Top 50 Digital Artists You Need to Know About (And Their Iconic Work)

Every few months, Art Post artists unite to create an original piece of artwork - celebrating iconic masterpieces and our wonderful city of Sheffield. Each piece created by the collective is showcased on the limited edition Sheffield Art Totes.

I'm Janice, an illustrator based in Leeds. My work focuses on visual storytelling inspired by the places I've visited, people I've met, and feelings I've felt. My drawings are little love letters/thank you notes to every place and person I’ve had the pleasure of sharing a moment with. Sometimes they are drawings of feelings that can only be translated into pictures and not words, sometimes they are illustrations depicting details that have caught my eye and want to cherish forever.

In January 2020, I ruptured my Achilles tendon. Being immobilised and signed off work, I started to draw every day, and I haven't stopped since: it's now the reason I get out of bed in the morning. It might seem strange, even disgraceful, for a man in his late 30s to start pursuing an artistic pathway. An archetypal mid-life crisis. But there is nothing inherently bad about a crisis: Yes, there is danger and difficulty, but also, potentially, a turning point and a renewal. In terms of my artistic perspective, I am interested in urban sketching and illustration. My work aims to capture the liveliness of our environment, with a strong emphasis on play and more than a hint of anarchy.

I am an illustrator currently residing in Sheffield having previously lived in Manchester and Newcastle. I rediscovered my love of creating art during lockdown and I specialise in creating illustrated portraiture. The inspiration for my portraits reflects the musical journey of my life and each portrait relates to a past memory with a musical connection. I returned to art by exploring digital illustration as my impatience as an artist requires quick results. I have produced commissions alongside developing a collection of portrait illustrations in my own unique style. These capture the character of the musician through playing around with the proportion and positioning of key facial features. Creating the imperfect portrait brings me great joy when thinking about the ‘god like’ status in which some musicians can be held. As I have got more and more back into art it has allowed me to start to explore different media and produce larger acrylic works as well as working on a clothing collaboration with ‘A Twist In The Fabric’. I have produced illustrations for them around themes of ‘The 27 Club’ and reimagining classic art pieces in my own illustration style.

Retro Manni (aka Manjeet Gill) is a Birmingham based digital artist. Taking inspiration from Retro Wave and Cyberpunk culture, his work often depicts modern cities, utopian structures and vibrant neon colours with traditional oil style brush work. While his day job as a filmmaker and educator roots him in the realism of everyday life, he began painting during the 2020 lockdown as means to distort that reality into something darker, more dream-like and ethereal. He has collaborated with a number of well established instagram photographers to transform their night photography using a blend of painterly brush strokes and a vibrant Retro Wave palette. He is currently planning a number of animations that bring life to his creations, merging his filmmaking expertise with his new found love of painting.

My name is Jack, I'm a sheffield based illustrator and I feel adopted son of the green city. Since graduating in 2019 I've been freelancing (alongside other work), working with lots of fun independents around the city, Porter Pizza, Spirals, Dearneside & Pina to name a few. Alongside this my interests include baking- which often creeps into my art, hiking, running and the cinemas. Over you know what (lockdown) I developed an interest in capturing architecture in my work, so followed an ongoing collection of Pubs, well known and hidden gems. These were done in Partnership with the long serving 'Framework Gallery'. So now whenever I walk the city and I do a lot my eyes are inspired by more than ever, that being said food is still the passion closest to my heart, my personal work often deviates from drawing my meals out, a way of me having a permanent memory of each place. It also serves as a friendly hello to whichever establishment I'm at. My ultimate goal is to be established in my field in this city and take it from there. I'm open to anything creative. Please reach out if I can bring anything to quirky life for you! For funky personal christmas gifts, hit me up!

I am a Bulgarian creative designer / artist based in Sheffield, UK. My desire to create started at a young age and brought me into the world of interior and graphic design. However, visual art such as drawing, painting and photography always stayed a passion of mine and just recently I decided to start showcasing my work on instagram and other platforms. I draw and paint mainly character-driven pieces with particular focus on ambiguous and raw expressions that hint emotions such as desire, hope and melancholy. I intend to represent these feelings but stay away from showing the story of the character. The viewers build the narrative themselves. In this way, the painting or drawing is only the first sentence of the story, the protagonist, the feeling, the question. And I, I am the quiet mediator between a face and the viewer. I subconsciously pack and paint raw feelings and give the viewer the opportunity to feel and wonder. Therefore, the artwork is merely about the character but the feelings it stirs. My work has always been inspired by graphic design’s bold colours and photography’s images - frozen forever but every time you look at them - different. My process involves a lot of layering and/or sculpting mostly rendered faces.

Grifff is an artist and designer based in Sheffield. Always drawing from a very early age, he entered the art world through his blackboard and sign writing, which garnished the walls and windows of some of the best loved pubs, bars and restaurants in Sheffield. Now working as a full time illustrator, Grifff delivers branding and creative to many international brands such as Red Bull and Heineken, as well as independent Yorkshire businesses. In his personal work, Grifff has a tendency to incorporate the environments of Sheffield and the surrounding areas where he grew up. Lunch On Mam Tor is his second in the series, larger than (wild) life, depicting gargantuan animals creeping up in familiar Sheffield locations, which started with the Park Hill Octopus on Park Hill Flats.

Emily is a freelance Illustrator from Birmingham who focuses mostly on digital techniques. She is fond of using bright, bold colours with simple line work. Topics of particular interest include climate change, veganism, equality, left-wing politics and general wellbeing, which Emily often conveys in her illustrations. Her main sources of inspiration come from nature and current discussions. Emily studied Visual Communication: Illustration at Birmingham City University. She has since completed work for online and physical publications, branding, posters and teaching basic animation to year 6 students. She also runs her own small illustrative business called em's illo, selling portraits, hand-bound books, cards, organisers, etc.

Doodlher is a pen illustrator based in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Her detailed black pen drawings aim to tell stories, share moments, spark curiosity, and are often paired with bold colour blocks and backgrounds. Places, people, stories and history are HUGE influences to her work. She also enjoy working to topical themes and sharing messages through her art. Doodlher’s portfolio of commissioned art includes illustrations for brand merchandise, murals, venue promotion, and portraits. She also sells prints, postcards, and original drawings though her official website and Etsy shop.

Chloe McVeigh is a first year Illustration with Animation student at Manchester Met and works predominantly in a stylised illustrative art style. At the beginning of lockdown she decided to open up an etsy shop in order to sell some of her art as prints and stickers, which was an informative and productive experience for her. During that year she also did an Art Foundation course, allowing her to explore a breadth of new techniques and ways of producing art. It was here where she began to discover the medium of animation, which is definitely something she is interested in continuing to pursue. Chloe’s art is often centred around portraiture, whether that be of friends and family, or characters from films that inspire her. She likes to draw people because it allows her to create likeness within her own art style without resorting to realism. She especially enjoys drawing people and characters she knows well, because it allows her to add elements of their personality into the piece.