Why I Started The Plague Doctor’s Apothecary

For the past ten years I’ve been a freelance digital sculptor for things such as cnc milled ornamental architecture, coins, jewelry, and collectibles. While I enjoy my professional work, I wanted to start building a creative world that was 100% my own. So a few years ago I came up with an idea to build a world around an original character that I’d designed back when I’d first started learning about digital sculpting. That character is the Plague Doctor. He’s a nightmarish looking character that originally began as a doctor treating victims of a strange illness, eventually becoming infected himself.

I spent a lot of time asking myself questions about the story of this character. Who is he? Was he good, bad, or somewhere in between. What was so different about this kind of plague? And would there be enough interesting things with it where I could build an entire world around it? It looks like the answer to the last question is hopefully, yes. My website answers most of the other questions but one of the most interesting twists in this journey so far was that even though the plague doctor is one of the important characters in the story, I decided to not make him the main character. That role belongs to Marek, his right hand man so to speak. Marek was the first patient that the doctor saved that came back from the “other side” with unique abilities. The creation of Marek has allowed me to kind of explore the plague doctor’s nightmarish world through the eyes of someone that I, and hoped anyone who reads it, can relate to more in a sense. In fact the actual story of the Plague Doctor’s Apothecary is told through the Journals of Marek.

Now that I had a very rough foundation of a story/world to build upon I wanted to start figuring out how I could incorporate both my 3d and 2d skills so that I could really bring the story to life. Collectibles and miniatures are popular but I wanted to expand my audience more, so I decided to also start adding jewelry and bas reliefs to the mix as well. My 2d drawing skills are a bit rusty but I’d eventually like to add stickers and designs that can be printed on notebooks, cups, clothing, etc. I don’t want the Plague Doctors Apothecary to just be something that you can read about or look at, I want it to be something that you can physically touch, hold, and display. Digital sculpting combined with 3d printing makes that possible.

At the end of the day, it boils down to this. I’m not a writer or even a 2d illustrator. I’m just a digital sculptor with an overwhelming passion to create a world that’s uniquely mine, and if you choose to, I’d like you to be a part of it as well.