Sometimes, the most profound observations on life come from a skeleton.
Felipe Becerra creates detailed drawings posted to his SkizoDraws Instagram page and website. These drawings are often animated and turned into moving slices of life; they feature vivid colors, musings on things that affect all of us deeply, charismatic skeletons, video-game-styled binary choices, affirmations, and hope. More than 413,000 people (as of October 2024) follow his work on Instagram, and millions across the world interact with his posts and his shop.
Looking back, Felipe thinks that it was always meant to be.
Getting Started
Felipe was born in 2000; as of October 2024, he is 23 years old. A thread of connection to the world of art runs through his life. He spent the first 15 years of his life in Colombia, and many of his art memories gain meaning and significance in hindsight. When he was 8 years old, he spent hours making Play-Doh characters, lovingly crafting them into intricate masterpieces. He still remembers how his mother was blown away by the level of detail in each sculpture.
He asked his mother to take him to art classes so he could learn acrylic painting or comic drawing or manga, but he was never comfortable in them. He usually attended a single class and decided not to return; even back then, Felipe had a clear preference for self study. It’s the same today – he enjoys learning at his own pace, without external pressure, doing it purely for his own happiness and fulfillment.
Another important milestone was discovering paper craft. At a school event, Felipe saw a life size paper character and was immediately fascinated. He started experimenting with paper craft at home, and this became one of the activities that consumed most of his time during his childhood. He never set out to be an artist; it was something he naturally gravitated towards because it was always there.
Learning Skills
Self-learning has always been crucial to Felipe. When he was 11, he discovered Minecraft, and this changed his life. After playing for a while, he started watching YouTube videos about the game, eventually discovering that people were making Minecraft movies and funny clips. This inspired him to create his own videos; and he dove into tutorials on how to record his screen, edit videos, and use Photoshop for thumbnails. He ended up starting a YouTube channel at age 11, eventually gaining 150,000 subscribers through Minecraft shorts and movies with friends.
The skills Felipe learned through Minecraft – framing, storytelling, video editing, image editing, and animation – formed the foundation of his art career. They gave him a head start when he transitioned to Instagram to share his doodles. Interestingly, some of his original YouTube followers still ask if he plans to return to making Minecraft videos; they haven’t given up hope.
Launching SkizoDraws
Felipe started drawing during class to stay awake: a way to keep himself engaged while listening to the teacher. One day, a friend suggested creating an Instagram page to share his drawings. He pushed him to do it, even though Felipe didn’t even have a personal Instagram because he didn’t like sharing much of his life online. The account, originally called Feb_draws, launched in September 2018. To Felipe’s surprise, his posts gained traction (100-300 likes on average) and, in January 2019, he decided to change the name to something unique.
Felipe loves languages – he speaks Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese – so he decided to look for words in different languages that he could use for his art brand. He settled on the name “Skizo”, which comes from the word for “sketch” in Esperanto.
Instagram played a huge role in motivating him to keep going. Seeing real people appreciate his work pushed him to keep improving, and he quickly learned how the platform worked. He committed to posting a new drawing every 2-3 days. By month four, his drawings were getting close to 1,000 likes each, and he had nearly 500 followers. Within a month, he reached his first 1,000 followers. From there, growth continued steadily: his idols started noticing his work, followers got his art tattooed, and all of this kept pushing him forward.
In January 2020, Felipe decided to open an online store. He had around 10,000 followers at that point, and wanted to see if people would be interested in his art on clothing. Initially, he used a print-on-demand service, but it wasn’t as reliable as he would have liked: orders were late, often lost, and it wasn’t a good experience.
Overcoming Challenges
Like so many others, Felipe’s life changed during the pandemic. He lost his job as a bartender after COVID hit, and he decided to move to Montréal to study art formally. But he had to face a new set of challenges when he wasn’t accepted to either the illustration or graphic design programs at University.
Felipe was at a crossroads, and he decided to bet on himself. His Instagram page and online store were doing well, and he chose to invest everything he’d saved up to that point into making his products himself, rather than relying on third-party services. This was a pivotal moment in his career: he paused his formal education and focused on growing his business, while still investing time in learning the skills he needed online: art, sales, and marketing.
