This artist prioritises shape and colour over what's "realistic or right"

Fantasy character art.

Kanda Em is a freelance illustrator and content creator from Sweden who spends most of her days drawing live on Twitch. She focuses on original characters from her own two universes, The Makings of a Wish and The Dark One’s Tellings, mainly working in Procreate.

Below she introduces us to some of her characters. If you're inspired, check out our guides to digital art software and the best drawing tablets.

Hands of Night

(Image credit: Kanda Em)

“Gin Han is my favourite character from my IP The Makings of a Wish. In general, I prefer to work with a unified colour scheme in my art, plus an accent colour or two.”

Guardian

(Image credit: Kanda Em)

“A character illustration with a focus on the hair and fabric. These are two of my favourite characters from my other IP, The Dark One’s Tellings: Nathaniel and Pontus.”

Abner Polaris

(Image credit: Kanda Em)

“In The Dark One’s Tellings, there’s a race of elves who have an innate store of obsidian and iron in their blood, which they can use to shape armour.”

Power and Wisdom

(Image credit: Kanda Em)

“Oftentimes when I’m drawing, I don’t care too much about what’s realistic or right. Most of the time I just want some fun shapes and colours – and that’s what I do.”

You can see more of Kanda's work on her website.

For more inspiration, see our feature on what is concept art? and our character design tips.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.