Illustrating - To The Hilt, To the Bone

9 X 11” India and Gel Ink Illustration on Paper, November 16, 2025 “To the Hilt, To the Bone” by Kai Briscoe

Behind the Art

As a practice, my drawing pad and iPad go everywhere with me, and any down time I have, I will usually sketch on something. It’s either storyboarding for MTB, or it’s a full ink illustration. I haven’t been making as much art as I did earlier this year or in recent years because of lifestyle changes, so last week I set the intention to draw and complete something. Anything! I didn’t care what, I just needed to draw, damn it!

I wanted to channel some things I had been feeling recently, including some negative emotions. This autumn has gotten off to a rocky start: lost friendships, got my heart broken by my on-and-off again ex-boyfriend in a rather jarring manner. Then, I witnessed a coworker go through a tough time before leaving unexpectedly. It all created this deep skepticism within me. I heard that little voice say “trust no one”.

Getting Started

There wasn’t really a plan, I just knew I wanted to draw something that felt intimate to me. I started drawing her jaw and cheek and the maiden’s face. Then I built out the curve and slope of her shoulders, taking time to decide where her hair should fall.

I sketched her eyes shut, but then scribbled over that and drew the blood-stained bandage over her eyes. I finally had direction for this piece: pain, betrayal. The rest started to flow more naturally, a rose close to the hear, an Irish claymore held loosely in her grasp, but still defensively, still protective. I gave her a long medieval-inspired gown, wings like those you see on cemetery angels, and wrote the words “veritas” and “ceartas” at the bottom, inverse and bleeding into each other - both are words that when translated, mean ‘truth’.

The maiden is surrounded by stalagmites and two giant, angry humanoid creatures. Directly above her is a bright, big full moon.

The “Meaning” (If There Is One)

I’m unsure if it is any of my business as an artist to explain what my art means to me. I think that is probably better saved for the people observing it. To me, it seems to be about self-preservation. She appears wounded but still mostly alright. The moon could be representative of some powerful, protective figure meant to keep her safe. Maybe its’ light illuminates her path and reveals something to her. Maybe we wouldn’t be able to see the ‘monsters’ behind her if not for the moon’s light. The moon has often been used to symbolize intuition and divine feminine energy. Altogether, it could be that the maiden was hurt and has learned to stay guarded, thanks to her intuition. Even though she is blinded, she senses something nearby means to harm her.

As far as the name goes, “To the Hilt, To the Bone” just sort of popped into my head when I was researching sword anatomy and types. I often find myself thinking in partial stanzas or lyrics, and I “heard” that phrase in my head repeatedly while working on it. It just made sense so I went with it.

Scrying and Spell Work

Most of my newer art has special words or even names hidden within. Some words are more obvious than others. The most common word you will see in my illustrations is the Latin word for truth “veritas”. I put that shit on everything. This pieces has two words that are each in different dead languages that mean the same thing. The words are flipped. Truth in Latin faces truth in Irish - the truth faces itself.

I’m not entirely sure why I did this. I guess I thought it looked cool.

It could be interpreted as one of my favorite Latin idioms: solve et coagula, or “as above, so below”. Maybe with that in mind, the message is that the truth will always be the truth, no matter how it gets flipped around or misconstrued.

Conclusion

This is one of my favorite pieces ( I say that about everything I make, so maybe don’t trust my opinion on this) for a few different reasons. For one, the line work was done with very fine Prismacolor pens and not my typical Sharpie S Gels. It appears “higher resolution” because of this, and is softer yet more detailed due to the different fine pens used.

It also just feels very emotional to me. A lot of my art depicts more aggressive energy: anger, vengeance, courage and lust, so to see something like this has a different sort of heaviness attached.

I also just enjoy the Catholic/ renaissance/gothic inspirations in this piece.

The original is being sold to a dear friend, and prints of “To the Hilt, to the Bone” will be available when this site’s shop is live.