By September 2020, the SkizoDraws Instagram page reached 50,000 followers and, a year later, in September 2021, it hit 100,000. Growth was never explosive, but it was always consistent. And it weathered further challenges: after two and a half years of algorithm-fueled stagnation, it has quadrupled in reach and following during the second half of 2024, with corresponding growth on the shop front, both in terms of merchandise available and site features.
So, what exactly makes Felipe’s work so enduringly popular with millions of people in dozens of countries, and how has it evolved over time?
Analysis and Themes
A lot of the early art on the SkizoDraws page features a single visual, usually of a powerful character (like the skeleton) in a visually memorable situation, with a philosophical musing about life or a witty observation written beneath it. Even though the visual is simple, there are always multiple layers of meaning and significance. The background in these early pieces is usually monochrome: sticker art, but with way more swagger, and much more unforgettable.
The majority of his newer pieces of art feel like elaborate snapshots from a lived-in imaginary world. There is still the recognizable main character, the skeleton who drives the plot through expressions and poses and fashion accessories and gestures. But there’s also an entire rich background, and there are Easter Eggs and little touches and recurring elements to delight new viewers and fans alike. And it never feels crowded, the pieces feel as simple and profound and poignant as they did with far fewer elements on screen.
And these fantasy worlds (where daily life feels very like our own) populated by charismatic skeletons are also animated lovingly by Felipe, and even simple touches add to the immersion. There is also an interactive element in many of these short movies, one that takes its visual inspiration from video games. These elements usually take the form of simple choices (between A or B) offered to the viewer, and draw you further into the many vivid universes that spring into life from Felipe’s brain.
A typical SkizoDraws creation has a very interesting color palette. When it’s a fully realized world, it’s often bathed in a wash of color, like dark cyan, fuchsia, soft orange, sapphire blue, or midnight red – powerful hues that also feel comforting, that make his worlds feel cyberpunk and retro at the same time. The skeletons are usually in black and white (as skeletons often are), with occasional forays into comfortable clothing. The older drawings are largely black and white, with splashes of color adding dynamism.
Even the fonts are very carefully chosen, whether they’re the readable but beautiful straight lines and perfectly geometric curves of the older pieces, or the pixelated retro video game aesthetic of the recent animated reels. There are also directly drawn lines of text in the environment: whether they’re store signs or graffiti art installations, they look authentic and real.
An animated SkizoDraws piece feels comforting. It often talks about how life can feel heavy, and how it’s okay to take a break for a while. Even when it presents a choice between going on or giving up, it can help the viewer find the strength within to persevere and not give up. And even when it’s just an abstract vignette that feels like a carefully curated slice from an evening that any of us could have, there is always comfort, like reliving time spent alone or with a friend that helped us recharge after a long day. Even though, at first glance, the aesthetic might be dark, and Felipe doesn’t shy away from exploring macabre subjects, his work ultimately feels like it’s about hope, and about life rather than death, and about realizing that there are millions of people going through exactly the same thing every single moment.
And the older illustrations have all the elements that make the newer pieces great, and they’re just as special. For example, many of them seem like they could be scaled up to giant size, hung on the side of a building a thousand years hence, lit up in neon, and used to bring personality to the cities of the future.
Evolution as an Artist
The evolution of Felipe’s art has been a crucial part of his growth as an artist, and it’s one of the reasons he knows he can do this for the rest of his life. Whenever he feels like his art is stagnating or that he’s repeating himself, Felipe challenges himself to push his limits and explore new territory. These “personal challenges” always lead him to discover new capabilities, opening up fresh ideas and opportunities. This process keeps his art exciting and evolving. He identifies four major phases in his artistic journey so far:
Phase 1: Drawing on Paper
Felipe’s journey started with traditional art; he used fine liners on paper to create his first drawings. This was where he first explored the basics of creating art and laid the foundation for everything that came after.
Phase 2: First Contact with Digital Art
Felipe’s introduction to digital art came with black and white drawings. It was a big transition from traditional tools, and he focused on understanding linework and on adapting his skills to the digital medium.
Phase 3: Adding Depth
As he became more comfortable with the digital canvas, Felipe started making more complex shapes and adding depth to his art, such as shading and more detailed linework. This step was all about adding new dimensions to his drawings and pushing the limits of his digital skills.
