Who or What influenced your Art or Writing Style?

[Gaines 1,221]

Not every artist or writer is "self taught." Who or what influenced your current style? 

My art style is mostly influenced by people who worked on cartoon shows or games such as Lauren Faust, Taylor Maw, and Todd Kauffman, but with a touch of Jhonen Vasquez. Meanwhile my writing style (when I even attempt to write a short story) is influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare, two of my favorite authors, but with a touch of Erin Hunter, a team of authors who write the Warriors series.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Gaines

[SharpWit 2,647]

I'm one of the self taught ones which is a little frustrating at times because it's difficult to try other techniques because they feel wrong, and if someone wants to know how to draw something from me I have difficulty showing them. The one exception might be what I'll call the "hair style" which is fantastic for pine trees. It consists of just several short lines coming from specific areas I guess, so you create something without feeling as though you have, but it works!

I have terrible vision, so when I don't have my glasses on everything's kind of a Monet style which may have had an affect on me both in how I draw but also my preference for realism.

I desperately need to learn a writing style because all I have currently is Wikipedia article, stereotypical evil antagonist negotiator, and exactly how I talk.

[dead account 2,710]

My writing style didn't get influenced at all. I don't read books, so I just write what feels right to me and even change grammar rules to my own liking.

I started to draw not that long ago and it was similar in the beginning. Almost no influence. It was mostly inspired by the Anime style, even though I don't like the mainstream style, but it's the closest to what I like. But drawing is not the same as writing, I realized it's very difficult without references. My thoughts lack the details that objects actually have in real life. So I changed my way of doing and my influences are actually just random things I see sometimes. Could be other art or my own observation in real life.

Currently I try to figure out what exactly it is that make specific things appealing to me. This is not easy, because no one can teach me how to draw in my own taste of course. I have to look at dozens of images and analyze them. It is fun.

[Sazama Ichida 2,367]

I first started using the script style a long time ago on another forum back when I was still a newbie to RPing and learned it from someone I met there. After that I learned from pros.

[ShadOBabe 18,997]

That’s hard to say. I mostly draw fan art, and I try to mirror “canon” styles as closely as I can. So when I draw original stuff, I end up using all kinds of stylistic choices from all the other characters I’ve learned to draw, depending on what I want.

Sonic the Hedgehog characters, a little bit of anime in my humans, and a LOT of Western Cartoons, from Hanna-Barbara, to Warner Bros., to Disney.

I like a lot of soft curves and bright (but not garish) children’s cartoon pallets.

Here’s an example of one of my original designs:

Spoiler

 

Edited July 29, 2020 by ShadOBabe

[Ittoni 538]

At first in my child years it was Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi. Which wasn't that good of an influence to be honest. And also Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama for a short time.

I've always been self taught so i didn't have structure or technique, i just tried to remember the shapes in their finished form. Then i spent 10 years crying internally and externally because i got destroyed by someone and i don't have self esteem, so yeah. Lately i've been trying to get back to it but learning some structures first and drawing techniques. I want to develop my own style but for that i need the bones to actually understand how shapes work so i don't have to remember every detail.

[Pastel Heart 6,466]

My writing style is influenced in large part by the works of Nasu Kinoku (I never wrote or RPed seriously until I read Tsukihime). Spiritually, I've been influenced by things like Blade Runner, Ib, MLP, Earthbound and Night In the Woods. I can channel Lovecraft, Urobuchi and Itou Junji on my darkest days as well~ 

Urobuchi is my biggest inspiration and my hero basically but I can't do the dark, gritty settings justice like he does. I've always wanted to create something like that though 

[Cagey 4,248]

Books I read as a kid influenced my writing style, and some of my favorite fandom artists influenced my art, or at least that was my goal.

[Vefka 1,499]

I'm self-taught artist and as a 3D art lover I was influenced by the lack of realism in many 3D artworks in fandom. I thought "Why nobody wants to make 3D ponies covered in fur and with mane actually made of hair?". So I made a couple of artworks and understood why a very few people do this - it's Incredibility difficult both for you and your computer. So I got rid of fur and left only hair-mane

[CheeryFox 23,821]

Don Bluth and Charles Dickens are heavy influences.

