Melissa Sue Stanley 🌿✨🍄
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melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Melissa Sue Stanley 🌿✨🍄
@melissasuestanley.bsky.social
3.7K followers 660 following 1.3K posts
🎨 Open for book / spot / ttrpg / portraits
🗺 Looking for the circular tread back to Gormenghast
✨ MelissaSueStanley.com
💌 MelissaStanleyArt@gmail.com
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melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Cooking commences in an hour.
A photo of George from Sienfeld saying "I gotta focus. I'm shifting into gravy mode."
November 26, 2025 at 7:03 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Thanks for asking - yes, Lemon Pig is still doing great!
A photo of a lemon made to look like a pig with pins for eyes and toothpick legs. He is wearing a little bowler hat.
November 25, 2025 at 2:38 AM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Dragon doodles.

(Cleaning and sorting the hard drive today, finding fun old photos and all that).
photo of a small painting of a dragon on a paper board. There are art supplies in the background.
November 24, 2025 at 6:25 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Sculpted thorns all dang day.
Photo of a grey sculpture in progress
November 21, 2025 at 11:44 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Friday stuff.
November 21, 2025 at 9:36 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Reskeet with a time you looked cool.

I mean, I still look cool most of the time. But in 2009 I was wearing that Scott Radke necklace a LOT (now it just hangs on the wall in the hallway ;)
photograph of me with long red hair, wearing a Scott Radke pendant.
November 20, 2025 at 10:08 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Eyeball day.
Photo of an artists desk with watercolor set out
November 19, 2025 at 6:47 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Oh... it gone.
November 19, 2025 at 3:53 AM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
I gave one of my dudes a nose as a joke and we're all having thoughts about it.
Photo of grey sculpts in progress
November 19, 2025 at 3:38 AM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
In other news: construction has begun in some curious and twisted new things for Beinart Gallery...
🍓🌿✨

(Already impossible to photograph, I love it. 🫠)
November 18, 2025 at 12:25 AM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
The art vs the artist's hand 🖐

My hands are square, chonky, stubby, banged-up little nightmares.
But they certainly get the job done.
photograph of five grey creature sculpts on a metal table photo of my hand
November 17, 2025 at 5:39 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
I listened to a lot of old YouTube interviews with some favorite illustrators this weekend. Got me thinking about sharing more things from the sketchbook and whatnot.

What's your favorite illustrator-interview podcast or channel? Always lookin' for more.
Photograph of a sketchbook with a pencil resting in the middle. Graphite sketches are of a witch mouse and a chicken with a hut tied onto it.
November 17, 2025 at 4:55 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Self-employed artist life = there are a lot of fires with a lot of irons in them. It's a little chaotic.

But today I talked for a while to a (maybe!) publisher for my Woolbeast book. I'm working on it a lot these days, back and immersed in this world. I love it so much. I hope y'all do, too.
Graphite sketch of a table set up with what appears to be many wares for sale on it. There are jugs, herbs, stones with hooks, and stone melons. In the middle is a horned creature named Eugene, reading a book with a cup of tea and a half-eaten stone melon.
November 12, 2025 at 9:46 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Meanwhile in the world of art that I actually want to do and am in fact currently doing:

I'm sculpting *two* of these beasts for a show in January, and I'm very excited about them.
watercolor painting with a white border: The painting is of a tree canopy with strawberry birds perched around it. In the foreground is a large strawberry bird with teeth and jam dripping down onto the branch below.. where a bird appears to be missing.. oh no.
November 9, 2025 at 9:16 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
ha HA i found one.
These were neat as heck.

I still never want to sew anything ever again tho.
Photograph of a plush toy thing on a black background. The plush is a bright orange bear with a little white crown and boxing gloves. It's JC Rivera's "Bear Champ" character (a chicago thing)
November 9, 2025 at 9:13 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
I forgot: In a past life (2019) I collab'd with local artist JC Rivera, and I stitched up five very fancy Bear Champ plush things.

