Month event. Carcharodontosaurus head model by Minott, as used in technical paper by Kent Stevens. Minott Carcharodontosaurus head model from Paul Sereno lab website.
November 15, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
strangehouse.bsky.social
July 5, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
navusare.bsky.social
idk season once again #AKIRA
October 30, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
petrathepostdoc.bsky.social
Hello #PortfolioDay, I'm Petra, a staff scientist working on malaria mosquitoes, but I also try to make science more approachable and whimsical with my #SciArt doodles 🦟
a collage of 32 invertebrate drawings on a black background with the list of their scientific names in the middle. DToLtober 2024 1 | Thyatira batis 2 | Sphecodes monilicornis 3 | Halyzia sedecimguttata 4 | Bugulina stolonifera 5 | Meta bourneti 6 | Scaeva pyrastri 7 | Ocypus olens 8 | Vespa crabro 9 | Nematostella vectensis 10 | Papilio machaon 11 | Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale 12 | Alitta virens 13 | Allacma fusca 14 | Andrena fulva 15 | Anoplius nigerrimus 16 | Aporia crataegi 17 | Patella pellucida 18 | Bombylius discolor 19 | Chrysoperla carnea 20 | Diadumene lineata 21 | Calliphora vomitoria 22 | Apoderus coryli 23 | Gibbula magus 24 | Mimas tiliae 25 | Lineus longissimus 26 | Parasteatoda lunata 27 | Melolontha melolontha 28 | Marthasterias glacialis 29 | Emmelina monodactyla 30 | Gymnosoma rotundatum 31 | Laothoe populi extra | Nephrotoma flavescens a large widescreen comic in yellow, light green, dark green, of scientists talking about their projects at the Vector Kolymbari Meeting 2024. Panels are split into days and Session numbers. drawing of a beefly and mosquito standing in front christmas trees decorated with yellow lights’, both are standing by an AB blood bag with mugs, the beefly is worried, the mosquito has a christmas hat and spices in a mug full of red liquid. hand holding an A4 sticker sheet with various famous memes redrawn with mosquitoes as the main characters. Anthony Adams Rubbing Hands Together Captain Picard Facepalm Shia LaBeouf's Intense Motivational Speech / Just Do It Buzz And Woody This is Fine Take all my money Hide the Pain Harold I am cringe But I am free Math Lady Clown at computer Computer stare Spiderman pointing at Spiderman Treat. Yo. Self. Pepe Silvia Homer comfy cinnamon roll Spiderman computer desk Disaster girl Kermit sipping tea Drunk Kitty Peter and Miles crouching
January 14, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Ryan Van Dongen
alariko.bsky.social
Fountain 2
September 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM