Originally Posted by Formalhaut
Favouritism!
No, only joking. My brother used to be a deviant artist, he sorta stopped after his electronic tablet broke. Shame.
Which artists would you say you are most inspired by, Mido? You mentioned Amano; any others?
Favouritism indeed :P. No, it's just easier to keep your art in one or two art communities/sites and consider those your main galleries.
I still keep Da my main gallery even though there are other sites as well like artstation and even drawcrowd, paigeeview and graphicker, tumblr, twitter and then facebook. It's just that I've been on da the longest even thought it has it's flaws. What a shame what happened to your brother, I hope he can get things sorted and post his stuff online again.
I have many favorite artist, and of course FF games and the art in them is one obvious influence. How ever it's bad to have just a few sources for your inspiration so I try to avoid showing that love so much that it becomes a burden for my own stuff. So here it goes, prepare for serious art rant.
What I like about Amanos style is his organic, flowing lines and the way he uses color, I also adore the traditional painting style and faces he draws for his characters and the eyes. I'm especially noting his clothing design, colors and a rich use of accessories and jewelry that he often uses when designing characters. In Tetsuya Nomuras style I especially like the clean shape language ( I'm really into shapes that read well and are interesting) and sharp, clear, edgy style. Nice details but simplified in some areas. It's really all about good and clear shape language. It's a fun style where you can exaggerate the proportions and really have fun with shapes. I would like to merge some of that into my own style as I really like it.
Then there are artist like Alfons Maria mucha and art nouveau poster art style. Again what interest me is the clear shapes and organic, flowing lines and just like in Amanos style, you can find a lot of different nature elements that I like, like leaves, plants and flowers. Harmonic, earthly color palettes.
Then there are people that I follow in Artstation and whose art I look up to, especially their color usage/lighting and understanding shape and a sense of volume as I want to get better at those myself. I've noticed that I really like some Korean and Chinese painters and their use of color.
Some Examples, prepare to be amazed as these people are top notch and experienced professionals:
https://www.artstation.com/artist/rupid79 (clear and sharp shapes, armor/metal detailing)
https://www.artstation.com/artist/ruanjia (desaturated colors that pop up with brighter accent colors, using color to replace strong lines to sculpt shapes, sharp shapes that really pop out of the canvas)
https://www.artstation.com/artist/pan (Again, the sharp, clear shapes and awesome coloring)
https://www.artstation.com/artist/ming (composition, masterful use of color and framing shapes with it)
https://www.artstation.com/artist/bluezima (more stylized, great style, bright colors)
https://www.artstation.com/artist/lokken (great coloring and textures, especially when painting rock, metal, horns)
As I've painted digitally 3 years now, I look up to these experienced people and many more. I didn't link all the artists and paintings that I like as that list would easily grow to be ridiculously long. After I started to follow online art forums and sites my influences and also my goals as an artist have become much wider and higher. But as the FF games are among my first influences, the art in them always has it's special place in my heart. FF7, being the first game from the series that I played as a child, had a huge impact on me. I just got this crazy strong urge to be able to create something similar and become good at drawing so that I could portray characters and worlds the way they deserved to be portrayed. Sadly I lost my 'faith' when I got older and didn't think it was possible to make it with art and I lost many years when it comes to drawing. I took me quite long to realize that this is what I always loved to do and I should have listened to that more carefully.
Anyway, when it comes to developing my own style, I would like to merge the sharp, clear shape language and great coloring into a semi-realistic style (that might shift into being sometimes even more stylized for example when doing the eyes and faces). So I constantly try to be aware of what works for me in someone else's style and what I would like to change in it so that I liked it even more. Still a long journey to go, when it comes to skill and developing my style but it's very interesting and rewarding journey. It's truly true that there are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Hope my answer wasn't too long, as I really enjoyed thinking this and why I particularly like any of these styles and which part especially and why. When it comes to art my answers seems to grow long..
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