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Whether you’re just dipping your toes into digital art or you’ve been sketching pixels for years, nothing sparks inspiration like checking out what other artists are up to. That’s why we spotlight in-depth profiles, tutorials, and tips from both fresh faces and seasoned pros.
Diving into the online art scene isn’t just fun, it’s like a masterclass in styles, techniques, and creative approaches. You’ll find artists who push boundaries, challenge your skills, and make you rethink how you draw. Here, we’ve rounded up some of the most inspiring digital artists we’ve featured, think concept artists, character designers, and illustrators making waves in tabletop games.
Submit your best digital art
If you want to feature in our list of inspiring digital art and artists, contact us via email at: contact@creativebloq.com to tell us about your projects.
Many of the artists here featured in our sister magazine ImagineFX; subscribe to ImagineFX. You can get in touch at fxpose@imaginefx.com.
Character art
01. Deborah Saez
Growing up, Deborah Saez was inspired by everything from cartoons to games and anime. But it was Fumi Ishikawa’s work on Suikoden II that sparked her love of character design. “Her female designs were ahead of their time,” says Deborah.
The artist's clients include EA and Games Workshop, among others, and she creates digital, 2D, and 3D art.
Of the above image, 'Who's in control?', she says: “I wanted to create a horror character that’s more than it appears. I began with silhouettes, then painted in greyscale and finished by adding colour and details.”
02. Zara H
Zara H is a freelance illustrator, MTG artist, and book cover designer. She began drawing to bring the characters in her head to life, and is hugely inspired by games, horror, and fantasy. She designs characters through the lens of Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) people and culture.
Her piece above titled 'Vampire' is a contemporary take on the archetypal blood thirsty fiend. “As vampires are a huge inspiration, I created this original character in 2020 as an attempt at a vampire who didn’t adhere to the old legends and myths,” Zara explains.
03. Haiyang
Haiyang is a concept artist from Beijing, China, with a love for mysterious cultures. Curiosity about the world around him is his main inspiration, while he also likes to incorporate historical elements into his magical worlds to make them feel more realistic.
Above is his piece 'Ashiya Returns'. "Ashiya is the main character of my personal universe. She’s an Onmyoji from Harima,” Haiyang explains. “In the ancient East, the legendary nine-tailed fox is well known, and seems to have lived for nearly 1,000 years. Here Ashiya meets the fox for the first time, with a battle on the horizon.”
04. Loish
Loish is a digital artist who has been drawing her whole life. Based in the Netherlands, Lois van Baarle provides character design services to clients worldwide. "When I was 15, I discovered digital art," she explains on her website.
"We had a trial version of Photoshop, which I liked to experiment with, and I also discovered Oekaki, a kind of online drawing program similar to Paint. I spent all my free time drawing, and when I was in my senior year of high school, I had to face the fact that I loved drawing too much not to pursue it as a career."
To learn from the artist, check out Loish's character design tutorial that she wrote for us.
05. Vorueg
Vorueg is a digital artist who most enjoys creating painterly fantasy art with medieval influences. This character is Sir Bear, a noble protector who looks fearsome but helps frogs cross the lake and cracks open hazelnuts for squirrels with his iron gauntlets.
06. Sewoong Kim
Sewoong Kim is a South Korean concept artist and character designer who makes great use of costume and silhouette. We particularly liked the artist's Joseon Fantasy series of characters. Named after the last Korean dynasty, the fantasy character designs blend history and traditional Korean aesthetics with imagination.
07. Heraldo Ortega
Heraldo Ortega is an illustrator, graphic designer, and musician. The Chilean artist uses Photoshop, Procreate, and Clip Studio Paint to create his art. From a young age, he has painted using traditional media, but now works digitally, too. “I’m inspired by fantasy and try to create little stories,” he says.
“I created this warrior, who’s capable of creating fire with the single movement of his sword, for my personal portfolio," says Ortega about his painting The Lord of Fire (above). The juxtaposition of rain and fire is a nice way to highlight the conflict hinted at in the painting.
