2D lessons - Artistic Influences

For a little mini task I was asked to make a smallish sheet with around 10 of my most influential artists to my own work;

All of our art is influenced by something, nature, history, people and other artists and so forth. I gathered some of the artists that have most influenced me in how i draw or the things i like to draw.

I guess the place to start is from the top left to right as it were; 

Chris Bourassa is someone i came upon with their Kickstarter for their game, Darkest Dungeon. This game featured really well stylized Gothic art. I particularly enjoyed the use of heavy shadows, its painterly feel and the unique characteristics of the art being used in the game (things like the eyes always being obscured) All in all the feel and subject matter of alot of his art was very encouraging to see.

Next is the Art from Final Fantasy 14, although i've been having trouble tracking down specific names involved in the project, the point remains that their art has been really engaging for me to look at, its very beautifully done scenery and well crafted character designs have already helped me alot, their building designs in particular helped me with my concepting group role last term. it also helps that their usage of fantasy very much falls in line with things i am inclined to, magic and monsters abound.

A more recent addition has been the imagery in the Witcher 3, again trouble to track specific names, but the imagery in that game is superb, both beautiful and sad scenery are involved in that game, with vistas that show a woodland forest, or a gallows tree showing the effects of war on a country, the witcher's brand of fantasy is one that is darker than I am used to , but i could not help but get involved when seeing its art.

Mari Shimazaki is someone who I very much enjoy and respect in her design work, she's worked as key concept artist for both Bayonetta games, and her extremely stylized and elegant design work is influential to me as someone who enjoys designing characters - her designs are both well detailed and full of life in their colouring but also varied in how she built up design work towards a final design.

Now on to the Bottom row;

The art for bloodborne is as gorgeous as it is macabre, the phrase beauty in ugliness is never as appropriate in that game as it is anywhere else. Old Victorian settings, nightmare landscapes, monsters both from Van Hellsing and Cthulhu in directions. this art i find so much inspiration in just because of how much feeling it convey's, not through emotion but more the sense of abandonment or wrongness in the imagery gives a very clear picture of the state of the world and its inhabitants.

Now the art from Zelda: twilight Princess is what made me very keep on the fusion of styles, the game has moments where the twilight invades the world, and while the world itself is very fantasy based, the twilight is almost sci-fi in its characterisation, the fusion of these elements and the way the game blended their colour palettes was extremely engaging to me, as the idea that you could find harmony in opposites made me want to experiment with my subject matter. It also made me realise this was some of the appeal of "steampunk" and the like as its the use of odd combinations.

-