Below the Surface
Brook & Blade is the sharp edge and the gentle flow. The cut and the balm.
Its stories inhabit the half-light: places where the ordinary world sits slightly off-kilter, where shadows offer shelter and conceal danger, and where something older waits at the edge of the light.
These are illustrated stories of history, folklore and fading magic, where flawed characters stumble between kindness and cruelty. Even with trouble drawing near, there is warmth, humour and the strange comfort of darkness.
The studio’s first publication, The Dark Waters of Glenrowan, reimagines Ned Kelly’s final days.
About the Author
Timothy Pardoe was born and raised in Australia’s south-west corner. A lifelong sketcher and daydreamer, he now lives in Hamburg, Germany.
As an architect, he has spent years helping people turn their dreams into designs and buildings. Brook & Blade Studio gives his own imagined worlds a home, drawing on a longstanding love of cinema and graphic novels.
Distance has only heightened his imaginings of Australia: its old landscapes and colourful characters. Its rich contradictions. Through writing and illustration, this world of memory, history and fiction is given form.
Bringing the Stories to Life
The Kindly Darkness is inspired by an infamous piece of Australian history. Like most stories, its warped retelling is shaped by its teller. Through research and writing, sketching, storyboarding and many, many drafts, Timothy crafts these stories by hand and mind.
Generative AI plays a meaningful role in producing the images, alongside drawing and digital editing. Timothy directs the visual world, then develops, refines and composes the artwork into finished spreads.
He is open about using AI, welcoming it as another tool for bringing imagined scenes into rich visible form.
The creative decisions that shape each page and each story beat are his. At their heart, these are human stories.
Historical photograph
The Kindly Darkness is inspired by an infamous piece of Australian history. Like most stories, its warped retelling is shaped by its teller. Through research and writing, sketching, storyboarding and many, many drafts, Timothy crafts these stories by hand and mind.
AI-assisted interpretation
Generative AI plays a meaningful role in producing the images, alongside drawing and digital editing. Timothy directs the visual world, then develops, refines and composes the artwork into finished spreads.
He is open about using AI, welcoming it as another tool for bringing imagined scenes into rich visible form.
The creative decisions that shape each page and each story beat are his. At their heart, these are human stories.
