COLE PHOENIX SKAGGS
I've been drawing forever. I was super lucky to have a very arts-based education, going all the way back to preschool. Before that, I was an office supplies kid: doodling with pens and pencils, copying my dad's handwriting, and playing with my mom's watercolors. I started young and never stopped.
For creative kids, school & work isn't always the easiest thing. Drawing brings me a lot of calm, a lot of peace. If I don't draw for a couple days, I start getting really crazy. It's always been a kind of therapy, an outlet that helps me process and get through it.
I try to mostly do intuitive drawing, so it just flows right out of my hand. It's not about copying a photograph. It's about understanding the relationships between all the elements, the water, the grass, the trees, and how they all come together, and internalizing that into muscle memory, so I understand how the landscape actually works.
I hope it brings beauty and calm into your life. I hope it reminds you that nature is long lasting, that time extends so much beyond our time here, and that we are a part of it.
See all my original drawings → · Browse by subject →
Natural History
The stories behind the drawings: how trees grow, how rivers move, what beavers build.
Read SXF VOL. on Substack → Extra! Extra! Fancy! Wood News →Further Reading for Wood Lovers
The Hidden Life of Trees — Peter Wohlleben
The Overstory — Richard Powers
The Intimacy of Paper — Jonathan Senchyne
Eager: The Secret Life of Beavers — Ben Goldfarb
The Giving Tree — Shel Silverstein
Movies Every Wood Lover Needs to See
Hoppers (2026)
Hundreds of Beavers (2024)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Clear Day Thunder: Rescuing the American Chestnut
The Beaver Believers (2018)
Microcosmos (1996)
Use My Work
I’ve made every drawing in my Archive available as a choose-your-payment license — download it, print it, remix it, get it tattooed, put it on your album cover or your hoodie. Personal or commercial, no permission needed — just credit Super Extra Fancy (it all runs on Creative Commons). No fee should stifle your creativity: choose your payment — whatever your project can afford. And if you get my work tatted, PLEASE SEND ME A PHOTO !!!
Explore the Archive →Big Projects, Murals & Custom Drawings
Want something drawn just for you? That's the Custom Artwork listing — pick a size, tell me what you want, and I'll draw it. No email needed.
Order Custom Artwork →Have a question, a wall, or a big project in mind? Drop me a line — I read every one.
As Featured In
415 Zine · Issue 10 — a beautiful writeup on my work. Grab a print copy from them.
Get Issue 10 →My Supplies
The exact tools behind every Super Extra Fancy drawing — and where I get them.
Toned Tan Mixed Media
Strathmore 400 Toned Tan Mixed Media, 184 lb — heavyweight, perfect for wet media and color inks.
About this paper →
Toned Tan Sketch
Strathmore 400 Toned Tan Sketch, 80 lb — lighter, and it comes in a 42″ × 10 yd roll for the big pieces.
Blick: 9×12 · 18×24 · 42″ roll
About this paper →
My go-to shops: JetPens · Blick · TALAS
— and to hang it all —
Hanging Frames
Inexpensive magnetic wood poster hangers — how I hang my drawings.
Get them on Amazon →My Playlist
The SUPER EXTRA FANCY PLAYLIST — 30 hours of vibey hip-hop, instrumental, jazz & pop. Leave it bumpin’ while you draw.
Open on Spotify →CV & Timeline
Cole Phoenix Skaggs · Super Extra Fancy · San Francisco, CA
San Francisco–born artist making original ink drawings of wood grain, trees and the natural world. Every original is stamped and numbered, more than 8,600 since 2021, alongside solo shows, murals and an ongoing wall at Camino Alto. Before going full time in 2025, he spent a decade designing and building gardens, and started Super Extra Fancy LLC in 2019 while still working. Newest first.
2026
1,250+ drawings so far
KNOWNsf at Mini Bar, San Francisco · Oct 22, 2026 – Jan 10, 2027
August 2026
Exterior, Oak St at Fillmore St, San Francisco · about 15 × 20 ft, painted in one day · July
Feature on the work in Issue 10, and a group show with KNOWNsf at Mini Bar. Sold out; work restocked mid-show.
An 18 × 24" bouquet inspired by the Victorian language of flowers.
San Francisco · opened April 10, 2026, with an artist talk and a SOMA Nights evening
Interior, Sebastopol, CA · floor to ceiling in a double-height room, about 20 ft tall · March
2025
1,435 drawingsAfter a decade of designing and building gardens, the drawing practice became the full-time work.
Original drawings on the wall at 1715 Union St, San Francisco · since December 2025
A 50 × 72" drawing of drawings, from abstract wood grain to planks, trees and beavers.
A public park designed independently, from first sketches to construction plans, 2024–25.
50 × 72", the first milestone drawing with color.
2024
1,325 drawings
2512 Mission St, San Francisco · a month-long show of 30 works, November 2024, with an opening reception on November 6 and a pop-up night as part of Touch Grass
A life-size 45 × 72" wooden rocking chair.
San Francisco (now Decentered Arts) · February 16, 2024, with an artist talk and painting demo
2023
1,645 drawings
Interior mural and solo show at a hardware shop and maker space, Mission District, San Francisco · about 16 × 19 ft · September
50 × 72"
2022
1,016 drawings
50 × 50"
2021
1,784 drawings
Started stamping and numbering each original. 1,784 in the first year, drawn alongside a full-time design job.
2021–2025 · many private gardens, specializing in high-end, food-forward landscapes and backyard farms.
2019
Registered in California, January 2019, while working full time in landscape design.
2018–2020
Designed and built The Courtyard @ The Center, a public tea garden courtyard at 548 Fillmore St, San Francisco, for Buena Vista Builders (2020).
2015–2019
Three design-build private gardens in San Francisco and Palo Alto, plus renovation projects at the San Francisco Botanical Garden.
2016
Five-year professional degree.
2013–2014
San Francisco · hand-drawn perspectives, plans and models.
2011
Graduated from Lowell, San Francisco, with the art award given to one graduating senior each year.
2010
41st Annual High School Design Competition, Architectural Foundation of San Francisco
Visual Arts (Design), for a bike-drawn food cart. Also a Scholastic award in Architecture and a prize scholarship to the CCA Pre-College program.
Early years
San Francisco public schools. Art through the Alvarado School Arts Workshop; a Bronze Key from the Scholastic Art Awards in 1st grade, with the artwork shown at the de Young Museum.