I’ve been making geometric dot art for a while now — mandalas, tessellations, abstract forms built from repeating circles and careful placement. It’s methodical work, and I enjoy it. But recently I found myself wondering what would happen if I applied the same approach to something with a bit more edge.
The result is the Ossuary series.
Ossuary is a new collection of skull-based artwork, each piece built entirely from individually placed dots. The subject matter is darker than my usual output, but the construction method is exactly the same — hundreds of circles, varying in size and colour, arranged until the form emerges. The difference is what that form turns out to be.
All four pieces share the same foundation: pure black background, neon palette, dot construction. Beyond that, each one is its own thing.
Obsidian
The first piece, and the one that started the whole series, is a human skull — front-facing, symmetrical, built from a radial burst of dots that emanates outward from the eye sockets like a supernova caught mid-explosion.
The palette runs through neon magenta, electric teal, acid green and deep violet. The cranium is dense with radiating lines of dots; the cheekbones and jaw are more loosely structured, the dot density dropping as the skull narrows. It’s a piece that rewards different viewing distances — from across the room it’s a bold graphic statement, up close it becomes something considerably more intricate.
The name comes from obsidian, the volcanic glass: black, sharp, formed under pressure. It felt right.
Longhorn
The second piece moves away from the human form entirely. Longhorn maps the skull of a Texas longhorn — those extraordinary sweeping horns arcing wide across the frame, the nasal cavity descending below in a narrow column of dots.
What makes this one work is the gradient. The dots shift from electric blue at the horn tips through magenta and teal, picking up warm greens and yellows in the cranium before landing on deep amber and orange at the base. It runs like a slow sunrise across a shape that’s already inherently dramatic. The horns thin to almost nothing at their outermost points — just a few small circles marking where the bone ends and the air begins.
There’s a natural boho quality to it that I didn’t entirely plan for. Longhorn skull imagery has a life of its own in the home décor world, and I suspect this version will find its audience without too much persuasion.
Raven
The third piece is the most complex of the four. Raven reconstructs the skull of a bird — broad cranium, elongated beak tapering downward, the eye sockets marked by two large cyan circles that dominate the upper face.
The outer edge of the skull is traced in a loose scatter of smaller dots rather than a solid line, which gives the whole piece a slightly unresolved quality — as though the skull is still in the process of becoming, or perhaps dissolving. The interior dot work is the most varied of any piece in the series; the colours shift constantly from section to section, warm oranges and reds giving way to greens and blues as the eye moves down the beak.
It’s a harder read at a distance than the others, which is intentional. Raven rewards time spent with it. Some pieces announce themselves immediately; this one waits to be found.
Ivory
The fourth piece is the one with the most physical presence. Ivory maps the elephant skull — that vast, heavy cranium with tusks arcing upward in long graceful curves that nearly reach the top corners of the frame.
The tusks are traced in magenta and yellow-green, thinning to almost nothing at the tips before the dots simply stop. The cranium itself is dense and multi-coloured — cyan, orange, red, lime — with the detail becoming finer as the skull narrows into the nasal cavity below. The whole composition sits low and wide in the frame in a way that none of the other Ossuary pieces do. It’s quietly monumental.
The name was obvious. There wasn’t really another option.
The Series
Four designs, four species, one approach. The Ossuary series will continue — I have plans for a ram, a stag, and possibly others — but these four feel like a complete opening statement. Different enough in subject matter and palette to stand apart, unified by the dot construction language that runs through all of them.
All four are available now as premium wooden framed posters in 30×30 cm – 70×70 cm, with a choice of three frame finishes. You can find them in my Etsy store.
As always, each print is signed.