50 Popular Cartoon Characters Reimagined As Modern-Day Adults By Isaiah Stephens

Bored Panda reached out to Isaiah with some questions! First, we wanted to know how the artist got started on the illustrations, and here's what he said, "I’ve been drawing since I was a very young child. Drawing was always my way to escape all the negative things going on in my life and in the world. I always used it as a form of therapy."

We were also wondering whether the artist was self-taught or studied his craft.

"I’m mostly self-taught. Outside of art classes in high school and college, I haven’t really had any formal training. I did go to school for animation, though. The focus there was more on movement and acting as opposed to creating still images."

With all of that being said, we were curious how the artist got the idea for the series.

"I’m in this weird stage in my life where nostalgia means more to me now than I think it ever will. I’m officially in my 30s and looking back on my childhood, I can say that was the happiest time of my life and a big part of that is the media that I consumed as a child. All of the cartoons, TV shows, movies, and all those things still mean so much to me because of the people I got to share those experiences with.

My siblings, my family, and my old friends. So these pieces, in a way, were a celebration of those characters that I grew up with and of those shows that help me through some pretty serious times in my life. These pieces were always meant to be fun and a love letter to these shows, movies, and TV shows that I hold so close to my heart."

Drawing is no easy feat so we asked the artist how long it takes him to finish off one artwork.

"I actually can complete these pretty quickly, especially because they base them off of the already established character design. So I’d say each piece takes roughly between 2 to 4 hours."

Following the conversation earlier about the childhood series, we asked Isaiah which of the childhood series was his personal favorite.

"I love all of the pieces that I’ve done through this collection. But if I had to choose ONE favorite, I’d say it was the Rugrats. The Rugrats were always my favorite TV show growing up and I still hold all of those characters near and dear to my heart. So for more reasons than one, the Rugrats are my favorite of the set."

Lastly, we couldn't help but ask if the artist had any plans in the near future for some other series, and here's what he said, "Oh, I have tons of ideas for projects to do. Too many, if I’m being completely honest! I just have to find the motivation and time to complete them all, so stay tuned!"