Artist Creates 50 Self-Portraits in the Style of Popular Cartoon Characters

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

If you’ve ever struggled to find your own artistic style, sometimes the best thing to do is to imitate and learn from the artists who inspire you. 24-year-old Sam Skinner did just that when, in a bid to develop her own cartoon style for a webcomic project, she decided to take on the #StyleChallenge—a popular social media hashtag that encourages creatives to draw multiple self-portraits in the style of different cartoon characters.

From Tim Burton’s goofy gothic style to the wide-eyed, cutesy style of The Powerpuff Girls, Skinner spent one year on the project developing her digital drawing skills. The self-taught artist explains, “Doing this project was simply to help me become more familiar with doing graphic/digital design.” Having started with an initial list of 100 cartoon characters, one of the most challenging parts of the project was deciding which styles to include. Skinner reveals, “I ended up having a list of close to 100 characters I wanted to do, but narrowed it down to 50 by drawing the choices randomly out of a hat.”

Skinner’s illustrations are not only uncanny depictions of iconic characters, but they’re an inspiring chronicle of her artistic development, and proof you can perfect your craft with dedicated time and practice. Skinner reveals, “This is one of the first things I've done that I've been proud enough about to show off to my people. Since this whole project took around a year for me to complete, with a brief hiatus for school, I definitely would say my skills got better the more I worked on it.”

Follow Skinner on Twitter to keep an eye on her upcoming projects.

In a bid to develop her digital drawing skills, self-taught artist Sam Skinner decided to take on the #StyleChallenge—a popular social media hashtag that encourages creatives to draw multiple self-portraits in in the style of different cartoon characters.

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Skinner spent one year on the project, completing a total of 50 self-portraits.

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

The artist’s illustrations are not only uncanny depictions of iconic characters…

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

…but they’re an inspiring chronicle of her artistic development, and proof you can perfect your craft with dedicated time and practice.

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Cartoon Characters Digital Drawing by Sam Skinner

Next up: Disney, Sonic the Hedgehog, and much more.

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Emma Taggart

Emma Taggart is a Contributing Writer at My Modern Met. Originally from Northern Ireland, she is an artist now based in Berlin. After graduating with a BA in Fashion and Textile Design in 2013, Emma decided to combine her love of art with her passion for writing. Emma has contributed to various art and culture publications, with an aim to promote and share the work of inspiring modern creatives. While she writes every day, she’s also devoted to her own creative outlet—Emma hand-draws illustrations and is currently learning 2D animation.
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