Anissa Pietzyk

View my latest Instagram posts here, or follow me direct at @anissapietzyk

Hope everyone had a good break! The latest comic for @the_volante that I did! All the birds have been coming back to Vermillion, so I used the strip as something of an excuse to draw them. Get outside while the weather’s good! Does it count as a throwback of it happened a week ago? Here is the second comic strip that appeared in @the_volante before break! Copies of the paper are still around campus if you haven’t grabbed one yet! Another comic from me in @the_volante this week! There’s a second comic that made it in as well, which I will post shortly! Enjoy! New painting, called T. Anon! 20x31”, oil on paper. I made it with my figure painting class, and part of the challenge was to paint a skull first, then paint the “skin” on top. My only regret is that I didn’t take more process shots! I’m also used to painting with thick layers in my own practice, so it really got me out of my comfort zone to work thin and leave some of the “bones” showing through. Aaaaaaaand here is the second comic printed in @the_volante this week. And no, you’re not seeing double! The first version was planned for the Valentine’s Day issue, which was my original idea. Due to space limitations it would not be printed until this week, so I had to change some text to fit the new plan. I’m grateful for white-out, that’s for sure! Personally I prefer the original, but I’ve added both for anyone interested! New @the_volante comic! This is one of two that were printed, so stay tuned for a second post! I’m a bit late to post this one, but here is the comic strip I made for @the_volante last week! Super proud of how this came out. It’s also really awesome that my comic was printed right next to a review for Iron Lung! First addition to @the_volante in 2026. And two strips at that! ✨ I can’t wait to continue the gag strip for the paper, plus more creative work to compliment it! Grab an issue from around campus if you haven’t already! Three new illustrations I completed in the last week! 😮‍💨 Been busy with school starting back up, but I’m happy I was able to put a pin in these! This is an oil painting I completed around the end of the Fall semester. The photo of me next to it is from the show that is up in CeeCee’s right now, where the painting will be on display until January 11th! Catch it while you can! I’m going to have some work in this show on Monday, at 5:30 in Dakota Hall room 221/222 on USD campus! I’m so excited to finally share all the cool work I’ve been doing for this project! FINALLY this comic has been printed! Through a string of miscommunications this took five weeks to be printed despite being finished ages ago. 🥲 I’m just happy it’s done, hope you like it! With any luck more will follow soon! Ta-da! Here is the next comic for @the_volante complete with a bit of magic! I can’t wait for you to see it, make sure to grab a physical copy because it looks great in print! Yes, it’s finally here! My first comic strip for @the_volante this year!!! I can’t wait for you all to see it! This semester I wanted to toy around with a consistent cast of characters so that I could do longer form comics as well, and these are our two main characters! As of yet I have not named them, so if you have any suggestions leave them in the comments. As always thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great start to the semester! Page six is inked and ready for color! P.S. I recently updated my website, and there’s some pretty neat stuff on there, link in bio!!! I love three day weekends, they’re a great time to trick yourself into being productive for once! This is the inked page five, enjoy! I’m back! With school starting back up again progress has been slow, but here are pages 3 and 4 of my comic! Plus some behind the scenes inking for your viewing pleasure! Guess who forgot to post this during the school year? 😇 I had taken it home before any of my other projects for safe keeping, so it completely slipped my mind until now to upload it, sorry! It’s a graphite portrait of my treasured sock monkey, named Sock Monkey (creative I know)! The whole thing was done in pencils, there isn’t much else to say except I’m really happy with the end result, especially the textures I was able to get! Here are the first two pages of my comic all inked! Plus the timelapse I recorded for page two! I plan on posting the inked pages as I finish them so that you all can follow along on the story as I make it! And yes, I do plan for the final version to be in color, but that won’t be for a while yet. I eventually want to make physical copies, but it’s far enough off I don’t have details yet. But I can tell you that the final digital version will eventually be available on my website for free! It finally happened! Today I finished penciling all 20 pages of my oneshot comic, “Just Practically Human”, which means I can at last start recording myself inking! Keep your eyes peeled for some timelapses in the coming days of that! And let me know if you’d be interested in me live inking, because it is something I’ve wanted to try for a while and I think now I’m ready to do it! It’s official! I’m all done writing a short story that I plan to make a one-shot comic from! Here are some of my initial thumbnail sketches for the first eight pages. If all goes according to plan, there will be 20 pages, plus the front and back inside and outside covers! I intend to work on this over the summer while doing a part time job, so keep an eye out for more pictures of the process! To celebrate the end of the school year, I took some of my favorite doodles out of my sketchbook and collaged them in a cheap frame. I know it’s not exactly traditional “fine arts”, but I did feel a lot of satisfaction going back through my work and finding all the drawings in the margins. Even meaningless doodles are stepping stones to practice drawing and improve, and I think that should be celebrated! This is my last comic for @the_volante this semester! For this summer issue I got to use A WHOLE PAGE! I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to have so much room to put my art! I can’t wait for next semester to keep drawing comics for you guys! This is an 11x15” litho piece I did this semester using a black colored pencil, drafting film, and an aluminum plate! Printmaking has never been my strong suit, but litho was a good chance to transfer my drawing skills to a new medium, and I loved the process! I’ve been doodling a lot of robots lately and this felt like the realized version of that, I am very happy with the result! Here is my comic contribution to this week’s copy of the Volante! This was a lot of fun, and I’ve got something even bigger planned for the next one! Grab a copy of @the_volante to see what it’s all about! Ideafest was so much fun! I loved being able to talk to people about my work and I got some really great feedback! Thank you to everyone who was able to come, I hope you know how much I appreciate your support! Ta-da! Here is my comic for this week’s issue of @the_volante complete with some flying squirrels! I experimented with digital coloring to save on time what with Ideafest going on, and I am pleased with the result! I might do this again in the future. It’s official! My art is currently being displayed in the upstairs MUC hallway, which means that anyone and everyone can go and see it RIGHT NOW! Or better yet, if you want to hear me ramble on about my process, tools, and everything in between, come stop by my poster presentation at @usdideafest on April 9th, from 9:00 to 10:30 AM, also upstairs in the MUC! Yes, that is THIS WEDNESDAY! I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to support the fine arts at this event, and can’t wait to share my work with you! After a long, long time working on this behind the scenes, I am happy to announce that on April 9th from 9:00 to 10:30 AM, on the second floor of the MUC at USD, I will be giving a poster presentation at @usdideafest ! There I will be giving away these amazing booklets full of my work printed by @mixamprintusa and displaying the framed original photographs seen in the reel! So mark your calendars, because I have put my heart and soul into this project and can’t wait for you guys to see it! And if you can’t come, don’t sweat it! I plan to keep my extra booklet copies for friends and family not in the area!

Anissa Pietzyk

(C) 2026 Anissa Pietzyk