• Illustration
  • Character Design
  • Experimental
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Alex Horley Master Study, 2025

Personal work done to better understand how Alex Horley does anatomy, particularly in his 31 concept sketches which were mirrored here.

Chibi Style Process, 2026

Exploration of a simple, cute chibi style that is drastically different from my usual work, from 1st concept to final choices. Character: Dutch van der Linde from Red Dead Redemption 2 © Rockstar Games.

Portait of Dead, 2024

Personal fanwork of Per Yngve Ohlin from Mayhem in an experimental art style inspired by a Pinterest collage.

My Little Pony Imitation, 2025

Personal character design based on the My Little Pony: Friend is Magic art style. Another simple, cute style which is drastically different from my own, using simple shapes to construct a surprising sharp-lined style considering it is children's media. A very interesting lesson in cartooning and aesthetics!

Digital Painting, 2025

A realistic digital painting done to see how painterly I could work on Procreate using the same brushes I typically use. I learned much about facial anatomy due to the slight angle of the reference photo.

Tom of Finland Master Study, 2023

Master study dedicated to Tom of Finland's use of muscles and hypermasculinity in art. My own character in a pose/outfit from a Tom of Finland drawing.

Experimental Art

As an artist I am always looking for ways to grow and diversify my skillsets. One of my favorite ways to do this is to challenge myself to draw in different art styles and to understand how successful artists' fundamentals function. On this page you will see more conceptual artwork where I have imitated an established artist's work, conceptualized my own unique styles, or completed master studies. These are less polished works which will still demonstrate my skillset in a variety of ways, as well as my capability for following style guides.

Process

New styles: I commonly am seeking to learn a particular thing when I try a new way of drawing. Sometimes it's achieving a particular feeling and others it's increasing my knowledge of a fundamental skill such as shape language, cartooning, or human proportions.

Master studies and style imitations: I begin with red lining 1-2 reference artworks from the artist to better understand what shapes they base their anatomy off of and how their "skeletons" usually function. From there, I break the overall piece down into larger shapes in order to simplify the style. Then, I will redraw my chosen reference(s) exactly how I see them, taking care to match it as closely as possible to the reference. Finally, I will do a separate piece without reference using the building blocks I learned from this exercise.

© 2026 Jan Gunter All rights reserved.