Justin Roiland’s original scribbles for Doc and Mharti were objectively hideous. They were crude, intentional parodies of Back to the Future that looked like they were drawn on a grease-stained napkin during a fever dream. Yet, that raw, ugly energy became the DNA of a multibillion-dollar franchise. Today, drawings Rick and Morty enthusiasts produce range from hyper-realistic oil paintings to pixel art that looks better than the actual show. It's a weird evolution.
You’ve probably seen the "Real Life Rick" art floating around Reddit. It’s terrifying. The drool is glistening, the skin is papery, and the eyes have that vacant, alcoholic stare that makes you want to look away but you just can't. This isn't just fan art; it’s a massive cultural feedback loop that actually influences how the animators at Adult Swim approach the multiverse.
The Crude Science of the "Pupil"
Have you ever noticed the eyes? Every character in the show has those weird, asterisks-style pupils. It’s a design choice that screams "chaos." When people start their own drawings Rick and Morty style, that’s usually the first thing they mess up. They make the pupils too round. In the show, those scribbled pupils signify that everyone is slightly "off" or perpetually stressed.
James McDermott, the lead character designer, has talked about how the show’s look is a marriage between gross-out underground comix and clean, modern digital lines. It’s a hard balance to hit. If you draw Rick too clean, he loses his edge. If you draw him too messy, he’s just a blob. The sweet spot is that "ugly-cute" aesthetic that keeps the show grounded even when they’re visiting a dimension where everyone is a sentient butt.
The fan community takes this further. Artists like Myisha Cherry or the prolific creators on DeviantArt often experiment with "Style Bending." This is where they take Rick and Morty and draw them in the style of Studio Ghibli or Disney. Seeing Rick Sanchez with the soft, shimmering eyes of a Ghibli protagonist is a cursed image you can't unsee. Honestly, it’s impressive how the core silhouette of the characters—Rick’s spikey hair and Morty’s round, terrified head—is so iconic that it survives any art style transition.
Why Everyone Wants to Draw a Portal
Portals are the ultimate "cheating" tool for artists. They’re basically a green, swirling excuse to ignore perspective. But if you look at the technical breakdown of how the show’s background artists handle them, there’s a lot of math involved. They use a specific lime-green gradient that has to "pop" against the often muted, purplish hues of alien landscapes.
When you're looking at drawings Rick and Morty fans post online, the portal is usually the centerpiece. It represents the infinite. It’s a narrative get-out-of-jail-free card.
- Start with a rough circle.
- Add the "swirl" using a Fibonacci-style spiral.
- Layer on the glow effects.
But here’s the thing: the official show art uses a very specific "blobby" texture. It’s not a perfect swirl. It’s organic. It looks like it’s breathing. Most amateur artists make the mistake of making it look too much like a rigid whirlpool. If you want it to look authentic, it needs to look like radioactive soup.
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The "C-137" Aesthetic vs. The Multiverse
The show is a goldmine for artists because there are no rules. Literally none. If you want to draw Rick as a toaster, it’s canon. If you want to draw Morty as a cosmic deity, it’s canon somewhere in the multiverse. This "infinite canvas" is why the search for drawings Rick and Morty never slows down.
Take the "Pickle Rick" phenomenon. It was a simple design—a pickle with a face. But the fan art pushed it into the stratosphere. People were drawing detailed anatomical cross-sections of the rat-limb exoskeleton Rick built. They were treating a joke about a vegetable with the same reverence as a medical textbook. That’s the power of this art style; it invites you to over-think the absurd.
The Technical Reality of the Animation
Behind the scenes, the show is built in Toon Boom Harmony. It’s not hand-drawn in the traditional "paper and pencil" sense anymore, but it tries to keep that shaky, hand-drawn vibe. The line weights are consistent, but the character poses are often "broken."
In professional drawings Rick and Morty productions, they use what's called "puppets." These are pre-built character models where the limbs can be rotated. However, the best episodes—think "The Rickshank Rickdemption"—frequently break these puppets for custom, hand-drawn frames to show extreme emotion or gore. If you’re an artist trying to mimic this, you have to learn when to break the rules of anatomy. Rick’s neck shouldn't be able to bend that way, but for a joke to land, it has to.
I remember seeing an interview with Dan Harmon where he mentioned that the show's look is partly inspired by The Simpsons, but if everyone had a mild Case of anxiety. That's why the characters always look a little sweaty or have those little "w" shapes for mouths. It’s the visual language of discomfort.