08. Małgorzata Kmiec
Małgorzata Kmiec is a freelance artist based in Berlin who specialises in stylised and colourful portraits. She believes anyone who thinks magic doesn’t exist has never heard of art, and she aims to put a bit of magic into all her work.
“I’m often inspired by seasons and nature, and this painting is a tribute to early spring,” she says of Spring Spirit (above). “I wanted to surround my character with warm colours that reflect the spirit of the season.”
09. Rachel Walpole
"I’ve had a passion for art since I was a child," says digital artist and illustrator Rachel Walpole. "I whisk myself away to huge floating desert islands, angels with a questionable amount of wings, and creatures larger than countries."
The above painting appeared to Le Vye almost fully realised in her mind, and she began working on it before planning a concept or narrative. “As I painted it, the piercing eyes of the boy kept bringing to mind Peter Pan,” she says. “I imagined this ageless child living away from reality in his own world, kept company by natural wonders and his own shadow.”
10. Boo West
The English artist Boo West, AKA Sphinx Mothra, has an interesting background for a character designer because she's also a puppet maker. That background in creating physical characters might be what makes her digital art so expressive. She often combines mystery with a playful sense of humour.
11. Simon Cowell
No, not that one. Originally hailing from Sydney, Australia, Simon Cowell first explored fantasy art in the original Half-Life’s world editor. Since then, he’s tinkered in 3D and traditional art and is now a freelance concept artist.
"From an early age, I was fascinated with creating. As I grew, I experimented with many means of creativity, ranging from sculpting and drawing to digital animation and graphic design," Cowell says.
"I’d wanted to make a forest-style monster for a long time," he says of Swamp Thing (above). "I imagined something perhaps created from the woods and foliage, and held together by magic."
12. Vanessa Morales
Vanessa Morales is an illustrator who loves painting whimsical scenes inspired by nature. In addition to working digitally, she also creates using traditional techniques like gouache, watercolour, and pen marker. She plays with the energy of colour on dark backgrounds, inspired by the phrase ‘the rainbow looks better at night’.
Her piece 'Crimson Spring' (above) is inspired by the fleeting seasons and the flora it brings. "Every time the seasons change, inspiration flows again. In this case, as the name suggests, I was heavily inspired by tropical flowers.”
13. Renoiz
Anime and graffiti influences collide in the digital character art of Renoiz from Taiwan. He takes inspiration from J-pop and modern culture to create striking vibrant character work that's full of energy.
Concept art
See our piece on what is concept art to learn more about the field.
14. Kyle Enochs
Kyle Enochs heads up the concept department at Gunfire Games – creators of Remnant 2 – and has also lent his touch to numerous film and book covers. He thrives on sketching, chasing ideas with a spark, and using design choices to hint at a bigger world beyond the frame.
His toolkit is broad: Photoshop, Blender, and Unreal Engine all play a part in how he brings concepts to life. You can see more of Kyle's work on his ArtStation profile.
15. Mel Mo
Australian concept artist Mel Mo is proving that digital art doesn’t have to choose between the past and the present. Mel likes to start her work in Blender and then move to Photoshop (see our picks of the best digital art software and the best 3D modelling software).
Her work blends the charm of Animal Crossing with the kinetic visual language of Spider-Verse and The Bad Guys, all steeped in the warm, hazy palettes of the Impressionists. The result is a style that feels both nostalgic and strikingly modern, cosy yet cinematic.
One of her standout projects, The Eye and The Eye, reimagines Victorian London through a magical lens inspired by Ogiwara Saki’s eponymous web novel. “East meets West as I imagine what London’s first Chinatown might have looked like in a magical context,” Mel explains.
16. Lim Chuan Shin
Lim Chuan Shin is now a successful freelance illustrator and concept artist, regularly creating fantasy and sci-fi book covers and concept art for game companies. However, growing up in Malaysia in the '90s meant that art wasn’t initially a career option for him. After several years as a pharmaceutical rep, he decided to take the plunge and chase his digital art dreams. “It’s been a tough fight, but it’s all been worth it,” he says.
