ORIGINAL CHARACTER ARTIST · PENNYMORES

The artist who first drew the Pennymores.

Long before the Pennymores stepped into an illustrated storybook, Nurkaydar Tomiris translated written descriptions into pencil lines, poses, costumes, expressions, and personality. Her commissioned artwork became the human-made visual foundation of the series.

“Her drawings did more than show us what the characters looked like. They showed us who they were.”

From words to people

Parker had to feel brave without always feeling certain. Quinn needed the restless energy of an inventor. Aven needed warmth, mischief, and the sense that she might notice magic before anyone else did. Nurkaydar found those qualities on paper.

Her early blue-pencil studies show a real design process: testing faces, refining silhouettes, searching for the right posture, and letting clothing reveal character. The finished drawings did not replace that exploration. They grew from it.

Blue-pencil character face and relationship studies by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Face and relationship studies**
Expressions, proportions, and how the characters might feel together.

Blue-pencil costume and pose study by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Costume and pose refinement**
A character takes shape through posture, clothing, and small details.

Blue-pencil drawing of Quinn with goggles and a tool by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Quinn in motion**
Goggles, tools, and an inventor’s confidence emerge in pencil.

The family steps off the page

Finished commissioned character design of Parker by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Parker** — courage and curiosity, held in the same stance.

Finished commissioned character design of Quinn by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Quinn** — the family inventor, ready to turn a problem into a plan.

Finished commissioned character design of Aven by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Aven** — warm, observant, and always close to the magic.

INSIDE THE CHARACTER STUDIO

Designing Professor Hemming Ernway

Professor Hemming Ernway offers a clear view of Nurkaydar’s human design process: loose gestures and alternate faces, Eric’s marked selections, precise beard and mustache studies, clean line art, a color study, and finally the finished character.

Gesture and face options for Professor Hemming Ernway by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Finding his voice**
Gesture, movement, and alternate faces.

Selected face and pose for Professor Hemming Ernway with Eric Koester's red-circle notes. — **A collaborative selection**
Eric’s red notes preserve the chosen direction.

Face and beard refinement drawing by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Refining the face**
Hairline, glasses, expression, and beard.

Mustache refinement drawing by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **The mustache**
Its sweep becomes unmistakably Hemming.

Beard curl detail refinement by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Curls and character**
Small details sharpen the silhouette.

Clean line art for Professor Hemming Ernway by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Clean line art**
The final pose and costume lock into place.

Color development for Professor Hemming Ernway by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **From line to color**
The red-and-gold palette is tested.

Finished commissioned character art of Professor Hemming Ernway by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — **Professor Hemming arrives**
The finished character preserves every earlier choice.

Development artwork by Nurkaydar Tomiris, with selection notes from Eric Koester. These images document the human collaboration that established Professor Hemming Ernway’s canonical design.

The human foundation

Nurkaydar’s work is not a decorative footnote. It is the source design language for the Pennymores characters. Their silhouettes, clothing, signature objects, proportions, expressions, and relationships were developed through her commissioned human artwork.

Finished commissioned character design of Juventan by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — Juventan — a finished character design from the expanding Pennymores world.

Finished commissioned character design of Droma by Nurkaydar Tomiris. — Droma — another piece of the visual world Nurkaydar helped establish.

From original drawings to new storybook scenes

For Pennymores Illustrated Storybook, generative-image tools were used to adapt those established character designs into new scenes and environments under human creative direction. That is an adaptation workflow—not the origin story of the characters. The characters began with Nurkaydar.

Creative credit: Original Pennymores character art and visual designs by Nurkaydar Tomiris; storybook scenes adapted from her commissioned artwork using generative-image tools under human creative direction.

The technology changed. The characters’ visual DNA did not. Every new scene begins with the people Nurkaydar first put on paper.