This artist prioritises shape and colour over what's "realistic or right"
Kanda Em has built up a large following with her live drawing on Twitch.
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
“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
“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
“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
“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.
Daily design news, reviews, how-tos and more, as picked by the editors.
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.

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