[ExplosionMare 18,062]

MLP (all gens), FNAF, and various artists have influenced my style. I used to follow the pony one very strictly but overtime I developed a bit of a style.

As for writing, I get a lot of inspiration from mental illness documentaries (best way to learn is to learn from someone who has a mental disorder), my favorite books, and even Scott Cawthon (FNAF creator). A lot of the inspiration I get for writing is used for shorter sentences and informative topics, so the inspiration is more of a guide for things I struggle with.

[Dashy 4 Ever 4,835]

I influenced myself. Might not make much sense, but that's how I'd describe it.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Sondash Studios

[BlankFlank777 199]

My art is influenced by my own art and spirituality, nature, and way too many other people's art to list them, but mostly noise, experimental, psychedelic, and punk artists. Melt-Banana is my biggest lyrical influence and probably my biggest influence overall out of any other artists. Merzbow and Boredoms are big ones too.

[Splashee 28,563]

I get influenced by programmers, how they write code, text and so on. That's where I gave learned to type

[Dreambiscuit 9,691]

My biggest influence is Ralph McQuarrie, a concept artist for the original Star Wars trilogy. I learned shadows, shading and reflected light from him, which made a huge difference in the quality of my art. I also learned a lot about dynamic poses and fluid design from watching cartoons. Loosening up and feeling free with my drawings helped me to be more fearless and unafraid of making mistakes. Getting loose is what makes great art. As far as writing, I’m still a long way off from being the writer I want to be, even with great authors to learn from I can’t seem to manage it the way I want, at least so far. But I’ll just keep at it till something clicks.

[TBD 17,254]

Tim Burton is one of my major influence when I was younger and he still is. Not by how he draw his people but how he makes most of all his art morbid and romantic. It just really sticks to me, because it's not edgy and he really put a lot of charms and classy looks into his work. Burton and so are the rest of "noir" TV show like Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock or Perry Mason has influenced my writing.  The slow-pacing but yet suspenseful and mysterious is what I think often tells a good story. Especially when there's a meaning behind it.  Most of the time, experiences itself too, also influences my art and writing. 

Recently, Hirohiko Akai the artist and writer for JBA, actually made me appreciated my own work more than ever. My style has always been bold and non-smooth coloring unlike many traditional artists who colors their with smoothness and non bold. Akai, uses bold and strong coloring into his traditional art and seeing someone else who does the way of coloring and drawing, make me feel more confidence. He is the only manga artist so far that really inspired me because he's not just telling a story but he also makes arts as well. I have always been an cartoon artist and afraid of drawing realistic people or close to it. But seeing his works and style gave me a boost of confidences to try it and now I love it. 

I tends to mix and match with the styles that has inspired me because it also expressed me as a person as well. 

[Splashee 28,563]

I'm influenced by programmer Yuji Naka, and his pixel perfect math!

[ChikaChan 7,323]

I got mines from 3 youtubers

1.Jazza

2.Kattvalk

3.Tsitra360

[Rafa Stary 2,990]

For art style, I could say just the obvious influence from Akira Toriyama and the many artists that worked on the Dragon Ball franchise.

But when reviewing it for myself, it's easy to notice how different my art style actually looks compared to Dragon Ball, which makes clear that there was an external and perhaps involuntary influence. While inspired by DB, I don't really try to mimic DB's art style, neither any art style, I just like to draw the way I like the most, and this style with big eyes and boxy heads has just been with me since 2018 or even longer, which is not seen at all in Dragon Ball, when I draw female characters, you can clearly see the differences.

I don't exactly know where I got it from, but my bet is the "Moe" Anime art style, most specifically the 80's-2000's moe style (I'm really not a fan of 2010's-modern moe), I watched very few anime with this art style, but I saw so much of arts and images with this style, specially 2000's, that it was probbaly more than enough for my brain to automatically absorb the traits of this style over the years, so parts of my style are pretty much a simulation of it, and it's interesting to see how it doesn't change much when I try to draw a pone.

