iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 25/01/2026

Have fun, go ham. never hold yourself back from your artistic aspirations. who cares how long people look at panels

Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

Nome @nome.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

But I need folks to understand that if they can see themselves in Alex Pretti or Renee Good, and they haven't been able to see themselves in Philando Castille or Breonna Taylor? If it feels different, now? I need you to examine that. It's not an accusation. I'm glad you're here with us now.

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Ebony Elizabeth Thomas @ebonyteach.blacksky.app · 25/01/2026

I get the impulse to say "where were you all this time?" because I feel that way, too. It's frustrating because yes, historic and continuing harms... Organizers and activists I respect are asking us to say "Welcome to the fight." Of course, they're right. May the spirit of MN prevail everywhere.

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Margaret Killjoy @margaret.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Nuremberg trials for ICE is the moderate position

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 24/01/2026

Grateful for my freelance clients who allow me to draw catgirls professionally 😤

Cropped sketch from a larger illustration, depicting a Black catgirl sleepover party. Three characters are shown in this crop: two of them are braiding the third woman’s hair while she happily looks at her reflection in a handheld mirror. Parts of the environment and other characters are also visible

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iasmin omar ata | delta 🌟 @deltahead.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

WALLFLOWER, my 3rd graphic novel, is officially available at bookstores and online everywhere!! please enjoy this story full of dreams, flowers, and hope.

a photograph of WALLFLOWER, by iasmin omar ata, on a shelf with orange and white books nearby.

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

Yaso 🦋🌼 @orangeblossombitch.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Lil' Yafa crab 🍊🦀 Swimming around pinching colonizers 😝 #art #ocean

A blue-brownish crab with light blue dots amd a partial tatreez pattern from Yafa on its back. It is surrounded by a border of looped lines with seashells and starfish in the corners.

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

Bree Lundberg @breelundberg.com · 21/01/2026

Tough morning. Kona had her oncology appointment and is staying at the vet for more x-rays and tests before we can decide what we're going to do. Just tests alone are a couple thousand dollars so forgive me if I plug my shop a lot coming up. (I even have greyhound stickers!) shop.breelundberg.com

Two photos side by side of greyhound stickers. The first one is a sticker sheet with cute greyhounds in various funny poses and says "I heart greyhounds". The second photo is three individual stickers of greyhounds as cute characters wearing cozy outfits. One in a sweater, one with scarf, one in raincoat.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 21/01/2026

final art test for Cress & Petra while I wait for notes from the publisher on my pencils. (not final ofc, more tests will be conducted)

three textless comic panels drawn and painted in a somewhat loose, textural style. the limited color palette is moody and disquieted, using mostly subdued greens and dark blues with green-yellow accent lighting.

panel 1: two teenagers stand on a sidewalk in a residential neighborhood, having a tense conversation. it is snowing, and it is nighttime. light from a nearby window illuminates the characters.

panel 2: one of the characters, Cress, looks down with eyes closed and brows furrowed.

panel 3: seen from Cress’ eyes, looking down at their feet casting long, textured shadows on the sidewalk.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 21/01/2026

Have been very sick so far this year: with grief, with the continued plunge into my first big depressive episode in maybe a decade, also with a brutal post-birthday sinus infection (not cool!!!) but. I am so grateful for my loved ones showing up for me when I need it. truly the staminan x of life

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Mar Julia ➰〰️➰ @marjulia.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

just in case anyone wondered what was going on the background of my life, and people i value, trust, consider friends etc's lives, all last year.

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

Rascal News @rascal.news · 19/01/2026

Five creators who worked on Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast have spent the past year fighting a legal battle against Possum Creek Games and Steve Jackson Games. Neither the tabletop RPG nor their working relationships survived the fallout.

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Battle over Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast contracts leaves the book, relationships, torn apart

Creative collaborators clash with Jay Dragon and Steve Jackson Games over unfair treatment.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 26/11/2025

A illustration for The Baltimore Banner, about government rollbacks on protections for abused/neglected immigrant youth, and the fear, unease, and instability that those affected are experiencing.

