Rosewood Abbey

A Witch’s journey begins at Rosewood Abbey

As Rosewood Abbey enters the 21st century, our mission is to prepare witches with rigorous academic classes, an elite athletic program, and a progressive outlook to prioritize diversity and empathy to unite witches, faeries, and magical humans alike. Secreted away from humans on top of Kaaterskill Falls in Hunter, NY, the abbey offers both a safe place to learn and grow, and is located in close proximity to the educational and cultural amenities of New York City.

Founded by Witches

Rosewood Abbey was founded by twin sisters Violette and Hyacinth Rosewood after the Franciscan order vacated St. Mary’s Abbey after a mass demonic possession in 1870. While on a hike to Kaaterskill Falls, the twins found the decrepit ruins and decided to turn it into an all-witches preparatory school, with their first classes beginning in 1876. Rest assured, no demonic possessions have been reported since the twins took over!

Curriculum Majors

Occult History

Magical Biology, Botany, and Alchemy

Element Manipulation and Transformation

Occult Ethics and Political Science

Astrology/Astronomy

Art and Ancient Ritual

Magical Literature

Student Spotlight

Our newest student, sophomore Dawn Morrigan, is the daughter of Vivienne Morrigan, Rosewood Witches Council President and Rosewood Abbey Beltane Queen of 1976. Dawn recently discovered her magical powers and plans to major in Magical Biology, Botany, and Alchemy. She enjoys human activities such as fishing, Dungeons and Dragons, and chemistry in her hometown of Phoenicia, New York.

Summary

Fifteen-year-old Dawn has always known something was “off” about her, from her awkwardness, to the unexplained events that always seem to happen at THE WORST TIMES, to her lack of grace in the dating department. If only Dawn (or her Dad) knew what happened the night her Mom went missing in 1989, she might have some clue as to why she can talk to animals, make plants grow out of nowhere, and even bring creatures back to life from the brink of death. The answer to all of Dawn’s prayers seems to arrive in an invitation to attend a magical school for young witches at the top of Kaaterskill Falls, Rosewood Abbey.

Dawn is thrown into a world of AP Alchemy, high-society witch cliques, werewolves, and a mystery that connects missing girls of today to a catastrophic magical event that occurred when her mother disappeared. Dawn must join forces with a scrappy group of witches to save Rosewood Abbey, Ulster County, and herself from an overworldly entity hellbent on devouring the magic from witches and human girls alike.

Thesis Artist Statement

Rosewood Abbey is a Young Adult Mystery graphic novel that combines a gothic setting, magical girls, and the strength of young teenage women to triumph over obstacles. It’s the story of Dawn, a shy, curious, socially awkward 15-year-old with unexplained abilities who is invited to attend the titular secret magical school for girls in the Catskills. At the Abbey, Dawn becomes embroiled in the mystery of missing friends and classmates, including her new roommate Katie, ultimately fighting to save her friends, the school, and herself from a strange entity hellbent on consuming the magical powers of young women.

This project combines 19th-century art and late-1990s Japanese shoujo manga. The two marry well together and recall what I read as a teenager and still do well into my thirties: Jane Austen novels and Sailor Moon.Though fantastical, this comic is about teenage friendship and intimacy, and is influenced by my own experience living in a girls’ dormitory at an arts high school. Like Dawn, I was recovering from sexual assault while trying to figure out who I was. The girls I lived with were also dealing with their own struggles, from eating disorders to unstable home environments, and, like me, unhealthy relationships. Their support and our trust in each other helped us survive our hardships and grow to become successful women in our thirties. While a lot of us overcame our trauma, not everyone did. Most of what I see now in the media either overly sexualizes teen girls or portrays them as unattainably perfect. Rosewood Abbey is a more realistic portrayal of the teen girl experience, set in a magical, gothic world where readers can escape, feel safe, and be seen.

Rosewood Abbey was written for YA audiences, ages 12 -18, but it also appeals to anyone who identifies with, wants to be, or ever was a romantic teen girl.

How it was made!

This book draws on traditional drawing and digital painting techniques, as well as a horror/mystery storytelling lineage. I wrote the first version of the script and worked on page thumbnails in tandem, making sure that the page turns lined up with the imagery. I began to work on pencils. Starting in Procreate is hard for me, so I worked in graphite on paper to get the composition and page layouts down.

After some edits to the layouts and the script, I scanned the pencils into Procreate and began inking them. Even though I was trained in traditional painting and drawing techniques, comics require a different skill set, so I chose to go with more traditional comic-making techniques, flatting.

When the flats were done, I sent them out to my letterer, Jodie, who beautifully lettered my script onto the composition. When she was done, I was able to render the color fully and add final details to make the comic come to life!

The Heart and Soul of Rosewood Abbey

My first love is oil painting, and before I started creating Rosewood Abbey, the comic, I began painting my girls in the witch world in oil. My friends would model for me, and it would turn from artwork-making time to friendship-bonding sessions. Over time, they became the blueprints for my main characters, Dawn, Katie, Ami, Betsey, and Gwen. Female friendship is needed now more than ever.

I’m making this graphic novel horror story that centers around a group of teen girls who have to save their fellow classmates and friends from an entity hellbent on destroying them, which is a metaphor for the world right now. Rosewood Abbey is a sanctuary for readers to escape to, feel seen, and cared for. While my magical girls in the book have supernatural abilities, it is their humanity and compassion for each other and their community that save the world from evil.

A bit about me!

Alli Wolf is a painter, comics artist, and cat mom from Minnesota living and working in Brooklyn. She received her BFA from MICA in 2009 and her first MFA in painting from Brooklyn College in 2011. Alli began her painting career exhibiting at galleries in the Lower East Side, where she was part of the Artist Collective ConArtist, and continued to show in New York and Los Angeles galleries. She was an artist-in-residence at Bergen Kjøtt in Norway, where she explored traditional Norwegian folk tales and landscape painting in the mountains. Alli’s love of traditional painting and her day job as a hairdresser allowed her to study with Kate Hopkins at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and with her painting mentor, Natalia Fabia, in Rome. Her inspiration comes from a love of 19th-century narrative painting, shoujo manga, 90s romantic comedies, horror films, Jane Austen novels, and fairy tales.

Alli is currently working on her first graphic novel, Rosewood Abbey, a fairy tale about young witches, magic, the trials of adolescence, and the power of friendship. She continues to sneak away to paint and listen to romantasy books whenever she can.

Xoxo,

Alli 😀