All entrants in the inaugural Stealth Sketch Battle were judged on their creativity in dreaming up characters who would look at home on campus. As you can see, our students rose to the challenge. 

If you’re around AIT in Sydney or Melbourne then look out for the characters. See if you can find them all, or read on to learn a little more about each character and the students who created them.

Sydney Students

Winner – Jade the Android

Jade is an android out exploring the campus. Right now she’s just taking a break to recharge a bit.

Character Artist: Brendan Neale

ArtStation: BjDj1 

Instagram: @bj._.dj 

LinkedIn: Brendan Neale 

I’m a 3D and 2D artist, constantly trying to improve on my abilities and skills as I develop a range of knowledge to help me make it into the industry. I love creating art and playing video games as I constantly get new inspirations to help fuel my passion.

Jade is an original character I created and designed myself. While creating the artwork I was actually experimenting with new techniques and was doing various art studies at the time and wanting to put them into practice, testing what I learnt. 

The main thing I tried to keep in mind as I was drawing was sticking to the criteria and making sure it ticked all the boxes because that was the biggest part I needed to get right if I wanted to participate, and have fun.

Second Place – Brielle

“Brielle skates across the halls with her shopping haul, rushing herself to the kitchen to stuff her face!”

Character Artist: Ash 

Instagram: @_vixxkixx  

Hi, I’m Ash! I am an artist who enjoys concept drawing, graphic design, and illustration! My Stealth Sketch character was inspired by Strawberry Shortcake and TV shows I watched as a kid, with a little twist of fantasy from myself. 

I tried to use as much motion and silhouette as possible, using ideas from figurines and splash art from video games and other art media. I practised gesture drawings over the years so I applied my skills and knowledge, and applied anatomy with line weight and shape language to create my piece!

Runner Up – Devourer of Suns

“As long as there is life in the universe, The Ever Hunger will live and thrive.”

Character Artist: Zen

Instagram: @cursededz 

ArtStation: ZeMatriarch 

I’m a monster concept artist with a passion for horror creatures, animals and palaeontology as well. I love Lovecraftian creatures and I like to bring these horrors beyond our comprehension to life. I also love kaiju and Godzilla and just love almost anything animal related. I want to design creatures for games and movies in the future. 

The creature portrayed in my submission has many names from many different cultures across the universe. Light-consumer, Soul-Eater, The Ever Hunger and many others. All things that are shared between these cultures is the evil this creature spreads. It is forever hungry and its hunger can never be satiated. It started out as a normal creature, but the more it devoured, the bigger it grew. It consumes all, but its favourite food is stars and suns. As long as there is life in the universe, The Ever Hunger will live and thrive. Every star death event births more stars, every star it consumes, more will take its place. It is eternal. 

Runner Up – Dotty the Rabbit Drone

Don’t walk by without saying hello to Dotty.

Character Artist: Georgia C

Portfolio: Georgia C

I am studying 2D animation and I find joy in bringing characters and stories to life through art. What began as a hobby has grown into a passionate pursuit, fuelled by my ambition to turn this creative outlet into a fulfilling career. Join me as I navigate the colourful realm of animation, striving to merge my passion with my profession.

My character is named Dotty and they’re a rabbit drone. I wanted to make their design based on AIT itself. I made them a robot because AIT uses technology for their courses. The colour is based on the colour of the logo. And I made them a rabbit because AIT was first established in the Year of the Rabbit. 

Runner Up – Jellyfish Girl

“This is my little jellyfish girl. She spends her time floating around in the Sydney campus fish tank.”

Character Artist: Paige Lester

Linktree: @panshrooms

Portfolio: @pansrooms 

My name is Paige, I work as a teacher to teach kids about animation, game design, and coding. I’m studying an animation degree and I enjoy animating in my spare time.

When I first started studying at AIT, the fish tank was my favourite part of the campus, I loved seeing the little fish swimming about on my way to class. So when the Stealth Sketch Battle came out I wanted to use the fish tank as my location and found an old picture of the fish tank I took when I first started. I used Procreate to create my character.  

Melbourne Students

Winner – Charlotte the Borrower

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Character Artist: Cheshire

Instagram: @ichor.ous

I’m a queer 2D animation student in my first year at AIT, and I love the course so far and have made so many amazing friends here. I love character design and cartoons such as ‘The Owl House’, ‘Hilda’, and many more, and I aspire to become an animator for children’s shows to help inspire others as much as some of my favourite shows have inspired me.