Phase 4: Complex Scenes with Animation
The most recent phase has been about creating more intricate scenes and integrating animation into his work. This has added new layers of storytelling to Felipe’s art, making it more dynamic and immersive.
Process
Felipe’s more recent pieces – the elaborate drawings with characters and environments – can take up to 30 hours to complete. Seven steps are involved in their creation:
1. Rough Sketch: Every SkizoDraws piece begins life as a draft drawing to establish the composition and main elements.
2. Line Work: After he’s satisfied with the rough sketch, he spends a few hours on refined line work to define the structure of the piece.
3. Details: Felipe invests every element with depth and character by enhancing the visual complexity through adding intricate details; some of them will only ever be noticed by him, but all of them are important.
4. Base Color: The color palette is set by the application of base colors to each part of the drawing.
5. Shading: Next, Felipe adds dimension and depth through careful shading, giving each piece a more realistic and dynamic look.
6. Textures and Effects: To finish the drawing, Felipe makes the piece look more tactile and engaging by adding the final layer of polish.
7. Animation: Finally, the piece is brought to life through animated effects, taking it to a whole new level of interactiveness.
Tools: How the Magic is Created
Felipe has always been self-taught. He taught himself Photoshop and Sony Vegas when he was just 11 years old, relying solely on YouTube videos. He also picked up basic animation by experimenting with Adobe Flash. From an early age, he knew that anything he wanted to learn was accessible online.
His first tools were traditional: paper and fine liners. Once he could afford it, he bought a Huion Kamvas and started drawing digitally with Photoshop. It wasn’t long before he upgraded to an iPad because he wanted to try Procreate, and it turned out to be the best investment he’d ever made. His Photoshop skills translated seamlessly to Procreate. He still believes it’s one of the best drawing tools out there; the experience of drawing on an iPad is unmatched.
When Felipe decided he wanted to start animating his pieces, it took him a while to find the right software to use on the iPad – for example, Procreate’s built-in animation assist didn’t do everything he needed. Just as he was looking for something more robust, Procreate announced Procreate Dreams – the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. It’s been amazing to use so far, and he’s excited to see how it evolves.
Influences
The top three influences on Felipe’s work are:
1. Video Games: Felipe has been a gamer his whole life, and that passion naturally finds its way into his art. He tries to bring his love for both art and video games together through the retro game-like screens he uses in his pieces. Games like Hades or Red Dead Redemption 2 are a constant source of inspiration. The storytelling, the immersive worlds, the small details – these games have had a huge impact on him and have shaped the way he approaches his own work.
When Felipe played Hades for the first time, he was struck by how every aspect of the game was a work of art. He remembers spending hours just staring at the screen, drinking it all in, analyzing the music, the colors, and the tiny details that made the experience so rich. Even today, he thinks that the way everything comes together in Hades is incredibly inspiring. He feels the same about Red Dead Redemption 2; at times, he forgets he’s playing a game and feels like he’s appreciating a work of art. He channels these experiences into how he wants his art to feel for others.
One feature of Felipe’s animations that’s easy to miss – but that takes their interactivity to the next level – is their powerful User Experience design. Even with dozens of elements on screen, everything is easy to take in, and the structure of the text on screen – one statement, one question, two choices – feels like a retro text adventure game set in the far future. If you’ve always wished Instagram let you play video games, you can simulate a bit of that hypothetical experience by visiting the SkizoDraws page.
2. Music: Many of Felipe’s pieces are born from a simple concept – sometimes it’s a quote or an image; often it’s a song. Music is a huge part of his creative process, and artists like Mac Miller and Post Malone have deeply influenced his work. He can get obsessed with a song (for example, “Good News” by Mac Miller), and the emotions he feels while listening to it on loop often spark the genesis of a new work of art. Like an alchemist, he wants to capture those feelings visually, transforming them into something people can see and relate to.
3. Online Artists: When Felipe first started drawing, he was fascinated by the simple linework drawings made with fine liners that he saw online. He couldn’t believe that people could create such intricate pieces with just a pen, so he challenged himself to replicate them. To his surprise, he managed to achieve similar results and, through that process, he learned many things about drawing, and developed his own style. The artists he admired back then have become friends, and it’s incredible to him that he’s now on the other side of the story – where his own art inspires others. Felipe loves it when his art creates more art; it’s a cycle of inspiration that keeps going.
