Ashanti Fortson

@ashantifortson.com

6072 Followers 301 Following

Cartoonist, illustrator, embroiderer, color designer. They/them. 🇲🇽 ENG/ESP OK NO AI. Get outta here https://ashantifortson.com/

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
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.
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.
limited color drawings of Marik, Yami Marik, and Namu Marik from yu-gi-oh
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
A page of line sketches with gray tones, featuring five characters from YuGiOh and their respective Millennium Items: Yugi, Bakura, Marik, Ishizu, and Pegasus
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)
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
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.
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
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
Illustrated portrait of Alice Wong and Ashanti Fortson, surrounded by dreamy purple clouds and shooting stars.
Image of pencilled comic panel showing two small figures standing in the Bandstand of the Boston Common during wintertime
Image of a sketch in light blue and black. A girl in a large coat twirls with her arms outstretched, sparkles around her.
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 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.
Illustration of a silhouetted person lying on their stomach in front of a laptop, smiling, twirling their hair, with their feet kicked up. Chat bubble shapes filled with emojis, checklists, and punctuation flow outwards from the laptop. The laptop screen has a "typing" chat bubble with an ellipsis
Image of graphic novel color keys, labelled: Color Keys, Brownstone, pages 12 and 25. The color keys are scaled down from the full page size, with my color plan blocked out underneath the line-work
Cover illustration for the comic titled Leaf Lace, by Ashanti Fortson. The title takes up half the composition, hand-lettered in a cursive style to evoke thread and yarn. Beneath the title, a dark-skinned woman kneels over, tenderly and sadly clutching an older woman’s pale hand. Tears fall from the central woman’s face, echoing her teardrop earrings. The older woman is not visible aside from her hand. The central woman’s dark, tightly curled hair sweeps upwards from her form, becoming the backdrop for the title and pressing down on the woman visually. The illustration is done in soft linework and painted purples, with an emphasis on color and light.
Photo of a zinnia plant with a small, cute, light pink flower. Another zinnia behind it is getting ready to bloom
Promotional graphic for the Wooper wallpaper and icon pack by Ashanti Fortson, featuring different crops of the original illustration: one desktop wallpaper, one mobile wallpaper, and two square avatar options
Illustrated self-portrait icon of Ashanti Fortson's face drawn in a cute and cartoony style with cute pastel colors. Ashanti has light brown skin, dark curly hair, huge round glasses, and a cute glasses-chain with beaded flowers
Photo of glittery stickers that depict the word Creature with various little hearts around and inside the word
Photo of an embroidery hoop held above a backdrop of lush greenery. The embroidery is delicate, stitched with one strand of warm-purple thread at a time, depicting a fat, nude, winged woman. She has six wings, tightly coiled hair, large breasts, a small penis, and clawed feet. She is beautiful and she frames her face with her wings. A yellowjacket is hanging out on the hardware at the top of the hoop.
Illustration of various people pulling other people out of a huge horned white snake that had eaten them. Large textured letters at the bottom read: Abolish ICE!
Video of a perfectly round dewdrop sitting in the center of a round nasturtium leaf. My finger enters the frame and pokes at the leaf, rolling the dewdrop from side to side before it settles in the center again
Photo of bright orange flowers in cute textured clusters
Cover image of picture book "Talking Books: Audiobook Inventor Dr. Robert B Irwin and a New Way to Read" written by Jenny Lacika and illustrated by Ashanti Fortson. Inviting clouds, embroidered birds, and sweet vignettes of kids enjoying audiobooks swirl around the composition. Some of the kids are blind, wearing dark shades and holding their canes, and some of the kids are sighted. An embroidered bird on his shoulder, Dr Robert B Irwin holds his hand to his ear as he finger-reads a Braille book. The color palette combines pastel tones and jewel tones for a lush effect.
Photo of a spiral bound notebook with gouache swatches, color tests, and brush tests
Illustration of a schoolteacher hunched over a small scene of her classroom, protecting it from raging winds. The teacher looks wary and concerned, but the kids are happily learning and playing in the pocket of safety their teacher has created
An image combining lines of text alongside whimsical doodle-illustrations of people resting, talking, reading, and dancing. Illustrated clouds, stars, birds, and trees frame the text. The text reads: If our basic needs are universally met…we can have space and time to be sick, to be in recovery, to be slow, to live full lives outside of measures of productivity.
Cover for the essay zine titled The Broken Heart at The Center of Comics. The image is black text on a highlighter-yellow background. The title is all lowercase, fitting snugly across the left side of the image. Each word is on its own line. Some of the letter-forms connect down to letter-forms on the following word’s line.
