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Description
UPDATED:
Coming across fox-orian.deviantart.com/art/I… it looked like something that spoke to me aswell.
So I started compiling the things that influence me, but from the start noticed that I would never be able to portray all of my influences that impacted me one way or another.There's just not enough room!
Having laid it to rest for a day I came back to it and looked it over, I felt that I had to look at it deeper and think back from childhood onward.
So, here is mine
Oh, I also made use of the background to tell my story by putting in a photograph I took just recently of my drawing desk; for it tells so much more of who I am and what I'm influenced by.

Ok, going from left to right, top to bottom, is:

1.Concept Art / StarWars: Ralph McQuarrie's art and the original StarWars-films had a huge impact on me. I remember as a kid often daydreaming by looking out from my window up into the sky and clouds and wondering about other worlds out there.Wishing I could be there, away from this place. Especially looking at this Cloud City painting, I never was interested so much at how it would be like to life there on top, but seeing those tiny lights in the middle section fascinated me more; I always imagined wanting to have a place living there, because I bet there is where the action is going on, hehe.
Concept Art is still having a huge influence on me to this day, with now the likes of Feng Zhu, Ryan Church, Kekai Kotaki, Doug Chiang, etc... .
2.Marta Nael: Her art breathes life, passion, beauty, color & light; just like she herself is one of the most incredible, genuine, strong, determined & most beautiful person there is. She changed my life. martanael.deviantart.com/
3.Lord of the Rings: It represents the love I have for movies, ANY type of movies from way back when 'till present. We used to sit down as kids and watch on saturday evenings and sunday afternoons black&white's from John Wayne, Rock Hudson and Doris Day, or Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill, you name it.
But ever so once in a while there comes along a movie trilogy that has a profound impact on you, StarWars (the original trilogy, mind you) was the first, and years back it became Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson.
4.Music: I'm blessed (or cursed) in that I don't have a particular genre in specific, but listen from Prodigy over Jazz to Movie Soundtracks. But if I have to name one band that stuck with me the most, and still does, it is Matchbox Twenty.
I put music as an influence, because I remember well the first time I was drawing 'till late in the night, feeling completely zoned-out and emerged in just drawing, sitting with headphones on whilst listening to music. There is nothing sweeter than that.
5.Novels: In particular the Shannara-saga created by Terry Brooks, who's "The Elfstones of Shannara" had such a deep impact on me growing up. I always loved to read books, and in my midteens picked up this Fantasy book from this author by mere chance after reading a short introductory at the front of the book and intrigued by the artwork of the brothers Hildebrandt that graced the cover of "The Sword of Shannara".
Never before have I had this feeling of not wanting to put down a book, unable to wait and find out what happens next. That is what these books achieved with me.
It was also thru reading these books, that I became confronted for the first time with the fact that a hero can die. Hehe, I remember going back a couple of pages and thinking to myself "This can't be right? I must've misread somewhere."
It also reminds me of the time when artwork for books were still appreciated and important, on top of a sellingpoint aswell. It seems more and more less so these days, alas.
6.Steampunk/Art: I chose this artwork done by Didier Graffet, because of my love for Steampunk and that era involved. It represents also the other art styles I'm discovering in my later years and only now begin to appreciate, like Art Nouveau and Art Deco, etc... .
I love illustration art for as long as I can remember, from Luis Royo, Brom, Wayne Barlow, Mathieu Lauffray, Darrell K.Sweet, Iain McCaig,etc... .
And it also stands for all the new discoveries I make from other artists like here on Deviantart: Marta Nael.
7.Artbooks: Where would I be without them!! Among them: Marta Nael's "Lux", "Impressions" and "Sketches"; Adrian Smith's "Imago" and "Illuminations"; "The art of Darksiders I & II"; "Phenomena: Art of Asura"; "The art of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow"; Mathieu Lauffray's "Axis Mundi"; all the "Star Wars"-artbooks and soo many more...
8.Wildlife/Animals/Nature: As a boy growing up I was always interested in the wild animals of Africa. Always thinking one day I would work as either a veterinarian or as a zookeeper.
I used to watch those old Disney documentaries about animals, and the tv-serie called Daktari on german channel as a kid whenever I got the chance after school. hehe
