A.C. Esguerra

"Duelists", colored pencil, for Nucleus Portland's annual coaster art show, Salut 11. seventh year participating!! really grateful. i look forward to this show annually as an opportunity to test out different media and/or themes that capture my interest in the moment, but that i might not have taken to a "finish" otherwise. so thanks again (x7) for having me @nucleusportland @drinkanddrawsociety ! . i'll post the rest of my coasters over the next few weeks. enjoy these confections, and look out for the show opening on June 7th. en garde 🎀⚔️💐🖼️ . . . #coasterart #coasterartshow #salut11 #nucleusportland #illustration

We’re thrilled to have artist & writer @blueludebar join us at this year’s fifth annual Q CON 2026! A.C. Esguerra makes dark, intricate, and theatrical comics about queer love and resistance in far-off and familiar worlds. They created EIGHTY DAYS, a YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens pick and GLAAD Award nominee! We’re beyond excited to have them with us, alongside all of our wonderful guests at Q CON 2026 for an exciting day of comics, cosplay, panels, and more! Tickets are free and available now! GET YOURS TODAY: link in bio and stories Details: Sat 6/20 | 11 am - 6 pm | Fiesta Hall, Plummer Park 7377 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood #happypride #lgbtqia #qcon #comics #prismcomics

watercolor commission for Anguiculus 💙🖤 speaking of which...commissions are once again OPEN. link to the info and form where you'd expect it to be (in my 🅱️👁️0️⃣). . i debated on whether to reopen to comms again so soon...but i had a great time with every request last round (thank you again, commissioners)! and i could certainly use the income. freelance illustration is my bread and butter at this point in time. 🍞🔏 . i'll keep the form open for the next couple weeks or until i think the workload's getting too heavy, whichever comes first. please do request away and/or share if you are so inclined. thank you for your eyeballs, thank you for your care. . . . #watercolorillustration #watercolorcommission #illustration #comicart #characterart

"what keeps me together". / private watercolor commission (patron-level) for which the request was a box of various patterned washi tapes! of course i had a lot of fun with it. some of these are real rolls from my/my partner's collection, but the rest i made up. . washi tape is great, isn't it? adheres without damaging surfaces most of the time. sticks well yet can be fairly easily removed or repositioned. and used in journaling, can bring either an accent of liveliness or touch of subtle texture to a planner page. as i worked on this, i thought of specific things in my life that function in a similarly light, easy and soothing way, but whose bond also yields surprising strength and resilience. we gotta appreciate and make use of that wherever we can find it, in times like this. no joy too small to not take for granted. . . . #stationerycommunity #washitapeaddict #washitapelove #washitapeart #watercolor

DISCOORDINATE 🎀🖤🎸 i collected the best of my fountain pen ink studies of Lolita, EGL and punk clothing from the past few years into 32 pages. also tried something new with this sketchzine and incorporated an unhinged 2,359-word essay about alternative clothing worn with intent as a catalyst for self-liberation. it was a joy!! both to write it and then also play with type design and layering the text with the images. took me back to my graphic design + typesetting days in university. but having way more fun with the subject matter. . the zine spines are handsewn using various spools i found at Remainders thrift craft for 50 cents each. the thread turned out to be kind of shitty and terrible to sew with (shoutout to my partner for manually waxing the thread to help me out!!) but i also kind of love it for this particular piece hahaha. . anyway. hi. i am pretty burned out on trying to make various things work out in a world that's coming apart at the seams. i've been turning my energy towards the people around me, zinefests, cons, short comics and small passion projects, such as this. if you're still here, thank you. i keep having this thought lately that it is only people, being so lucky to find genuine people and to make art and writing that resonates for them, that makes any of this worthwhile. . . . #lolitafashion #lolitafashionstyle #lolitafashioncommunity #eglcommunity

not powerless. . . . . . #comics #indiecomics #comicart #traditionalart #EightyDays

waltz at world's end / Howl's Moving Castle watercolor painting commission (patron-level). thank you so much to the client for the trust and freedom on this, i had a blast (especially the clouds and feathers--surprising no one). monster howl all the way. 🖤 . . . 1 - finished painting (scanned) 2 - thumbnail sketch 3 - full size pencils on Arches watercolor paper 4 - color tests 5, 6 - first couple washes and detail closeups 7 - end of day (first wash) 8 - end of day (details and finish) 9, 10 - finished detail closeups . . . (also psssst if youve read this far i may or may not be opening commissions again in the near future (FIND ME IN THE FYOOCHA). stay tuned) . . . #howlsmovingcastlefanart #howlsmovingcastle #watercolorpainting #illustration #watercolor

here's some fave panels & pages from THE PRINCE, a 30-page comic i contributed to AMERICAN* FUJO* Literary Journal, published in 2025. drawn in a mix of traditional ink, pencil and collage. this story was so fun to work on because stylistically it goes back and forth between "sketchy cartoon drawn in 30 seconds" and "the very finest inkwork worthy of a king i can manage". i also scanned various textured papers and objects in for some of the backgrounds. 🕶️⛓️ the anthology examines the intersections of fandom, sexuality, gender and power from queer, often trans and feminist perspectives. my piece in particular is an autobio about the CAPTIVE PRINCE novels by C.S. Pacat and 🐝DSM / k/nk. if you are under 18, a family member or someone who'd be uncomfortable with this subject, feel free to skip this one and/or never talk to me about it lol. but i have zero regrets about making this. whatever embarrassment i feel is outweighed by my belief in the ethos of this anthology: that, for those in a position to safely do so, speaking frankly, critically and thoughtfully about fiction, queerness and sexuaIity can help keep us sharp and connected and human. especially in a time where censorship, bigotry and anti-intellectualism is so virulent. A*F* is also simply a great collection imho. the other contributors' essays and comics in here are SO whip-smart and funny, just top-notch analysis. easily one of my favorite anthologies i've ever been part of! thank you to Alexis Rippen and tshirt3000 for their insightful editing and curation. you can find the book on [ americanfujo.itch.io/ ] or if you know me irl i can hook you up with a physical copy! all right, please don't doxx me, back to the void i go 🕳️🏃🏽‍♂️ . A*F* cover illustration by Shalida, cover type design by Alexis Rippen, collage portions of my comic include text from CAPTIVE PRINCE by C.S. Pacat. all other art and writing in THE PRINCE is my own. . . . #comics #comicart #queercomics #indiecomics #anthology

