Estalie
A rose-eyed sailor-soldier character design wielding a thorned scythe, with full turnaround and accessory studies.
Artist
Xiaoya Yu
Colored Pencil & Watercolor · Character Design · Illustration
Xiaoya Yu is an illustrator working across character design, narrative illustration, and fine-art drawing. Her practice moves fluidly between traditional and digital media — detailed colored-pencil and watercolor character sheets, moody architectural interiors, expressive graphite portraiture, and digital editorial illustration — depending on the story she's telling.
Recurring motifs include roses, moons, and ornate Victorian/Gothic-lolita silhouettes, often paired with weapons or talismanic objects that hint at each character's backstory.
Products coming soon.
Portfolio
Cobel
A bookish adventurer in plaid and a feathered beret, designed with a satchel of ink vials and travel notes.
The Attic
A detailed isometric interior of a reading nook, rendered in warm, layered colored pencil.
No Borders
A glitch-textured cityscape piece pairing realism with protest text — illustration used for social commentary.
Self Portrait
A graphite figure study in a Victorian-style dress, from Xiaoya’s sketchbook practice.