Rhiannon Owens

• Rhiannon Owns was born overseas and moved around a lot as a military brat. Owens says “I grew up an only child, so I got lost inside my imagination more than my family would care to admit.” As an 8- or 9-year old, Owens mother brought home an X-Men comic as a reward for something; possibly a good grade. She saw Storm on the first page with a mohawk and decided she would find a way to draw people like these for the rest of her life. She taught herself to draw people by copying panels and covers by comic artists like Silvestri, Lee, Adams and Byrne. When she moved to Florida in 1992, she attended a magnet program high school for performing and visual arts. According to Owens, “It was the only technical training I’ve ever had, but it worked. Sort of. The professors and teachers all scoffed at anything involving super heroes and told me I would never make a living off of that kind of ‘trash’. Then, they would turn around and tell me since I had some sort of talent I would have to find a way to live off of it or I’d never make it.” She was floored and took a long break from art and comics after that.

  Fast forward to 2008 and Owens was with a friend at a convention. He was working on Fantastic Four Archives cards while she was doodling Scarlet Witch in her sketch book. He had not seen her work previously and when he saw it, he asked her why she wasn’t drawing sketch cards. Her response? “What’s a sketch card ?”

  Rittenhouse Archives hired her first for X-Men Archives in December 2008—a dream come true for Owens. Later, in 2009, Topps accepted samples of her work and she began working on Star Wars sets. Things skyrocketed from there. Owens began working for companies like 5FINITY, Breygent Marketing, and Cryptozoic, as well as other independently-owned properties like Bad Axe Studios and Galen Sketch cards. To date, in just over three years, Owens has drawn nearly three thousand sketch cards for sets under thirteen different companies and or independently owned projects. She has had a pin-up in a hardcover, coffee table book for Voltron and another inside a web-exclusive comic for Lady Death. She now works entirely from home and had to quit her day-job to accommodate her demanding schedule which includes not only sketch cards but multiple convention appearances a year. Look for Owens at shows in the Southeast and along the East Coast, and even as far away as Texas, and as far north as Pennsylvania.

  Look for Owens on deviantArt at dangerous-beauty778.deviantart.com and Comic Art Fans.

  Rhiannon’s table fee sponsored by Breygent Marketing.