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Apr 2016

I've seen a lot of creative/creation games posted recently and i remembered Fox Orian's Influence map activity in wich you select your main inspirations and authors for your own work.

what I like the most about this method is that it's a graphic way of mapping the things that influence your work, argumental tendencies and overall narrative feeling in the case of comic book creators/artists. I kind of tried to give mine some depth with the size of the tiles and ended up discovering the major inspirations of my childhood and late teen years (Dragon Quest and One Piece) and it kind of makes sense when you see my pivotal comic right now14 but even then one can see that there is music/movies that contribute greatly to each person's creative process.

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So, some of you must have one to share, others may want to create it, here's the template73 if anyone wants to join and see if a co-relation to your work can be seen.

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    Apr '16
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I just did a new one, that's a bit more accurate for now - though I left out One Piece because I ran out of space - just imagine the entire border of this being full of One Piece, and we're good!

1. Paul Kidby
Illustrator of the newer work of the late and astounding Terry Pratchett. Must be in some kind of pact with the devil, because I swear he does magic with acrylics and oil paint. Beautiful sense of light, colour and character design.

2. Matt Rhodes
I've been following Matt Rhodes around the internet since I was in middle school, marvelling at his gorgeous artwork. What he does with lighting and atmosphere is outstanding. I have, in fact, been internet-shadowing Rhodes for so long that this image is a crop from a painting I'm not sure he remembers having made. XD

3. One Monster After Another
A children's book by Mercer Mayer that I read until it fell apart when I was a kid; some of the most fun and imaginative monsters I've ever seen, and a beautiful attention to detail. <3

4. Usagi Yojimbo
.... used here as a stand-in for all the samurai-related comics that influence me, be they Usagi Yojimbo, Blade of the Immortal, Vagabond or J.P Kalonji's 365 Samurai and a Few Bowls of Rice. UY is amazing, and everyone should try it at least once.

5. Castle Waiting
Linda Medley is a genius when it comes to linework, and possibly even more of a genius when it comes to writing wonderful characters. <3

6. Hellboy
There's something beautifully epic about Hellboy once you get past the monster-punching, and Mignola's use of shadows is something else, I swear.

7. John Bauer
If you ask a Swede what trolls look like, this is what they will answer. John Bauer is personally responsible for the way Swedish trolls look like in fiction.

8. Yoshitaka Amano
If anyone ever wonders where on earth I got the idea to draw so many fiddly details on my character designs, this is it. It's all Amano's fault.

9. Nick Kole
Besides being one of the nicest people in the world, Nick is also amaaaazingly talented, and one day I hope to be able to do what he does with colour, because goddamn.

here's one i made a few months ago.
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Edward Gorey -- I like the bleak look of his artwork, which are usually coupled with morbid humor. The gashlycrumb tinies is one of my favorite picture books.

Renee French -- You can find her blogspot online where she posts her artwork. Just about all of her work is like this, soft and dreamlike, as if looking through fog.

Suehiro Maruo -- A well-known guro artist. His exquisite art makes it difficult to look away from the depravity of his stories. The odd stiffness of his poses may be a little off-putting, but I find it charming.

Josceline Fenton -- she's the creator of the webcomic Hemlock1 and I've been enamored with her art ever since I was a wee 12 year old on dA. Read it and weep.

Coraline -- I'm already a sucker for stop motion, but the details in the movements of Laika's characters are incredibly endearing. I shouldve put Paranorman as an example here, too.

Junji Ito -- The first person I think of when I think of horror comics. His imagination and the disgusting detail that goes into his spectacles are truly something to behold. And I'm fascinated by the feeling of helplessness and resignation which permeates his stories, although a common criticism is that he has very weak characters as a result. Many of his stories are basically about bad things happening to average people.

Victor Erice -- the director of El espĂ­ritu de la colmena (above) and El Sur, both of which are serenely beautiful movies about children attempting to make sense of the world they live in, or the people they live among. You can see in the example how the cinematography makes just about every shot look like a painting.

I did one 6 years ago... still applies, but I may make one for my current influence or source of inspiration.

