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James Ashe

@jamesashestudio.com
638 followers 977 following 409 posts

I’m an autistic Irish Illustrator working in children’s publishing. Member of Illustrators North Rep’d by Luddington Creative Portfolio @ jamesashestudio.com Work enquiries to hello@halfcut.net

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Reposted by James Ashe
Haus of Decline @hausofdecline.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Ed Sheeran saying "I'm in love with the shape of you" while looking at a map of Greater Israel
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 12/09/2026
Top 10 Anime Betrayals for Ulster unionism.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 10/09/2026
Mako Reactor Cores and Data Centres are the same thing. I stand with Barret Wallace. #ffvii
Screenshot of Cloud standing outside the Shinra HQ in FFVII Remake
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 27/01/2026
The second part of my short illustrated graphic novel style story ‘The First Day I Never Forgot’, set to when I was a young child living with my family in a Loyalist estate in Belfast. Currently a work in progress, as I retell my earliest memory at the tail end of The Troubles. #illustration #comics
Comic illustration double spread page depicting a young boy in paddling pool and a soldier landing down in the garden.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 14/01/2026
I’m in the process of capturing one of my earliest memories among the blurriness of early childhood years in a Loyalist estate in Belfast at the tail end of The Troubles. A work in progress that is getting adapted into a short illustrated story. #kidlitart #kidlit #graphicnovel #comics
Graphic Novel Illustration featuring the Seymour Hill estate in Belfast. There is a a title that reads ‘The First Day I Never Forgot’. There is a colour scheme of red, white, and blue.A graphic novel spread featuring terraced houses, the Good Friday Agreement ‘your decision’ poster, and a younger 3 year old James getting his height measured by his mum.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 21/07/2026
Preparing for the Ocarina of Time remake. Will Navi be just as annoying 28 years later? #zelda #ocarinaoftime #illustration #comics
Hand drawn illustration based on Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Featuring Navi trying to wake young Link from his bed and saying “CaN Hyrule's DesTiNY ReALLY dEPeND ON SUCH A
LAZY BOY?!?”
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 25/08/2026
‘Eki’ means train station, and ‘Konbini’ means convenience store. Both are pillars of modern Japanese city life. A work in progress. An illustrated zine inspired by the sights, sounds, and my own footsteps in Japan. Here is the first chapter, where we start off in Tokyo. Kyoto and Osaka to follow!
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 25/08/2026
‘Eki’ means train station, and ‘Konbini’ means convenience store. Both are pillars of modern Japanese city life. A work in progress. An illustrated zine inspired by the sights, sounds, and my own footsteps in Japan. Here is the first chapter, where we start off in Tokyo. Kyoto and Osaka to follow!
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Reposted by James Ashe
James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 21/08/2026
The busiest intersectional pedestrian crossing in the world in Shibuya, Tokyo. Also a spot for idiotic TikTok trends and an actual location you can visit in a game called Persona 5. Illustrated spread for my Japan zine. #japan #illustration #tokyo
Hand drawn illustration of Shibuya crossing in Tokyo. Featuring the crossing, central street and a character reading a book, and the Hachiko statue
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 21/08/2026
The busiest intersectional pedestrian crossing in the world in Shibuya, Tokyo. Also a spot for idiotic TikTok trends and an actual location you can visit in a game called Persona 5. Illustrated spread for my Japan zine. #japan #illustration #tokyo
Hand drawn illustration of Shibuya crossing in Tokyo. Featuring the crossing, central street and a character reading a book, and the Hachiko statue
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 11/08/2026
Day & Night in Tokyo. From exploring Tokyo National Museum at day and the madness of Don Quijote at night. Illustrations for my Japan zine. #illustration #japan #zine #tokyo
Illustration book spread featuring Tokyo National Museum, Imado-jinja Shrine, and Don Quijote
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 07/08/2026
In case you missed the others. The Tokyo chapter is almost finished!
Illustrated page featuring Asakusa in TokyoIllustrated page for a graphic zone featuring a double page spread with illustrations of Tokyo Skytree, Mt. Fuji, and the Kirby Cafe. There Eki ink stamps throughout the spread.Chapter cover illustration showcasing Tokyo. It features a man with long hair, glasses, and tote bag at a vending machine. Accompanied with a Suica Penguin and a Yamanote line train. There are red Tokyo Station Eki stamps and a tile card for Tokyo made out of scrap paper and washi tape.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 11/08/2026
Day & Night in Tokyo. From exploring Tokyo National Museum at day and the madness of Don Quijote at night. Illustrations for my Japan zine. #illustration #japan #zine #tokyo
Illustration book spread featuring Tokyo National Museum, Imado-jinja Shrine, and Don Quijote