How to Get the Look Right
If you're actually sitting down to create your own drawings Rick and Morty style pieces, you need to focus on the "poverty of line." Don't over-complicate it.
- The Line Work: Use a brush that has no pressure sensitivity. You want a "dead" line—a consistent thickness throughout. This mimics the digital ink-and-paint look of the show.
- The Color Palette: The show uses a lot of secondary colors. Think purples, greens, and oranges. Avoid primary reds and blues unless they're on the characters themselves (like Rick’s hair or Morty’s shirt).
- The Backgrounds: This is where the pros shine. The backgrounds in Rick and Morty are actually quite painterly. They have a watercolor texture that contrasts with the sharp, flat characters. It makes the world feel big and the characters feel small and insignificant—which is basically the theme of the whole show.
The "Real" Rick Sanchez
There is a subculture of "hyper-realistic" drawings Rick and Morty that honestly haunts my dreams. Artists like Wil Hughes specialize in this. They take the cartoonish proportions and apply realistic human anatomy to them. The result is something out of a Cronenberg movie. It highlights just how "alien" these characters actually are.
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Think about Rick’s hair. In the show, it’s just blue spikes. In a realistic drawing, is it dyed hair? Is it a mutation? Is it just matted and dirty? When you see it rendered with individual follicles, the character shifts from "funny drunk grandpa" to "dangerous interdimensional terrorist."
This is where the fan art is actually superior to the show in terms of depth. The show has to stay "on model" to be animatable. Fans don't. They can spend 40 hours on a single frame of Rick crying, capturing a level of pathos that a 22-minute comedy doesn't always have time for.
Why the Art Still Matters in 2026
We're over a decade into this show, and the visual style hasn't aged. It’s timeless in a way that Family Guy or South Park isn't. It’s because the art style is flexible. It can handle a high-octane space battle and a quiet, depressing kitchen scene with the same level of visual competence.
The community of people making drawings Rick and Morty keeps the brand alive during the long breaks between seasons. It’s a way for fans to "own" a piece of the universe. When you draw your own version of a Plumbus, you’re participating in the world-building. You’re deciding how that weird, fleshy thing actually works.
Actionable Steps for Aspiring Artists
If you want to master this specific style, don't just copy a screenshot. That’s boring and you won't learn anything. Instead, try these specific exercises:
Draw a "Non-Rick" character in Rick's style. Take someone from a completely different show—maybe The Bear or Succession—and try to "Rick-ify" them. Give them the star-pupils. Give them the unibrow. Give them the slight blue tint to the skin. This forces you to understand the "rules" of the design rather than just tracing.
Experiment with the "Ugly" line. Most artists are taught to make smooth, beautiful lines. Stop doing that. Try drawing with your non-dominant hand or drawing quickly without lifting the pen. The "shaky" look is a hallmark of the early seasons and gives the characters a sense of frantic energy.
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Master the "Rick Drool." It’s not just a white blob. It’s usually a light cyan or off-white. It should follow the curve of the chin but look like it’s about to drip. It’s a small detail, but it’s the "tell" for a true fan artist.
Focus on the "Three-Quarter" view. Almost every iconic shot of Rick is from a 3/4 angle. It shows off the nose shape (which is a bit like a parsnip) and the way his hair spikes out in the back. Mastering this angle is 90% of the battle.
Ultimately, the world of drawings Rick and Morty is about embracing the weirdness. It’s about realizing that nothing matters, so you might as well draw something cool. Whether you're using a $3,000 Wacom tablet or a ballpoint pen on the back of a bill, the goal is the same: capture that specific blend of scientific wonder and existential dread.
The next time you see a piece of fan art, look closer at the background. Look at the weird alien plants that look like internal organs. Look at the way the light hits the portal fluid. There is a massive amount of talent in this community, and it's what keeps the Rick and Morty multiverse expanding long after the credits roll.
To really nail the aesthetic, start by studying the official "Art of Rick and Morty" books. They show the "rough" versions of the characters before they were cleaned up for TV. That’s where the soul of the show lives—in those messy, original lines. Once you understand the "mess," you can master the "masterpiece."
Stop worrying about making it look "perfect." The show itself is about the flaws of humanity. Your drawings should reflect that. Make them weird. Make them gross. Make them Rick.