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"I focused on things that influenced me as a child... namely things that bring a smile to my face. These things define me and helped develop my current interests." -- me from 6 years ago
1. Batman TAS
2. Serials - Spy Smasher
3. Bullwinkle
4. The Day the Earth Stood Still
5. Aesop's Fables illustrated by Milo Winter
6. Donald Duck Cartoons
7. Preston Blairs 'Animation Book'
8. The Adventures of Tin Tin
9. Darkwing Duck
10. Bambi
11. Serials - Superman
12. Dinosaurs
13. Children's Poems illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

1. Bamse and co.
A swedish comics for kids, that my mom read aloud to me and my sister.
2. Donald duck
The Donald Duck comic magazine is still big in Sweden, I read it while growing up. Not so much nowadays, but it has definitely affected me.
3. Liberty Meadows
A beautiful and fun comic, whether it's in black/white or in color.
4. Bone
You all know why Bone is so awesome. If not, you should read it. Beautiful!!
5. Finn & Fiffi
A belgian comic that my brother had a subscription to, that I later took over. Finn&Fiffi taught me how to read, sort of. No, my sister did, but I practiced my reading with these albums.
6. Lenore
The cute little dead girl! Has inspired my coloring and pacing in comics.
7. W.I.T.C.H.
Nearly ruined me because this was the style I wanted (and still do) to draw in, but I didn't really have it in me just yet so my life was very difficult. I still look at it with glitter in my eyes.
8. Skydoll
The same as with Witch, because Barbara Canepa has drawn both SkyDoll and Witch. Amazing looking comic, but it's in French so I can't really read it smiley
9. Mickey Mouse & Co.
I still have my old MM&Co magazines from the 80s still in my book shelf. The first ones my brother gave to me. Thank you, brother smile
10. Lena Furberg (a comic artist) making comics about horses
11. Mulle
Lena Furberg is a swedish comic artist, making comics about horses and she's just the best! She makes two different kinds of comics - either realistic comics (image 10) and a more cartoony comic about a pony called Mulle. I copied her drawings so much! So much that my art teacher said I wasn't allowed to draw horses anymore smiley

  1. Jeff Smith in regards of writing, art and storytelling.
  2. Jim Lee, amazing artist.
  3. Hugleikur Dagsson, odd humor.
  4. Junji Ito, designs, stories.
  5. Kentaro Miura, BERSERK, writing & art.
  6. Art Spiegelman, storytelling.
  7. Riyoko Ikeda, rose of versailles, writing.
  8. Yukito Kishiro, art, GUNNM
  9. Carl Bark, storytelling
  10. Joe Kelly, writing
  11. Juanjo Guarnido, ART.
  12. Neil Gaiman, writing.
    @yvettegustafsson @agentfink @noctuidae Good choices here! B)

If it's a influence map, I'll try to show everything that influenced me since I was a child and until now...

1- Disney movies (I watched almost all them and I still watch today);
2- Looney Tunes (Just my favorite cartoon);
3- Spirited Away (My first contact with japanese animation, at first it was strange, but that's why I remember it =P);
4- Cartoon Network (Specifically 2000 decade cartoons, I watched a lot!);
5- Turma da MĂ´nica (Monica's Gang in English. It's a brazilian comic book for kids by Mauricio de Souza. I have read a lot of them during my childhood, it was fun);
6- Around the World in Eighty Days and other books by Jules Verne (just my favorite writer, I love his stories);
7- Pixar movies (I enjoy a lot their creations, the animation is perfect!);
8- Dreamworks (The animation isn't as good as Pixar, but the stories were very good!);
9- Treasure Planet (Back to the old and good 2D animation, it's one of my favorite movies, a big influence to making "The Sky Travelers");
10- Sword Art Online (After years watching Pokemon and Digimon, I only realised it was all japanese anime after watching SAO with a "otaku" friend. He told me everything o.o);
11- Kingdom Hearts (I've played Kingdom Hearts' games sometimes, it was a lot of fun. Then I started reading the manga);
12- Kill la Kill (At first I didn't like it so much, but it mysteriously influenced me a lot!);
13- Nsio - DeviantArt2 (He's an architect who draws manga as a hobby, because of that, his tutorials are very detailed and help me a lot in learning. It's like he's my art teacher, but don't know I exist ;-;);
14- Studio Ghibli (Very good movies and animation, it makes me feel so much better smile);
15- Grassblades (Wait, it's a comic from Tapastic? Yes it's true, this comic by Anna Landin is what let me join Tapastic and start my own. It's one of my favorites in Tapastic =D).

I'm sure there's a couple more artists that I'm forgetting, but these are most significant.

Hisaya Nakajo: The first manga that I was obsessed with solely because of the art. Her influence on my style stretches all the way back to high school. Before that, my anime style was somewhere between Sailor Moon and Naruto. It was the first time I really wanted to develop a specific drawing style that I can call my own. It slowly transformed to what I have today.

