Featured Artist Yedi Fresh!

Ralph Thomas·February 06, 2025

If you've met Yedi, it's not hard to figure out why he knows everyone in the whole world. He's not shy and is besties with everyone he meets. I meet him first at Lightbox Expo and was blown away at his sketchbook. I feel like he takes a character and then exaggerates it way beyond the bounds that a normal person would take it... and then he doubles the exaggeration again.

What role did art play in your childhood?

Art was everything when I was a kiddo it was the thing I was good at. My mom was an artist and I used to use her professional art supplies and even help her paint on big projects. She did the outlines, I did the fills, kinda like a little assistant,… Her boss also used to commission me to draw him comic book covers for a couple bucks lol, he was a big Batman fan. I used to go to her job after school a lot. At school I would even sell my drawings, after art class, to my first collectors lol.

When did you decide to follow an artistic path?

I Always have been all about drawing and cartoons since my early crayon era lol but there were a couple of moments that changed me and really solidified my dream … I lived on the line of CT/NY and was blessed to take art classes from a professional comic book artist named Franco who was working in the city at the time with different publications. It was so inspiring to me, and during that time I was able get a drawing to James Earl Jones because of a project my mom was working on. He actually loved what I did, signed it and wrote me a note on the back. That moment completely changed the way I saw myself - felt like a professional artist ever since lol

Was your family supportive or were they leery of a career in art?

The fam always rooted for me artistically. My family is full of creativity also from music, painting, even beauty and fashion.

What’s a typical day like?

I like to get up, get some fresh air, then dedicate about a hour to warm up sketches, this is my meditation time no phone or distractions.
From there I jump into my project of the day. I like to have my best energy focused on the most difficult task whether it’s a mural, canvas, character design or illustration …from there I really like to take a break, eat dinner and exercise!!! After that it’s my second shift when I work on my passion projects, my intellectual properties I have been creating. I have been working on a comedy. I pitched it in a couple of places but I keep refining it and building on the world. I basically do that till about 9:30-10 then I educate myself and practice new techniques or learn new programs … I really don’t get out much lol

I always see you with a sketchbook (or two), how often are you sketching?

I sketch a couple times a day. As soon as I get up, and before bed, almost like a warm up and cool down kinda thing. But I also never go anywhere without a sketch book. Date night sketch book, dinner sketchbook, movies sketchbook, leave the house sketchbook, haha it’s what makes life exciting to me. drawing stuff. Usually I have two with me. I have my sketch wallets and also a medium sized sketch book with a leather cover covered in signitures I bought from Rodgon years ago, and I do role with my iPad for a Sketch Crawl ,or people watching on the regular.

How did you get into painting murals?

hmmmmm this is kinda a multi level question. I grew up with a lot of hip hop influence I used to rhyme a lot have turntables and be obsessed with graffiti and had a lot of graffiti friends. The thing I loved about them was, they always had there black books, always sketching, and they wanted me to be the character guy. I painted with them once. Literally once. The cops rolled up, and the cops said “who painted that” and they all pointed at me. The cop says “hey, you should keep doing this” lol. Needless to say, I never painted with them again. I felt it was my get out of jail free card … later on one of those guys became a great friend, he was studying animation and I started painting with him and some other friends I knew. People saw my characters, and commissioned me, so I kept going …. And honestly it was just a way for me to be a professional artist and learn how to make more money off of art because I never went to art school basically I’m self taught … So yea it was an opportunity I took it, and now it’s part of my skill sets. What I really love about it is, I’m literally painting my character's life size and I feel like I’m standing in a cartoon !!!

What’s the biggest one you’ve ever painted?

I would have to say the biggest is for Lesser Evil Popcorn. It’s about two story’s high and half a block wide

How do you scale your art up that big? Project it?

For a project that big I project my outlines and or use a doodle grid … actually I just started using a VR headset, for a new project because my work space is only 8 feet wide and the wall is massive so there are a lot of options. I also free hand a lot of my own stuff whether it’s an art battle, live painting, or just painting with friends, it really depends. I’m pretty much ready for anything …

You seem to dabble in lots of art categories, murals, cartooning, character design, fine art etc. Do you have a favorite area of art?

My favorite, is hands down, cartoons and character design. I love it all. The other stuff is just part of my story. It was the thing that helped me get here. Getting into the art world was a grind for me and those skill sets were my tools to make a living but it’s always been about cartoons … My first mentor told me one day before an art show, every canvas, mural, and character you make, should point into your cartoon worlds… so yeah that’s the goal definitely cartoons and animation.

I’m sorry I don’t know, but what is Orangutan Slang? How did that come about?

Hahaha Orangutan slang is a record I put together with some friends, DJ QBERT a world famous dj, and Andreas Savvaides an up and coming producer. I really love music and hang around a recording studio a lot. I know a lot of musicians. So long story short, I started a group, as a joke called, The Cosmic Funk Monkeys, and it really happened. So the second record is coming soon, it’s more of a story telling record with a 1960s Batman Boom Zap Pow - kinda vibe.

Any upcoming projects you are willing to share?

I am working with Lesser Evil Popcorn, right now on a couple murals and just did some character design work with them for their art and animation team … also I have a new art book / comic in the works, plus a toy design for next years DesignerCon aaaaaand even a little something might be in the works with my good friends at Sketch Wallet … maybe a little zine, we’re putting together

If money and time were no object, what would you do?

If I had all the money and time in the world I would have like 3 comedy animated series on tv and feature film in the works and no one would be able to talk to me unless we were talking about cartoons or you knew the muppets personally and were setting up lunch with Kermit and the gang lol my goal is literally to be Sooooo successful with my art I can make more art on a bigger scale. If I had all the money in the world I would do something as big as Disney and his artists or Stan Lee and Jack Kirby or Dr Seuss, Chuck Jones, Hanna-Barbera, lol ‘Just build worlds, and give it to the world’. That’s all I want to do, plus i know a lot of music producers i would probably invent a new genre music that sounds like you were just chilling inside a comic book / cartoon haha

How can people follow your work?