Wide illustration of a silhouetted young woman facing towards her imagined future, represented by a series of vignettes: graduating college, buying a house with a partner, and starting a family. The vignettes are depicted in bright, soft greens and oranges, while the young woman in silhouette stands in a dark blue, textural space. A sharp divide sits between the young woman and her future.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 12/12/2025

a little sculpture-jar that I got back from the kiln this week!

photo of a ceramic sculpture-jar resembling a cute dog or bear creature with a little face and a knitted hat for a lid. the hat and face have been painted with underglazes, and a clear glaze has been applied on top.

photo of an unfired ceramic sculpture-jar at the greenware stage. the bowl of the jar has a cute face and the lid resembles a knitted hat. brown underglazes have been applied using the mishima technique

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 12/12/2025

a little sculpture-jar that I got back from the kiln this week!

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

Carina Taylor 🌻 @shecallsmecdawg.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Once again it’s the time when I post the stack of books I designed which were published within this calendar year. This was a year of many changes! Next year will look very different (full of manga lol), but as always I’m so grateful for every artists’ trust. I love making your books shine.

A colorful stack of 23 books of various sizes published by scholastic graphix, silver sprocket, bulgilhan, and self-pubbed authors.

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

Carina Taylor 🌻 @shecallsmecdawg.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

All this to say if YOU 🫵 are a small press (or individual artist) and want to hire me to make something beautiful as well as make your life easier please reach out. I can have very reasonable rates that work for your life. I can chat paper and color with your printer! I’ll help make cool things!!!

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

WOLFSKULLJACK @wolfskulljack.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

A heartfelt thank you to all who buy from independent artists, hire us, or even share our work or give words of encouragement. Even the most established of artists are feeling a decline in work and sales this year. Your support in all or any way is felt and appreciated amongst us! Thank you!!

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 12/12/2025

catastrophe teen and winner of the #1 worst backseat gamer award 🏆

limited color drawings of Marik, Yami Marik, and Namu Marik from yu-gi-oh

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binglin @binglin.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

we’re on season 3 of yugioh

drawings of simply colored yugioh characters: yugi, yami yugi, dark magician, kuriboh, kaiba, blue eyes white dragon, bakura and yami bakura, marik and yami marik (and namu marik)

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 11/12/2025

today has been a “recline on couch and draw YGO fanart” kind of day

A page of line sketches with gray tones, featuring five characters from YuGiOh and their respective Millennium Items: Yugi, Bakura, Marik, Ishizu, and Pegasus

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 10/12/2025

Knowledge and information should be free to all, and I’m always trying to weave that into my creative practice. Always happy to answer any artistic/creative/etc questions, either via email or on social media. If you’ve got any questions, feel free to reply here and I’ll write up my thoughts!

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 10/12/2025

troubled teens in possession of way too much dark magic (I adore them)

Line sketches of Bakura and Marik from Yu-Gi-Oh. Bakura looks moe in one drawing and is grinning malevolently in another. Marik is holding the millennium rod and also grinning malevolently. evil teens (tm)

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binglin @binglin.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

I like him

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

George @hannahtempler.com · 27/11/2025

beautifully said

screenshot from the linked/quoted article. text reads: Sherald's advice to young artists: "A lot of times when you don't know what you're going to make, it's not because you have some kind of block, it's just because you haven't lived out in the world long enough, and so, part of making good art is having experiences, so maybe get out of the studio and don't put the pressure on yourself to make something... If you're out and you're living in the world with your antennas up and you're looking at movies and you're reading and you're having conversations, that's part of art-making as well. It doesn't happen in a vacuum." Image credit: Amy Sherald. A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt). 2022. Tymure
Collection. © Amy Sherald.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 27/11/2025

My spouse and I have been watching through Yu-Gi-Oh for (more or less) the first time, and I’m struck by how much Pegasus looks exactly like this in every other shot

Image of a crude line drawing portrait of Maximillian Pegasus from Yu-Gi-Oh. His nose is very thin and long, his mouth is tiny, and his visible eye is comically proportioned. He looks relatively on-model, all things considered

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 26/11/2025

A illustration for The Baltimore Banner, about government rollbacks on protections for abused/neglected immigrant youth, and the fear, unease, and instability that those affected are experiencing.

