Jett Yates

I am a professional artist and character designer from Lexington, Ky that enjoys illustrating cryptids, dragons, monsters and the like. I love the stories and first-hand experiences of those who have encountered cryptids, as well as visiting the areas and learning of these creatures first hand. I've explored the Mothman nests in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, eaten next to little green men in Roswell, New Mexico, visited Sarah Good's gravesite in Salem, Massachusetts, gone looking for the Cumberland dragon in my home state of Kentucky, and explored many other well-known magical places! I use primarily watercolour, ink and gouache in my work, attempting to create fun or scary imaginings of these creatures while sticking close to their original folklore depictions. My favourite cryptid is, of course, the Cumberland Dragon, but the Lufferlang is a close second.

She Has Been To The Places

Every location in that paragraph is already in this index. Point Pleasant has the statue, the museum and the TNT area. Roswell has the UFO Museum. Salem has the Witch Trials Memorial and Proctor's Ledge, where the hangings actually happened.

She went to all of them and then drew what they are about. That is a different process from working off a photograph, and you can see it in the work — the creatures are recognisable as themselves rather than as somebody's redesign, which is exactly what she says she is going for.

The Lufferlang

Naming the Cumberland Dragon first is fair enough for a Kentuckian. Putting the Lufferlang second is the tell.

It is a fearsome critter out of the same lumberjack tradition as the squonk — a beast with a leg at each corner that can only turn in a circle, so the approved defence is to stand still and let it go past. It is not on anybody's list of famous cryptids. Knowing it is second-favourite is knowing the whole field.

Where To Find The Work

Instagram, and her own summary of where else: anywhere campfire stories can be told.