Painting EvenGlow: Plants, Potions & a Little Witchcraft

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of illustrating EvenGlow, a beautiful new card game designed by Jason Katzwinkel and published by The Op Games.

EvenGlow is a light-strategy puzzle game all about balance. Players build magical gardens split between sunlight and moonlight, placing pairs of plants in mirrored positions on each side. A rather lovely world to paint, as it turns out.

A garden of light and shadow

I started with lots of little botanical studies: flowers, ivy, berries, mushrooms, and the odd strange magical plant that doesn't exist anywhere except in my sketchbook.

The two sides had to feel connected but atmospherically opposite. Moonlight went deep and mysterious — blues, indigos and dark greens, almost like Chinese shadows. Sunlight stayed soft and warm: pinks, peaches, and that slightly glowing quality I keep chasing in watercolour and never quite catch twice in the same way.

Plus, of course, a few little splashes of magic dust here and there.

Then came the potion bottles. Probably my favourite part.

They took me back years ago,  when I was working as a product designer and designing perfum bottle for L'Oréal, but this time with a slightly more magical twist. I dove deep into a Pinterest rabbit hole of precious perfume bottles and old apothecary jars. You should see that board.

A little bit of witchcraft…

Surrounded by strange plants, berries and little bottles of potion, I felt a bit like a witch in my own studio. Perfect timing, as it happens — I was reading two brilliant books about witches: In Defence of Witches: Why women are still on trial by Mona Chollet and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé.

The history of the witches fascinates me. In Europe, most of those accused during the witch hunts were women, caught in a tangle of religion, misogyny, fear and superstition. Women who were independent, outspoken, knowledgeable in science, and human body, or simply unlucky enough to be blamed when something went wrong. Easy targets, in other words.

And then there is Tituba, the enslaved woman at the centre of Maryse Condé's novel, one of the first people accused during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Her story adds another layer that really struck me: how accusations of witchcraft could intersect with being a woman, enslaved, and an outsider in colonial America.

Centuries later, I love that the witch has been reclaimed as a symbol of female knowledge, independence and power. Painting magical plants and mysterious potions for EvenGlow felt rather fitting. 🌙🌿✨

From my studio table to a real game

This is still my favourite part of illustrating board games: watching separate "little" paintings turn into something you can actually hold and play with. Creating countless hours of fun with friends and family.

A flower that started as pencil lines on my desk becomes a tiny hexagonal tile. A watercolour potion bottle becomes a card. Somehow, all those separate pieces become one world, and I still find that quietly astonishing, even after doing this for years now.

Seeing the finished EvenGlow box for the first time was one of those moments I don't quite have words for. Paintings leaving my messy studio table and ending up on someone's actual game table,  it still gets me, every single time.

EvenGlow is out in the wild now. ✨

Designer: Jason Katzwinkel
Artist: Clémentine Campardou
Publisher: The Op Games