The Hypno Bat was one of my earliest breakthrough designs, a strange little character born from my love of optical art, nocturnal creatures, and that hazy line where cuteness and creepiness blur. Since its debut, the Hypno Bat has shape-shifted into hundreds of variations, each one an evolution, a twist, a new hypnotic stare.
For me, the Hypno Bat isn’t just a motif, it’s a symbol. It represents the creative unknown, the wild swing between joy and fear, clarity and madness. It’s my inner art spirit animal, and every time I bring it back in a new form, it feels like coming home…
The background of this piece comes straight from my Howler Monkey wallpaper—part of my ongoing series exploring Uncommon Animals of the Alphabet. These aren’t your everyday zoo monkeys; they’re strange, primal, loud. They don’t whisper in the jungle, they howl, and that sonic ferocity is something I wanted to trap visually.
Their mouths, twisted open in a kaleidoscopic roar, give the piece its chaotic energy. They feel like a chorus of warning or maybe a dream gone too deep. Against this backdrop, the Hypno Bat floats, dripping and glowing—equal parts spirit guide and ghost.
Hypno Bat Howler was created entirely in Procreate, my go-to weapon of choice for bringing these layered, looping nightmares to life. The neon lines were drawn with careful precision, contrasting the fuzzy chaos behind them. I wanted the piece to feel like a collision—hard edges and soft noise, vision and sound.
I’ve minted 11 editions of this artwork as an NFT on Zero One, a platform for next-gen digital art collectors. It’s a limited-edition digital talisman that won’t ever be replicated, a piece of my visual DNA encoded into the blockchain jungle.
Whether you’ve followed the journey of the Hypno Bat from the beginning or you’re just meeting this glowing, drippy creature now—Hypno Bat Howler is a perfect storm of everything I love: uncommon animals, optical illusions, layered storytelling, and the strange joy of letting your art howl.
Thanks for wandering into the jungle with me.
Let the bat guide you… but don’t stare too long.
Kids Book Illustrator Andy C Marshall 