Mech Bay (above) was created using interesting silhouettes in a flat black. Shin changed the shapes' tones to create the illusion of depth of field.
17. Alyn Spiller
Alyn Spiller is a concept artist and illustrator who specialises in environment art. He’s been in the digital art industry for over 6 years, during which time he's worked with clients such as Cryptozoic Entertainment and Fantasy Flight Games.
He took inspiration from the Northern Lights when creating the colour scheme for his Northern Kingdom painting (above). "The sky lanterns were a late addition – I think they create a nice contrast of warm and cool colours,” he says.
18. Thomas Fernandes
Thomas Fernandes draws inspiration from his native Goa, India, for some of his work as a concept artist, illustrator, and visual development artist, drawing on the state's rich environment and architecture.
He also cites the renowned illustrator Mario Miranda as an inspiration. This very personal piece above is based on a memory of when his grandma taught him and his brother to pray.
Video game art
19. Marius Villard
Based in Paris, concept artist Marius Villard builds worlds that feel lived-in, layered, and beautifully imperfect. His work sits at the intersection of fine art and digital storytelling, atmospheric environments that impose emotion and narrative depth.
While many digital artists cite game studios or film franchises as influences, Marius looks to black-and-white photography, particularly the work of Iranian photojournalist Abbas Attar. It’s an unconventional source, but one that makes perfect sense when you see his art; each piece carries the same sense of fleeting light and human tension found in Abbas’s photographs. “My art is dynamic and tainted, like a failed paradise,” Marius says, describing the melancholy energy that threads through his worlds.
One standout piece (above), Bom Dia Interior Design, imagines the home of a fictional character named Bom Dia. The design draws inspiration from Deathloop, Half-Life 2, and City of God, weaving together their visual DNA into something at once futuristic and nostalgic.
20. Lei Chu
Lei Chu is a freelance game artist with an interest in travel, as seen in his story about a magician who visits various places and encounters amazing sights. He likes to use simple techniques in his work and predominantly works in Photoshop and Blender.
The piece above is Lei's original artwork titled 'Mr Hama'. "The magician was travelling in the mountains, where he found the toad priest boiling medicine. I used Blender to make sure the shapes were correct, and then started to draw the lines and colours,” he explains.
21. Pascal Blanché
Pascal Blanché is a French Canadian artist and art director who has been creating digital art for over 25 years. He's worked as an art director at game developers Behaviour Interactive and Ubisoft and as a freelancer he creates work that blends 3D and 2D elements.
Check out the ZBrush character design masterclass that Pascal wrote for us.
Environment art
22. JDR
The LA-based artist Jonathan del Rosario AKA JDR only entered the field in 2022, and he already scooped a Beacon Award for Environment at the Concept Art Awards 2025. He cites movies like Requiem for a Dream and directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson as major influences. This piece above was inspired by the artist's childhood memories of arcades.
23. Sophia Du
Sophia Du is a background and visual development artist from the San Francisco Bay Area. She's currently freelancing, but her clients include Titmouse and Netflix, and she's also interning at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Sophia has a passion for using colour, light, and design to capture mood in her digital paintings.
Using a mix of Procreate and Photoshop, Sophia creates softly beautiful artwork that perfectly evokes emotion and place.
Of the above image, Catwoman's Escape, Sophia says: "Catwoman in her element, surrounded by a chaotic city and evading pursuit. The tilted angle and tight framing are intended to evoke a feeling of excitement and uncertainty.”
24. Misa Steinmetz
Misa Steinmetz is a concept artist and visual development artist at Sony Pictures Animation with a background in fine art. She likes to draw from history and travel to find inspiration for her world designs and to push graphic stylisation in the details and textures of her art.
The piece above depicts a temple inspired by the ouroboros, a symbol of eternal life, and Middle Eastern baths.
Comic and narrative art
25. Alexander “Minze” Thümler
After years as a concept artist and illustrator in the entertainment industry, Alexander “Minze” Thümler is now developing his own graphic novel. This shift presents new challenges and the freedom to experiment beyond his typical digital art for clients.
