Every year, certain races and classes show up in our commission queue way more than others. It’s not scientific. We don’t take polls. We just notice patterns, and in 2026, three races and three classes are absolutely dominating.
This isn’t a guide to what these races and classes do in the game, our Fantasy Guide covers all that. This is something different. This is what we love about painting them, what we see over and over again, and what makes each one such a joy to bring to life on canvas.
So if your character shows up on this list, congratulations. You have great taste. And also, please send them our way, we’d love to paint them.
The Top 3 Races of 2026
1. Tiefling – the undisputed champion
Tieflings are not winning. They ARE the category.
Every single week, someone messages us with a new tiefling. Red ones, purple ones, gray ones, the ones with the tail that curls just so, the ones with horns that twist in impossible directions, the ones with eyes that glow because their ancestor made bad decisions a few hundred years ago. We love all of them.
What makes tieflings so fun to paint is that they come with built-in drama. You don’t have to work to make a tiefling look interesting, they already do. The horns do half the work. The tail finishes the sentence. Our job is just to figure out which KIND of tiefling yours is: the brooding warlock who hasn’t smiled in three years, the charming bard who could sell ice to a white dragon, or the cleric who’s trying very hard to prove to everyone (including themselves) that their infernal heritage doesn’t define them.
If you’re playing a tiefling in 2026, you’re part of a beautiful, dramatic, slightly cursed majority. And we’re here for it.
2. Elf – the classic that never goes out of style
Elves are the little black dress of DnD character design. Always in fashion, always elegant, always the right choice for something a little more refined.
Here’s what we love about painting elves: the restraint. A tiefling can go HUGE, horns, tail, dramatic pose, glowing eyes, whole vibe turned up to eleven. An elf needs to do more with less. The personality has to come through in the eyes, the posture, the quiet confidence of someone who has seen centuries pass and isn’t particularly impressed by any of them.
High elves in silks. Wood elves in leather and moss. Drow in obsidian and shadow. Every elf sub-type is its own visual language, and we love the challenge of making each one feel like its own thing. Just don’t ask us to pick a favorite. We refuse.
Bonus points if your elf has an unusual detail, a scar, an unconventional hairstyle, a piece of jewelry that breaks the “perfect elven warrior” mold. That’s where elf portraits get really interesting.
3. Human – the ones who prove you don’t need horns to be unforgettable
Here’s a take: humans are secretly one of the hardest races to paint well, and they’re also one of our absolute favorites.
Why hard? Because humans don’t come with visual shortcuts. No horns to do half the work. No glowing eyes. No scales or fangs or pointed ears. A human character has to earn their presence the old-fashioned way, through posture, expression, outfit, scars, and the thousand tiny choices that make them feel like a specific person and not just “generic fantasy human #47.”
And in 2026, the most common human commission we get, by far, is the warrior. The fighter. The soldier. The veteran. The one with the sword that’s seen a hundred battles and the face that’s seen twice as many. There’s something about human warriors that people can’t get enough of, maybe it’s the grounded realism, maybe it’s how relatable they feel, maybe it’s because every good fantasy story needs that one person in the party who’s just a regular human holding the line while everyone else casts spells and shapeshifts.
The best human warrior portraits we’ve painted lean into details. Dents in the armor. A chipped blade. A braid that’s half-coming-undone after a long day. Eyes that look tired but not broken. The kind of character who’s been knocked down more times than you can count and keeps standing up anyway. They’re not flashy. They don’t need to be. They just need to look like they’ve EARNED every inch of the life they’re living.
If you’re playing a human warrior in 2026, welcome to the club. It’s a big one, and it’s full of some of the best characters in the game.
The Top 3 Classes of 2026
1. Warlock – patron-approved, portrait-ready
Warlocks are having a moment. They’ve BEEN having a moment. We don’t see it ending.
The reason is simple: warlocks come with automatic aesthetic. You don’t have to work to make a warlock look interesting, the patron does it for you. A fiend warlock, a great old one warlock, a fey warlock, an archfey warlock, a celestial warlock, each one opens up a completely different visual direction, and clients love running with them.
The best warlock commissions are the ones where the client tells us WHO their patron is and lets us hint at it subtly in the piece. A floating grimoire behind the character. Eyes that glow just a little too much. A shadow on the ground that doesn’t match the body casting it. Tattoos that look like they might be writing something. Our favorite trick is adding ONE detail that makes the viewer look twice and then feel slightly uneasy. That’s the warlock experience.
Warlocks also tend to attract the most dramatic client briefs, which we LOVE. “She’s standing in a thunderstorm and her patron is watching through the lightning.” Yes. Send us more of those.
2. Bard – the scene stealers
Bards are the most fun to paint, and we will die on this hill.
Why? Because bards come with personality. Every bard portrait has to SAY something. A fighter can stand there looking tough and it works. A wizard can look mysterious and thoughtful. But a bard? A bard has to look like they’re about to do something. About to start playing. About to charm someone. About to break someone’s heart in three different ways before they finish their opening chord.
Our favorite bard commissions are the ones where the client sends us a character whose backstory is basically “had five exes, wrote songs about all of them, made enemies of every one of their families, still sleeps like a baby.” We know exactly what to do with that.
Also, bards give us an excuse to draw cool instruments. Lutes, harps, violins, drums, flutes, weird homebrew instruments that look like they shouldn’t work but somehow do — we love all of them. Tell us what your bard plays and we’ll make sure it feels like it’s been part of them for years.
3. Druid – the ones who refuse to stay still
Druids are the class where people get creative, and we love them for it.
A fighter is a fighter. A wizard is a wizard. But a druid? A druid can be anything. They can look half-human, half-tree. They can have antlers growing out of their hair. They can be mid-transformation, with wolf features starting to emerge. They can look like a sweet grandmother with a bird on her shoulder or a feral forest hermit who may or may not remember how to speak Common anymore. Every druid commission is its own little world.
We love when clients push the boundaries of what a druid can look like. Send us the moon druid whose skin glows silver at night. Send us the land druid whose clothes are literally woven from vines. Send us the grumpy old druid who’s mostly a bear these days and only reluctantly transforms back for important meetings. We’ll paint all of them and we’ll love every minute of it.
Druids are also one of the few classes where the BACKGROUND becomes a character too. A druid in a barren field feels wrong. A druid surrounded by mist, moss, mushrooms, and magical light? Now we’re talking.
Didn’t see your character up here?
If your race or class isn’t in our top three, don’t take it personally. These are just the ones we see the most, they’re not the only ones we love to paint.
Half-orcs. Gnomes. Kenku. Tabaxi. Aasimar. Firbolgs. Paladins. Rogues. Artificers. Monks. Rangers. Fighters who refuse to be called “just a fighter.” Wizards with aesthetic choices that make no sense but somehow work. We’ve painted all of them. We want to paint more of them.
Your character is valid. Your character deserves a portrait. And honestly? Sometimes the less common races and classes make the most memorable commissions, because they surprise us. We get to approach them fresh, without falling into any default patterns.
Ready to commission yours?
Whether you’re rolling with the top three or playing something we’ve never seen before, we’d love to bring your character to life. Every commission we take on gets the same attention, the same care, and the same joy, because every character has a story worth telling.
Browse our commissions and pick the one that fits your vision. And if you’re not sure how to describe your character yet, we have a whole post on that too.
