This TikTok artist has a unique niche: drawing cartoon characters

No one disputable needs to see detailed line drawings Monsters, Inc.Mike Wazowski with the muscles of a world-class powerlifter and a chin so chiseled it could cut a diamond, but that doesn’t stop millions of people from wanting it.

Sam Barquin is a student and artist who has made a name for himself online by redesigning beloved cartoon characters as puffy gym rats. Over time, he has mastered the not-so-subtle craft of viral meme art. On platforms like TikTok, the simple gimmick has taken him far, with a single video garnering more than 50,000 views 33.6 million views. Polygon spoke to him about what brought him to this particular corner of the internet and what it’s like to draw in the same style for so long. According to the artist, he has slowly found his niche by adapting it to new and old trends.

“I would definitely describe my story as kind of meme-y, you know, like meme art, and drawing certain cartoon characters in different ways,” Barquin said during a phone call. “When someone asks, I say, ‘My current thing is just drawing cartoon characters, but pretty.’ And that usually doesn’t mean they ask too many questions.”

Barquin’s art is at once difficult to describe and immediately recognizable to those steeped in the vernacular and imagery of online humor. Each video plays more or less the same piece, starting with some hand-drawn pen and ink art. As the recording progresses, we see a few segments that feel like reading a very short comic. Regardless of the premise or character in each story, each video culminates in the reveal of a new character design depicting them with chiseled features and an exaggerated muscular physique.

For example, a video with characters from Avatar: The last airbender shows a scenario where Sokka and Katara discover Aang in the iceberg. Afterwards, Sokka asks Aang what he has been doing for 100 years. In response, Barquin’s art shows Aang doing everything he could while remaining frozen. He mewed, and as a result the once round face emerged from the ice with a newly defined jaw and transformed GigaChad sight.

The piece isn’t just inspired by the comedy of seeing a baby-faced character in a new light; it is deeply informed by internet comedy and trends. Barquin told Polygon that the origins of this particular joke date back to a 2022 TikTok trend where artists drew fictional characters who were picked up after being rejected by a romantic interest, and that his work often uses popular internet slang.

For example, “meowing” refers to a tongue exercise popular on platforms like TikTok that could help one cultivate a more defined and masculine jawline, and thus the carving cheekbones we see in every video. The word ‘mog’ is more vague, but can be used to refer to anyone who looks better and fitter than you in a photo. (So ​​if you outshine someone else in a photo, you’re the mogul.) The general set of references makes sense considering that these clips are inspired by the larger “looksmaxing” trend, where people try to optimize their best looks by lots of exercise and other lifestyle choices.

“I want to say that in November 2023, the looksmaxing trend started to come around. Since I already had experience drawing such people, I thought: Maybe I can try to draw them again. But this time with defined cheekbones and all,” he said. “I’ve made a few videos and they seem to be doing really well. So I just started making more with different characters, to see what I could do with them.

The creator has been drawing similar art and sharing videos for over two years and shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, he seems content with making this kind of art for now.

“I thought it would be boring by now, but I kind of realized that every creator has to have their own niche,” Barquin said. According to the artist, he had previously dabbled in other types of content but had difficulty finding a consistent video format. “Once I started making these drawings, I just really enjoyed making them. I really enjoyed drawing them, numbers one and two seem to be doing well. And people have kind of followed me for that kind of thing. And so I just decided to keep doing it,” he said.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have plans to take his work in a new direction. Barquin and two other artists he met online are starting a comics company and plan to do so publish a graphic novel with an original story. So far, the team has not released any significant details about the project. Whether that original story will feature some of its own characters remains to be seen.