A samurai spirit confronts a mechanical demon in The Stoic's Tablet

Illustration
& Worldbuilding

Jesús Leglisse · Mexico City

Narrative painting, creature design and artifacts for imagined worlds.Pintura narrativa, diseño de criaturas y artefactos para mundos imaginados.

Selected work ↓Obra seleccionada ↓
Selected portfolio · 2022–2026Portafolio seleccionado · 2022–2026

Bodies become machines. Symbols become creatures. Images become objects.Los cuerpos se vuelven máquinas. Los símbolos se vuelven criaturas. Las imágenes se vuelven objetos.

01 · Artifact & world design

The Sacred Tablets

An artist-led art and design project built across five skateboard decks—everyday objects of play transformed into artifacts charged with mysticism. The series interweaves philosophy, hermeticism and esotericism with engine imagery and elements drawn from Mexican and Japanese cultures. Each deck develops its own mythology through symbolic crossings and hybrid figures.

Conceived as an exercise in complete creative authorship, the project encompasses concept development, illustration, design, color, material research and image adaptation, as well as process documentation, photography, lighting, video and post-production.
Proyecto autoral de arte y diseño construido sobre cinco tablas de skate: objetos cotidianos y lúdicos transformados en artefactos cargados de misticismo. La serie entrelaza filosofía, hermetismo y esoterismo con el imaginario de los motores y elementos de las culturas mexicana y japonesa. Cada tabla desarrolla su propia mitología mediante cruces culturales, símbolos y figuras híbridas.

Concebido como un ejercicio de control creativo integral, el proyecto abarca conceptualización, ilustración, diseño, color, investigación de materiales y adaptación de las imágenes al objeto, además del registro del proceso, fotografía, iluminación, video y postproducción.

2023Digital illustration7-ply skateboard decks · 78 × 20 cm

“Whoever gathers the Five Tablets will inherit what they guard and what they keep silent. Let the bearer remember: all power demands an equivalent form of sacrifice.”“Aquel que reúna las Cinco Tablillas heredará aquello que guardan y aquello que callan. Que recuerde el portador: todo poder reclama una forma equivalente de sacrificio.”

The Stoic's Tablet illustration
The bearerEl portador
“The machine may oppose the body; only the will decides whether it reaches the mind.”“La máquina puede oponerse al cuerpo; sólo la voluntad decide si alcanza la mente.”
Genesis & Revelation · Source artwork

The complete illustrationLa ilustración completa

Shown outside the silhouette of the skateboard deck, the original digital composition reveals the internal anatomy, mechanical systems and symbolic passages that remain only partially visible on the finished artifact.Presentada fuera de la silueta de la tabla de skate, la composición digital original permite apreciar la anatomía interna, los sistemas mecánicos y los recorridos simbólicos que sólo se vislumbran parcialmente en el artefacto terminado.

Complete digital illustration associated with the Genesis and Revelation skateboard decks
Detail studyEstudio de detalle
Anatomy in transitionAnatomía en transiciónA closer view of the passage between organic matter, perception and cosmic artifact.Un acercamiento al tránsito entre materia orgánica, percepción y artefacto cósmico.
Anatomical detail from the Genesis and Revelation visual universe
Outside the final cycle · Independent workFuera del ciclo final · Obra independiente

The Unbroken LineEl linaje inquebrantable

A tribute to the women in my family—my grandmother, mother and aunt—whose strength has been forged through work, motherhood, athletic discipline, illness and loss. The central warrior condenses three generations into a single mythic body advancing through grief, care and adversity without surrendering her force.Homenaje a las mujeres de mi familia —mi abuela, mi madre y mi tía—, cuya fortaleza se ha forjado entre el trabajo, la maternidad, la disciplina atlética, la enfermedad y la pérdida. La guerrera central condensa tres generaciones en un solo cuerpo mítico que avanza a través del duelo, el cuidado y la adversidad sin renunciar a su fuerza.

Initially developed within the visual universe of The Sacred Tablets, its panoramic composition remained an independent work outside the final five-piece cycle.Desarrollada inicialmente dentro del universo visual de Las Tablillas Sagradas, su composición panorámica permaneció como una obra independiente fuera del ciclo final de cinco piezas.

2023Digital illustrationPanoramic composition
The Unbroken Line panoramic digital illustration
02 · Cosmic entity

The Threefold Hegemon

Three contemporary geopolitical powers become the faces of a supramortal authority. Its power operates above the human order, subjecting mortal life to realities beyond its perception.Tres fuerzas geopolíticas contemporáneas se convierten en los rostros de una autoridad supramortal. Su poder opera por encima del orden humano y somete la vida mortal a realidades que exceden su percepción.

