I met SantoVDraws (aka Santiago Venegas) at Florida Supercon a few years ago. I’ve always enjoyed his art style and content — since we seem to have a similar taste in video games. I’ve run into him time after time, but this year during Florida Supercon 2026 I finally had the chance to chat with him about his background, his inspiration, and some current and upcoming projects.

Santo’s love for art started at a young age. At around 10 or 11 years old, he became obsessed with the creature designs from the Alien and Predator franchises. He tried drawing them over and over, until he got it right. This spawned his interest in becoming an artist and ultimately his love for character design.

Santo currently works a Monday-to-Friday gig, but finds time to travel the country and exhibit his work at conventions — his ultimate goal is to make his passion into his career. You can find him at most of the big Florida/South Florida conventions — Florida Supercon, Megacon, Otakufest, Animate Orlando. He has even traveled to Seattle and Hawaii this year. A few customers came by his booth during our chat to check out his work, and many even purchased items.

There’s a couple of reasons why his work always catches my eye. First, he’s always creating artwork featuring the games that he plays and characters he loves — Sonic the Hedgehog, Hollow Knight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Persona… Each year, I feel like he adds something new that I recently got into — I’m currently playing through Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, so I was excited to see his latest creations.

There is currently a long backlog of projects he is working on and plans to work on. He recited the list to me. I see some artists online chasing whatever the crowd is currently into. He admitted he did that when he started out a bit, but now mostly sticks to the franchises he enjoys. Santo’s passion really shines through in his work. It’s also nice to chat with an artist who is also a fan of the inspiration for their work.

Some other games he’s currently playing include Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy VII, NieR: Automata, Cyberpunk 2077, and Soul Caliber. I can see him creating artwork from any of these worlds. He’s also into City Skylines at the moment, but doesn’t plan on creating any art based on that game. I’m sure it’s a nice game to appreciate for background design.

Another way his love for these properties shines throughout his work is his attention to detail. He doesn’t just draw a character, he includes backgrounds, textures, or other related characters. When it comes to t-shirt designs, the main art piece is featured on the backside, but he also tosses in some icons and easter eggs on the front and sleeve. I didn’t realize that he was wearing his own merch (his Hollow Knight shirt) until I noticed the Hollow Knight icon and his blade, Nail, on the sleeve. His t-shirts are sort of incognito gaming shirts.

Most of the artists I meet at Florida Supercon have art prints, t-shirts, and maybe stickers for sale. Santo features two distinct pieces in his collection. First, he creates oversized (16 x 32 inch) deskmats. These are perfect to protect your workstation from your keyboard and mouse, and they are also nice for TCGs (trading card games) or tabletop gamers.

I own a couple of smaller deskmats for tabletop gaming and TCGs (24 x 13.5 inch). I also use them as my workstation for my MacBook to protect our dinner table. I measured out my desktop workstation at home after Florida Supercon and now I’m mad at myself for not picking up one of Santo’s deskmats at the convention — I will most likely order one soon.

The second unique item in Santo’s collection that really makes him stand out is his custom-designed bomber jackets. Like his t-shirt collection, these feature a full print of one of his art pieces on the backside. However, they have even more real estate for him to play with. There are custom designs all throughout these bomber jackets.

The inspiration to create bomber jackets came from Santo owning a video game-themed bomber jacket that he loved. Creating a set of bomber jackets for gamers was his dream project. Once he found the right manufacturer to execute his vision, he started creating and selling them.

Attending conventions all over the country has allowed Santo to build a community of like-minded artists. He’s even benefited by creating some working relationships. He recently had the chance to create some comic covers (including one of his favorite franchises, Mega Man) thanks to someone seeing his work on the show floor.

Recently, Santo worked as the character designer on the indie game, Atomic Owl from Monster Theater Games (currently on consoles and PC). He got the gig thanks to the power of the internet. The game director came across his work online and reached out. This interaction led to Santo creating the official character design, based on the character sprites. He also got to work on the map design for the game.

My main goal at Florida Supercon 2026 was to pick up two items — my first Gundam kit and a statue/figure from Hunter X Hunter. I was able to pick up both, and will share photos once they are displayed.

My quest made me ask my interview subjects what they are looking for when walking the show floor at a convention. I know they spend most of their time in their booth, especially those who are on their own.

Santo mentioned he’s always looking to make connections with other artists and vendors. He’s also searching for any art or products that may catch his eye, so usually things based on his favorite games and properties.

During his downtime he was playing Cyberpunk 2077 on his Nintendo Switch 2, a game I have to get back into at some point. He told me it runs great, and I mentioned that I started Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on Switch 2 and it also runs pretty smoothly.

---

You can follow Santo at SantoVDraws on Instagram, Threads, and check out his store.

He’ll also be at these upcoming shows later this year…