Cover illustration for the comic titled Leaf Lace, by Ashanti Fortson. The title takes up half the composition, hand-lettered in a cursive style to evoke thread and yarn. Beneath the title, a dark-skinned woman kneels over, tenderly and sadly clutching an older woman’s hand. Tears fall from the central woman’s face, echoing her teardrop earrings. The older woman is not visible aside from her hand. The central woman’s dark, tightly curled hair sweeps upwards from her form, becoming the backdrop for the title and pressing down on the woman visually. The illustration is done in soft linework and painted purples, with an emphasis on color and light.
Photo of die-cut stickers on a patterned desk mat. The stickers show a cute drawing of a sea toad, with text that reads: sea toad studio. The stickers also have a link to my shop, seatoad.bigcartel.com
Illustrated flyer for my Rebellious Joy free comics workshop. The flyer has all the same info as my post, plus a drawing of a tiny me standing proudly underneath a sprouting tomato seedling. There’s a cute earthworm, a cute bee, and a cute butterfly too
Photo of my tuxedo-colored rat Doctor Pepper, eating a forsythia flower in my arms. We’re outside and the afternoon sunlight is shining on her
Editorial illustration of a white woman wearing headphones, floating in a peaceful bubble, surrounded by floating books. The books create a barrier between the woman and intense fires and burning palm trees that fill the rest of the image. The woman is in the fetal position, and the headphones’ cord weaves through the floating books like an umbilical cord.
meme image of two Gundam screencaps with subtitles. the first reads, I am a genius! the second reads, Oh no!
Screenshot of Ashanti Fortson's Patreon page, which shows three differently priced patron tiers. Bee Fly is priced at $5, Millipede Bus is priced at $25, and Millipede Train is priced at $50. Millipede is spelled wrong once, which I will go fix right now haha
reaction image of Tutter the blue mouse Muppet looking blurry and excited
Reaction image of the Dark Souls meme font with the text Grapes Eaten
Photo of Ashanti Fortson wearing a large thick-framed pair of glasses, which have a cute hand-beaded glasses chain attached. The chain is colored white, turquoise, pink, and purple
Photo and illustration collage of Ashanti Fortson's 2024 art summary, in the format of art versus artist posts
Photo of four small bead embroidery brooches. All four brooches are of the Palestinian flag, but each has small variations like border color and the type of beads used. They are labelled A through D
Illustration in soft colors of a chubby, stylized frog-person happily painting brush-strokes onto a small canvas. Thought bubbles above their head hold ideas of more colors and more brush-strokes.
Photo of Ashanti Fortson sitting behind their vendor table. The table has books, zines, stickers, prints, and more
Screenshot from a GoFundMe receipt email. It shows a 50 euro donation by Ashanti Fortson on November 23, 2024. The donation is to Maha Abed Omar’s fundraiser.
Photo of three needle felted mushroom magnets on a purple fabric background. Each magnet is a little different.
Photo of three hand-embroidered felt fish magnets. The fish have different designs, shapes, and expressions. The felt color for each is a light blue with contrasting embroidered accents.
Photo of a bead embroidered pin in the shape of a watermelon slice. There is a price tag attached to it that reads $50 and has a drawing of the Palestinian flag.
Photo of my hand holding an essay zine titled: The Broken Heart at The Center of Comics. The essay is about comics, burnout, and capitalism. The zine cover has a cool typographical design on a bright green paper.
Photo of Maha, her daughter Mai, and her elder son Asad. They are seated in a car, smiling at the camera, which Mai is holding
Portrait illustration of Maha, a Palestinian woman. Maha has fair skin, rosy cheeks, and a kind smile. She is wearing a black hijab and dark green clothing. She is framed by drawings of olive branches, and the illustration has a frame of Palestinian embroidery motifs and additional olive branches. Her name is written beneath the portrait.
Photo of embroidery piece in-progress, to be later collaged in a picture book spread. It’s a bunch of golden feathers and shapes swooping across the fabric. Three feathers are finished, and nine feathers are sketched out with partial embroidery.
Photo of calico cat Miss Cheese sleeping on an ottoman. She has her paw tucked in and is smushed cutely
Tall vertical illustration done in a friendly, painterly style. Two hedgehogs, one larger and one smaller, look up at the sky during a sunset by the ocean. The sky is filled with soft, flowing clouds, shifting pinks and purples, and starry constellations further up. The hedgehogs sit on a grassy hill where flowers bloom. The atmosphere feels calm, peaceful, and a bit magical.
Illustration of an albatross pressing its weight down on a curled-up person, its huge wings closing in on them. The person has long dark hair that curls around them, around the albatross' feet, and tangles around the albatross' body. The person is surrounded by corals, seashells, and forget-me-not flowers.
Photo of a large in-progress embroidery, which I’m doing for my picture book debut. One feather has been fully embroidered in cream and yellow, and many other feathers are in progress.
Photo of me with Dr. Pepper (one of my pet rats) zooming across my arm. She is extremely blurry here because she is excited
A purple-heavy illustration of a TV-head robot wearing large sci-fi headphones. The headphones are ornate and have a hand motif. The robot has a speech bubble above their head that says "Hi!"