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Reposted by James Ashe
James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 07/08/2026
The Don Quijote theme song is a souvenir that is permanently lodged in my brain. (yes they play it on repeat in the stores) Work in progress from my Japan zine. #japan #illustration #zine #tokyo
Hand drawn illustration of a Don Quijote store in Japan blasting their theme song.
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Cats of Yore @catsofyore.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
It's silently costing people friends and other connections, too. If I see that you are posting or reposting gen AI content I'm unlikely to say anything but I will immediately lose interest in striking up any kind of conversation, friendship, or working relationship. And I know I'm not the only one.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 07/08/2026
The Don Quijote theme song is a souvenir that is permanently lodged in my brain. (yes they play it on repeat in the stores) Work in progress from my Japan zine. #japan #illustration #zine #tokyo
Hand drawn illustration of a Don Quijote store in Japan blasting their theme song.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 30/07/2026
Asakusa, Tokyo and the Kaminari-mon “Thunder Gate” that leads to the Sensō-ji Temple. An illustration made for my upcoming zine covering my time in Japan. Also pictured is a Goshuin Book, which is a fun activity to complete and a cool souvenir to bring back from Japan. 🇯🇵 👹 #japan #illustration
Illustration of Asakusa and the Kaminari-mon “Thunder Gate”, featuring ski stamps, James holding a map, The Thunder Gate, and a boy and mother. Also included is a Goshuin Book with an inked sheet.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 30/07/2026
Asakusa, Tokyo and the Kaminari-mon “Thunder Gate” that leads to the Sensō-ji Temple. An illustration made for my upcoming zine covering my time in Japan. Also pictured is a Goshuin Book, which is a fun activity to complete and a cool souvenir to bring back from Japan. 🇯🇵 👹 #japan #illustration
Illustration of Asakusa and the Kaminari-mon “Thunder Gate”, featuring ski stamps, James holding a map, The Thunder Gate, and a boy and mother. Also included is a Goshuin Book with an inked sheet.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 23/07/2026
I'm tired of Belfast art organisations and galleries posting AI images, then acting like they did no wrong and didn't know any better.
Hayao Miyazaki 'I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself' quote
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 21/07/2026
Preparing for the Ocarina of Time remake. Will Navi be just as annoying 28 years later? #zelda #ocarinaoftime #illustration #comics
Hand drawn illustration based on Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Featuring Navi trying to wake young Link from his bed and saying “CaN Hyrule's DesTiNY ReALLY dEPeND ON SUCH A
LAZY BOY?!?”
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Reposted by James Ashe
James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 12/07/2026
Some work in progress, a couple of pages I made for my Japan Zine capturing the day trip I made to the Tokyo Skytree last month (with a bonus visit to the nearby Kirby Cafe)! I was very lucky and got to see Mt. Fuji (which is only visible about 80 days a year and impossible to see in the summer) 🗻🗼
Illustrated page for a graphic zone featuring a double page spread with illustrations of Tokyo Skytree, Mt. Fuji, and the Kirby Cafe. There Eki ink stamps throughout the spread.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 12/07/2026
Some work in progress, a couple of pages I made for my Japan Zine capturing the day trip I made to the Tokyo Skytree last month (with a bonus visit to the nearby Kirby Cafe)! I was very lucky and got to see Mt. Fuji (which is only visible about 80 days a year and impossible to see in the summer) 🗻🗼
Illustrated page for a graphic zone featuring a double page spread with illustrations of Tokyo Skytree, Mt. Fuji, and the Kirby Cafe. There Eki ink stamps throughout the spread.
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Reposted by James Ashe
James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 02/07/2026
I’m working on an illustrated zine about my time visiting Japan recently, because I’m one of those insufferable people that won’t shut up about Japan! Here’s the Tokyo chapter page along with some behind the scenes. 🗼🇯🇵 #illustration #zine #japan #tokyo
Chapter cover illustration showcasing Tokyo. It features a man with long hair, glasses, and tote bag at a vending machine. Accompanied with a Suica Penguin and a Yamanote line train. There are red Tokyo Station Eki stamps and a tile card for Tokyo made out of scrap paper and washi tape.Photo of a sketchbook showing Tokyo Skytree and Senso-Ji templeRough sketch of the FamilyMart logo but it has been changed to FamiZinePhoto of a sketchbook that has collected Eki Stamps in Japan.
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Reposted by James Ashe
James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 09/07/2026
✏️🇯🇵 #illustration #zine #japan #tokyo
Screenshot taken from Procreate. Featuring a zoomed in page illustration spread featuring Japan travel stamps, a suica card, and a map with a plane flying over countries.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 09/07/2026
✏️🇯🇵 #illustration #zine #japan #tokyo
