Melena Orleans
Illustrator
@mellipedes
✧ ILLUSTRATION ✧
✧ DOLL(S) ✧
✧ Jane Goddard: Socialite to the Stars!
Jane's face was 3D-sculpted and printed in resin. The body is hand-sculpted out of polymer clay, painted with acrylic paint and colored pencil.
Melena Orleans
Illustrator
@mellipedes
✧ ABOUT ✧
Melena Orleans is a current Illustration student at the Edinburgh College of Art.In her spare time, she loves making and playing tabletop games, rollerskating, dirty chai lattes, and writing stupid Letterboxd entries.
✧ CONTACT ME ✧
I am currently trapped inside a lighthouse at the center of a swirling time vortex, so my character art commissions are closed for the time being. Be sure to check back soon for any updates!For any other inquiries, feel free to reach out by email or message me through Instagram.
Melena Orleans
Illustrator
@mellipedes
✧ BOOKS ✧
✧ The Grimmoiserie of Melena Orleans
Inspired by a musical anthology and Shakespeare's "severn ages of man," The Grimmoiserie of Melena Orleans imagines a witch's spellbook detailing her life story through rituals and reflections. This book features hand-carved rubber stamps, linocut, and pochoir techniques on a risograph-printed booklet. It is hand-bound and the cover is letterpressed, as well as the invitation included in the interior.
✧ BUS PPL (vol. 1)
Over several months, I documented the people I saw at different bus stops around Edinburgh as I went about my days. I could only use a black pen to draw them within two to three minutes. Of course, you only have that much before the bus pulls away.
✧ A Girl's Day in Ancient Greece
A mini-pitch for a children’s book depicting the economic roles women fulfilled in Ancient Greece. This story was inspired by my own mother, my childhood obsession with Greece, and my academic history in Classics, History, and Archaeology.
✧ Hansel & Gretel: a Retelling
✧ Museum of Memories
This section (Museum of Memories) is currently in the works!
Check back later!
Melena Orleans
Illustrator
@mellipedes
✧ GAMES ✧
✧ Polly Heart: Mall Mop!
Created for Queer Joy Jam 2024, Polly Heart: Mall Mop! is a game that explores gender euphoria, shoplifting, cyborgs, kitschy girls' flash games from the early 2000s, and Paul Blart.
Featured in District Arcade 2025.As part of CYBRJOY Studios, I designed and created 70+ character customization assets as well as the game's logo, variations of it for social media and physical merchandise like buttons. In the development process, I also led color design and provided concept art for the map.
Character customization mock-ups:
You can play Polly Heart: Mall Mop! now on itch.io!
✧ Galatea: or, The Modern Pygmalion
Galatea is a solo role-playing game about the divine nature of creation and our ridiculous aspirations. Play as a Bookmaker attempting to make the Perfect Book, journey through the process of making, and contemplate what it means to create.
Read Galatea's full text and play it yourself on itch.io!