About the Artist

Tiffany Toland-Scott

Fantasy & Gothic Illustrator

 

The Footnotes Version

  • Medium: Oils, watercolors, ink, and pencils
  • Location: Georgia, USA
  • How long: Since 2005
  • College: Collins College (SCAM)
    Chandler-Gilbert Community College
  • Past: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ballistic Publishing, Paper Tiger, ImagineFX, Photoshop Magazine, Out of Step Books, Flametree Publishing, others

Favorites

  • Paint: Winsor & Newton, Gamblin, and Old Holland oil paints, Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith watercolors, Koh-I-Noor pencils, Tombow ink pens
  • Food: Chinese food
  • Drink: Espresso
  • Animal: Duck
  • Color: Teal
  • TV show: anything with a British narrator

I was born in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest a long, long time ago in a galaxy… wait.

More or less a feral child, I spent most of my days drawing with or without clothing on in various little natural shelters I found in the woods around my home. Occasionally an adult yelled into the trees that food was ready, and I would decide to return briefly because food is life. Then I would disappear into the forest again.

When I was five years old my adults told me I had to learn to write my own name, wear clean clothing, and go to school. That sounded like a terrible idea, but I found out at school you can draw a lot of pictures and teachers will praise you for being creative. School wasn’t so bad after all, and while my adults always sent me in clean clothing, I always found a way to get unbelievably dirty at school. It was a win-win.

I kept drawing and sometimes I made little comic strips that I would go around my neighborhood throwing at people. I liked to pretend I was making a newspaper. I was basically just littering, but everyone thought it was cute so it was okay.

I really thought I was going to do something else with my life, but as a teenager I had to face the facts. I am good at a lot of things but my willingness to do what other people tell me to do is almost less than zilch. Garden hermits are a thing of the past so I would have to settle for the 21st century version and be a fantasy artist since I have no interest in being a politician.

(I also write on occasion, apparently, but no one likes it when writers talk about writing except for other writers.)

I had a very unusual childhood on one of the last frontiers of wilderness in the United States. Now my stomping grounds are a resort. Life is weird. When I lived there the only things to do were visit the historical Roslyn Cemetery or fall down a mine shaft. Now you can get a massage while taking in the majestic sight of elk poo steaming in the snowy distance. No really! They sell tourism packages around watching someone else feed elk, and you know what elk do after they eat? Well, if you don’t know, I know a place where you can learn!

Growing up in the woods outside of an old-haunted-abandoned-mining-ghost town leaves an impression on a young critter. I love animals, forests, mythical forest creatures, wilderness, scary stuff, things that are a little unsettling, the mysteries of the universe, and ghost stories, and they all turn up in my work. You also have to have a pretty good sense of humor to keep yourself entertained in a place like that, and I like to think it shines through a little bit in my paintings.

After 19 years of living in no-mans-land I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to pursue a “higher” education. I ended up being a victim of a for-profit college scam, which is why I don’t recommend for-profit colleges for anyone for any subject. Get a business degree and take art classes on the side, kids. Thank me later.

I refocused on my business after that and moved to Montana. I met my husband there at a sci-fi convention called MisCon and we’ve been together ever since.

In 2016 we relocated to the Appalachian foothills of Georgia. It feels very familiar here, not unlike the misty Cascades I grew up in. In 2021 we became the caretakers of a somewhat historical property that every local believes is haunted. I don’t know what they’re talking about – I feel right at home here.

 

Here’s a really old picture of me and Luke on our birthday in 2010. I guess technically our son is in there, too. Yep, we got married on our shared birthday. Why not keep life simple and just celebrate everything on one day?

 

After leaving “school” my family renovated an old hay barn into an art studio, where I ran my business after college.

 

 

For a while in 2020 and 2021 I used an RV for my art studio. If you’d like to learn more about it I made a video about the silly subject and posted it on YouTube. Here’s a tour of the finished RV.

Thankfully I don’t work in a cold/hot RV anymore. In 2021 we took ownership of a 111-year-old house I call Mossgate (because moss grows on the iron gates… very imaginative I know) and thankfully it came with a beautiful conservatory at the rear of the house. I work in there right next to the wood stove all winter long.