cemetery drive // i've had a story (title is a secret) rattling around in my head about thrifting clothes out of cracks in Time, angst and creativity in a distant post-capitalist future, and the ripped but perhaps mendable bond between a reckless punk and the lolita-fashion seamstress who loves them. will i draw this comic? i don't know. but hey, i'll take one more reason to keep trying to get through this terrible year. so here's a little concept art from it, as a treat (for me and maybe for you). hope everyone is taking care out there. 🖤 . composition is based on a real sculpture on a tomb in Bern, Switzerland, the Memorial to Maria Magdalena Langhans (1775) by Johann August Nahl--there's a photo towards the end of the slides. look it up (BUT NOT USING AYE EYE OR CHATGEETEEPEE PLEASE) it's got a sad story behind it. in real life the sculpture's on the ground, so it looks like the figures are climbing out...pretty badass. i've modified it here to be more like an upright doorway, with symbols relevant to this character/story. . . #comicartist #comicart #graphicnovel #graphicnovelart #illustration #mcr #michaelmcromance

AT LONG LAST...the oracle card deck i worked on is here!!! i was hired to make these 45 card illustrations + the border design 🥀🃏🎭✨ the imagery and symbols come from a fantasy book trilogy, ROOK & ROSE by M.A. Carrick. the author came up with the card names and meanings, which refer to the mythology and culture of the Vraszenian peoples in the books. it was an honor to be trusted with interpreting their wordbuilding into visual form. the pleasure--and challenge--of illustrating a deck like this was making each card's composition unique and distinctive, but repeating enough motifs, symbols and themes throughout so they all feel part of a unified whole. of course, as a comic artist that's just the sort of visual narrative puzzle i live for haha. plus i grew up devouring fantasy books, so it was a blast getting to draw so many enchanting things from imagination! i was brought on as part of a team with other artists; they handled the card backs (Emiko Ogasawara), a different section of "Faces and Masks" cards (Avery Liell-Kok) and the box design and lettering (Alyc Helms and Marie Brennan). if any of you all are reading this--thanks for your hard work and congratulations again. the ROOK & ROSE Pattern Deck was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2023 and has now reached backers. it makes me happy to think of fans of the series enjoying the art, the feel of the cards in their hands and the sounds the deck makes when shuffled or fanned out. i hope people have a lot of fun reading fortunes and playing games with these. soooo much work went into this years-long project. too much to get into here. but i've included just few snapshots of my process (and my assistant/model) in the photos. feel free to ask me any questions, too. enjoy!!! also PSSSST for any collectors in the house: my art dealer @athenaeumcomicart has the original ink work for this deck available on the website. go bug Sean if you're interested ✒️🖤 "may you see the face...and not the mask" #oracledeck #tarotdeck #oraclecards #tarotart #cardillustration #illustration #traditionalart #traditionalartist #rookandrosetrilogy #fantasybook #sffbooks

gotta catch 'em all (on paper). here's 20 snippets of memories from my trip to Japan this past summer. grouped by category: food, fashion, plant, animal, bug and Sergio @insecuretrash lol. 🍰👠🍃🐈‍⬛🐛🚲 plus a little behind the scenes of where i was while i made 'em. i wrote a more detailed essay about my process and how i liked using the Specimen Card sketchbook for @baumkuchenstudio back in July, but just now realized i forgot to post my art here, whoops. please enjoy. . . . #journaling #journalingcommunity #traveljournaling #watercolor #illustration

at summer's end 🍋💐 [*UPDATE (9/9/2025): that was fast, folks. i am closing commission slots for now, so i can give the current requests the care they deserve! thank you to everyone who filled out and/or shared the form. it's helped me out immensely. if i reopen my books in the future, i'll post here again. take care, all. 🖤] [original post:] my commission books are currently OPEN! the thing you would click to obtain more info is in the place you would expect to find that sort of thing. i'll also put it in my story lol. . this is the first time i've opened comms to the public since 2019. i used to do tons online and at conventions, but stopped when life got too crazy. 6 years and 2 published books later i've leveled up a lot (i think), so i hope to make great new character art for people! . some of my current fandom interests are: Arcane, Baldur's Gate 3, Beastars, Dungeon Meshi, Hades (1 or 2). gold star if you ask for those. but of course, many of my most enjoyable (and by far the most common) requests are the ones that let me draw and learn about people's original characters. . real talk for a second. like many who work in comics, illustration, animation and plenty of other creative arts, i'm in a precarious position + struggling to find enough work to keep doing what i do. i don't like to talk about it much...too many things are broken in the world. i know money and attention are in short supply. so to those who can spare any for my artwork, even if it's just spreading the word, i appreciate the hell out of you. thank you. . . . #commissionsareopen #supportartists #watercolorcommission #inkartist #comicartist #charactercommission #traditionalart