Wednesday 25 August 2010

Influences

I found an influence map thingy on deviantart and decided to have a go at filling it in, as I've been feeling a bit un-inspired lately. Here's the template for anyone else who wants to do it too!



I had alot of fun filling this in, and it made me realise there's a big difference between things that inspire you and things you like. I was going to fill it with pictures from the Alien films, and video games I like, and pictures of thunderstorms and stuff. Then it hit me. Although I could give you a whole commentary of stuff about Alien, and tell you exactly how a tornado is formed, and I know pretty much all the cheats for all the PS1 games I own, these things don't inspire my work. I can't imagine what sort of work I'd create if Alien did inpire my work...

On that note, here's what's on my influence map, left to right:

- Lou Romano. This guy has inspired me since the Pixar exhibition I went to. I love his style, and how simple and unsymmetrical everything is. His colour scripts are so simple and brilliant and I really want mine to have that impact in the future. Also, he did the voice of Linguine in Ratatouille!

- Tom Whalen. Admittedly I only really discovered his work beginning of the summer. I absolutely adore everything about his posters.

- Nate Wragg. I'd seen this guy's stuff before but my friend Mat hooked me up to his blog. I love all that kind of vintage-looking simple stuff.

- Tien Hee I discovered in the first year of Uni, and he's got such an awesome style. I really like how he draws people.

- Colin Fix. I've got the Bioshock 2 art of book, and my favourite stuff in it he did. I'm not a massive fan of that realistic concept art that's used so much in games. I can see the amount of work that goes into it, but I find it so uninteresting and generic to look at. Although he's got stuff like that on his blog, he puts his own little twist on things and has so many different styles. He's awesome!

- Road Runner backgrounds. I really like simple backgrounds. If there's one thing I've learned from last year in Uni, it's that simple is better.

- Scott Campbell, of course!

- Dominick Domingo. Not many people know about his stuff. His backgrounds are amazing! He is one of my main sources of inspiration.

- Jake Armstrong. I'd been trying to find his blog/website since I watched his Terrible Thing From Alpha 9 film, and my friend Rhys kindly linked me. Thanks Rhys! But yeah, I love his style to bits and he's kind of given me the boost I've needed to change my style around.

- Sebastien Camus. Another artist shown to me by Mat. He has lovely retro-y stuff that makes me feel happy inside.

- Bobby Pontillas works at Blue Sky Studios and also has awesome work. What's nice about his blog is he often puts up his development work.

- Dave Perillo. Awesome vector stuff!

- Steve Thomas who also makes nice posters :)

That was fun. Possibly the longest blog entry I've done, but very therapeutic.

I watched Scott Pilgrim today. I wasn't too sure what I'd think of it, because I'd not read the books, but it's possibly my new favourite thing ever. It was full of video game references and stuff and I basically geeked out all over it! Also I spotted lots of Radiohead stuff in the record store they were in. I'm a little bit sad, cause now I wish real life was like that, with extra lives, and pee bars, and coins all over crime scenes. It was epic, and I'm going to have to read it.

In the mean time, me and my Playstation 3 haven't really spent that much time together lately. I think I should show it some love right about now.

1 comment:

  1. Well done for having some Scott Campbell in there, and Jake Armstrong. You have good taste!

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