Hypnos S. Chhabra

Hypnos Chhabra (they/it) is a North Carolina-based artist with a focus in character design and keyframe illustration. They graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a Bachelor's in Fine Arts in 2024.Hypnos's choice of art tools are Tool Paint SAI 2 for illustrations and FolderFrame for animations.Some of Hypnos's works were promotional board illustrations for Starbucks and a shirt graphic design for Lovin' Life Music Festival. Although primarily a digital illustrator, Hypnos enjoys experimenting with different mediums, such as graphite, ink, acrylic, gouache, watercolor, sculpture, and mixed media.

In this project, my goal was to create a narrative illustration that takes place in an alternative reality in which the rules of science may not apply and the events that have shaped and molded our reality may not have happened.Here, I expanded upon one of my own ideas of a group of sentient and animated Clay People. They build and kiln-fire new people, tools, and pets from the earth with a distinct spiral-coil pattern on their limbs, along with repairing broken parts using gold. The Clay People are brought to life with special pearls that wash up on a shoreline near their village. In this illustration, the Clay People are repairing and ebuilding one of their own kind.

In this collaborative project, my objective was to develop basic proficiency designing game assets and implementing them through an appropriate time pipeline. The theme for this project was "adaptation," and my group came up with Aero-Natare. I provided all of the concepts, visuals, and sprite animations.Within the world of Aero-Natare, you play as John Fallguy, a salvager who seeks treasures from an ancient sky civilization. As you treasure hunt, you must navigate through the unpredictable weather patterns and defend yourself with a grappling hook against sea creatures that have adapted and took flight to the skies.

In this project, my objective was to respond to existing imagery and narrative in a new and authentic way (in this case, The Wizard of Oz) and design characters and environments for a picture book. I also had to understand Picture Book Layout and Composition for visual perception while implementing rhythm and story arc into the pages.Here, I illustrated the "exposition" and "rising action" of my page lineups. In the exposition, Dorothy wanders the land of Oz on the Yellow Brick Road and discovers the Scarecrow. In the rising action, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman continue their journey on the Yellow Brick Road towards Emerald City, but the Cowardly Lion is about to pounce on the group.The rising action illustration, titled "Onwards To Emerald City," was featured in the 2023 Juried Student Exhibition at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

In this project, my objective was to again respond to existing imagery and narrative in a new and authentic way (The Wizard of Oz) and design characters for a lineup. Here, I illustrated Patchwork Girl, Pumpkin Jack, Princess Ozma, and Tik-Tok.I had a toy theme in mind with each character, with Patchwork Girl being a literal doll, Pumpkin Jack being a Jack-in-the-Box, Princess Ozma pulling inspiration from the Barbie Fairy Princess toy line, and Tik-Tok being based off plastic soldiers, Transformers action figures, radio-controlled toys, and retro wind-up robots.

In this project, my objective was to interpret a given theme create a believable interior or exterior background without any figures. I had to choose a theme (rural farming), decide on my interpretation or story (horror), and make formal decisions about color scheme and composition (autumn color palette).

In this project, my objective was to explore various animal anatomy and creature design by creating a character design based on a provided list of mythical creatures, where I chose the Fenghuang. I chose to explore this assignment by making a keyframe for a possible animation or game.Some of my inspirations involved with my Fenghuang’s designs were various creatures native to China and ancestors of domesticated animals. Some animals involved are the head and crest of a red junglefowl, the plumage of a mandarin duck, the shell of an impressed tortoise, the horns and hooves of a Père David’s stag, the tail, scales, and color patterning of a koi fish, and the frame of the Archaeopteryx lithographica. The environment that the Fenghuangs inhabit is based on secondary forests near mountains, such as Qinghai and Tibet, but also the natural habitat for the red junglefowl and the impressed tortoise."Disturbing the Fenghuangs" was featured in the 2024 Juried Student Exhibition at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

In this project, my objective was to work from a randomly generated writing prompt to create an illustrated narrative. The project was intended to be aimed at a specific target audience and I chose to go for a middle school-aged demographic. This assignment included an environment illustration, a cover illustration, and a narrative illustration.Here, I combined the randomly generated writing prompt with one of my pre-existing ideas of James, a ghost hunter, and Christopher, his ghostly partner. In this setting, the two characters are changed into awkward highschoolers heading to their school's prom night.

This page displays a collection of commissioned illustrations I have done for others.

Starbucks Promotional Illustrations (2023-2025)

Lovin' Life Music Fest (2024)

This page displays a collection of my personal projects, which include character design, concept art, and sculptures.