meganbarkerportfolio

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A collection of horses! I've always really liked My Little Pony, but thought the newer direction, while cute, really doesn't make them look much like actual horses. I decided my project would be to create a line of redesigns from Friendship Is Magic that could reasonably be sold as toys. Horses are incredibly hard to draw, especially their anatomy, so I studied up and did my best. I tried to find a middle ground between realism and oversimplification in this retro-moominish hybrid horse design. I also gave each type of horse their own traits, and added jewels to their marks because I remembered that on the toys a cousin used to have as a child. The pegasus ponies have longer wings and cloud-puff hair, as well as skinnier legs and fluffier ears. Their species marking is a cloud. The unicorn (and alicorn) ponies have regular legs, but their tails are more similar to a zebra in how the hair only begins lower down. Their species marking is a star. The earth ponies are built stockier, with thicker legs and chest fluff. Their species marking is a splatter. It was fun to try and tie in all these cohesive design elements to characters who are very different in personality, but I think I succeeded well enough. If I were to try it again, I might like to rebalance a few colours to make them feel more cohesive standing next to each other.

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Happy New Year! Starting as I mean to go on with another massive project I decided to undertake over Christmas. This one features the ensemble cast I designed as shown in a previous post, remade in a simpler, more unified style, suitable for keychains or other small accessories. You may also notice they've grown in number - there's now two more in the roster. Being able to create lots of unique characters is fun for me and lets me practice thinking about how to convey a personality properly through character design. I think my favourite part of drawing in this smaller style is the two even tinier characters - they're so itty bitty! It really draws out my cuteness aggression, and I take that as a success.

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Another set of images I've done over the last few months! You can really see my shift to trying a more painterly style, and I'm pleased to say I've really liked the results! Most prominently, you'll notice a looooong image full of character designs - I'm very proud of them! They're all original characters made for skits and situations, so I did my best to make them a unique and fun ensemble cast.

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After a social media break in order to focus on my health and my craft, I return - here is some art I've done in 2024! I've been focusing mostly on character illustrations, and trying to replicate other styles within my own, most prominently the 90s Sailor Moon style, 80s found-footage media style, and current-day webtoon comics. I chose these styles because I love how comforting they feel to me, despite the subject matter often being anything but. All of these characters are designed by me and each have a distinct personality I wanted to capture, so I hope I've let you meet them properly :)

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Drawn in 2021, here I used a group of unlikely muppet-esque friends to practice my lineless art. I think the blocks of pastel colours make this piece super appealing, as well as the sticker-like outlines around each character. (Please note this is a reupload! The original file had a glitch that needed resolving.)

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Drawn around Christmas of 2022, this snowglobe decoration was a tribute to my favourite singer of all time, Taylor Swift, done as a fan-community project. The colour of each star she illuminates represent the colours of each album she is expected to rerecord, with the gold and red stars shining brighter because they’ve already been released. The dress and pose are a reference to the cover of my favourite album, Speak Now, and even the background is an allusion to her other albums, Folklore, Evermore, (both themed around being in the woods) and Midnights. The quote on the bottom of the snowglobe is the final line of the final song from the album Speak Now, (excluding bonus tracks and deluxe edition songs). This was also my first attempt at trying a more painterly lineless style, and I have to say I am Enchanted by the result!

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Drawn in 2022, a return to form for my artstyle, stabilising once again in cosy pencil-drawing anime. This was a piece done freelance for a hot chocolate company (who have given me permission to add it to my portfolio), the first draft of which was actually done live on a video call to arrange the details of said piece. I like how warm this piece feels, and how well the character is integrated into the background through the texture. It's not too obvious, either, but I have been working on using saturated lines in my shading to add dimension. You can definitely see the added depth :)

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Drawn in 2022, after a short break from posting online, this piece was a test of a new colour palette I put together, and inspired by the song ‘Hip Hop Cherry Pop’ by Lemon Demon - a song about a nerdy guy using a magical ice cream shop to give himself the power to become more cool and confident. I may have strayed from the storyline of the song (and its accompanying short film) to better emphasise the dynamic between Dr Halpractice and Johnny Rockstar, but the hints towards the original source are still there in the form of Johnny’s necklace and the ice cream with mint-green goop on top.

