Ren Varela
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cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
Ren Varela
@cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
1.9K followers 160 following 2.2K posts
A Latine dark fantasy, horror, and surrealist artist, illustrator, storyteller.
#DarkArt
🚫 No A/I ; 🚫 N/F/Ts

Nonbinary | Pronouns: they/them

📧 Contact: [email protected]
🌐 https://bio.site/CobaltCorvus
🥫 https://ko-fi.com/cobaltcorvus
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cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
Ren Varela @cobaltcorvus.bsky.social · 27d
Hello, #PortfolioDay!

I'm Ren Varela, a freelance artist that specializes in dark, slightly surrealist fantasy illustrations, and character & creature designs.

I am open for work & interested in creating art for TTRPGs!

💼 Portfolio
🖼️ Print Shop
🪙 Tip Jar
✉️ Contact: [email protected]
A collage image of six different paintings done by the poster of various skull headed humanoid figures, most with their skulls floating above dismembered torsos and other mystical features. A collage of six images that are of three different character portraits, two of which show full body poses. A collage of two different images featuring the same character. One is a portrait of a ghostly male character that is mostly in shadow except for his face. He has dark hair, blue skin and glowing eyes. The other features different portrait angles and one almost full body pose. A collage of three different digital paintings. One is a portrait of a headless figure in a suit and tie with two glowing halos of different sizes floating where the head would be. Second is of a jackal skull floating above the neck of a dismembered, semi-human, teal torso. Last is of a giant, four-armed, skull-headed figure floating in a large thunder cloud with several bolts of lighting generating from its hands and the cloud as sunlight shines from behind it all.
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
Who up pondering thine orb?
#DarkArt
A digital painting of a skull headed, glowing eyed figure that is just a disembodied torso and a floating right arm, pondering a glowing orb set in front of a black background.
November 10, 2025 at 7:40 PM
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
There's a sale on at Blick's website and I decided this was a sign to finally get my hands on some Holbein artists' gouache to try out.
November 10, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
stinasdemons.com
🎨 Things to preserve your finished art, that I have learned w time & experience:

Pencil, Pastel: Spectrafix (buy a continuous mister spray bottle for hair, use IT)
Watercolor: Dorland's Wax Medium
Gouache: Dorland's Wax Medium or Spectrafix
Acrylic, Oil: Gamblin Gamvar (Matte or Gloss)
November 10, 2025 at 6:46 PM
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
Remember: It's normal for full art pieces to take more than a day or two to complete. Some pieces will take longer to complete than others and that's normal.

Social media has warped our perception on how long things actually take to create. You're doing fine. 🤍
November 10, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
kellyknowles.art
here's some step-by-step instructions on how to reveal some erroneously hidden posts from your feeds (those marked by bluesky as "rude")

i've seen totally innocuous posts get hidden for this reason. it doesn't even work as intended, so i recommend updating your settings
astridoverthere.bsky.social I said abolish and I fucking meant it @astridoverthere.bsky.social · 4d
Wondering why no one likes your posts anymore, even among your friends? It's because @jay.bsky.team and team have decided to hide a huge amount of content from all of our feeds by default.

Here's how to turn it off.

First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner
Screenshot of the top of a Bsky feed, with a red circle around the hamburger menu in the top left.
November 6, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
maskenjager.bsky.social
The biggest thing i've learned as an artist who sells prints and merch is don't make what people ask for. They won't buy it. Make what you, the artist, want to see printed on the support of ur choice.
I can't explain why but THAT'S what will sell. People who buy the most are the silent ones. 🫶
davechisholmcomics.com Dave Chisholm @davechisholmcomics.com · 4d
Remember, artists: when people say, “I’d buy a print of this,” they don’t mean it. That sentence itself is just a weird compliment that rarely converts to an actual print sale. It’s like if someone ate a very good hot dog and then said, “I could eat 10,000 of these right now.”
November 6, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Ren Varela
annijyn.com
you can just go ask crows stuff instead of asking chatgpt
November 6, 2025 at 12:14 PM
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
It's not even 8am here yet and I've already submitted 4 more applications.

And still not a single call-back for an interview... 🙃

I just want out of my toxic day job already. 😭
November 5, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
zachsilberberg.bsky.social
this is a reminder that we dont have to settle for newsom in 2028
November 5, 2025 at 2:44 AM
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
I've pretty much given up trying to get back on a schedule for the rest of the year. 🙃

It happens every year so I'm not really surprised but I definitely need to try harder to not let myself get thrown off track better.

Goals for next year, I guess.
November 4, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
tinylongwing.bsky.social
"Hey vato, you good? You look like you saw a ghost."

"Yeah... I'm good. Wasn't anything, man."

"You wanna call it a night? It's almost two AM, we can get this tomorrow -"

"One more take. On three."

