2023 Grad Show

Mckayla MacDonald-Dixon

AUArts Grad Show Pfp

VCD – Character Design & Illustration

mckayladixon.myportfolio.com/work

I am Mckayla, an artist with the desire to bring characters to life and embrace the fantastical and whimsical. I enjoy designing characters with detailed stories and worlds, illustrating magical effects, and using stylized and exaggerated lighting as a key element to visual narrative.

Prince Outfit Design Outfit designs and tests for a fantasy prince character who has a connection to the stars. This image illustrates different steps in the design process, as well as experimentation with various color palettes.
Prince Design Turn Around A character turn around of the prince that I designed. This illustration shows the character's outfits from different angles, as well as some of his magical capabilities.
Fiora Drake: Character Layout 1 A character layout spread, meant to cover to pages in a art development book, illustrating my character Fiora. This layout shows a final illustration with dynamic lighting while also providing character information, expressions, rough poses with her magical abilities, and outfit experimentation.
Serena Magic Showcase This was a test illustration made to help conceptualize the visual design of my character Serena's magic.
Blue Flame My character Cerin wielding a magical blue flame sword. With this illustration I played with stylized dynamic lighting to highlight the character's magical abilities, as pushing myself to experiment with an over the shoulder posing I do not normally use.
Northern Lights This piece was a page experimenting with children's book illustration style. The character and shape language are made to be softer and whimsical, as the character gazes off into the northern lights.

Character Concept Designs and Illustrations

This collection demonstrates my process through character design as well as showcases some of my finished character illustrations. These pieces visualize the conceptualization of clothing design for character, as well as layouts, turn arounds, expressions and poses, as well as experimentation into lighting and composition.

Character Concept Designs and Illustrations AUArts Grad Show Prince Layout Final
Prince Outfit Design Outfit designs and tests for a fantasy prince character who has a connection to the stars. This image illustrates different steps in the design process, as well as experimentation with various color palettes.
Character Concept Designs and Illustrations AUArts Grad Show Prince Turn Around2
Prince Design Turn Around A character turn around of the prince that I designed. This illustration shows the character's outfits from different angles, as well as some of his magical capabilities.
Character Concept Designs and Illustrations AUArts Grad Show Fi Layout
Fiora Drake: Character Layout 1 A character layout spread, meant to cover to pages in a art development book, illustrating my character Fiora. This layout shows a final illustration with dynamic lighting while also providing character information, expressions, rough poses with her magical abilities, and outfit experimentation.
Character Concept Designs and Illustrations AUArts Grad Show Serena Winter 2
Serena Magic Showcase This was a test illustration made to help conceptualize the visual design of my character Serena's magic.
Character Concept Designs and Illustrations AUArts Grad Show Swords 2
Blue Flame My character Cerin wielding a magical blue flame sword. With this illustration I played with stylized dynamic lighting to highlight the character's magical abilities, as pushing myself to experiment with an over the shoulder posing I do not normally use.
Character Concept Designs and Illustrations AUArts Grad Show Winter_No_Words 2
Northern Lights This piece was a page experimenting with children's book illustration style. The character and shape language are made to be softer and whimsical, as the character gazes off into the northern lights.

This site may contain artworks with provocative content that some viewers may find uncomfortable or upsetting. AUArts supports a culture of non-censorship and ongoing conversations about contemporary art.