I lost interest in it in later years as like everyone else going thru phases; but now that I'm back to drawing more often myself I find it a very important value to have interest in and grateful for it.
My favorite always was the Cheetah, due to its incredible speed and agility.
9.Line drawings and sketches: I can look at line drawings by my favorite artists for hours. Nothing as great as the thumbnails and sketches, and seeing how others approach it before you see the final result. This drawing is from the comic Soul Saga by Stephen Platt and Christian Lichtner. It's style and coloring done is inspiring me still to this day.
Too bad Christian Lichtner never felt like sharing his technique on approach of coloring via tutorials or such.
10.PRIEST: This comic of the hands of Min-woo Hyung remains for me the epitome of how wonderfully amazing a great comic can be in drawing aswell as story. Never have I come across a more gripping tale (eventhough he aswell took inspiration from many known areas) but it works so masterfully well altogether.
If you love western where they use 1930' style of machineguns with zombies, fallen angels and demons, medieval time and futuristic intertwined in the story, than you have to get a hold of these books!!!!
The reason I chose to show this is because the cover art is all done by Raymond Swanland, who's choice of earthenlike colors is so gripping to me.
I hope to achieve a colorpalette like that one day of my own.
11.SPAWN: Comics have been a part of my life from a child onward. For a moment I lost interest in them in my later teens as the regional comics were losing their appeal and seemed to become all so generic. I remember the day when I came across this particular cover of Spawn by Todd McFarlane years later, and it resonated with me.That was the time when these great comics were surfacing and brought me the likes of Joe Madureira, Humberto Ramos, Dave Finch, Marc Silvestri, J.Scott Campbell,etc... .
12.The Tasmanian Devil: Love cartoons, especially those old ones with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom & Jerry. My favorite ofcourse the whirlwind being the Tasmanian Devil, only blurting things out, screaming, always hungry, hehehe.
13.Michael Turner: He was a comicartist like none other with a style I very much like to aspire to and incorporate into my own. Alas,he came to pass in 2008. But he remains, seeing how he was born just two years before me, as someone I can relate to and to look up at and draw inspiration from, that with dedication and commitment, it can be done to become an artist and make a living off of it.
14.Adrian Smith: I encountered his body of work via an artbook named "Dark Fantasy" printed by a french distributeur, and I was hooked from the moment I went thru those pages!
I also sought out a korean artbook named "Imago" which has nothing but drawings and sketchings from Adrian Smith and is sooo thick, it became for me my bible.
In search of more about him, I stumbled upon his facebook page and than last year I was lucky enough to be one of the few to subscribe to an online course given by him via Phoenix Atelier for 8weeks with live reviews on every sunday!
I learned soo much from him and am so grateful for it, beyond words.
He also has done work for numerous companies the likes of Games Workshop, Blizzard, etc... .
And he now has released a comic for free via his second facebookpage: www.facebook.com/pages/Adrian-…
I can strongly recommend checking it out!!
This is also the reason why from all his work, I chose this picture to show in my influence map, because once you read the comic, you come to know this little fella that turns out to be an unlikely hero, and he is so endearing that you just don't wish him to befall any harm.
15. Sculpture/PC-games: On the right side of the background picture, you will find a statue of Sylvanas Windrunner, one of the characters of Warcraft. Next to my growing love for sculpting, I used to collect some statues for quite a while back. It embodies also my love for PC-games, ranging from Lucasarts' Grim Fandango, Outlaws, Wing Commander series, Half-Life, Unreal, Stronghold, to Blizzard's Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series. Aswell as having spent numerous time as an Nightelf Rogue raiding in World of Warcraft.

Description
UPDATED:
Coming across fox-orian.deviantart.com/art/I… it looked like something that spoke to me aswell.
So I started compiling the things that influence me, but from the start noticed that I would never be able to portray all of my influences that impacted me one way or another.There's just not enough room!
Having laid it to rest for a day I came back to it and looked it over, I felt that I had to look at it deeper and think back from childhood onward.
So, here is mine
Oh, I also made use of the background to tell my story by putting in a photograph I took just recently of my drawing desk; for it tells so much more of who I am and what I'm influenced by.

