iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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

this isn’t practical advice because I don’t know you. but I think no matter what, you should try to have fun and make work you are proud to call yours. this is also the advice I give myself.

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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

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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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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 22/01/2026

Really beautiful work, such a great balance of colors!!

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

Sending you much love, Bree 💜

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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

Aww thank you so much, that is genuinely so nice to hear! ;o; With how long I’ve been working on this book, it often feels like it only exists in my mind and CSP files 😂 so I truly appreciate the hype, thank you!! 💖

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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

[bigbang voice] wow! fantastic baby

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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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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 20/01/2026

These images are so healing and precious! Thank you for posting them 🐦

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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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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 · 19/12/2025

my vocal stim wrapped goes to the grave with me

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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 · 16/12/2025

ngl using a vtuber for any video-based book promo stuff is extremely big-brained, I might have to borrow that idea when the time comes

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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 13/12/2025

saving this image to my HEART!!!

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

just finished the Battle City arc and wow…Marik sweetie…I’m so happy……. ;o; now, heed my fancomic idea: Yugi invites Marik to an emo/punk concert. Duke Devlin’s band is opening and they’re incredibly mediocre. Odion goes with them as a chaperone (and actually loves the music). hijinks ensue

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

CONGRATS!!!!!! new boy special boy…..

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

*points to world’s most obnoxious guy* my boy. my baby boy

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

he’s extremely fun to draw with curly hair!! love this disaster teen

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

someone really needs to tuck him into bed…and probably give him an electrolyte drink lol

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

mar told me that you’ve also been watching/rewatching YGO??? if so we should chat about it sometime ;o;

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

they’re so funny… they’re so silly (Extremely Serious And Cool)

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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

slowly putting together a silly Marik/Bakura playlist *and* talking about it on main, because I've achieved spiritual and emotional freedom from the notion of cringe 😤

screenshot of five songs in a spotify playlist with title omitted. the songs are: 1) Problem by Natalia Kills, 2) This Hell by Rina Sawayama, 3) When I Grow Up by The Pussycat Dolls, 4) Toxic by Britney Spears, and 5) My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark by Fall Out Boy

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

Thanks Jessi!! I'm simply not built to draw all that spiky hair, I can't do it 😂

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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

they get into such shenanigans that Ishizu has to come pick them up so that they don’t get placed into international juvy (I can’t stop thinking about this, thanks Gale 😭)

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

they’re about to get banned from every country and every roadside rest stop on earth and I’ll be cheering them on all the way 😤

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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

Bakura is YGO’s resident white haired anime boy, he’s gotta have cute fluffy hair!!! also Gale HELP, I’ve got an incredibly bad case of “about to legally adopt Marik Ishtar, world’s worst teenager and backseat gamer extraordinaire”

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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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Ashanti Fortson @ashantifortson.com · 28/11/2025

Oh that’s so funny, I really love that. My spouse and I are watching the dub right now (its own kind of comedy) so we’re being blessed by Pegasus drinking his very special “grape juice” out of his uhhh “juice glass”

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