🎨 #fanart #lordhuron
Digital illustration of Dale Redmayne in grayscale, outlined in white. He has headphones on and is holding onto a microphone, while his guitar strap crosses his chest. He is wearing a t-shirt, which shows the tattoos on his arms. He is looking away from the mic, not singing, but has paused as if stopped mid-lyric by something we can't see. His hair looks unruly and his eyes are tired.
November 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
mev0934.bsky.social
November 3, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Ren Varela
bruib.bsky.social
Temper, temper.

#Art #DarkArt
A cosmic scene. A diamond hole falls away to reveal a giant eye. Roots grow from its base.
November 1, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
mindistortion.tv
Who's up for one more

✨🎃 SPOOKY ART SHARE 🎃✨

🕷️ Share your spooky art!
👻 Like and repost!
🐀 Tag friends, if you like!
💀 Add alt text, if possible!
🕸️ Label NSFW!
👹 Support each other with a comment, repost or like!
❌ Human-made only, no A👁️ or NF🍵s

#artshare #darkart #art #artistsupport #halloween
Edited screenshot of a The Simpsons episode, with Lionel Hutz's advertising edited to show the text: "Halloween is over?" "No, more spooky art!" whereby the punctuation has been added to invert the original meaning of the text.
November 2, 2025 at 1:36 PM
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
I spent most of yesterday redoing an environment piece only to get to a point where I think I need to redo it again... ._.

#ArtistProblems #ArtistStruggles
October 29, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
Rose Gold, Rose Quartz
2020, Ren Varela
Digital (Clip Studio Paint EX)
🖼️ #art #DarkArt
A dark art, digital painting of a haloed, skull headed figure floating in a void with arms stretched to its sides, palms facing forward, and with rose quartz protruding from its shattered, decaying body.
April 1, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
unknownrelic.com
QRP with your dark art 🖤
In the middle panel are two hands holding a snake dissolving into mist and lights, on either side of this middle panel are close ups of an illustration of dead cala lilies. The silhouette of ancient ruins beneath an Aurora vortex, set in a gold border Ancient columns held together by vines and roots, creating a portal in the middle of space. The silhouette of a winged goat creature flies over a winter forest beneath a blue moon. Set within a gold border, topped with a logo that reads BANSHEE MOON
October 28, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
bruib.bsky.social
QRP with your dark art 🖤

#Art #DarkArt
layers of tarnished leaves cut away in a heart shape, dropping away. At the bottom is a glowing red glass heart. A dark, thinly crescented moon in the starry void. looking down a dark well, a black figure dives down, arms and legs spread. A light shine from the deep. A tiny speck of a person ascends an apparently endless, red, glowing staircase, set in the dark chaos of many other incomplete steps.
October 28, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
fultzywultzyart.bsky.social
QRP with your dark art. 💀❤️
October 28, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
unknownrelic.com
A late post, but… my late involvement in #zombieskulltober continues.
Inside of a golden border, set against a dark grey background is a beige malformed skull with a melting lower jaw and glowing eyes. Above it is a floating bone like crown.
October 28, 2025 at 2:08 AM
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
QRP with your dark art 🖤
A dark art digital painting of portrait of a headless figure in a suit and tie with two glowing halos of different sizes floating where the head would be. A digital painting of a male ghost character that is semi-transparent in places, in front of a bunch of white roses and a black backdrop. Part of his skull is visible as well as the bones of his right hand. A digital painting of a jackal skull in profile view floating about a horizontal, black halo, both floating above the neck of a dismembered, semi-human, teal torso. All is painted on a black back drop. A dark art, digital painting of a haloed, skull headed figure floating in a void with arms stretched to its sides, palms facing forward, and with rose quartz protruding from its shattered, decaying body.
October 28, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
sygnin.com
Day 28 for #repostober

The witches

#darkart
Art of witches with bird skull heads, riding brooms at night
October 28, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
smittermeier.bsky.social
The vibe I bring to the function
Guillermo del Toro at a Frankenstein screening with a mic in hand Subtitles „thank you very much“ „and fuck AI“
October 22, 2025 at 10:32 PM
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
Post something halloween-y!
🎃👻💀🍁🍂🦇
A gouache painting of a creepy house that seems to be decaying, surrounded by tall grass and two dark trees frame it (the tree on the viewer's right is out of frame but its branches are coming in). It appears to be night but greeting the viewer are two friendly ghosts! One is inside the house seen in one of the windows while the second ghost is emerging from a circular, second floor window with their arms raised in greeting with a smile.
October 28, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Ren Varela
cobaltcorvus.bsky.social
Thanks for hosting and the tag, Quico!
Best of luck to us all this Monday + week. 🫡
A digital painting of a jackal skull in profile view floating about a horizontal, black halo, both floating above the neck of a dismembered, semi-human, teal torso. All is painted on a black back drop. A digital painting that is a portrait of a ghostly male character that is mostly in shadow except for his face. He has dark hair, blue skin and glowing eyes. A dark, digital painting of a figure that is just a torso with arms that are shrugging and has a floating skull wearing a golden laurel. There's a glowing orb beneath the torso. A digital painting of a giant, multi-armed, skull-headed figure in a large thunder cloud with several bolts of lighting generating from it.
October 27, 2025 at 2:01 PM