Art of Goku, Videl, Pinkie Pie and my oc wife Mary Stary, made exclusively for this post

Also, for writing, I can't say much, probably Dragon Ball again , in person that would be Akira Toriyama, Takao Koyama, etc...

Stary

[Iforgotmybrain 5,661]

I don't draw. Writing wise, Evangelion and really all of Hideaki Anno's works have strongly influenced almost everything I've wrote. Especially when it comes to writing characters, interpersonal conflicts, and internal character conflicts. He's an absolute master at all of those things. Toby Fox is also a huge influence. Again, he's an amazing character writer. Love the way he incorporates humor as well. It all feels so natural and real in his games. All the Fallout games are a big influence as well, love their world building. They've been worked on by so many people it's hard to pinpoint just a few creators.

Disco Elysium has also been a big influence ever since I played it about a year or two ago. Another very character driven story and game. The whole game is just so beautifully written, from the characters to the world building to the little descriptions and details. And the prose! The prose is so unique, I love it. The whole game really feels more like a very well written novel than it does a game because of just how good the writing is. I adore it, not as much as Evangelion, but it's up there.

I'm sure my writing has consciously or unconsciously been influenced by a lot more stuff. But those 4 things have by far had the biggest impact.

[cutelolita 28]

My artstyle is a lot inspired by "the long long holidays" french cartoon, it's a very good cartoon btw!

 

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,984]

This is an account of how my style changed over the past 13 years.

I started making MLP drawings in 2011. As with many other early MLP artists, I initially focused on imitating the show’s style. The show’s style was already appealing as is, so I tried getting accustomed to that.

Left: 2014. Influence of show's and PonyKillerX's style most prominent during this time. Right: Reference scene.

The MLP artist who continues to be of utmost inspiration to me is PonyKillerX. Despite his frequent disappointment in his own works, they were highly impressive; it was the show’s style depicted in a highly technically impressive manner. My level of competency is still far from approaching his, and my style has since greatly deviated, but he remains my favourite despite all the artists that have emerged 14 years after Bronydom began.

PonyKillerX's drawings.

In 2015, I decided to deviate from the show’s style to develop something more original. One shortcoming of the show’s style is the way in which many of the character designs were simply the same base pony model with different colours and hair style. Something I try to incorporate in my drawings, albeit I still have not reached with utmost consistency, is to give each of the characters a more unique face. The greatest focus would be in the shape of the eyes.

2015: An early example of attempting to purposefully deviate from the show's style.

I often depicted ponies as being bipedal and drawing their front legs as something like arms with hooves. I have made many drawings of ponies in uniform, and having a somewhat more humanoid body made it easier compared to trying to design something that would fit the pony body. The frequency at which I would draw in this style generally increased over time. By 2022, it made sense to me to adopt the fully anthropomorphic style, and that is how I have primarily drawn the characters since. Even the shape of the head has become less horse-like and more human-like, though I am still note settled on how I should go about drawing the characters (whereas it struck me that I was reaching a dead end with the pre-anthropomorphic style by 2020).

2015 and 2017 respectively.

2022 and 2023 respectively.

My style today is unrecognizable compared to how it was in 2011. One general aspect in the way I draw is that I tend to draw… I would say “realistic”, but it does not quite seem to be the appropriate word as, for instance, humanoid horses are definitely not realistic – a definite stylization deviating from reality. But, to describe it one way, I tend towards being “realistic-esque” as opposed to overtly cartoon-like with, for instance, bold outlines and cell shading. It is difficult for me to see my drawings outside of my own perspective, but it would not surprise me if my style comes across as uncanny depending on how successful I am in attempting to combine aspects of the cartoon with aspects of realism.

I wish I had more patience in drawing: I have always had some limit for how long I can tolerate working on a single drawing before finding it less enjoyable and more tedious.