The art above is an experiment to explore Alexander's style for a new graphic novel. He explains how it started with a thumbnail sketch to establish the composition and lighting. After refining the drawing and blocking in local colors, he used Multiply layers for cast shadows and ambient occlusion.
For light areas, he used masked Color layers and Adjustment curves to separate them from the shadows. He then used Normal layers to paint reflections (on metal, skin, etc.) and add indirect light. "To avoid time-consuming rendering," he notes, "I decided to keep the line art."
26. Minjung Kang
The South Korean illustrator Minjung Kang blends violence, dark humour and irony in her personal work, which includes her graphic novels Devil Planet and Heart Out.
The image above is the cover art for the latter, which she created with writer Bartosz Sztybor. Set on Minjung's Devil Planet world, the story follows Winter and Devil Dog hunting a heart for a crazed cyborg.
27. Kauê Daiprai
Kauê is a Brazilian artist and teacher driven by a sense of wonder for the natural world and the landscape of imagination. Working predominantly in Photoshop, ZBrush, and Blender, Kauê is developing his own comic and gets his inspiration from artists such as Moebius, Paul Felix, and Claire Wendling.
The artist tells us that the above image, 'Regression', is “inspired by a regressive experience where I imagined myself as a wounded warrior aided by a river faerie".
28. David Orellana
David, or Davilorium, is a former freelance animator turned comic artist. With a background in anthropology, he now creates comics and stories inspired by manga, video games and ancient Mediterranean art. He made the poster composition above for his comic Starkid666.
Manga
29. Esteban Guzman
Esteban Guzman is a self-taught digital artist who switched from traditional art in 2020. He’s fascinated by dark fantasy and finds inspiration in games such as Elden Ring and Bloodborne. His work is a hybrid of comics and manga.
The image above is called 'Ranni the witch'. Esteban says: “a reimagining of an Elden Ring character in her prime, way before the events of the game”.
30. Margherita Castello
Margherita Castello is an Italy-based illustrator and comic book artist with a love for the fantastical and surreal. Her work draws on nature, history, especially the Middle Ages, and a subtle sense of mystery, weaving stories into every piece.
Maggie usually works in Clip Studio Paint, favoring deep, vibrant colours that bring her worlds to life. “I made this artwork for Gallery IYN in Osaka in late 2022,” she says. “It showcases two characters from one of my projects. I wanted to paint a beautiful and slightly ominous atmosphere shrouded in greenery.”
You can see more of Maggie's work on her website.
31. Oliver Ono
Oliver Ono is an LA-based character artist and illustrator who worked on Godzilla Rivals II: Battra. His speciality is retro-futurist kaiju and mechas, which he attributes to his experience growing up in the US Rust Belt, where the environment reflects an industrious past.
The image above is the first piece of art that he created for his own manga-inspired project, Arma Cursor. For this, he blended inspiration from Japanese woodblock prints and US Comics.
Tabletop game art
32. Antonio José Manzanedo
Antonio José Manzanedo is a Spanish illustrator whose work thrives in the dark, epic corners of fantasy. He’s created worlds for Wizards of the Coast and Blizzard, blending the precision of Photoshop with a classic, painterly touch to bring brutal landscapes and legendary creatures to life.
“When painting, I don’t feel the obligation to define every detail,” he says. “I prefer to detail only areas of interest while blurring others to guide the viewer’s eye. This approach helps involve the viewers with the work.”
The result is art that feels both cinematic and alive, pulling you into the story without ever spelling everything out. You can see more of Antonio's work on his ArtStation profile.
33. Dan Volbert
As a lead artist at Cooperativa Creativa, Dan Volbert has been driven to achieve a harmony of colours and shapes since entering the industry. “It’s a spectacular ride,” he exclaims. There are more ancient monsters in the work 'Dragon Rock'. He says, “This is a piece of unused marketing art for a Viking tabletop game, which was illustrated in Photoshop.”
34. Jakob Eirich
Jakob Eirich has long been inspired by Japanese and Western media, and their themes and styles are evident in his work. From fantasy to sci-fi and stylised to realistic, Jakob sees beauty in all artistic approaches.
