#odyism

Hello tumblr folks! I truly miss Tumblr as a platform, so if any of you are still checking this out I just wanted to share my newest offering with you all. 

The Black Crown Collection, textures and mediations inspired by Black hair journeys, is officially live on my site! Visit my site https://www.odera.net/blackcrown.html for all the details. I have some mixed media studies and originals, prints, zines, and more!

Here is my newest illustration that I painted for the Cortex Prime Handbook #CortexRPG! As an illustrator it's such a joy when a client has a clear vision that perfectly aligns with your artistic voice and desires.

Mythological and fantastical? Swaths of light and energy? Centering intersectional identities and not just allowing for a limited scope of ~diversity~ ? Yes. Yes. Yes!

The Nsibidi Knights

4.5 x 6 inches each

Pencil and acrylic on mixed media paper

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Yesterday was the opening for Gallery 1988: LA’s Paper Pushers show! It was so fun to go back to the basics of pencil on paper. I really had a desire to draw braided hair styles and armor, and with that in mind the Nsibidi Knights were born.

Short story illustration for "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" by Phenderson Djèlí Clark

Featured in FireSide Magazine's February 2018 Edition

The Nsibidi Knights (1 of 4)

4.5 x 6 inches each

Pencil and acrylic on mixed media paper

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This month on Patreon I created a few pencil drawings featuring the "Nsibidi Knights". Often when I think of Fantasy, I think of characters that can exist without the layer of colonization or centering of Medieval times and the Tolkien canon. But for these drawings I asked myself, what would African/Black characters look like who are living in a world that centers medieval fantasy. How would they dress themselves if they were knights that were longing for decolonization and connecting with their roots. What would be discarded? What aesthetics and designs would fuse together?

Ikenga,

Protector of the Sands of time

We look to you for strength and clarity