Spend some time at an event like BlizzCon, and you’re bound to overhear the question, “Where did you get that awesome badge?” Upon further inspection, you might notice they’re asking about the special custom avatar badge their friend is wearing. For years, the person responsible for creating a large number of these eye-catching custom badges has been artist Sarah 'Noxychu' Schnau.

Over on the Velen (US) realm, Noxychu playes as a Draenei Holy Priest and leads a guild called Halcyon. As an artist, she has a way with faces—particularly those of World of Warcraft characters, which she deftly depicts in her own personal style.

Noxychu started drawing players' avatars in 2008, beginning with a handful of friends and then expanding her craft to all of the Wowhead staff in 2009. Her badge images have since become highly recognizable, and by 2010, her badges were on many convention attendees' "most wanted" lists.

Click any of the images above to enlarge

With the launch of Twitch's Creative category, Noxy has taken to the airwaves, broadcasting her works-in-progress whenever she can on weekdays. Armed with Photoshop CC and a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet, she goes from her references to wondrous “Noxified” results very quickly, as you can see in this video of her drawing Anthony Valva's character Chowmander:

You can find Noxy’s drawings sprinkled all over Wowhead.com (we’re quite fond of her wallpapers, such as this one from December 2009), and keep up with her on:
Twitter
Twitch
Tumblr
DeviantArt
Her website

Do you have a favorite play character you’d want to have Noxychu depict on a badge?