2026Acrylic on canvas160 × 140 cm
The Threefold Hegemon painting
“Mortals contend for the world. The Hegemon decides which reality will contain them.”
El Hegemón Triforme
03 · Character illustration

The Blind Engine

Humanity imagined as a ruthless mechanism of violence. An engine with exposed pistons replaces the head; without eyes, the figure embodies the blindness with which a species turns its destructive power against itself.La humanidad imaginada como un mecanismo despiadado de violencia. Un motor con pistones expuestos sustituye la cabeza; sin ojos, la figura encarna la ceguera con la que una especie dirige su poder destructivo contra sí misma.

2022Digital illustration
The Blind Engine digital illustration
04 · Narrative painting

Liturgy of the Broken Bond

A family experience becomes a ritual of emotional inheritance. Around a table, words, teachings, illness and affection acquire material form and pass from one generation to the next.Una experiencia familiar se convierte en un ritual de herencia emocional. Alrededor de una mesa, palabras, enseñanzas, enfermedad y afecto adquieren forma material y pasan de una generación a la siguiente.

2025Acrylic on prepared paper120 × 80 cm
Liturgy of the Broken Bond painting
“Every family keeps a table where what no one wished to inherit is served.”
Liturgia del lazo roto
05 · Narrative painting & process

The Silence of the Popoluca

A family experience of failed communication is juxtaposed with the intergenerational loss of an Indigenous language. As each figure undergoes a distinct alchemical transformation, the painting asks whether people reshape the land—or the land ultimately reshapes them.Una experiencia familiar de incomunicación se yuxtapone con la pérdida intergeneracional de una lengua originaria. Mientras cada figura atraviesa una transformación alquímica distinta, la obra pregunta si las personas transforman la tierra o si la tierra termina por transformarlas.

2025Acrylic on canvas190 × 140 cm
The Silence of the Popoluca finished painting

Selected process

Sketch → block-in → development → final
Initial composition sketch
01 · Composition
First color block-in
02 · Color block-in
Painting in progress
03 · Development
Finished painting
04 · Final
06 · Creature & artifact development

The Zodiac of the Bearers

An original mythological system of cosmic totemic entities. Each embodies a zodiacal principle and may manifest as an autonomous creature or an artifact of power. Digital designs were translated into sculpted, printed and hand-finished objects.Sistema mitológico original de entidades totémicas cósmicas. Cada una encarna un principio zodiacal y puede manifestarse como criatura autónoma o artefacto de poder. Los diseños digitales fueron trasladados a objetos modelados, impresos y terminados a mano.

2025Digital illustration · 3D sculptingUV resin · automotive pearlApprox. 22 × 11 × 10 cm
Gemini concept illustrationGemini resin sculpture

Bearer of Unstable Duality

Gemini · Two natures contend within one body, yielding only to a truth greater than either will.

“Two wills contend for the body; a higher truth decides which one shall prevail.”

Cancer concept illustrationCancer resin sculpture

Bearer of the Armored Vigil

Cancer · A crab fused with a samurai head. Cameras, robotic eyes and sensors transform protection into perpetual vigilance.

“Nothing reaches its shell without first being seen.”

Taurus concept illustrationTaurus resin sculpture

Bearer of Sacred Tension

Taurus · A mechanical bull and a skull remain locked in a single body around a visible engine. From their fusion emerges a confused abstract mass: accumulated force caught between propulsion, animal instinct and mortality.

“Its power is born where the engine’s momentum collides with the certainty of the skull.”

Jesús
Leglisse

Visual artist · Illustrator · Worldbuilder

Mexico City–based multidisciplinary artist working across painting, illustration, printmaking, sculpture and audiovisual production. His practice combines anatomy, machinery, hermetic symbolism and saturated color to build entities, artifacts and narrative scenes that move between intimate experience and speculative mythology.Artista multidisciplinario radicado en Ciudad de México que trabaja con pintura, ilustración, gráfica, escultura y producción audiovisual. Su práctica combina anatomía, maquinaria, simbolismo hermético y color saturado para construir entidades, artefactos y escenas narrativas entre la experiencia íntima y la mitología especulativa.

IllustrationCreature designWorldbuildingNarrative painting3D sculptingArtifact development