Your Webcomic's Inspiration Moodboard!

[jacintawibowo]

Hey there, let's talk about your inspiration/influeces for your webcomic! I was thinking instead of listing down your inspirations, why not make a mood board of your comic? Try to portray the theme/mood/aesthetic of your webcomic in the board.
Here's a mood board for my comic, Tales from the Well! Please do check it out :3c it's a dark children's fairytale about a boy Prince who falls down a cursed well into a creepy underground world!

Over the Garden Wall, A Monster Calls, Fairytales (Grimm/Hans Christen Anderson), modern fairytales such as Coraline (Neil Gaiman + Dave McKean), Emily Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, Little Princess, Le Petit Prince, and Where the Wild Things Are.
Seeing what influences a webcomic is also a great way to see if it's a comic you'd be into reading, so do check out people's webcomics from their mood boards!

[AnnaLandin]

Oooh, this is a fun topic!

I dug through my reference folders and picked out a bunch of stuff - both other comics/stories, and concept art from videogames, and just general mood-setting environment shots that help me get in the mood of drawing Grassblades.

Here goes, then!

Featured: Okami, Toshiro Mifune, Lone Wolf and Cub, Vagabond, Blade of the Immortal, Hellboy, 365 Samurai and A Few Bowls of Rice, Usagi Yojimbo, a bunch of art I found on Tumblr that unfortunately wasn't sourced (if you recognise the artist, please tell me so that I can credit them), and right there in the center, a gorgeous print by Kawase Hasui, who was ligne claire-ing his way through the artworld long before Hergé was a twinkle in his mother's eye.

(you can click on the mood-board for a full-size view!)

[HNLEE]

Before I started my comic, I made myself a sideblog on tumblr to use for mood boarding and occasionally promos. You can find it here at http://5eed.tumblr.com/

When I draw Sundaze, I like to really immerse myself into the setting so the ambiance shows. Not always easy to do especially when the weather is different in real life and that's where my blog come in. Also since my character studies flowers, I also have to educate myself on them so I keep a little database of flowers on my blog as well.

Here's some shots

[mariusthered]

Talesfromswipecityis about to start the new set of story arcs with season two, so this is a good way to show what you might expect...

1. Cop/ crime stories.
2. mob/gangster stories.
3. Crazy people.
4. poser 10 ( backgrounds and props)
5. mean teachers and school stories.
6. Family/ domestic drama
7. Old fashion 70's discipline ( That was good enough for Bruce Wayne)

[ashriott]

Oooh fun! I did one for Malleus Maleficarum, based more on the design, aesthetics and historical references. So to sum it up - Salem, 15-16th century witches, Big Ben, historical sites, astrological design, vintage illustration, and lots and lots of grimoires.

[phen]

These are all so amazing to look through! I never even considered creating a mood board. Gathering inspirational sources for aesthetic studies is a brilliant way to cultivate your comic and each of you have definitely done brilliantly in solidifying your visual atmospheres.
@AnnaLandin, Grassblades is especially a nice amalgamation of your sources (such organic lines).
And @HNLEE, Sundaze has so much of that delicate, organic ambiance you mention, it's really refreshing.
@aronthemason, Tales from Swipe City is so gritty, I love the very graphic, high contrast, low saturation look of everything! I also find the narrative focus really interesting, it's really solid.

Now I know I've gotta start actively keeping track of the things I draw inspiration from. All of your settings and stylistic leanings are clear and sleek! Thanks for the thread, @jacintawibowo, I would never have thought of such a thing! Love your inspiration board, too, it certainly mimics the subtle, dark side of mythology aimed at children. Beautiful, highly detailed work with a whimsical exterior!

[getsuart]

Here is Echo's main moodboard.

I'd go with even more, but I preferred summarize everything
Okay so Echo's about a lot of medieval things.
Basically, inspiration from:
Fire Emblem, the 9/10 are my favourites, and it's about the clothes styles of my characters. (hence the armors/weapons on the side)
Avatar ans Legend of Korra, though I knew those after beginning my story, they are pretty similar to this balance system. This, linked to the Yin and Yang theme + magic.
Strong women figure, like Mulan and Joan of Arc.
A LOT of mythologies, from every part of the world.
Nature and architecture from Europe, some european/arabic/asian places and culture. Even if we only saw nature and european places for now!
+ Okami for being awesome, having awesome musics and the light/darkness theme.

There there I got a moodboard for some characters too, but it would be too long, heh.

[jacintawibowo]

Oooh, this is a fun topic!

I'm glad! Also Okami and Hellboy are awesome =D your mood board is definitely what Grassblades feels like.

