Character Illustration: Anime-Inspired Commission

Project Overview

A client requested a custom illustration reimagining themselves as characters in their favorite anime. The goal was to accurately translate their likeness and personality into the show's visual language while maintaining authenticity to its original art style.

Approach

The project began with a visual analysis of the anime’s style, including character anatomy, color palettes, line quality, and shading techniques. This helped identify stylistic elements that differed from my usual illustration approach and informed key creative decisions throughout the process.

Sketching & Composition

Initial sketches were created in Procreate, using select panels and poses from the anime as compositional reference. One scene was chosen to serve as the base for the character placement to ensure strong alignment with the source material’s tone and visual storytelling.

Rendering & Finalization

Once the linework was finalized, the illustration was imported into Adobe Photoshop for color application and shading. Working in separate layers for base colors, shadows, and highlights allowed for more controlled rendering and smoother revisions.

Challenges & Solutions

A unique challenge involved capturing the client’s signature hairstyle, voluminous and textured, within the simplified line structure of the anime style. Iterative sketching and experimentation with shape and shadow helped retain its recognizable form without compromising stylistic consistency.

Outcome & Reflection

The final piece successfully balanced personal identity with genre-specific visual storytelling. This project reinforced the value of adapting creative processes to meet unique visual languages, and it sparked a renewed interest in character-based artwork and stylistic exploration.