Nevermore started as a cat on an iPad

Leif · September 17, 2026

I used to have an iPad, and I started drawing on it just to try to be more visual. I am very technical and not good at design. It was messing around, but I was really trying to get better. Creative work so the technical brain could rest, or think about stuff in the background.

The first thing I made was this cat.

A round white cat in a black hoodie, drawn with simple black lines on a cream background. — The first drawing. A cat, on purpose.

There is a joke between my wife and me that I am just a cat. I also love ravens. So I am kind of a cat in a raven costume. That is why the first drawing is not a crow.

I made this in 2020. I was not starting a collection. Then I got busy with open source and building stuff, and the drawing sat. Years later I came back to it as inspo, and to pick up the art where I left off.

I did not want the collection to be cats. I thought cats might be tougher, but I also just love ravens. I still do. So I took the cat outline and shape and redrew it as a bird. The cat was the reference. The raven is just a raven.

A dark grey crow in a brown hoodie, drawn in the same simple line style on a cream background. — Same outline, now a raven. I loved this one.

It was great. I loved it. You can still see the cat if you know it is there.

I just could not make a whole flock that way. New birds, new traits, little changes: hours or days each if I kept drawing like that.

Pixel art was already a passion. 2D, 2.5D, OSRS, those games. I needed a way to iterate on traits, and I wanted that look. Both, same afternoon. So I pixelated the bird.

Nevermore was already an idea. The ravens and Corvid came together as a group that builds what it wants. Holders get a lifetime pass. If you do not hold one, you might not get the product, or you might have to pay. The gallery is the flock. One is enough.

Pixel art of a dark grey crow on a brown background, no clothes. — First pixel version. The beak sat too dark in the face.

The drawing had a hoodie. The pixel body does not. This bird had to be a base I could put hats, faces, necks, clothes, and backgrounds on. I am the pixel artist too.

The CorvidLabs group did not like the beak. It disappeared into the head. I fixed it.

A pixel crow on a green background, after the first beak update. — Updated the beak. Still not enough contrast.

Then one more pass, so the default Corvid Nevermore had a beak you can actually see.

The Nevermore body: a black pixel raven with white eyes on a green background, no hat and no clothes. — Better contrast. This is the default body.

Once that bird stuck, the rest of the flock was trait layers on it. Same raven, swap the pieces. That is why pixel art worked. I could draw a hat once instead of a new bird every time.

Corvid #0001 is that last bird. Black raven, green background, no hat, no clothes. Everything after it is a layer.

I still do not think of myself as a designer. I am a cat who loves ravens. I drew that in 2020, came back years later, and pixelated the bird so we could have a flock.

The gallery is at /nevermore/. One is a lifetime pro pass. The cat came first.

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