Eddaviel is an illustrator, comic book artist, muralist and writer from the Dominican Republic. Eddaviel draws inspiration from what he calls “Afro-inks”.
Dominican illustrator and muralist Eddaviel creates a striking series of black-and-white works he calls Afro-inks—a collection of highly detailed illustrations that sit at the intersection of Afro-Caribbean identity, Afrofuturism, and African sci-fi fantasy.
Working primarily in ink, Eddaviel builds intricate portraits that begin with real subjects—many sourced from Afropunk’s “Afro of the Day”—and transforms them into powerful, otherworldly figures. These are not just portraits, but reimaginings of Black identity as futuristic, mythological, and expansive.
Rendered entirely in black and white, the illustrations rely on dense, meticulous linework to create depth, texture, and movement. Hair becomes a central visual language—expanding into elaborate, sculptural forms that feel both organic and cosmic. Coils, curls, and braids stretch outward like galaxies, architectures, or energy fields, turning each figure into a living landscape.
There is a quiet intensity in the faces—calm, self-possessed, and often introspective—contrasting with the explosive complexity surrounding them. This tension between stillness and movement gives the work a meditative quality, as if each subject exists in a space between worlds.
Rooted in the layered histories of the Caribbean, Eddaviel’s work draws from African heritage, Taíno culture, and European influences, blending them into a unified visual language. Through this fusion, the series constructs its own speculative universe—one where Black bodies are centered, elevated, and imagined beyond present constraints.
The Afro-inks series also aligns with a broader movement in Afrofuturistic and African sci-fi visual culture, where artists reclaim narrative space by projecting Black identities into alternate futures and parallel realities. Here, the use of monochrome becomes intentional: stripping away color to focus on form, symbolism, and detail, while allowing the imagination to fill in the rest.
The result is a body of work that feels both archival and forward-looking—a visual mythology built through ink, where each line contributes to a larger story of transformation, identity, and possibility.
“Afro-inks aims to create an afro-caribbean fantasy from a series of weekly illustrations for Afropunk using as a starting point expressions of the people featured in “Afro of the day”. Afro-inks is a line created by a drop of ink that becomes into the expression of African traits mixed with the Taino culture and European elements that merged into what the Caribbean is today: three continents which constitute the cultural diversity of our land.”
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