Scenes of
South Lake

You know those kids who doodle all over their schoolwork?

Most of them grow out of it. A lucky few grow into it.

Thomas Peterson—Clermont artist, storyteller, and self-described “accidental professional”—is one of the lucky ones.

Tom’s first-grade notebooks were filled with superheroes. His mom encouraged him every step of the way. By high school, he was designing characters for Villains and Vigilantes, a classic role-playing game. In college, he created a stipple-style piece his professor loved so much, it hung on campus walls for years.

Like many creatives, Tom’s imagination didn’t stop with one outlet. He wrote screenplays, acted in films, and—true to his Disney devotion—performed as the Bellhop at The Tower of Terror (search #BellhopTom for a throwback). He played guitar, wrote songs, and even got paid to play video games professionally. For years, he’s also been a paid Dungeon Master, crafting Dungeons & Dragons adventures for players who can’t get enough.

But through all of it, drawing was his first love. That is, until a tremor in his right hand made fine lines nearly impossible.

“I couldn’t draw anymore,” he says. “Not the way I wanted to.” For nearly a decade, that tremor forced him to put down his pens. Then came the breakthrough. “The iPad Pro saved me. With it, I could overcome the tremor—and from there I never stopped.”

Once he rediscovered drawing, Tom began posting his digital work on Facebook. The response was immediate. His first commissioned job—illustrating characters for a role-playing book—led to another when a different RPG publisher saw the work and reached out. Do you take commissions? they asked.

That was the moment his career shifted.

“I describe myself as an accidental artist. I never set out to become a professional—it just kind of happened. Then things started to snowball. My art is in three books right now, and I’m working on a fourth.”

His style spans superheroes, villains, aliens, sci-fi, and horror. He’s created for Prowlers and Paragons, Supers Red, and other role-playing games. Every new project feels like another story waiting to be told.

Ask him to pick a favorite type of art, and you might expect a quick answer. Instead, he smiles.

“I like a good story—anything that takes me away. I love finding a great writer. Animation, comic books, of course. My brain is always working. I’ll get an idea, write it down, then another idea pops up… I have a bunch of unfinished projects out there. The commissions always come first, though. I feel obligated to finish those.”

His creative rhythm is unconventional. He wakes up around 10 a.m., spends the day working on commissions, then recharges with a nap. But his most productive hours come late—midnight to 3 a.m., when the rest of the house is quiet and the ideas flow.

And is he having fun? Absolutely.

“Fun is my life philosophy, my primary goal. Sure, I have obligations—feeding my family, providing for my wife and two kids—but what drives me is an abundance of love. I work and create from that place.”

From a superhero-obsessed first grader to Disney’s Tower of Terror, from a professional gamer to a sought-after fantasy illustrator, Tom’s career has been anything but linear. But if there’s one through line, it’s this: he’s been creating worlds—on paper, on stage, and in the minds of his audiences—for as long as he can remember.

And in his own world, the one he shares with his family in Clermont, there’s always another adventure waiting to be drawn.