I like to think that Johnny used to be your stereotypical ‘wholesome’ popstar, Disney Channel star adjacent, sweet, polite, a role model - but now, reanimated, rebranded, and knowing the...peculiar, effect he has on his new mad scientist manager, he is a menace and he's going to take full advantage of his new situation.

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Drawn in 2022, this piece was done as part of a challenge involving drawing a pre-designed outfit on a character, so I chose Johnny Rockstar and put him in a very comfy-looking heart jumper, with some socks to match. I then decided to make an effort with my background design, as I am notoriously lazy when it comes to that usually. I focused on the palette of this one, trying to keep my selection of colours warm, based in pinks, purples, and creams as my anchor colours.

In the end, this one reminds me of the music video for ‘Our Song’ by Taylor Swift - I don’t mind that at all :)

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Drawn in 2022, on my birthday (hence the cake), I wanted to see if I could make a mostly-pink image feel threatening. To find out, I created a nameless doll with a threatening grin. She sports a cute hairstyle here, as well as a lineless style and a very pastel colour palette. Using a darker gradient, I created a feeling of impending doom and unease, then added the ominous ‘don’t forget’ text.

I wonder what was supposed to be remembered.

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Drawn in 2021, this piece was further development of the idea in the previous post - a mad scientist in love with a popstar, willing to reanimate him just to keep him around and performing. In early drawings, I called the scientist “Dr Simpmann”, as a play on the term ‘Simp’, meaning someone who’ll do ridiculous things for the one they love, but later he would evolve to be named Dr Halpractice, a reference to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional cannibal. You might also notice the radio looks like an ant - a reference to Spiral Of Ants, the other song that Johnny Rockstar was based off. In this piece, I am most proud of the tank of glowing pink fluid - I think it gives a lot of dimension to the characters in the foreground.

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Drawn in 2021, this was anatomy practice that would later turn into a recurring character in my artwork - Johnny Rockstar.

Inspired by the Lemon Demon songs “Lifetime Achievement Award” and “Spiral Of Ants”, Johnny Rockstar is a star in his prime...until he gets crushed in a freak wind machine accident on stage and dies. Luckily, his biggest fan happens to be a mad scientist who’ll stop at nothing to keep his favourite idol performing, even if it means reanimating the dead.

I also thought it’d be really ironic and darkly humorous if any albums put out by Johnny Rockstar just happened to also be named after things that could cause death...therefore, Heart Attack.

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Drawn in 2020, this was my first foray into full digital watercolour, as opposed to simply applying the texture in post. The character is Mymble Jr, a criminally underrepresented character in the Moomin universe. I tried my best to blend different hues and values to create a cosy feeling for this forest piece, much like the Moomin franchise as a whole makes me feel. I’m especially proud of her hair.

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Drawn in 2020, this piece was an experiment with shading using screentones, to create more of a comic-book appearance. The character has no name, and is just a generic anime girl trying to confess her feelings. I hope she succeeded.

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Drawn in 2020, this piece was an attempt to create a fake screenshot from a stereotypical shoujo anime. The colours are merged in odd ways in an attempt to recreate retro colour distortion, though I feel I could use some more practice with that in the future.

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Drawn in 2020, This time I wanted to experiment with my rendering style using what I had learned about the art program I had been using at the time. The shading is gradiented and softened in places, the highlights are more subtle, and the linework itself stands out due to its sharpness. This character is an original character I dubbed ‘Mousie’ due to her buns, and she was supposed to be the anti-aesthetic of the regular vampire - all pastel colours and nonthreatening demeanor, but I have yet to find the right place to put her.

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Drawn in 2020, this piece was done to experiment with matching the retro-fuzz line style and minimalistic shading of old media, using a character named Hamantha, created by Jack Stauber - she is a girl born with a ham in place of a head, whose life is sadly cut short before she can achieve her dream of becoming a famous star. I decided to give her a poster for the career that never was.