So I had a little down time today and I thought I'd take a crack at making one of these, as I have seen many artists do. It is very heavily weighted towards my past influences, a look into my roots.
I realized that most of my exposure to art as a kid was French comics: Asterix & Obelisk, Lucky Luke, Tintin, Blake & Mortimer, the Smurfs, Gaston Lagaffe, and while I loved the stories, their styles never bled into my artwork. As it turns out, these artists which I grew to dismiss as infantile during my manga-filled teenage years are actually masters of drawing, showcasing unparalleled linework, stylization and clarity of expression (especially Asterix).
I would also like to give a shoutout to Frank Frazetta, Mike Mignola, and Moebius, whom I was emulating and admiring without knowing they existed (again, no exposure to these artists until recently). Had I known of them earlier, they would undoubtedly be on this map. Seeing their work would have greatly helped me a few years ago when I was obsessed with ripped warriors, strong graphic light and shadow shapes, and obnoxious levels of detail. Others who barely missed the cut include Phil Hale, Barth, Ashley Wood, Jamie Hewlett, Wayne Reynolds, Jim Murray, and Luke Mancini. I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch too...
I also draw a fine line between Inspiration and Influence, as my breadth of inspirations is much much wider (in fact it is a common problem I have that I am interested in almost everything I see). I feel like these best represent artists who have transformed the art I make significantly.
Woo, sorry about the long post. Who are some of your inspirations/influences? :)
Great post, dude. Funny, in concept class today we learned about coming up with one of these inspiration/influence maps that would help us with thesis ideas for prepro next year.
ReplyDeleteSome of my inspiration/influences are Sylvain Marc, Uwe Heidschötter, Aurelien Predal, Glen Keane, Henry Selick, and Jim Henson
Werd! Good to see so many Gobelins alumni in that list. I watch them very closely, that school is a goldmine of original talent. I'm sure you've seen these but some of my favorite are Bruno Mangyoku, Floriane Marchix, Jeremy Pires, Paul Lacolley, Rachid Guendouze, and especially Vincent Ngheim. The Calarts kids are boss too!
DeleteI love these maps! It would be interesting to think back and recall what really stuck. For sure, the comic strip artists Gary Larson (of "The Far Side) and Bill Watterson ("Calvin and Hobbes") were huge influences for me.
ReplyDeleteLittle Prince! Oh man i loved that book but it gave me such a headache during french class.
ReplyDeleteGoro Fujita, Dice Tsutsumi and his guy called Tien Hee have been my recent inspirations :)
Right on, Asterix and Lucky Luke were the first comic books I became obsessed with, everything on them is so well constructed, I still get to read and study them. And Hiromu Arakawa is great, to me Fullmetal Alchemist will always be her best work. Hahah if I wrote here all of my influences it would pollute your blog, so that's enough rambling!
ReplyDeleteHaha, once I finally sit down and make one of these chart thingy's you will definitely be one of my inspirations, Victot. ;)
ReplyDeleteI think I need to make my map too
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