INFLUENCE MAP

I saw this on several deviantart pages, and I thought it would be fun to do one myself, so here are my influences:

Akira Toriyama: Dragonball
Dragonball takes the first place on my list because it's basically what got me into drawing in the first place. I was visiting Hong Kong and my uncle brought my brother and I to see a Dragonball movie in the theatre. It was the one with Coola, Freeza's bro. The action blew me away. I was all about DBZ from then on. My brother and I would draw our own DBZ comics all day. One clarification though - I only watched the DBZ movies and read the manga, I was never really into the TV series. Anyway, Dragonball kick-started my love for drawing action poses, and my love for manga.

CAPCOM
I couldn't put CAPCOM in my list without singling out each individual artist who influenced me. Each of them are just huge powerhouses who deserve their own mention. These guys changed the face of pop art in the 90's and their influence is still felt today. From Begus' fluid anatomy in his SF Alpha sketches to Ikeno's keen sense of martial arts posing. Edayan's groundbreaking sense of style in his Rival Schools stuff to Kinu, who basically cemented Street Fighter into pop culture with her illustrations for the orignal SFII series. Of course, let's not forget Akiman, the original godfather, creator of iconic characters such as Chun Li.

Eiichiro Oda: One Piece
My favourite comic, which I've read every week for 8 years. Although when I was introduced to One Piece, my most impressionable years as an artist had already passed. I love the way Oda can spin such epic stories, create such comedic moments, and also have such unique character designs in his work.

Hiroaki Samura: Blade of the Immortal
Speaking of impressionable years, a big chunk of mine was spent copying samura's work in Blade of the Immortal. I was amazed the first time I saw his pencilwork, and the way he framed his panels. His portrayal of the human body is unrivaled in his field.

Squaresoft: Final Fantasy Series
The pic I chose is the North American boxart for FFIII (or FFVI in Japan, and also later NA releases), but all of the games in this series had a huge impact on my art. Especially the games on SNES and PSX.

Studio Ghibli
I didn't write "Miyazaki", although he is the creative mind behind all of Ghibli's works, because I really think that the studio as a whole should be applauded for creating such inspiring films over the past 30 years. Nausicaa really imprinted itself into my childhood, it was like somewhere I wanted to be, more than anything.

Joe Madureira
I first saw Joe's work when I started getting into X-Men in the late 90's. No one was doing what he was doing at the time, and after all the artist's he's influenced over the years, he is still unrivaled in creating dynamic baddass imagery.

Frank Miller
The Dark Knight Returns is my favourite graphic novel, and probably the one that I've read the most times. I first bought my copy in highschool, and at that time, it was already the 10th anniversary edition. An epic that stands the test of time, and Frank Miller's best work. I'm also a big fan of his Sin City series.

Jet Li
Bruce Lee may be the greatest martial arts icon of all time, but I grew up watching Jet Li movies. His Wong Fei Hung in Once Upon a Time in China really influenced the way I think of action poses and dynamic character presence.

Oekaki PaintBBS
It's weird to put a program in my list of influences, but this one really helped me develop as an artist. From having an awesome community of artists online to cross critique with, to forcing you to understand color theory with it's somewhat limited interface, Oekaki was a big help to me as a budding artist.

Otomo Katsuhiro: AKIRA
Watching Akira for the first time when I was 12 really messed me up. It opened up so many doors to creativity, stuff I didn't even know was possible.

FLCL, Gainax
FURIKURI was a huge inspiration through college for me. Not only in learning the principles of animation, but in character design and color. Evangelion was another big one that Gainax made which really influenced me.

UDON
Udon started as a group of inspired people, and it continues to grow as such. Without the friends I've made in Udon, I would never have been able to become the artist I am today.

Sheridan College
Finally, it's hard to mention my influences as an artist without mentioning my Alma Mater. I graduated in Classical Animation at Sheridan, a course that hammered into me the anatomy of the human body through countless night of life drawing. Also, animation really helped me loosen my drawing, and helped me to visualize characters in motion. Even though I probably had the worst attendance in my year (next to nJoo of course), I still learned a ton from my 3 and a half years there.

So that's it. I didn't think I'd end up typing this much, but it was fun. It really helped me remember who I am and where I came from. I urge everyone to do the same