Screenshot taken from Procreate. Featuring a zoomed in page illustration spread featuring Japan travel stamps, a suica card, and a map with a plane flying over countries.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 08/07/2026
Today my Post-Japan Depression is being triggered by reading about libraries and houses in Belfast being boarded up because of bonfires that have been built next them.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 02/07/2026
I’m working on an illustrated zine about my time visiting Japan recently, because I’m one of those insufferable people that won’t shut up about Japan! Here’s the Tokyo chapter page along with some behind the scenes. 🗼🇯🇵 #illustration #zine #japan #tokyo
Chapter cover illustration showcasing Tokyo. It features a man with long hair, glasses, and tote bag at a vending machine. Accompanied with a Suica Penguin and a Yamanote line train. There are red Tokyo Station Eki stamps and a tile card for Tokyo made out of scrap paper and washi tape.Photo of a sketchbook showing Tokyo Skytree and Senso-Ji templeRough sketch of the FamilyMart logo but it has been changed to FamiZinePhoto of a sketchbook that has collected Eki Stamps in Japan.
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Reposted by James Ashe
James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 17/06/2026
Japan sketchbook. Inspired by the Mount Fuji Shinkansen view. Anyone else enjoy looking out of windows on trains speeding by the countryside.
Hand drawn watercolour and ink sketch book drawing. Featuring a man with long hair and glasses looking amazed at Mount Fuji through the window of a train.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 17/06/2026
Japan sketchbook. Inspired by the Mount Fuji Shinkansen view. Anyone else enjoy looking out of windows on trains speeding by the countryside.
Hand drawn watercolour and ink sketch book drawing. Featuring a man with long hair and glasses looking amazed at Mount Fuji through the window of a train.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 11/06/2026
Barely out of Dublin Airport and already a group of lads’ conversation is dominating the entire bus. Just back from Japan where talking and having your phone make noise on public transport are regarded as cardinal sins.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 11/06/2026
Darwin Award Runner Up
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 04/06/2026
RIP Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis is one of my favourite books.
Image from the Persepolis animated film. With teenage Marjane wearing a ‘pink is not ded’ denim jacket over her hijab and older women chastising her.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 01/06/2026
Bow Street Mall in Lisburn is looking well these days.
Hisago Street Market in Tokyo.
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Paul Murphy TD @paulmurphy.pbp.ie · 20/05/2026
The woman in this video is Caitriona Graham, an Irish citizen. This is how our citizens are being treated by Israel, having been abducted in international waters, trafficked to a third state and now experiencing humiliation, stress positions, aggression and violence.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 30/04/2026
Mentally preparing myself for Japan by giving people who use speakerphone for phone calls on the train a dirty look.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 28/04/2026
I didn’t know Irish property developers were a secret villain in Persona 5 Royal.
Screenshot from Persona 5 Royal. With a NPC text box reading ‘Besides, when a building's this old, it wouldn't be unusual for it to catch on fire, would it?’
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 02/04/2026
Junk journaling because they don’t give you physical concert tickets anymore, which sucks. #Gorillaz
A page from a junk journal featuring a messy collab of Gorillaz stickers handwritten lyrics and a drawing of Murdoc Niccals drinking Buckfast.Another messy collage with hand written lyrics, Gorillaz stickers, and a drawing of 2D and Damon Albarn.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 31/03/2026
I saw the Gorillaz tonight. A fantastic act, and a band I have wanted to see live since I was 15. But does anyone feel the same way I do? People being inconsiderate, and climbing over each other to near enough record an entire concert on their smartphones has killed my appetite for future gigs.
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Brendan Harkin @brendanjharkin.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
I'm not sure she'd forgive me if I posted a video of her chasing a cat intruder round her house while calling him Billy Big Balls so this will do instead. Love animals, take the bus and make MLAs scared of you.
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Brendan McNally @brendanmcn.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Natalie, I love you.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 11/03/2026
Everything I have read in the news from the Natalie McNally court case is downright disturbing.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 09/03/2026
Childish Gambino is Yoshi? What?! #SuperMarioGalaxy
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
[We see a close up of a young white male, tanned, white teeth, coiffed hair clearly an influencer on social media. It is an image such as you see when social media posts are shown on the news. In the corner of the screen is named a location: DUBAI. He is staring slightly off-camera for several silent panels of the comic strip. His eyes move slightly. He is having a thought.]

