Below are examples of my work. I love mixed media, digital watercolor, pencil sketches, and surprise combinations of colors and textures.

All work is digital, created in Procreate, usually first as an analog sketch.

NO AI USE of any kind at any step in the process.

I’m Laraine (Alisa) Herring, author, illustrator, and retired professor of creative writing and psychology.

My work incorporates whimsy, existential angst, anxieties, and hauntings to explore what it means to be human. My primary subjects are animals— cats and bunnies are my favorites! I returned to drawing after a forty-year hiatus in 2017 following a colon cancer diagnosis.

My first illustrated book, The Grief Forest: a book about what we don’t talk about, was released in 2021 from White River Press. The second book in the series, The Grief Carnival: a book about what we don’t talk about, was released in 2026.

I am interested in the intersection of art and healing, especially how art can help us navigate grief.

All artwork on this site is © Laraine Herring, lalisa art.

No downloads or reproductions or feeding into AI or any other kind of theft is allowed.

Excuse the ridiculous amount of signatures and watermarks and grids across the work.

It may not be enough, but it is an effort to fight back against art theft by AI.