Made this piece in a fit of creative energy leading up to releasing my first art toy into the world.
I’ve since sold about 8…almost none of my personal (non web3) friends have even acknowledged it. struggling between crushing disappointment and the overwhelming pride and gratitude I have for being able to spend over a year working up to this point. All the skills I’ve gained along the way, and the trajectory it’s set me on.
Silver linings I guess…or maybe more accurately, reframing. It’s not all bad, and it’s probably way better than I let myself realize. I think personal lows, and how you choose to work through them is what makes people great. I want to be great.
Taking this one in stride, but also I’ll be posting Cucuy’s every day until the last one finds a loving home.
#procreate #digitalart #elcucuy #cucuy #comics
All parts of the process of progress.
Classes start again this Monday - character design and Environment design and sketching. Cant wait to take all these skills and apply them to the world of Maquinas Muerte and the Slimes.
I feel like finally, after 6 years of pushing with my whole being to try and stay relevant or bask in the limelight, I am truly finally content to toil in private and share that process here, both as a record, but also as a genuine drive to start bringing people in more and more often.
What I’m making is for me, but I think that’s exactly why it’s going to be for others too. Ya know?
JUNIOR #08
I’ve been writing in a fever pitch the last few months. Ideas keep flowing in images and words. I’ve been building the hidden parts of this iceberg for so long it’s beginning to make fitting all the puzzle pieces together effortless.
The characters will exist in a world very similar to ours. And the pull of “good” vs “evil” will have a very grounded persona and mechanic.
I’ve been obsessed with the idea of new religion (Abrahamic/christian) contrasted against old mythologies (indigenous practices involving a reverence of earth and the observable universe).
I’ve also been obsessed with the concept of entropy.
I’ve imagined a system that involves a transfer of power from new to old and back, modeled around the earths water cycles. The antagonist being the ones in between (living humans) attempting to stop the natural life cycle and gain permanence. Effectively influencing a shift toward entropy. And a perfect analogy for the powers that be today.
But the classic bait and switch revolves around putting Old and New religions against one another, allowing for a massive cast of incredible characters drawing from archaic, esoteric and lost mythologies.
Anyway, these stories will take years to illustrate so maybe one of those future fans will go back through my Instagram and find this post and solve the whole thing early. A guy can dream.
This is Junior, son of Michael, accompanied by two baby seraphim’s. The stories write themselves.
Commission for the @solana main X account.
—
It’s been an interesting 5 years in this space (Niche Web3 digital artist). I’m never really quite sure if it made me happier.
If it gave me anything, it was my genuine love of craft. Without experiencing the hunger games style fight for attention just to sell some art, I’d never have decided to take it so damn serious. If I hadn’t decided to take it so seriously, I wouldn’t be constantly seeking to be in spaces with artists much more experienced than myself. Learning and practicing every day.
It’s also interesting to watch the space slowly move on from their love of art and artists - falling more deeply in love with AI. Trading. Betting. Memes. ETF’s and government regulation.
I’m glad I got to have my life changed forever by this strange blip in digital art.
But I’m also glad I came out the other side more in love with my craft than I ever was before.
Grateful to the @solana foundation for using their platform to support real life artists. This piece describes the feeling of exhaustion at needing to balance so much just to stay relevant and therefore paid, and therefore working - which is all illustrators really want.
To make art, and to live
Analog anomaly
🔵🚹🔵
Artwork for my friend @byartifex - been a pleasure watching him find his way in an artistic medium absolutely flooded with talented people. I think he’s found a voice all his own though. Proud to see his growth over the years.
Sketchbook Scans
11.14.25 - 03.03.26
At the end of 2024 I committed to having a physical drawing practice. It’s done a lot to alter my perception and appreciation of my art. Realizing that most of the time I don’t need reference or perfection to achieve something the makes me smile at the page. The low stakes nature of filling a sketchbook means that I can fuck it up, then decide to keep going and incorporate the mess, or start over. Either option whittling away at the disease of perfection that digital drawing tools tend to infect me with.
These are just a few of the hundreds (thousands?) of pages I’ve filled since then. Any favorites?
#sketchbook #sketch #moleskine
BRUTUS - Axio Space Marine
Created as the prize for the 1st place winner of a raffle that raised 100 SOL ($13k at the time) for @somos_axolotl - in collaboration with @claynosaurz .
For the emperor. For Axolotls. We are legion.
#spacemarine #40k #gamesworkshop
Commission for Solflare @lifeatsolflare
2025
I had this vision of an alien astronaut (Luchador, of course) blinking through the universe, collecting and harvesting small suns. I’d been obsessing over KJG (and Superani artists in general) at the time and felt like I really just NEEDED to draw some kind of dark sci-fi floating cosmonaut character. I’d also gotten pretty good at fish from imagination after taking Peter Han’s class last year so…the setting became some kind of rift between the fabric of reality found only via a portal at the bottom of a very important lake. Iykyk (you prolly don’t).
Zeke - Brother to Rabbit. Loyal to the soil. Smells like two-stroke, Monster and Altoids. Gentle with animals. Over zealous when defending his family (he’s working on his anger). Never ate a booger.
I’ve been working on this series for 4+ years. Or. I’ve been working on this series for 30+ years. I really couldn’t tell you. I never intended to write about MY childhood. But I always wanted to create something that felt genuine and true to me…Many such cases I’m sure.
The creation of this series has taken me from Tucson > LA > Greenland > Spain > Portugal > Singapore > CDMX (a lot). But one place I don’t revisit often is the place I grew up. I still feel tension and weight and shame when I go back. I also feel a love and warmth and acceptance that I don’t anywhere else. The desert is as generous as it is greedy.
I went to a book reading last night by an author who grew up in Tombstone (and hated it). It was raw and razor sharp. Critical of the fabric, and critical of the resulting human (if only for trusting the fabric). It was archive, cartography and confession. It was beautiful.
It made me feel like I have something to talk about. And a place I should return to. With words and pictures and experience and maturity.
I’ve been working on writing this comic for the last few months. What will hopefully become my first attempt at a one-shot. The story revolves around Rabbit and her brother Zeke, their childhood, an axolotl-piloted mecha and humanoid fighting roosters.
I won’t pretend I wasn’t heavily influenced by Taiyo Matsumoto and his characters Black and White. Those two little mongrels remind me so much of my life growing up. We were in the streets way more than at home or in school. We were building dirt jumps for our bikes and lighting stuff on fire. Rabbit in particular takes a lot of personality traits from my own sister, and her brother Zeke, takes cues from my best friend since 1st grade.
Together (with these characters) I hope to untangle some thoughts I have about growing up the way we did. Maybe address some lingering shame and ultimately I’d hope to do the same for someone else.
Lmk if you read what I write and whether or not I should write more 🫶🏼
