Ashanti Fortson
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ashantifortson.com
Ashanti Fortson
@ashantifortson.com
5.9K followers 290 following 570 posts
Cartoonist, illustrator, embroiderer, color designer. They/them.
🇲🇽 ENG/ESP OK

NO AI. Get outta here

https://ashantifortson.com/
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ashantifortson.com
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
November 27, 2025 at 7:45 PM
ashantifortson.com
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.
November 26, 2025 at 5:44 PM
ashantifortson.com
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
November 19, 2025 at 9:03 PM
ashantifortson.com
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
November 18, 2025 at 9:15 PM
ashantifortson.com
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.
November 16, 2025 at 6:19 PM
ashantifortson.com
Bwoston
Image of pencilled comic panel showing two small figures standing in the Bandstand of the Boston Common during wintertime
September 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
ashantifortson.com
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.
September 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM
ashantifortson.com
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.
September 11, 2025 at 2:17 PM
ashantifortson.com
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.
September 9, 2025 at 9:09 PM
ashantifortson.com
A recent #illustration for The Baltimore Banner, on young people using chatGPT as an anonymous personal diary & confidante despite knowing the risks and consequences of using it
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
August 30, 2025 at 3:52 PM
ashantifortson.com
I've worked on various graphic novels, including Printz Award winner BROWNSTONE. Below are two of my color keys and @marjulia.bsky.social's final colored pages.

Every collaboration is different, but I always love to see what changes and what stays the same from color keys to final color!
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 Image of two non-sequential pages from the graphic novel Brownstone, with art and final colors by Mar Julia. The final colors are largely based on my color keys, though Mar has made certain adjustments to the final colors
June 30, 2025 at 5:48 PM
ashantifortson.com
Happy yuri day! I would be remiss to not mention LEAF LACE, my award-winning fantasy/romance comic.

🌸 25 pages
🌸 Mortality, knitting, and a goddess' grief
🌸 Digital edition is $2, wrow

PDF: ashantifortson.itch.io/leaf-lace
Print: seatoad.bigcartel.com/product/leaf...

#yuriday #yurisky #YuriDay
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. Comic page from Leaf Lace by Ashanti Fortson. Through second-person narration, the goddess who spins mortals’ life threads reflects on the time she has shared with her mortal wife. A flashback sequence, framed by intertwining threads of yarn, shows the two meeting when her wife was still young. In the last panel, the mortal woman points out her newly-flowering orchids to her immortal wife, but the mortal woman is now old. The page is illustrated in lush, warm colors. Comic page from Leaf Lace by Ashanti Fortson. Narration at the top of the page reads, You deserve to live forever. Mnimi, the old, mortal wife of the life-spinning goddess, shakily prepares a pot of tea. She shakes as she carries it to her wife, who is in her studio. Mnimi cries out for Ananke, her wife. She falls, dropping the tray, teapot, and teacups. The panel layout echoes this fall: the panels become irregular, tumbling down the composition. The page is illustrated in purples, hot pinks, and dark teals. Comic page from Leaf Lace by Ashanti Fortson. The page is mostly black, with angular, bright pink panels cutting through the darkness. The panels show a delicate teacup falling down and shattering on the floor. White narration text trails down the page alongside the panels; the narration communicates confusion, denial, and grief.
June 25, 2025 at 9:19 PM
ashantifortson.com
Some flowers from the garden this morning: our first zinnia flower, our first visible tomato flower (still just a bud), and our lavender. May flowers bloom under blue and peaceful skies for every human being in the world.
Photo of a zinnia plant with a small, cute, light pink flower. Another zinnia behind it is getting ready to bloom Photo of a cherry tomato plant in a large container. Its leaves are lush and one very small tomato flower is visible Photo of my hand gently cupped behind the flowers of our lavender plant so that the flowers stay in focus
June 22, 2025 at 4:01 PM
ashantifortson.com
Ever wanted some of my illustrations as desktop/mobile wallpapers, or perhaps social media icons/PFPs?

Good news: I just put up FIVE wallpaper & icon packs up for sale on my Ko-fi shop, each for only $1. Check 'em out!

