This simple setup was all I needed to finally kit out my perfect art studio

My wife and I bought this house back in 2020, but it wasn’t until the start of 2025 that I finally decided to make some moves towards fitting out my dream office. Prior to this, my workspace had been practically the same setup for eight years.

I tend to get tunnel vision and not bother with updating my studio. I believe I had an office with no prints, posters, or any decoration for the first three years of owning our home. At the start of 2025 I bought a new desk and shelves for all of my knick knacks. I even invested in a standing desk base that, surprisingly, I’ve used almost every day.

If you're looking to build your own art studio, check out our guides to the best drawing tablets and monitors for graphic artists.

As far as equipment goes I’m pretty boring. I use a medium-sized Wacom Intuos Pro tablet for all of my work. Before that, I owned an Intuos4 for about 10 years, it was my first tablet and lasted a long time for all of the use that I got out of it.

I’ll occasionally do some traditional work at my desk, mostly little sketches in pen or pencil, but I feel much more at ease working in Photoshop. I use a Razer mouse and keyboard, both of which have gross stuff on them from over the years. My two monitors have a lot of smudges from eating ramen noodles at my desk and having broth droplets splash up on them.

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I have a Sennheiser E835 microphone on an ergonomic arm that’s attached to my desk. It’s the mic that I use for just about everything, and I get a lot of compliments on the sound quality. I like to think it makes up for my smudgy monitors.

To the left of my main workstation is the work laptop I use to access super top-secret files

Left: I have a large collection of artbooks, books for reference, and now game design books. The top shelf has items I’ve collected working at Blizzard, plus a Magic: The Gathering card I illustrated called Dockside Extortionist.

Right: The top shelf is a collection of toys made by my friend Brandon Leach through his brand, Motley Miscreations, plus a pin-up print my wife illustrated. Below are video game things and remnants of my Digimon TCG addiction.

Now that I work full-time at Blizzard Entertainment, I stick to a typical 9-5 working schedule, though luckily I still get to work remotely. I was a freelance artist for over 10 years, so I’m used to working at home and don’t really have an issue with staying productive.

I keep a planner on my desk where I write down all my tasks at the start of each day, which helps to keep my brain focused on what I have to do. I also like to keep a handy whiteboard planner on my desk for all my monthly goals.

But when I’m home, I also get to be near my wife, and our two cats and two dogs, who can usually be found behind my desk sitting on a small sofa bed.

Inspired to upgrade your own studio? See our picks of best laptops for drawing and the best office chairs for backpain.

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