RaiZArts

Raymont D. Youngblood is a digital freelance illustrator based in Pittsburgh. Born in 1990, he’s had an eye for anime style art ever since he was four years old, drawing “Sonic the Hedgehog."

Always a dreamer, Raymont has had one goal in life since 1994: To become a cartoonist. This dream has been his driving motivation for most of his life, and while many children have multiple dreams and passions, Raymont seemed to only have this one dream. Through one of his created character designs, Raymont was able to find his art name: “RaiZArts," literally “Ray’s Arts," and has started going by this name since 2016.  

In 2021, RaiZArts finally found the courage to hop into his passion full-time and became a full-time creative. This role has included the following incredible opportunities:

An outpouring of amazing commissions for Leonard Robinson (Insecure, Wild N’ Out), TeaMarrr (Insecure, Atlantic Records), RDCWorld1 (YouTube, HBO Max). 

He’s worked alongside Pittsburgh Poet/Marvel Writer, Yona Harvey on a collaborative comic project: “Something in the Water” a part of the “Dead Beats Anthology." He's taken part in several shows in Pittsburgh: “MindBlown: Precious Art in the City of Pittsburgh," “Writing on the Walls," and “BlackQ Haus Collection” (The first Black-owned gallery in Pittsburgh). 

RaiZArts served on the board for Pittsburgh’s Cartoon Museum, “Toonseum” alongside Marcel Walker.

When he's not in Pittsburgh, he sells his art at nationwide anime conventions like: AnimeNYC, BlerDCon, DreamCon, Otakon and Animate Columbus. His efforts have even taken him to Japan to get guidance from the first Black-owned manga studio, “Sakura Phoenix Studio” in Tokyo, under manga artist, Mario Long.

In addition to commissions and traveling the country, selling his art at conventions, when he's home, he spends his time teaching students comic arts at organizations and schools in Pittsburgh, including The Neighborhood Academy and Sarah Heinz House. 

RaiZArts has seen so much success in his students that he now offers private classes to elementary and middle school aged students to help develop their artistic skills on a one-on-one basis. 

Thanks to being awarded the Advancing Black Arts grant, he is able to take those skills and work with students in the community to develop a comic book anthology called the Raising Artists Into Zine-Makers project, aptly dubbed the “RAIZ Project.” Through this project, he will be able to help black students develop and share their stories through the medium of comics, as well as give them firsthand experience in what it's like to become a vendor at conventions and events in the city, just as he has.

RaiZArts is inspired by the works of Hiromu Arakawa (FullMetal Alchemist) and the combined works of Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima (Sonic the Hedgehog). He also is inspired by the works of Tetsuya Nomoura and the designs that he has created for the Kingdom Hearts franchise most notably. His style is a combination of Sonic, Kingdom Hearts and FullMetal Alchemist and he takes pride in creating something new from these iconic styles of artwork.

Among his goal to become a cartoonist, he has been working at releasing his own American manga-style novel, “Twilight Angel." He believes that this story of two angelic brothers can change the way that American-inspired anime art is viewed by a western audience.