Bobby Chiu is a Canadian illustrator with a broad array of vibrantly colored and humorously stylized digital paintings. He works as a freelancer and has created character designs for movies such as Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, but he's best known for (and funded by) his online art education project Schoolism.

My favorite aspect of Chiu's work is how he combines soft, airbrushed rendering with subtle textures that compensate for the stale cleanliness of digital painting. Furry pelts are one of his specialties.

The funny narratives Chiu is fond of depicting are also what draw me to his work (his standalone character designs are appealing but less inspirational). He maintains a childlike lens in his paintings by putting endearing characters in ominous but not explicitly threatening scenarios.

Art like Chiu's is all-age appropriate and conceptually straightforward, which makes it prime material for commercial use. So while it doesn't provoke any deeper analysis, it is definitely a standard by which I would judge the technical professionalism of my own work. I would love to steal his lighting, texturing, and coloring techniques for myself.