Soren Cousins

Illustrator | Concept & Character Artist | Motion Graphics Artist

About

I am a Canadian artist who was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and am currently based there. I'm a versatile artist who works well with a variety of mediums both traditional and digital, but I specialize in digital art. My passions lie in character and concept art, illustration, and motion graphics.

Site Navigation

Disclaimer: Some artwork in this portfolio contains blood and violence, flashing imagery, frontal nudity, and sexual/suggestive themes, which may or may not be safe for viewing in the workspace or in the presence of younger audiences.All instances of flashing and bright imagery are located under the "Motion Graphics" section of the portfolio. If you or other nearby viewers are prone to seizures in response to flashing lights, please view with caution.

Original Characters

My work shines best in the realm of character design and writing. As long as I could hold a pencil, I have been designing characters. I was always drawing comics and cartoons for friends and family, making up story-lines these characters would follow. The passion would really take off after joining a D&D club in middle school, which was originally run by my math teacher and later my social studies teacher. Both of my teachers and my friends really encouraged me to run with the passion and skill I had.Now, I have a variety of characters and stories I have been working on for a number of years - some in projects I have been working on with close friends, some belonging to original projects handwritten by me. My most recent project - "Tanglewood's Academy of Magical Arts" or "TAMA", is a project I hope to bring to the screen in animation, or to shelves in graphic novels one day.

Inspired Work

A series of artworks inspired by media I really like. One of my largest sources of inspiration is the game studio FromSoftware and their "soulslike" titles, which includes the Dark Souls trilogy of games, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. Lastly, I have included some concept work I did based on characters from Hollow Knight: Silksong. The sprites of the original characters are included in the artworks next to my re-imagined versions.

Note: In the artwork "Athal and Tris" the taller man's fingers have been extended intentionally because of the character's backstory, and are not a mistake. Additionally, Tris (the white haired figure) is not my character and the design concept does not belong to me. Tris was included in my portfolio with explicit permission from the artist they belong to.I claim no ownership over The Hunter, Valtr, the Splinterbark, or the Silk Snipper as characters. All rights are reserved to the respective game studios FromSoftware, Sony Entertainment, and Team Cherry.

Motion Graphics

When I began attending classes at Medicine Hat College, I was very particular about what electives I would take and when. I intentionally saved the Motion Design 1 and Motion Design 2 electives for my final year, as I knew the graduating year was going to be stressful. I figured having classes I knew I would enjoy would make the school year a little easier for me. However, I also found that saving these classes for the end of my college career benefited me in the long run, because I had really sharpened and developed my skills by that point, and was ready to excell in a medium I have a very strong passion for. In this section, I have one project I made for Motion Design 1, and two that were created for Motion Design 2 respectively.

Bedtime Story, Oct 2024, paper, graphite, ink pen, digitally compiled into a stop motion video.

Hesper Driscoll, Feb 2025, digital artwork, motion graphics.

Hesper Driscoll, Feb 2025, digital artwork, motion graphics.This animation was created for a project in Motion Design 2 called "motion collage." The idea was to create a visual narrative of some sort using rotoscoped elements, still images, and overlapping elements. I decided to animate my characters Hesper Driscoll and Athal Sterling in one of the fantasy settings I've been writing since 2022 - Tanglewood's Academy of Magical Arts. This animation, of course, is about Hesper.Hesper is a Chronomancer (time wizard) who instructs the chronomancy school of magic at the academy. He's generally quite bubbly and cheerful, a little eccentric, and full of big ideas. When he's not teaching, he likes to tinker and build things as an engineer and inventor. The setting of the animation is the academy's "time wing" where all his classes take place. It has a very steampunk aesthetic because most of it was built by Hesper himself.Being able to control time to such a degree worsened one of Hesper's poorest habits, extreme perfectionism. He has the ability to reverse time and "undo" any mistakes he makes, no matter how small and insignificant. It leads to him bending and rewriting time constantly to make sure everything he does goes exactly as he plans it. With nobody else around him quite as experienced in Chronomancy as he is, nobody ever remembers him doing so, although Athal has vague suspicions with no proof.

The above images are rendered stills from the project.

Pulse Drive, April 2025, digital artwork, motion graphics.

Pulse Drive, April 2025, digital artwork, motion graphics.This animation was also created for Motion Design 2, but also for the Pulp Media group in Medicine Hat. Our assignment was to choose one of the themes presented to us and make an animation to be displayed at The Yard in downtown Medicine Hat in late April of 2025. I chose the theme "digital landscapes."The main character of the animation is another original character I designed named Cy Hybris, who was written for TAMA. They're the instructor of a school of magic called "chaos." However, in this animation, I've put them in the setting of Hello Game's title, No Man's Sky. I love space, and I love the work Hello Games produced in No Man's Sky. The game contains so many planets and star systems to visit, that it is impossible for one single person to see every single one in a lifetime. It is a game filled with breathtaking scenery and cinematics everywhere the player goes, and I wanted to show my love and appreciation for it in my animation. The ship asset is drawn using an in-game model as a reference, and the sound effects heard in the final scene of the animation were recorded from gameplay in No Man's Sky.

The above images are rendered stills from the project.

Process Images

Some process images of various artworks. The last process image showcased in this section is of a character named Libra, who comes from Elden Ring Nightreign and belongs to FromSoftware.

Adult Content

Content that may contain violence, nudity, or suggestive / sexual imagery.

Follow up with me here!