Collette C. Curran is a concept artist and character designer who designs and illustrates for video games, clothing, children’s animation, and pinball machines. Born and raised in Southern California, she is a graduate of Concept Design Academy in Pasadena.

For this month’s Zócalo Sketchbook, Curran has done what any good Hollywood biopic will do for its subjects—have them portrayed by maximally attractive and charismatic actors. “Though I admire the precision of scientific illustration that studies our earthly flora and fauna, I can’t help but to instill a little of the fantastic into my own designs,” she tells Zócalo. To that end she brushes just a touch of movie magic onto her menagerie to make the familiar feel new and strange. Or, as Curran says, maybe it’s just making what is already wonderful and strange even stranger.