Making Every Piece Special
Felipe works hard to add details to every piece so that viewers can immerse themselves in the worlds he creates. Some of them are just visual details that add depth to the environments, while some are references that have fans rushing to the comments to talk about their newest discoveries.
The Easter Eggs in his work usually come to life at a late stage of the creative process. They aren’t planned in advance – there’s a point at which the key elements of the piece are in place, and Felipe starts adding smaller details to fill the scene. Depending on the vibe of the drawing, he just freestyles most of the additions. A few Easter Eggs are more intentional or strategically placed, but the majority are spontaneous ideas that pop into his head.
Some of his favorite Easter Eggs are the hidden phone numbers that he scribbles as if they were scratched onto walls in his drawings. Of course, he doesn’t use real phone numbers, but it’s very entertaining to read comments from people who’ve tried calling them just to see what would happen. Felipe loves how it sparks curiosity and interaction among viewers: it’s one of those moments where art spills over into real life, and that makes him smile.
People often think that Felipe’s art reflects his own feelings and problems. While this is occasionally true, the reality is that, most of the time, his work reflects the way in which he views the world. He tries to take a natural, observational approach, seeing himself as a mere observer of our complex, often chaotic reality. Human beings are incredibly intricate, and he finds motivation for his art in analyzing real world struggles. Felipe sees, processes, analyzes, and then expresses his understanding of emotions, perspectives, and ways of being.
The SkizoDraws skeleton doesn’t have a specific name, lore, or backstory, and that’s intentional. Felipe started using a skeleton as the main character because, firstly, skulls are visually captivating. He also finds them cool to draw and they make for powerful visual images. A skeleton goes beyond gender, race, language, and all those boundaries; it’s a universal symbol, a reminder of how we’re all the same inside. Felipe uses it as a way to represent all of us, and he wants anyone who views his work to feel like they could be that skeleton.
Art and Entrepreneurship
As of October 2024, the SkizoDraws website has a well-stocked shop, with multiple items in three categories: clothing (tees, crewnecks, and hoodies), digital products (wallpapers and icon packs), and accessories (including stickers and enamel pins). It also feels fun and interactive in the same way his animated art does, with the Spooky Sweepstakes giveaway for Halloween feeling like a special video game drop. Everything feels like an extension of his art. The entire store has all the qualities that we’ve come to associate with Felipe’s work: on-point aesthetics, ease of use, and high quality at every step.
For example, the icon pack was an experiment that unexpectedly became one of SkizoDraws’ bestsellers. Felipe never imagined how much people would love it, even though he had focused on creating something he personally liked and would use. Being a purely digital product made it accessible worldwide, bypassing the challenges of shipping physical items.
And it inspired him to make his art even more accessible. After the huge success of the icon pack, Felipe decided to create a folder with all of his illustrations and sell it as a convenient online bundle. It quickly became the top seller at the store. This motivated him to take it a step further – to turn something good into something amazing. Felipe identified areas for improvement and designed a complete experience for every single wallpaper. He wanted to sell them for just $1, but he also wanted buyers to feel like it was the best dollar they’d ever spent.
And they did.
The wallpapers were a huge success, and reaffirmed Felipe’s commitment to create products that genuinely offer value to his followers.
Building a Global Community Online
The SkizoDraws Instagram page is massively successful. As of October 2024, it has more than 413,000 followers, with 17 reels having crossed the 1 million view mark. The most popular reel currently sits at 11.6 million views, and features a skeleton sitting in what can only be described as a gloriously peaceful graveyard, one that feels more like a rolling meadow than a place of death. There is warmth from a roaring fire, there is relaxation, there is a pretty sky. You cannot look at it and not feel serene, like you want to stay and chill. With almost a million likes and 3,500+ comments, it means different things to different people; some of whom use the piece as motivation to come back after what seems like a world-ending personal event, while others talk about how they like to take some time out to recover before plunging back into the hurly-burly of everyday life.
