Rising Stars: Meet Darryl Cokes II

Today we’d like to introduce you to Darryl Cokes II.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story started all the way back when I was a kid on the East Coast growing up in Albany, New York. I grew up playing a ton of video games and watching cartoons and anime. What captivated me was how creators were able to make a completely fictional world with fictional characters that made me want to be a part of and visit those places! It inspired me to create, whether that had been as an illustrator, concept artist, background artist, etc. Once I had graduated high school, I decided I wanted to pursue the arts and was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Cleveland Institute of Art, where I majored and received my BFA in Illustration.

Towards the end of my college senior year is when I really wanted to have something of my own that I was passionate about artistically. Something that I could relate to as well as others. That something had taken its form in the birth of my own indie comic series now known as Air Boards. An underdog story set in a futuristic world where two best friends team up with an unlikely ally to compete in racing and trick tournaments around the world!

Outside of comics, in the past few years since graduation, I have gained experience working both indie and professionally in the animation and game industry. I started out of college with freelance doing illustrations, logos, and a picture book for clients as I got them or was contacted. Around 2019 is when I joined my best friends (Noah Cartwright and Jimmy Taylor) to work alongside them at the indie studio Imaginex Animation Studios as a background Artist on short films and animation projects.

In 2021, we had all planned to move out to LA. It was honestly a difficult decision to make, quitting my job at the time to chase a dream that had no guarantee of certainty or anything lined up either. But whether it was a success or failure, one thing that can’t be taken away is the fact that I have an answer and gave it a shot. Fortunately, I can say things have been going well, and I’m very happy with the decision I made since moving from one coast to the next!

Since coming out here, I’ve had the pleasure of working contracts with CBA studios where I’ve worked as an artist for Disney, Bleacher Report, and a couple of other networks. In addition I have continued to build on QA experience from Blizzard Entertainment (working on Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1+2 and Diablo 2 Resurrected), to where I work now at a company called Hero Forge as a QA Art Specialist. I also been fortunate enough to receive the opportunity to do concept art and pitch ideas as well while working here!

Even still, there’s much that I want to accomplish and learn, which I believe is a core part of being an artist! I always keep an open mind and am willing to explore different ways to develop my skillset as an artist. When it’s all said and done, I’d love to have completed my comic series, written a novel, and developed my own indie game! Through all this, the goal has always remained the same: to inspire even just one person to want to create or relate to a story, the way it has inspired me when I grew up playing games and watching cartoons even to this day!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
In college, I struggled with identifying my voice and my art style and still didn’t feel I found it until after I graduated. During those collegiate years it was also a mental test of perseverance. I wasn’t the most talented at all by a long shot, and oftentimes, I felt like I was the worst one artistically. Surrounded by other people who were prodigies, and or just simply had done it far longer was what reinforced the negative mindset I had initially.

However, I felt this was the motivation that I needed to stay determined and push to improve! My mother often taught me to speak things into existence. So I would do just that: I reinforced the “why” I was pursuing what I was, and because of that, I often spent countless hours learning different techniques, asking tough questions about my work, getting criticism, and even drawing artistic wisdom from the friends I made. It all helped towards my development, and I’m always grateful for it!

Outside of school was a different beast, the reality is that everyone is competing for jobs, friends that I graduated with and the vets that have been doing it for years! I found that finding people with similar goals and/ or visions helps with collaboration on projects no matter the size, and by doing so, helps cultivate art skills, artistic visions, and the process, which in turn will make everyone stronger!

I think something every artist goes through is the feeling of “not being good enough,” and that can take the form of us measuring our success by where others are or what they’ve accomplished. Which I don’t think is fair to ourselves. Everyone’s road is different, and I think the only person you should measure yourself to, especially artistically, is the person you were the day before. It is something that even I still struggle with, but also reaffirms that I walk my own path!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I consider myself a jack of all trades but I think my two strong suits are comics and background/ environment art! Below are a couple of examples:

Air Boards (Indie Comic Series)
Background Artist (Imaginex Animation Studios)
BG Artist (CBA Studios)
Concept Art (Hero Forge)
BG Art (Disney Saturday’s)

Quality Assurance
– Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1+2 (Blizzard Entertainment)
– Diablo 2 Resurrected (Blizzard Entertainment)
– Hero Forge Minis

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up playing a ton of video games and watching cartoons and anime. I also played a lot of basketball and soccer alongside other sport activities, I was a fairly active kid/ teen when I think about it. I think many would have considered me one of the more quiet/ reserved kids, but once they got to know me, I would open up and crack a lot of jokes and be a friendly face.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/drdrain30
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darryl_draws/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AirBoardsComics/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darryl-cokes-ii-40181b13b
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwG623L8f5IDgq92jMr72aQ
• Other: Where to buy my comics – https://www.blurb.com/b/11622148-air-boards-3

Image Credits
Darryl Cokes II