[Rafa Stary 2,990]

16 hours ago, cutelolita said:

My artstyle is a lot inspired by "the long long holidays" french cartoon, it's a very good cartoon btw!

 

I think you did a awesome work! It truly looks like a Pone version of that show's art style !

48 minutes ago, Luna the Great of all the Russias said:

This is an account of how my style changed over the past 13 years.

I started making MLP drawings in 2011. As with many other early MLP artists, I initially focused on imitating the show’s style. The show’s style was already appealing as is, so I tried getting accustomed to that.

Left: 2014. Influence of show's and PonyKillerX's style most prominent during this time. Right: Reference scene.

The MLP artist who continues to be of utmost inspiration to me is PonyKillerX. Despite his frequent disappointment in his own works, they were highly impressive; it was the show’s style depicted in a highly technically impressive manner. My level of competency is still far from approaching his, and my style has since greatly deviated, but he remains my favourite despite all the artists that have emerged 14 years after Bronydom began.

PonyKillerX's drawings.

In 2015, I decided to deviate from the show’s style to develop something more original. One shortcoming of the show’s style is the way in which many of the character designs were simply the same base pony model with different colours and hair style. Something I try to incorporate in my drawings, albeit I still have not reached with utmost consistency, is to give each of the characters a more unique face. The greatest focus would be in the shape of the eyes.

2015: An early example of attempting to purposefully deviate from the show's style.

I often depicted ponies as being bipedal and drawing their front legs as something like arms with hooves. I have made many drawings of ponies in uniform, and having a somewhat more humanoid body made it easier compared to trying to design something that would fit the pony body. The frequency at which I would draw in this style generally increased over time. By 2022, it made sense to me to adopt the fully anthropomorphic style, and that is how I have primarily drawn the characters since. Even the shape of the head has become less horse-like and more human-like, though I am still note settled on how I should go about drawing the characters (whereas it struck me that I was reaching a dead end with the pre-anthropomorphic style by 2020).

2015 and 2017 respectively.

2022 and 2023 respectively.

My style today is unrecognizable compared to how it was in 2011. One general aspect in the way I draw is that I tend to draw… I would say “realistic”, but it does not quite seem to be the appropriate word as, for instance, humanoid horses are definitely not realistic – a definite stylization deviating from reality. But, to describe it one way, I tend towards being “realistic-esque” as opposed to overtly cartoon-like with, for instance, bold outlines and cell shading. It is difficult for me to see my drawings outside of my own perspective, but it would not surprise me if my style comes across as uncanny depending on how successful I am in attempting to combine aspects of the cartoon with aspects of realism.

I wish I had more patience in drawing: I have always had some limit for how long I can tolerate working on a single drawing before finding it less enjoyable and more tedious.

Even though it changed a lot, I must say, you apparently was always a awesome artist, all the "phases" of your art style look beautiful, and it's good to see how very notable traits were preserved and can still be seen in your modern art, specially the painting, awesome artistic journey there RussiaLuna! 

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,984]

On 2024-06-05 at 12:55 AM, Rafa Stary said:

Even though it changed a lot, I must say, you apparently was always a awesome artist, all the "phases" of your art style look beautiful, and it's good to see how very notable traits were preserved and can still be seen in your modern art, specially the painting, awesome artistic journey there RussiaLuna! 

Thank you.

[KatonRyu 1,033]

For writing style, primarily J.K. Rowling and K.A. Applegate, considering Harry Potter and Animorphs are some of my favorite books. Also Paul van Loon, though people who aren't Dutch or Flemish likely won't know him. He writes children's books, and one of his main series (De Griezelbus) has a writer as the main antagonist, and writing and telling stories is a very central theme of the series. Some of the stories were also scary enough that they still make me shiver, which very few horror stories can do anymore. I also take a lot of inspiration from Tolkien's world-building and linguistics, though obviously I'm nowhere near his level in either of those things.

Beyond that, I take inspiration from just about everything I like in some way, so that would take too long to list.