Art Blog

Axel | MCAD 2022 | UCF 2026 | they/them/he/him | About | Commissions

[axel-draws]

Portfolio Website

Portfolio site for Axel B

New website! Now featuring even more of my work!

[axel-draws]

For a solid few years now I've been ideating a comic project called "The Domino Files," centering around a mid-30s poodle named Domino and their sibling Ademma. A punk-noire zine collection, "The Domino Files" will follow Domino Dog as they try to help solve problems for their neighbors, in a neighborhood where the local corrupt police are of no use (and, in fact, might be more to blame for the city's troubles than first seems…) Ademma, their little sibling, is a relative Domino used to be estranged from. They both grew up in a fundamentalist household in Scotland, and when Domino came out as transgender their mother kicked them to the curb. Domino adopted a nomadic lifestyle, eventually winding up in an unnamed American city. Upon the passing of their mother, Ademma, who had lived fearfully in the closet since watching Domino's eviction, tracks down Domino and moves in with them. Mahjong is a sweetheart, an aging drag star with a drug problem, friends with both of them. The bar they perform at is one of Domino's favorite hangout spots, and Mahjong thinks Ademma is so adorable. The two of them serve as loose mentor figures for Ademma. The story focuses on the concepts of mutual aid and community support, with especial focus on the queer community, and is a labor of love I plan to publish sporadically as DIY zines printed from my local library. These are some initial moodboard sketches for the two main characters and their pal Mahjong.

[axel-draws]

The trailer for my thesis film Memento Mori: So Make the Most of It! is now available on YouTube!

[mementomorifilm]

TONIGHT! At the University of Central Florida's visual art building, Memento Mori's thesis defense cut will be showing! If you're in the area around 6:30-7PM, come on down! I'll also be present doing some fundraising for the upcoming film festival circuit—If you donate, you can get a SIGNED print from one of these 3 options:

There are also sticker sheets!

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi Mrs. Ice, apologies for sort of cold-calling you here in your inbox, but I'm a student working on my final thesis paper right now and your lessons were (and are) instrumental to the character designs for my thesis film as both of my main characters are Black, so I'd like to talk about this blog and what I've learned here in my paper. I wanted to ask your permission first though as I don't know if you want this blog and the discussions therein to be quoted elsewhere. I hope you're having a great day, and thank you for all that you do here!

Sounds good 👍🏾 if I quoted from another source, you can also cite them (it would probably have more detail).

[axel-draws]

Thank you! I will definitely be doing that as well.

[mementomorifilm]

Background texturing for Memento Mori has been completely finished at last! After wrangling a variety of technical issues including learning Blender 4.2 doesn't always have a default HDRI for rendering, I've come up with a simple and effective pipeline that prioritizes keeping render times down (made even easier by using Eevee) while still looking the way it needs to.

[mementomorifilm]

The spring semester has finally finished and I can share the most up to date cut of Memento Mori! Featuring the voice talents of Link Stewart and Mystic Waterz, with background models by Carolina Rapp, this animatic is essentially the closest thing to the finalized version of the film that I'll be publishing. I want the final look to be a surprise, after all!

[axel-draws]

Finally had some decent weather a little while ago so I was able to get some good photos of the clothing I've made so far! More can be found on my portfolio website!

[axel-draws]

Designed a new logo for my resume! Here's some of this ideation as well. And, including this fun banner:

[axel-draws]

Happy 2025, this was my first art of the year!

[axel-draws]

Cube Test 1. Slowly figuring out Blender's UV mapping.

[axel-draws]

Here is a current, very rough WIP animatic of Memento Mori (So Make the Most of it!), uploaded initially for a post on Casting Call Club, but I haven't had much to share here yet given I'm in the weeds on the final touches of preproduction right now. I figured I'd share it.

[axel-draws]

Friend of mine had a wine&paint night for their birthday last night, here's mine :] Acrylic on 8x10 canvas board.

[axel-draws]

Rotoscope assignment from my VFX class. I took a lot of inspiration from Across the Spiderverse's handling of Hobie Brown's multi-media style. I would love to play around in that kind of a space more, I really enjoyed this experiment.

[axel-draws]

Learning colouring in Blender. Obviously had to test it out with the best Pokémon which is Snom as we all know

[axel-draws]

Completed turnaround for Red Reaper, showcasing her final design

[axel-draws]

These were also some prop design sketches that will go entirely unused. Red's phone doesn't really appear in the film as it's currently written; I just wanted an excuse to be neurodivergent about 90's/early 00's tech.