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

Persephone Possum 🔞🇵🇸 @plaguingpossum.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Absolutely do buy books if you can. And there’s a lot of ways you can pay without money. You can promote or write about or share work. I did an art trade recently with an artist in Chile bc we didn’t have mutual payment options. Or you can share with the author what the work made you feel. Etc

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

Persephone Possum 🔞🇵🇸 @plaguingpossum.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Let’s be so for real about who the real thieves in creative industries are. It’s not someone pirating a damn pdf. It’s the fucking parasites scraping yr work for an LLM, it’s algo-brained ghouls at the highest levels of major media who killed art as a career so they could pocket your living

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Minnie’s mum @minniesmum.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Hooray we have a matcher who will match up to US$100 of donations. We can do this! 💕💕 like, share, donate if you can.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 19/11/2025

More thermal printer stickers 💫

Photo of my hand holding two small strips of thermal printer stickers. One design features shooting stars, the other features koroks from the Legend of Zelda game series

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 18/11/2025

Drew up a little sticker design and printed it on my thermal label printer! Baby.

photo of an illustrated sticker of a cute mushroom with a big booty. the word Baby is written on the mushroom’s cap. the mushroom has cute makeup on and has a tramp stamp in the shape of a heart

photo of my hand holding a roll of several thermal-printed stickers, each with the same baby butt mushroom as in the previous image

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Tatiana Trifan #FBLC @tatianatrifan.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

"Alice Wong, ‘luminary’ writer and disability rights activist, dies aged 51 Daughter of immigrants advocated for people with disabilities to have full autonomy over their lives" "Ho called her friend a “luminary of the disability justice movement” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

theguardian.com

Alice Wong, ‘luminary’ writer and disability rights activist, dies aged 51

Daughter of immigrants advocated for people with disabilities to have full autonomy over their lives

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 16/11/2025

Heartbroken to learn of Alice’s passing. I looked up to her immensely, and I was so grateful for her patience, grace, creativity, & insight as a collaborator. I will miss her fierce kindness & her sharp wit so very much. I drew this portrait of us in 2021 for CommunityAsHome. Rest in power, Alice.

Illustrated portrait of Alice Wong and Ashanti Fortson, surrounded by dreamy purple clouds and shooting stars.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 14/09/2025

Almost done with pencils… almost…!

Image of a sketch in light blue and black. A girl in a large coat twirls with her arms outstretched, sparkles around her.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 13/09/2025

Have fun at SPX, folks! Also vote for BALLAD FOR BLACK CASSANDRA in the ingatzes please

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Vron 🌻 @anuanew.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

I LOVE FLATTING COMICS!! if u need or know of someone who needs their pages flatted, hmu........i am flexible w/ rates : o ) here is my resume, a love letter (intro) to flatting via google slides full version of this presentation over at tinyurl.com/Vronflat !!

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Reposted by Ashanti Fortson

Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 11/09/2025

I crocheted a cute tote for myself this summer! Adapted from a pattern in Crochet Crush, by Molla Mills, with acrylic chain handles added. My new favorite bag! ☀️

Photo of Ashanti holding up a crocheted tote bag with acrylic chain handles and a white-and-yellow geometric colorwork design. The pattern is by Molla Mills, adapted slightly by Ashanti for this bag.

Photo of Ashanti wearing the same crocheted bag over their shoulder.

Overhead photo of the same crocheted tote bag lying flat on a table.

Detail photo of the stitching and the acrylic chain handles. One handle is yellow and the other is white, to match the colors of the bag.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 11/09/2025

I crocheted a cute tote for myself this summer! Adapted from a pattern in Crochet Crush, by Molla Mills, with acrylic chain handles added. My new favorite bag! ☀️

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Val K. Wise @valkwise.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

reading black flame had me shaking and crying only a quarter of the way in. i was being given something i couldn’t even begin to articulate my need for until it was in front of me. i can’t recommend it enough.

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Ritesh! @riteshwriter.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Being informed that DC has cancelled Gretchen Felker-Martin's work to appease the whiners of the world. Should be a reminder for folks as to what Corporate IP comics actually are, because ppl forget and act like these enterprises are progressive to justify their consumption.

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 10/09/2025

Breaking news: local bug Ashanti enjoying Silksong greatly

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 09/09/2025

Finished my mom's birthday basket, complete with a mother-of-pearl button to secure the hinged lid. Love how it came out and so does she 🥰

Photo of a handmade basket with a hinged lid and button loop. The basket is crocheted from undyed raffia and a soft gray linen cord, around a raffia core. The button on the front is flower-shaped and made of mother-of-pearl.

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