From off-screen a newsreader’s commentary comes:

NEWSREADER:

Extraordinary images here 

of an expat in Dubai 

[The influencer’s eybrows raise slightly]

…Having their first ever geopolitical thought.

[CUT TO a BBC news scene. The BBC newsreader CLIVE MYRIE is talking to an interviewee next to the screen showing the social media influencer’s face. The interviewee’s name is David Jones]. 

CLIVE MYRIE:

To explain the significance of this moment we’re joined by David Jones, our Expat Thoughts correspondent

DAVID JONES:

Clive, this is momentous

It was caught on film at the end of an Instagram post titled: ‘Dubai Is Brilliant’.

[Pointing at the screen, the influencer’s expression still the same]

You can clearly see in the eyebrows here, the dawning realisation that there *might* be something in the world beyond his dickhead self.

It marks a *huge* departure from all the Dubai Expat’s previous thoughts.

CLIVE MYRIE:

Which are…?

DAVID JONES:

You've Got To Get Yourself Out Here Mate, Everything Is So Clean, I Don't Have To Pay Taxes, 
I Am Incurious As To Why I Do Not Have To Pay Taxes, and Spa.

CLIVE MYRIE:

And might we see an expansion of these new Thoughts in coming days?

DAVID JONES:

I think we can expect to see:

“I Deserve To Be Airlifted By A Country I Pay No Tax To”

CLIVE MYRIE:

Mmm. 

[Ends]
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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 27/02/2026
THIS IS WHAT SAM ALTMAN WANTS TO TAKE FROM YOU
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 11/02/2026
Felt like doing a Halloween sketch 8 months early.
Sketchbook ink drawing of an abandoned mall called ‘Spook Street Mall’.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 11/02/2026
Felt like doing a Halloween sketch 8 months early.
Sketchbook ink drawing of an abandoned mall called ‘Spook Street Mall’.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 11/02/2026
Meta has engineered an algorithm that is as exploitive and abusive as the gambling and tobacco industries. It’s disrupted livelihoods and people’s wellbeing. I hope him and Zuck face consequences. Read Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. You’re expected to leave your morals at the door at Meta.
Advert on Instagram urging users to sign up for Instagram’s Blue TickAdvert urging users on Instagram to boost their posts by paying money for more views.Boost Post button on Instagram
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 08/02/2026
Instead of using ChatGPT to make a caricature based on me and my job I used my own AI (Actual Imagination) to generate this image of me as a working illustrator (yes, I grew up playing the Ocarina of Time). #illustration #kidlitart #kidlit #zelda
An illustration capturing James as a working illustrator, along with his clothes, tools, and utilities he uses. It purposely looks like a menu screen from Zelda: Ocarina of Time.Menu screen from Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 08/02/2026
Instead of using ChatGPT to make a caricature based on me and my job I used my own AI (Actual Imagination) to generate this image of me as a working illustrator (yes, I grew up playing the Ocarina of Time). #illustration #kidlitart #kidlit #zelda
An illustration capturing James as a working illustrator, along with his clothes, tools, and utilities he uses. It purposely looks like a menu screen from Zelda: Ocarina of Time.Menu screen from Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
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James Ashe @jamesashestudio.com · 28/01/2026
I was on a train in London recently, I enjoy people watching out the window and all the tall buildings speeding by. My carriage was occupied by commuters and their dogs, and it gave me the inspiration to draw this. My agent thinks it’s brilliant! #kidlitart #kidlit #illustration
Illustration of a train speeding past a city landscape that looks a lot like Battersea in London. With two dogs as the commuters.
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