Charlotte is a borrower/tiny human who lives inside the walls of AIT, feasting on crumbs of students’ lunches and collecting dropped nicknacks to turn into her own tools and fun crafts. I was inspired by the Ghibli film ‘The Secret World of Arrietty’ as I thought the relaxed and quirky film fit AIT’s vibes well and I love the creativity in the intricate details of the world of the borrowers. I tried to keep the character fairly goofy, drawing them on a program called MediBang Paint Pro.

Second Place – Didi the Little Alien

“I now have plans to turn them into a webtoon character.”

Character Artist: Pierrah

LinkedIn: Pierrah

I’m a student studying for a Bachelor of 2D Animation and am enjoying the course so far very much. I am a jack of all trades as an artist. I like doing a bit of everything related to art, such as drawing, painting, sculpting, crochet, pottery, etc. Despite being able to do so much I don’t have a direct career goal, though I do know I want to focus on 2D animation at present.

I had initially made the little alien on a whim and made them solely for the Sketch Battle, though I now have plans to turn them into a webtoon character. Their name is Didi and they’re a cat-sized alien who got evicted from their space station as a way of forcing them to further research Earth as they weren’t getting adequate information on Earth being in space.

When I was making Didi I was drawing random shapes in Procreate until a shape inspired me. Once I had an idea in my head, it all just played out from there. As I was working on what kind of legs I wanted to give Didi, Lee just happened to check in on me in the games room and gave me a few suggestions. I then applied his feedback and was happy with the result. At this point inspiration had also struck me; I was feeling that a story that went along the lines of the movie “Paul” (2011) but being more cutesy and more age-appropriate would fit Didi perfectly. 

When doing the final sticker design and illustration of Didi I tried to emulate the rendering style of an artist I adore. They go by @zepn1 on Instagram. Though I added my own spin on the style, it only takes one look to get where I got my rendering and line style from. As for the colours, I just chose what I thought looked nice and would fit nicely with the character. I had unintentionally used complimentary colours in the process.

Runner Up – Kimi the Games Club Nekomimi

“Kimi the nekomimi is ready for another games club session!”

Character Artist: Jazmine Frost

Instagram: @arcticfoxwaffles

I’m an AIT student studying 3D Animation with a goal of being a part of making an award winning film or game and to have my name in the credits. I love watching shows and playing games because of the stories they tell through the visual media, and it inspires me to create things that can make people smile.

Runner Up – Nellie

“Her soul is at peace now.”

Character Artist: Vincent Polley

Instagram: @vinci._.2023

My name is Vincent Polley and 2024 is my first year at AIT studying 2D animation. I hope after I finish studying I’m able to get a job making cartoons for Netflix or Adult Swim.

My hobbies are drawing, playing DnD and writing books and stories. I hope to publish a book at some point in my life too.

The picture is of my first DnD character, Nellie, who died early on in the campaign. This drawing is meant to honour her and to show that she isn’t dead in our hearts, lol. She’ll forever be remembered for getting killed by a coin bug because she wasn’t thinking.

Runner Up – AI Receptionist

“Help! Our beloved receptionists are being taken over by AI.”

Character Artist: Lucy Bell

Instagram: @gooseyspen

LinkedIn: Lucy Bell

Second year 2D Animation student at AIT, in my free time I practice life drawing. I aim to be an artistic director and inspire others to nurture the 2D craft. Ideally, I will be in Italy or France animating the streetgoers and bringing more magic to every corner of the world. 

My character is a receptionist who’s been pointlessly upgraded with AI. I usually struggle to draw rendered skin, and tend to work in black and white, so I experimented with different methods of undertone, textures, lighting and eventually ended up happy with it. 

Honourable Mentions

Cosmic Creature

Yet another visitor from the stars. Have you met this cosmic creature?

Character Artist: Bethany Nealon

Instagram: @beanbox03

I love everything about the production of 2D animation, from the character design to the backgrounds and effects.

Black Ops Toilet Boy

Just keep walking. And make sure you wash your hands.

Character Artist: Jimoen Stallard

Instagram: @jimen_salad

Currently studying 2D animation, I’m a total film nerd (the weirder and more unhinged the better). I love drawing weird characters. Not really sure what my style is, I guess I’m still finding it and I’d love to direct my own animated films one day.

I really wanted to do an absurd character revolving around the bathroom. I decided to put a serious looking black ops dude sitting in a toilet. I painted him in Photoshop using simple cel shading for detail. 

Piper

How will Piper get out of this hairy situation?

Character Artist: Lee Leishman 

As an AIT graduate, Lee wasn’t eligible to win, they just wanted to see their character back at home on the AIT campus where they first created her. 

And if you think Piper looks familiar, then it might be because you’ve seen her in Lee’s short film, Hairy Situation.

Want to see all the AIT Stealth Sketch Battle characters for yourself? Join us on campus for our next event, or sign up for your very own campus tour.