Yoshitaka Amano: A more recent discovery. I grew up practicing the CG versions of Final Fantasy until I discovered his art book two years ago. Allowed me to appreciate rough traditional art and the range of colors in his fantasy world.

Takehiko Inoue: Oh man. This man. His brush techniques. The hair....

Greg Tocchini: There are people that think otherwise, but his coloring is amazing. The first comic that I read that is colored with very unique color schemes. Is it watercolor? Is it digital? I don't know. If you like things like this, read Descenders, too! That one is all in watercolor.

Maja Wronskaby: This woman is INCREDIBLE. Possibly my biggest idol in watercolors besides James Gurney. Her precision with structural details leaves you breathless. Why look at photographs when you can look at her paintings?

-ORANGE

... I might have to update this as I made it first in 2010. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow ;D

1) John Romita - Spiderman
One of my greatest influences. When I was about 10-11 I got to read my mums oldest Spiderman-comics.
And I really LOVE how John pencilled his drawings.

2) The Little Mermaid
This was the first movie I watched (Gummi-bears doesn't count) that I
watched nonstop when I was 3/4 years old. I've still got the VHS at home
xD
I so wanted to be a mermaid then xD

3) 91:an Karlsson.
This is about a guy that never seems to "graduate" from the military. He's
gullible, cute, and sometimes smart. xD He always neds up doing stupid
stuff, mostly because of his mean friend 87:an and then they almost
always ends up in jail.

4) The Phantom.
Do I really need anything to say about this? It's still a HUGE comic in Sweden, everyone has read it or heard of it.

5) Nemi by Lise Myhre.
Norwegian awesome comic. Though I've gotten a bit tired of it lately because
swedes just LOVES THEM RERUNS. I.. I ... yeah. But it was a great comic
about a goth-girl and random stuff xD

6) ELFQUEST. by Wendy and Richard Pini
I seriously can't get enough of this comic. They only published 17
chapters here in sweden, and now my mum finally bought the rest of the
comic. and I still don't get how they coloured it, it's so fabulous
looking, and it HAVE to be with markers! D:

7) MIMIKRY.
I love this band. Liek to daeth.
Their songs are really worth listening to, they have some really deep meanings to it.

8) BACK TO THE FUTURE.
... I want a delorean.

9) Herman Hedning by Jonas Darnell
The same guy who also draws 91:an. Well, a few of them though. 91:an is a
bit like Donald Duck, characters that doesn't evolve or change (that
much), and it's got a lot of people drawing them.
So, this one is about that fat guy pestering EVERYTHING and makes life hard for
everyone, even god. Yes. God appears in this comic, and God is AWESOME.

10) Elvis by Tony Cronstam
This comic is about turtles in an everydaylife comic and their kitten Sonny.
How awesome isn't that? They inspire me more by the stuff, the every-day-life situations that happens to them.

... It's still quite up to date with this one, that's crazy, haha!
(I don't think you could actually see anything of this in my comic.

OHH you know that they published them all (elfquest) in their site for free? (that's where I read them all wink )

Ah, yes! :D
However, I prefer reading them in book format, I tried reading them online but it wasn't quite the same to me xD

@Exeivier Wait what, are there short films feat Lenore? Need to check that out, I've only read the comics. Other stuff by Roman Dirge is also good, like "The cat with a really big head" and "the Monsters in my Tummy"

Look for them in youtube, the animation is good for early 2000's flash, and i really like the voices. They really took the Edgar Allan Poe aspect and used it.

  1. Est Em - I so admire her line work and the way she tells all her BL stories. She really elevates them and makes them sophisticated examples of the genre.
  2. Natsume Ono - I really appreciate the subtle emotions conveyed through her characters even though they have very simplified faces.
  3. Tove Jansson - A master of black and white ink work with bold shapes and memorable character designs.
  4. Tomer Hanuka - Gorgeous line work and I appreciate the realism in his drawing style matched with psychedelic (but not nausea inducing) colors.
  5. Hiroyuki Takei's Shaman King - Heavy influence in how I create the relationships between my characters also in my perception of ghosts.
  6. Kevin Wada - His people are simply gorgeous. He's a master of form and fashion.

Little squares from top to bottom:
Daryl Toh - Subject matter aside, I really love how he colors and I've picked up a lot for how I color my own series.
NessKain - Excellent light and color theory, I also admire how he draws both men and women.
Yuki Urushibara's Mushishi - I love the quiet pacing of her stories, I suppose it translates into my own work at times.