Rafael Mena Illustration

Hey guys, I'm having some troubles with the landlord and I might be needing to find a new place soon.

I don't really want to beg for cash or anything so I'd appreciate if you guys could lend me some support over on the Patron if you're able ofc.

www.patreon.com/c/Rafaelmena

Also, the dude in the OP is a Quangariecha, elite soldier and guard of King Tariacuri of Patzcuaro, forebearer of the Tarascan empire.

I thank you in advance and really appreciate *any* support, I was hit with the problem at a VERY inconvenient moment and it'd really be great if I could avoid anymore distractions from my work, cheers 😓

I'm swamped with work atm, so I wouldn't feel comfortable taking commissions, as I don't think I'd be able to start anything larger than a sketch until next year, but I'm doing a lot of crazy stuff that I think you'll definitely be interested in if you like and follow what I do!

Hey guys, I'm having some troubles with the landlord and I might be needing to find a new place soon.

I don't really want to beg for cash or anything so I'd appreciate if you guys could lend me some support over on the Patron if you're able ofc.

www.patreon.com/c/Rafaelmena

This has been in the making for a while, and it's coming soon:

An interactive 3D viewer for my virtual reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, right in your browser.

More details to follow. Stay tuned!

#tenochtitlan #blender #threejs

The US is the Russia of the western hemisphere and Latin America's relationship with that country is very much reminiscent of Eastern Europe.
Imagine how obnoxious some of the "lofty ideal" narratives would sound from the mouth of a "Z" russian and you get the gist of lurking bluesky as a mexican.

This looks really tight

A drawing of a woman in a mix of late medieval plate armor and late roman armor, with light green and red clothes. She is wielding a spear and a shield, and wearing a golden late roman helmet. Her shield is painting with three arrows piercing through a dragon.

More mixing nonsense, but I'm having too much fun with it! 😊

Digital pencil style line drawings on a white paper background with the retro Meat-Eater at the top and Ember at the bottom. Both with mouth open in a walking facing left pose.

Design study of early and recent movie Tyrannosaurus rex. King Kong 1933 "Meat-Eater" and Jurassic World Rebirth 2025 "Ember" for DracoTyrannus. #Tyrannosaurus #Trex #Tyrannosaurusrex #Dinosaur #Retrosaur #KingKong #JurassicWorldRebirth

1) pic of Melissa and Mark Hortman 2) pic of Melissa Hortman and dog Gilbert

Remembering MN house speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their beloved dog Gilbert. Murdered in June at their home by a rightwing Trump-voting evangelist, who also shot another MN lawmaker and his wife at THEIR home, 9 and 8 times, respectively (miraculously, they survived).

Hoist with his own petard.

lol

Some images of the Calixtlahuaca bird. The city was originally called Matlatzinco, but the conquering Mexica gave it the name Calixtlahuaca. The bird may signal the name of the ruling dynasty.

Stick it out till the bubble bursts.

Amongst clasicists, or inded any person specialized in the pre-modern world, is there any average depth of rank for armies engaging in combat?
Or is it very specific to the formations used.

ONLINE LEFTIST: what if we tried to find a candidate that's good
ONLINE LIBERAL: congratulations your attitude just killed us all. we're dead. hope you're happy. we could've just had trans people be dead but nooooo you and your purity tests put a gun to our heads and squeezed. enjoy the camps homo 🖕

Gotta save to comission that tattoo design one of these days.

An illustration I did for a competition in China 🤞Anchiornis

Thank you!

The inspiration for the armor is based on panoply observed Classic Maya ceramics, as well as "Toltec" inspirations from Chichen Itza.

and not a real attempt to imagine how these cultures would have developed with a more advanced knowledge of metalworking, as that would be a rather dramatic change to speculate with.

Sketch of a Maya warrior wearing fantasy metal armor.

Part of a series of commissions that re-imagine Mesoamerican warriors if the region had developed steel. The intention here is more focused on fantasy, revisiting cultural and iconographic elements of the Classic Maya -

A reconstruction illustration (by Kathryn Killackey) showing groups of hunters approaching Asiab, an early Neolithic site in Iran. In the foreground, one ground is forging a river and climbing up onto the banks. Two men carry a field-dressed wild boar between them on a pole. Another man has his hide clothing bundled and is carrying them on his head. He also has a hide bag on his back with a red deer antler strapped to it. The hunters exiting the river are dressed in hide loincloths and carry bows or spears. One wears a necklace of boar tusks perforated at both ends. The rest of this group has already crossed and dressed themselves in hide leggings, tunics, and shoes. They carry an assortment of baskets and bags on their backs, one with another boar's head attached. Their tunics and legging have decorative detailing with red ochre and small disk beads. They are walking up a slope towards the settlement at the top. A group stands at the top of the slope, greeting the new comers. Behind them is a large rammed earth circular building with a flat thatch roof. There are also clusters of smaller circular structures made of poles and hide, some with wood shade shelters attached. Groups of people are busy preparing food, including cooking another boar, for a feast. Children and dogs are running about. Another group of hunters are also seen arriving in the midground, entering the image from the right side. The landscape is covered in a mix of grass, wild pistacio and almond trees. There are sedges along the river banks. This vegetation is dry and yellowing, indicating autumn. You can see mountains in the background and vultures following air currents in the distance.

A new piece, my recent illo depicting long distance transport of wild boars to Asiab in the early Iranian #Neolithic. I’ve reposted a couple articles featuring the illustration but here’s the whole image and some detail crops.
#archaeology 🏺 #SciArt 🐡
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And then you have to moderate, be anxious about it being popular enough, be anxious about it being too popular and attracting a negative crowd when it does.
I've got shit to do :(

Sometimes you don't post an illustration immediately because of an NDA, because of the Algo, or because of scheduling issues, and then you forget to post it, and they get stalled in a cue and it becomes a hassle to post, because you didn't right descriptions and posting is a day long ordeal 😔.

Nancy Pelosi running defense means the list is real and a lot of Clinton Democrats are on it

Could President Cookiemonster have been the one to eat all the cookies in the cookie jar?

Get more from Pedro Rafael Mena on Patreon creating Archaeological, Historical and Paleontological illustra

www.patreon.com/c/Rafaelmena

While I haven't been posting terribly frequently, you can see that I've thankfully been very busy. If it's not too much to ask, any amount of support on Patreon will, over the long term, will be helpful in my ongoing endeavor to post the great illustrations about the ancient Americas, cheers!