His piece Knightfisher (above) is a stunning example of his detailed art style. "This is one of the many paintings I’ve been happy to make for Magic: The Gathering. Here I’m blending stylised and semi-realistic rendering to make the focal point stand out,” Jakob explains.
35. Alayna Danner
Alayna Danner (formerly Alayna Lemmer) is a digital artist based in Seattle, Washington, who works mainly on video games, board games, and CCGs.
"My favourite thing to paint is environments," she says. "I love to draw people and characters too, but there is just something about painting wispy clouds and mountains. I am lucky enough to live in the Seattle area, which is surrounded by gorgeous mountains and the Puget Sound, so there is inspiration all around me."
36. Antoine Tabouret
Also known as Gobert, Antoine Tabouret graduated from the Liège School of Fine Arts in France. He says he takes inspiration from old-school European illustration as well as from modern manga and digital art.
The character above is one of the main characters in Crown Gambit, a card game that he worked on. Aliza Bloodcrest is a noblewoman from a family who use blood-covered magical relics.”
Weapon art
37. Sail Lin
Based in China, Sail Lin is a senior game concept designer who was part of projects such as Delta Force and FragPunk before becoming head of the firearms design team for the anime-style third-person tactical competitive shooter Strinova. Designing weapons is his specialty, and we loved the organic approach to gun design he conceived for this personal project featuring fruit-and-veg-wielding animal warriors.
38. Antoine Gadoud
Swordtember is an annual art challenge that takes place in September. The aim is to draw a sword every day to practice your weapon art. These are some of the creations of the French artist Antoine Gadoud of the concept art and illustration studio Mooncolony.
Mixed media and traditional art
39. Fred Gambino
Fred Gambino has been drawing worlds for fifty years, and it shows. The UK-based illustrator and concept artist has lent his vision to clients such as Mazza Animation Planet, Out of Order Studios, Framestore, Codemasters, and Cartoon Network.
He started out in the messy, tactile world of acrylics and oils, then briefly went digital before returning to a more traditional toolkit: water-soluble oils on board, paper, and canvas. The results are as meticulous as they are alive.
You can see more of Fred's work on his ArtStation profile.
40. Darko Stojanovic
Darko Stojanovic is a painter of mighty heroes and epic scenes with a particular love of painting portraits and fearsome knights in armour. He also finds great enjoyment in painting faces, fur, and anything that features shiny metal.
Painting in oils and pencil, Darko began drawing at the age of six, inspired by Star Wars and The Hobbit. He also works digitally. His clients now include some of the industry's biggest names, such as HarperCollins, Renegade Game Studios/Paradox Interactive, and Paizo Publishing.
41. COTOH
COTOH (aka Cotoh Sumi) has been an illustrator since 2017 and transitioned into contemporary art after collaborating with musicians and apparel companies. By using mass-production techniques, COTOH challenges the traditional perception of commercial art in Japan.
COTOH uses a blend of oils and acrylics to create their striking portraits.
Of the above image, NO.1499, the artist says: “Does she wear her accessory without discomfort, is it forced upon her, or is it a part of her head that she’s born with and dislikes? Exploring the blurred lines between reality, the digital world, and the two-dimensional to question transformation and identity.”
Where can I find inspiring digital artists?
To discover the work of more digital artists, we recommend visiting the online platform ArtStation (and create your own account to show your work). Cara, an anti-generative AI social media platform is also attracting many digital artists.
How can I get started in digital art
To create digital art you'll need an input device, which could be a tablet or a touchscreen laptop with a stylus. See our comparisons of the best drawing tablets and the best laptops for drawing.
You'll also need digital art software. There are free apps like Microsoft Paint, but other apps provide more tools and versatility. For most digital art, you'll want a lot of brush options, ideally with the ability to create and add custom brushes. Procreate is a good option for getting started with an iPad drawing app as it has a reasonable one-off cost.
For learning and practice, see our collections of Photoshop tutorials and Procreate tutorials.
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