🎨 ko-fi.com/ashantiforts... 🎨
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 Promotional graphic for the Goddess 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 Promotional graphic for the Hedgehogs wallpaper and icon pack by Ashanti Fortson, featuring different crops of the original illustration: one mobile wallpaper and two square avatar options Promotional graphic for the Strawberry 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
June 19, 2025 at 6:14 PM
ashantifortson.com
Happy Juneteenth, also happy new profile picture! It me
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
June 19, 2025 at 2:49 PM
ashantifortson.com
Just listed some new items on the ol' artist shop!

⭐ Creature glitter stickers
⭐ Oddish-ish sticker sheets by @binglin.bsky.social
⭐ Two new needle-felted little guys

Check them out! Boosts appreciated. ♥️
seatoad.bigcartel.com
Photo of glittery stickers that depict the word Creature with various little hearts around and inside the word Photo of hand holding the "Oddish-ish" sticker sheet of 7 different off-brand Oddish designs, loosely based on the original Oddish Pokemon design. These designs resemble different plants and root vegetables. Photo of hand holding a small needle-felted sculpture of a light-blue caterpillar-like creature, who is wearing pink lipstick and a purple hand-knitted shawl. Her name is Beba Photo of hand holding a small needle-felted sculpture of a creature living inside a strawberry. Her name is Candy
June 13, 2025 at 3:28 PM
ashantifortson.com
ABJECT FIRMAMENT #1

The first in a series of embroideries depicting the divine beauty of people whose forms and lives have been othered.

P.S. Can you spot the yellowjacket who blessed this hoop? 🐝
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.
June 12, 2025 at 2:53 PM
ashantifortson.com
Neighbors don't let neighbors get eaten ✊🏽
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!
June 11, 2025 at 3:40 PM
ashantifortson.com
Rolling a dewdrop around on a nasturtium leaf and being healed
June 11, 2025 at 12:04 PM
ashantifortson.com
Feeling sad tonight due to my silly brain, but I have to remember that love is real, I saw pretty flowers this morning, my seedlings are strong and alive, and Miss Cheese is cute
Photo of bright orange flowers in cute textured clusters Photo of purple and blue hydrangeas flowering on a bush Photo of tomato and eggplant seedlings Photo of calico cat Miss Cheese having a lovely little snuggle on the windowsill, surrounded by frog figurines and plants. She’s in a sleeping pose but she is looking at the camera
June 11, 2025 at 2:40 AM
ashantifortson.com
TALKING BOOKS, a picture book biography written by Jenny Lacika and illustrated by me, is now available for preorder! It tells the story of Dr. Robert B. Irwin, who invented the audiobook to increase blind readers' access to books.

Out on 2/24/2026! 🎨

www.simonandschuster.com/books/Talkin...
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.
June 10, 2025 at 10:42 PM
ashantifortson.com
Spent some time today doing gouache tests, in preparation for my new webcomic project! I’ve missed analog painting so much… gouache comics gang where art thou
Photo of a spiral bound notebook with gouache swatches, color tests, and brush tests
June 8, 2025 at 9:11 PM
ashantifortson.com
A recent illustration for The Baltimore Banner, about schoolteachers trying their best for their students, amidst burnout, low pay, and budget cuts under the Trump administration.
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
June 2, 2025 at 1:17 PM
ashantifortson.com
Had the lovely opportunity to make art alongside dozens of other artists, musicians, poets, etc, for the “Health Is Life” Creative Jam!

What can the world look like if we have health equity? If we don’t have to produce in order to survive? If our basic needs are met?

#HealthIsLife
#CreativeJam
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.
May 31, 2025 at 12:01 AM
ashantifortson.com
THE BROKEN HEART AT THE CENTER OF COMICS: a collaborative essay zine about comics, burnout, and capitalism.

What is the root of burnout? How does exploitation manifest in the comics industry, as a branch of capitalism? Why do we still keep making comics?

nif-shop.cartoonist.coop/products/the...
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.
May 30, 2025 at 3:11 PM