My parents worked, so I would be in front of the TV or have my head in comics,” he says. “And it kind of raised me, in a way. That era of cartoons as well, there was just something about it that you don’t really see now. Every frame was a painting and the stories, even if they were goofy as hell, had really good narratives.
“Moving around a lot and going through different types of education systems, like in Romania, art wasn’t that accessible,” he says. “There wasn’t any money to go towards materials or lessons or anything, it was a very loose thing. But I was still finding myself drawing on bits of scrap paper and using whatever I could.
“And then when I came here it opened my mind up to all these different possibilities, experimenting with materials.”
But it wasn’t until lockdown when Ernesto started to hone his art, realising that it could become something more than just a hobby.
“It was just something I wanted to do as a career ever since I could remember,” he says. “That was the time to kind of explore and learn how to develop a style.”
Looking at the Ecomoga style, there is a lot of influence taken from the 90s/00s cartoon era.
“I loved Ed, Edd n Eddy – all their schemes and the DIY element to it,” says Ernesto. “Also, Courage the Cowardly Dog – that was insane. I don’t know if you’ve watched that, but it could be really scary. They used mixed media a lot with it, which kind of gives it this really eerie vibe, like something is out of place. There’s these villains or monsters that the dog has to fight. They’re just actually just kind of otherworldly.”
Ernesto takes part in Bad Guys Club, a social-media-led cartoon project held each October in which illustrator Craig Gleason sets a theme or villainous character every day for a month and artists around the world come up with their own version and back story, which are then displayed to the community.
“There’s loads of cool artists that actually take part in it,” says Ernesto. “That’s the main thing for me, getting to connect with all these really talented artists and being inspired by each other.”
Drawing villains or monsters is where Ernesto gets his most joy.
“I always try to include grotesque things in my art, even if they’re really subtle. I love playing with flesh – that sounds really weird, but making flesh look bubbly or boily or imperfect.”