I just stumbled on this WIP photo from that project. I also forgot how they all had their own doofy little faces 🤣

(I do not sew dudes anymore)
Photograph of a black table with three plush figures in process standing on it. They are bright mustard-orange bears with saggy eyelids. They are goofy looking.
November 9, 2025 at 8:30 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Good Ol' Boris - he's the only one left today!
🎃🎃🎃🎃

Melissasuestanley.com/original-art
Photograph of a small sculpture of a pumpkin on a stone with other seasonal gourds (real ones) and leaves behind it.
November 6, 2025 at 7:31 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
2019 - 2025

Fuck 🖕 AI
A cute watercolor painting resting on a wooden table. The painting is a sort of stumpy tree spirit with beady black eyes staring at a bumblebee. Watercolor painting in greens and soft purples. The painting is of a foggy forest with pale light between the background trees. In the forground is an overgrown forest floor with a stumpy forest creature sitting in the moss. It has big glowing eyes, and is looking at a spider that's webbing out of its broken tree head.
November 6, 2025 at 3:53 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Squash Squad. Gourd Guys. Pumpkin Pals.
🌿✨🎃✨🌿

Pick your favorite:
Melissasuestanley.com/original-art
Photograph of a small sculpted jack-o-lantern. It's painted orange and has dark purple eyes with sparkly bits in them. There are leaves in the background of the photo. Photograph of a group of four small sculpted jack-o-lantern. They are painted orange and have dark purple eyes with sparkly bits in them. There are leaves in the background of the photo. Photograph of a small sculpted jack-o-lantern in front of some seasonal gourds and leafy background. The sculpted pumpkin is painted orange and has dark purple eyes with sparkly bits in them. Photograph of a small sculpted jack-o-lantern in front of some seasonal gourds and leafy background. The sculpted pumpkin is painted orange and has dark purple eyes with sparkly bits in them.
November 5, 2025 at 10:59 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Spooky season continues... only because I just last night finished the rest of the Pumpkin Squad. These derpy gourds should be in the shop later this afternoon 🎃 ✨
Photograph of a set of four pumpkin sculpts resting on a clear plastic box. The pumpkins are sculpted to look like jack-o-lanterns. There's a sculpt of a baba yaga chicken-legged hut with some skulls around it in the background.
November 5, 2025 at 6:00 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Have fun out there, ya spoops
pen and ink (black and white) drawing of a spooky slender person/thing wearing a pumpkin jack-o-lantern head walking through the mists under a full moon.
October 31, 2025 at 11:33 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Greatest Halloween Movie Ever
Or
Greatest Movie Ever?

Trick question, it's both.
A hand holding up a copy of the dvd of Spaced Invaders.
October 31, 2025 at 1:30 AM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Unpacking from @ixarts.bsky.social takes a while. Gifts and art slowly emerge from all sorts of places. Don't even get me started on how many DoubleTree cookies I find.

Right now I'm delighting in my 2025 IX indulgence: this original graphite drawing of Typhoid Mary I got from Lawrence Schwinger.
photograph of objects lying on a white cloth. The objects are an embroidered patch of a red herring, a pink tshirt with the word "goggleworks" written on it, and a graphite drawing by Lawrence Schwinger of a woman holding a kitchen knife.
October 29, 2025 at 11:58 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Ooo dang! The campaign for my new book ends tomorrow 🎉

If you love wee chicken shacks, could you share this project sometime in the next 24 hours?

Thank you so much to everyone who has backed ~ I can't wait to share the Shacklings with you. 💖

Kickstarter.com/projects/babayaga/shackling
October 29, 2025 at 11:05 PM
melissasuestanley.bsky.social
Instead of going back to work, what if we just hopped into a charming Hut on Chicken Legs and escaped into the wild?

Need a Hut of your own? Find yours here:
Kickstarter.com/projects/babayaga/shackling
Graphite drawing of a landscape at night with a full moon in the upper right hand corner. In the left side of the drawing is a large chicken-legged hut walking up a hill. There is smoke coming out of the chimney and a figure stands in the window.
October 27, 2025 at 3:06 PM