When we talked to Felipe about the inspiration for the piece, he told us that it was inspired by the Dark Souls series of video games. The series profoundly impacted him in many ways. Although the games are often known for being extremely challenging and sometimes frustrating (a quick search for “Dark Souls boss fight” will tell you all you need to know), they have taught Felipe a lot about perseverance.
Just like in real life, the difficult parts of any Souls game require practice, patience, and countless failed attempts before succeeding. Elden Ring, the latest entry in the series, is Felipe’s favorite game ever, and it changed his life and personal and professional outlook. It led him to adopt what he calls “The Dark Souls Effect” or “The Elden Ring Effect”, where he tries to approach life’s challenges with the same determination he brought to those games, knowing that the worst thing that could happen after trying and failing is simply having another opportunity to try again, and again, and again.
Looking at the success of a piece like this one, it’s hard to imagine that growth wasn’t always easy. Felipe has always relied on the strength of his content to grow his following, and the algorithm has not always been his friend. For example, between September 2021 and May 2024, after Instagram made Reels a centerpiece of its offering, his reach began to decline. Even though he was at 100,000 followers, he lost a few every time he posted. Nothing seemed to work, but he was not discouraged, and kept experimenting and learning.
In May 2024, Instagram announced an algorithm change, and suddenly, older accounts like his were reaching new audiences again. Felipe took the opportunity to polish his content, archive his experimental posts, and refocus his efforts. And It worked! Felipe’s first video after the change racked up 100,000 views in no time and, soon after, nearly every video he posted surpassed a million views. After two years of losing followers, he suddenly had days where the SkizoDraws page gained 15K followers. He has a healthy relationship with numbers; they don’t make him feel more talented or special, but he uses them to help him understand if he’s doing a good job. Being an artist is his job now, and he wants to do his best to succeed.
Something that’s strikingly unique about Felipe’s online community of fans is how wholesome it is. Head over to his Instagram comment section, and you will find people talking about what they might choose in the situation set up by the animated reel, or sharing their own experiences, or talking to each other about life, or talking about things they love about the drawing, about Easter Eggs they found and they’re excited about sharing with the world. There are no bots, no toxicity, no cynicism – it feels like a purple meadow with a skeleton propped up comfortably against a slab of carved stone: strangely comforting and happy.
Felipe loves interacting with people who love his work. There isn’t a single story that stands out to him; rather, he feels fulfilled by many small, meaningful conversations. The goal of his work has always been to connect with people, to make them feel understood and listened to. Starting out, he wanted viewers to experience strong emotions when seeing his art. When he read the comments, he was touched to see that most people felt the same way, that he had achieved his goal of connection.
He thinks it’s common to feel like a misfit: misunderstood and different. His art aims to give people a space where they can feel seen and heard. Over the years, many people have reached out to Felipe to tell him that his work has spoken directly to them; they felt as if he somehow knew what they were going through. Knowing that his art creates this kind of connection and comfort means everything to him.
Felipe is excited about the future. Over 2023-24, his main goal has been to grow his online store from being an artist’s merch shop to a full clothing brand. He’s spent two years planning, and now it’s time to put everything into action. He has a lot of exciting plans – more content ideas, new platforms like YouTube and TikTok, and new animations for SkizoDraws. This is just the beginning of something big.
Felipe would like to thank…
…his friends and family. They have been the most important part of his journey. Felipe himself doesn’t always realize the impact his work has on others; he creates because he finds it cool. He doesn’t even realize how interesting his work is to most others. But his friends and family help him see how special his work is, they talk to him about how much his ideas mean to them. In the mirror of their love and support, he can see the impact of his work reflected. When Felipe listens to them introducing him to new people, his heart is full, and he cannot believe how much they admire him, and how lucky he is to have them – for example, when strangers meet him for the first time and already know about his work because of his support system spreading the world. They have been with him from day one, and their pride in what he’s achieved brings him the greatest joy.
It’s the same with his family: seeing his mother proud of his work and the person he’s become is invaluable. In Felipe’s head, he’s just a regular guy drawing in his room, but his friends and family see a skilled artist and entrepreneur. Their support means everything to him.
Links
SkizoDraws – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skizodraws/.
SkizoDraws – Website: https://skizodraws.com/.
SkizoDraws – TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skizodraws.