There's Never Enough Space

*Hops swiftly onto the bandwagon and gets comfy*

As the title says, there's never enough room on these things. As soon as you fill the spaces someone else occurs to you that makes you think "Oh god how could I forget THAT PERSON geez".

Like Scott McCloud. He's like the invisible comic advisor that sits on your shoulder, whispering in your ear that YOUR DOIN IT WRONG.

But anyways. I managed to choose my art influences carefully enough. (It says at the bottom influences from anything, but if I really did that I'd need, what, a thousand little boxes maybe?) Long post is long TL;DR =_= Just look at the perty pictures.

1: DISNEY, DUH. I was born during what's apparently called the Disney Renaissance (1989-1999), and most of my fuzzy baby memories feature the Disney films. Proof that I wanted to draw ever since I can remember! Little Mermaid seems to be the one that started the dream - but artistically I guess the design of more interesting characters like Tarzan and the work of Freddy Moore (Lefou and the Peter Pan mermaids) are what really stick with me even now.
(And shhh, we all went through Disney denial at some point - My early teens were spent pretending I hated Disney, and now I can't get enough of it - Prince Naveen, anyone?)

2. CLAMP. The goddesses of manga - I'm writing my dissertation on these babes. Their art, storytelling, ideas of love and pushing concepts past their boundaries has alway been influential. And it doesn't hurt that all of their characters are gorgeous. I suppose it first began with Cardcaptor Sakura ... and it continues now with Kobato. (We'll leave Tsubasa out of this particular comment. Oh dear, Clamp, OH DEAR.)

3. Hisaya Nakajo. Hana Kimi is one of my favourite shojo manga, has been for a long while. Along with Rumiko Takahashi, Yuu Watase, and CLAMP of course, Nakajo's delicate male characters and face designs have brought out the shojo in me.

4. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. FFFF. This man. Those willowy characters. The painted backgrounds. His artwork is just wonderful. I'm so glad I bought .hack years ago, else my art wouldn't be what it is now. (And by that I don't mean crap XD) And of course, let's not forget Evangelion. A major influence ... and a fucked up one at that, bwahaha.

5. Tessa Stone. Quite a recent influence I must say, but 'Hanna is not a Boy's Name' has hit me hard where it hurt - my layout and typography skills. Thanks to that I've really changed the way I do my comics and illustrations. For the better I hope.

6. Yukipon. Ahem, well ... yes. Moving on. (ADSFADSFADSF IT'S JUST TOO PRETTY AND FULL OF EMOTION TO IGNORE. The sketches! Just ... UNFFFF.)

7. Hiromu Arakawa. THE ARTISTIC TRADITION PASSED DOWN THROUGH GENERATIONS OF THE ARMSTRONG FAMILY ARE NOW BELONG TO ME.

8. Takeshi Obata. The way this guy paints skin and clothing always makes me gape in awe. Now his artwork in Bakuman just gives me so much energy to draw it's unstoppable hfffff.

9. ODA. EIICHIRO FUCKING ODA. This genius has saved me in more ways than one. When I first saw One Piece I thought it was ugly ... I was young, I was naive. I did not see One Piece for the masterpiece it truly is; but now I do. The art style may appear crude, but upon further inspection Oda's clever use of simple designs and hatching (OH GOD THE HATCHING UNF) is something only someone with real skill can pull off. And don't get me started on the variety of character designs ... how he keeps up with them all I'll never know.
And also, I am a little less comfortable with admitting that this great writer taught me a valuable life lesson: Value your nakama. Always.
They're always on my mind while I'm working - You darn crazy sonuvabitches, get outta my head >.<

10. Disney PIXAR, specifically Tony Fucile. And Brad Bird. And John Lasseter. And Teddy Newton. And Lou Romano. AW GEEZ THEY'RE ALL AMAZING. These gifted gentlemen have designed some wonderful characters full of heart that have touched me deeply ... I'm still reeling from Toy Story 3 TT3TT. Tony and Teddy's designs taught me to stray from anatomical normalcy ... strange and overexaggerated body shapes are so much more fun

11. Tetsuya Nomura. The big hands and feet, ridiculous hair, complex characters, angular linework ... the whole shebang had an effect on my work.

12. Maki Murakami. Ohhh I won't deny she's drawn some dirty, FILTHY things XD But she was also undeniably a key influence on me - reading Gravitation (er, and the rest...) made me loosen my drawing style, attempt to convey emotions properly (even if faces became suddenly, horribly grotesque) and also ... she made me laugh a whole damn lot. Oh you silly, silly singer, Shuichi Shindo.

13. Akira Toriyama. Originally considered putting him in ze big box, but his influence has gradually died down over the years as I've moved onto Oda worship haha.
But in all honesty Toriyama's style was the first anime style I ever copied (not the first I ever saw though, pff, that was Gundam Wing >:3) ... and BOY did I copy a lot! Sketchbooks full of the stuff! (And some god-awful DBZ OCs ... shaddup, I was only nine...). But I've never looked back.

And after all those years of never looking back ... here I am.

...

*facepalm*

All artwork (c) Their original owners.