Before I started my comic, I made myself a sideblog on tumblr to use for mood boarding and occasionally promos. You can find it here at http://5eed.tumblr.com/

Ooh! That's cool! I think that's a great thing to do before starting a comic- getting an archive of images that resonate with what you want to portray. For us, we set up a pinterest board and pinned all the influence images! The same way your character studies flowers, we had to look up different flutes for our character to play and see what suited him XD the things we do for our stories!

Talesfromswipecityis about to start the new set of story arcs with season two, so this is a good way to show what you might expect..

mhmm yeah this is definitely the vibe I'm getting from what I've seen of your comic.

So to sum it up - Salem, 15-16th century witches, Big Ben, historical sites, astrological design, vintage illustration, and lots and lots of grimoires.

Oooh that is a GREAT aesthetic!

Now I know I've gotta start actively keeping track of the things I draw inspiration from. All of your settings and stylistic leanings are clear and sleek! Thanks for the thread, @jacintawibowo, I would never have thought of such a thing! Love your inspiration board, too, it certainly mimics the subtle, dark side of mythology aimed at children. Beautiful, highly detailed work with a whimsical exterior!

Aaw thank you! I'm really happy to hear that this thread is helpful for you and can even be inspiring! A mood board is a fantastic way to set the mood of your comic without being overwhelmed by your influences! And thank you for those wonderful compliments on my mood board. That's exactly the feeling I want to portray.

A LOT of mythologies, from every part of the world.Nature and architecture from Europe, some european/arabic/asian places and culture. Even if we only saw nature and european places for now!+ Okami for being awesome, having awesome musics and the light/darkness theme.

There there I got a moodboard for some characters too, but it would be too long, heh.

Awesome! And Okami for the win! Love the myths they explored. I'm glad you were able to summarize your story this way =) a mood board for characters would be an entirely separate discussion topic XD

[HNLEE]

Oh yeah pinterest is great too! It is the more professional choice, all my design teachers use pinterest for discussions. Oh wow haha I never thought about of different flutes. I'm so with you on that, sometimes even tiny bits need to be thoroughly researched all for the sake of the story.

[mappypaint]

The U-Speed Moodboard:

Since University of Speed is centered around what could be the future of motorsport, the inspiration comes from the resurgence of electric cars. Improved battery technology and electric powertrain will mean electric race cars who will be driven by the future drivers in the sport. Even though the comics is about racing, it's the characters who are the main focus. The success and failures, the friendships and rivalries, the drama... they are all inspired by what happens currently in motorsports.

[jacintawibowo]

Yeah! It's especially helpful that you can share boards with other users, so we can collaborate on searching references easily =D
Right? It's cool what comics get you to learn, like species of flowers and flutes =P

[jacintawibowo]

Nice! I like how you can see how the cars and uniform are influenced by the mood board.

[Damatris]

I made couple mood boards some time ago, filled mostly with Norse / Viking themed things as Fallacy is heavily influenced by Norse mythology. :3

[eschaefges]

I've wanted to do one of these for a while:

Plot inspiration: A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time
Art inspiration: Chris Schweizer, Steve LeCouilliard, Skottie Young, Don Rosa
Parody/Homage inspiration: Galaxyquest, Much the Miller's Son, CLUE, Maverick, Fables
Slapstick inspiration: Skottie Young, Scooby Doo, Much the Miller's Son

[eschaefges]

if we are strictly going "mood only" then really, just click this

[joannekwan]

I can't think of enough images to fill my own, but it sure is neat to see everyone's boards!

[efdvorsky]

For Cosmic Fish, I mostly just have a lot of files in my computer along with some photographs I've taken since the comic is based a lot on local culture. So this is more like a cultural mood board I keep in check rather than just colors and tones I want, or show-styles I want to be inspired from. (that's for another day)

(the photo on the bottom right is just one on top of the other because I was in that photo hahaha...)

you can kind of recognize a few places like the ruins, the tunnels, carvings, and one of the caves that are already used in the comics, but the colonial buildings are for later chapters once the characters leave the forest...which was the starting point since it's what I'm most familiar with. (Iamawoodlandhermit)

[Cielle]

ooo what a fun topic! Here's the mood board for Reus:

[camillabluejay]

What a fun idea! <3 <3 <3 It was actually really hard to break it down and figure out what might've influenced it, not just random images that remind me of it. But very satisfying. Bonus points if you're also a fan of everything on this.

[camillabluejay]

Also, this is a very random mish-mash of things, I have noticed. With a lot of sci-fi. The webcomic is not sci-fi at all, just everything posted there has other things in common besides space ships. hahaha it all makes sense to me, I swear >_<