Influence Map

Artist and all around cool guy Jeff Johnson, turned me onto this Influence Map Meme created by fox-orian on Deviant Art. Like Jeff, I'm coming to this thing late, but it struck me as a fun diversion. The goal is to list your artistic influences, with the size of the artist's block relative to their importance to you. Fun times!

Let's talk about 'em...

1) Phil Foglio - Oh god yes. I fell in love with Foglio's stuff in the Myth Adventures books when I was younger. I still love him in Girl Genius and even Xxxenophile. His fun, fluid, expressive cartoon style has been a massive influence on my style, and he's the artist I get compared to the most.

2) Norm Breyfogle - Still my favorite Batman artist, bar none. He's the artist that taught me the importance of shape and shadow.

3) Mark Kistler - A.K.A. "Commander Mark." Kistler hosted an instructional drawing show on PBS when I was a kid called Secret City. I watched it very day, drawing along with Commander Mark. Kistler taught me perspective, foreshortening, and how to make "wooshing" noises while drawing. I still whisper sound effects while drawing, and my "doodles" tend to look like Kistler buildings.

4) Tony DiTerlizzi - I fell in love with DiTerlizzi's stuff back int he later half of AD&D Second Edition's run. His D&D art broke the mold formed by Easley, Elmore, and others. I love how detailed his stuff was while still maintaining  a cartoonish sense of whimsy. He's doing The Spiderwick Chronicles and other kid's books now. He's still awesome.

5) Larry Elmore - I so badly wanted to be Larry Elmore as a kid. He's still my favorite classic D&D artist. His monsters are wonderful, his women are hot, and his composition is excellent.  My biggest thrill was being able to hang out with him at the Con on the Cob "Drink & Draw" a few years ago.

6) John Buscema - He taught me to "Draw Comics the Marvel Way" and was responsible for most of the art in all the old Avengers comics I read when I first got into comics. I used to practice by redrawing panels from Avengers, substituting my own characters.

7) Bruce Timm - The artistic genius behind the golden age of DC animation. I've always loved his simple, smooth, distinctive style.

8) Ben Caldwell - I only discovered Caldwell a couple of years ago, but he's been a huge influence on me in that short time. His style mixes the expressiveness of Don Bluth with the stylized simplicity of Bruce Timm and Mike Mingola.