The Banook painting is finished. I'll be revealing the full image to my mailing list very soon, so make sure to sign up at www.joaquinbaldwin.com/list to see it first. Here's a crop as a teaser.
Remote
Joaquín Baldwin
@joabaldwin@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Author of the Noss Saga (LGBTQ+ epic fantasy series). Layout Artist & Director of Cinematography at Disney (Zootopia, Encanto, Frozen, Moana, etc), but opinions here are my own. Photographer, animator, designer, he/him 🏳️🌈
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Joined November 09, 2022
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Rattlesnake but instead of a rattle it's a theremin and it makes sci-fi sounds at you.
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It got windy so I went out to check on hummingblobs, and one was missing. Found him in the mulch 20 feet below. Warmed him up a bit and placed him back into the nest (not yet a full fledgling, can barely shake his wings). His little claws were trying to hold on to my glove.
I shipped a bunch of signed hardcovers this morning, and also a paperback of Feral Flame, into which I decided to add a little doodle before packing it.
#Doodles
The LEGO camera at Disney's layout department lounge (I can see it from my office as I type this).
Ravens broadcasting weird sounds straight into our living room. 🎧 🪶
The Ursa Award for Feral Flame arrived!
A sphinx moth came to slurp at a desert lily as we were watching the sunset over the Anza Borrego badlands.
I got the most incredible gift art from Agro Alba on bluesky, showcasing Lune from Feral Flame. They did such an amazing job 💖🐃💚. I'm cropping the illustration here since it is a bit spoilery if you haven't finished the book. Lune looks perfect!
I painted 100 bears today.
Not exaggerating either. It's for an illustration in Book 5 of the Noss Saga. Most are very distant tiny bears, but there are exactly 100 in the painting. I'll share it once the release date gets closer <3
This is Jobert. He's Jimothy's bear BFF.
I expanded a bit on this meme
“Neigh!” he bellowed, his voice horse.
Today marks 10 years since #Zootopia came out!
Celebrate with terrible zotoopopea art.
Less wimdy on the roadtrip today, more fiery
Preview of an upcoming illustration for Wings of the Wayfarers. I shared this and other previews (with no spoilers) with my mailing list yesterday. Hoping to finish yet another painting by this weekend. Book 5 is coming along great!
It's a start, but with your help, it could be better.
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Finished the newsletter email for tomorrow, including a big update on Book 5. Sign up here to read it (it's just where I share my stuff with more detail... like Patreon but always free): www.joaquinbaldwin.com/list
More moo doodles! Yesterday I added 20 signed/doodled hardcovers of Feral Flame to my shop. Only my mailing list was notified, and they sold out right away (sign up if you wanna know when more are available). But I added one more copy now! Last one I have. Get it if you are fast.
Some nice moments from our recent trip to the sierras.
I have found the source of all mosquitoes
Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles launching Starlink satellites. Finally got this alignment right last night.
#Astrophotography
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🦋 You are a precious butterfly. 🦋
Never change.
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And this one was a couple days ago. No moons, no fancy alignments, just a pretty sunset and a random airplane.
Which one reads better to you?
I'm designing icons for the Noss Saga clades, and I need one for the musteloids (which includes skunks, red pandas, raccoons, coatis, weasels, otters, badgers, wolverines).
RULE: no negative shapes inside the silhouette (no raccoon mask/eyes/stripes).
Got another Griffith Observatory launch timelapse! This one was a bit closer to sunset so you can see the smoke. 20 minutes earlier would've been prettier though (and I need some wispy clouds, and maybe a meteor).
#Astrophotography
Timelapse of the moon being stowed away in the Griffith Observatory's secret underground warehouse.
#Astrophotography
I'm pretty sure YouTube made video embeds ugly and useless on purpose so that you'd have to click through to watch the videos on their site. Everything is carefully designed to not make sense.
Bewick's Wren was showing his full repertoire right outside the window. How can such tiny make such loud.
Super happy to get TWO nominations this year for the Ursa Major Awards. And with the good company of @nighteyes@meow.social, @robmacwolf.thevoice.dog and Ty Fox. Please head to ursamajorawards.org and vote for your favorites! 🐻⭐
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I kindly ask agents, publishers, editors, and Hollywood producers to refrain from spamming me regarding this project. I’m not currently querying, and I will be the one to contact you once the manuscript is ready, not the other way around. 6/6
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A standard 3rd person past tense might say:
- Lago ran across the bridge. “I’m coming!” he screamed.
Boring! But in 5th-pfpc(4th[1st-pcpc]) that would read:
- The narrators will’ve told me that I would’ve ran across the bridge. “I’m coming!” ze will’ve said that I would’ve screamed. 2/6
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His name is Anthrony and he does ballet (obvs, look at those calf muscles) and gives tippy-tappy massages.
Doctor who has only seen Pagliacci at the theater, staring at his depressed patient: Getting a lot of Pagliacci vibes from this guy…
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“The narrators” in this case is a 4th-person pluralistic entity telling the actual story, while the 5th-person true narrator is actually the main character! In this case, Lago. 3/6
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So, Lago is telling us that in a hypothetical future a pluralistic entity/narrator (with ze/zir pronouns) will’ve been telling him his own story, in the 1st person, but using a hypothetical past construction (“would’ve,” because they don’t fully trust the narrative). 4/6
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Rather than resorting to simplistic reliable/unreliable narrator forms, the pluralistic narrator will be composed of multiple entities each of which only tells lies or only tells truths. But to keep that from stagnating, ze will swap modes in each chapter. 5/6
Illustrated lyrics video for “I Hear the Mountain Song” is out! Listen to this epic track, then pick up the Noss: Prelude album on Fox Amoore's Bandcamp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLWrr8p03lA
Sending signed editions to people who order paperbacks (US only) once more, while I have some at home. Someone just ordered all four books so they'll get four signed copies as a surprise.