Ok, going from left to right, top to bottom, is:

1.Concept Art / StarWars: Ralph McQuarrie's art and the original StarWars-films had a huge impact on me. I remember as a kid often daydreaming by looking out from my window up into the sky and clouds and wondering about other worlds out there.Wishing I could be there, away from this place. Especially looking at this Cloud City painting, I never was interested so much at how it would be like to life there on top, but seeing those tiny lights in the middle section fascinated me more; I always imagined wanting to have a place living there, because I bet there is where the action is going on, hehe.
Concept Art is still having a huge influence on me to this day, with now the likes of Feng Zhu, Ryan Church, Kekai Kotaki, Doug Chiang, etc... .
2.Marta Nael: Her art breathes life, passion, beauty, color & light; just like she herself is one of the most incredible, genuine, strong, determined & most beautiful person there is. She changed my life. martanael.deviantart.com/
3.Lord of the Rings: It represents the love I have for movies, ANY type of movies from way back when 'till present. We used to sit down as kids and watch on saturday evenings and sunday afternoons black&white's from John Wayne, Rock Hudson and Doris Day, or Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill, you name it.
But ever so once in a while there comes along a movie trilogy that has a profound impact on you, StarWars (the original trilogy, mind you) was the first, and years back it became Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson.
4.Music: I'm blessed (or cursed) in that I don't have a particular genre in specific, but listen from Prodigy over Jazz to Movie Soundtracks. But if I have to name one band that stuck with me the most, and still does, it is Matchbox Twenty.
I put music as an influence, because I remember well the first time I was drawing 'till late in the night, feeling completely zoned-out and emerged in just drawing, sitting with headphones on whilst listening to music. There is nothing sweeter than that.
5.Novels: In particular the Shannara-saga created by Terry Brooks, who's "The Elfstones of Shannara" had such a deep impact on me growing up. I always loved to read books, and in my midteens picked up this Fantasy book from this author by mere chance after reading a short introductory at the front of the book and intrigued by the artwork of the brothers Hildebrandt that graced the cover of "The Sword of Shannara".
Never before have I had this feeling of not wanting to put down a book, unable to wait and find out what happens next. That is what these books achieved with me.
It was also thru reading these books, that I became confronted for the first time with the fact that a hero can die. Hehe, I remember going back a couple of pages and thinking to myself "This can't be right? I must've misread somewhere."
It also reminds me of the time when artwork for books were still appreciated and important, on top of a sellingpoint aswell. It seems more and more less so these days, alas.
6.Steampunk/Art: I chose this artwork done by Didier Graffet, because of my love for Steampunk and that era involved. It represents also the other art styles I'm discovering in my later years and only now begin to appreciate, like Art Nouveau and Art Deco, etc... .
I love illustration art for as long as I can remember, from Luis Royo, Brom, Wayne Barlow, Mathieu Lauffray, Darrell K.Sweet, Iain McCaig,etc... .
And it also stands for all the new discoveries I make from other artists like here on Deviantart: Marta Nael.
7.Artbooks: Where would I be without them!! Among them: Marta Nael's "Lux", "Impressions" and "Sketches"; Adrian Smith's "Imago" and "Illuminations"; "The art of Darksiders I & II"; "Phenomena: Art of Asura"; "The art of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow"; Mathieu Lauffray's "Axis Mundi"; all the "Star Wars"-artbooks and soo many more...
8.Wildlife/Animals/Nature: As a boy growing up I was always interested in the wild animals of Africa. Always thinking one day I would work as either a veterinarian or as a zookeeper.
I used to watch those old Disney documentaries about animals, and the tv-serie called Daktari on german channel as a kid whenever I got the chance after school. hehe
I lost interest in it in later years as like everyone else going thru phases; but now that I'm back to drawing more often myself I find it a very important value to have interest in and grateful for it.
My favorite always was the Cheetah, due to its incredible speed and agility.
9.Line drawings and sketches: I can look at line drawings by my favorite artists for hours. Nothing as great as the thumbnails and sketches, and seeing how others approach it before you see the final result. This drawing is from the comic Soul Saga by Stephen Platt and Christian Lichtner. It's style and coloring done is inspiring me still to this day.
Too bad Christian Lichtner never felt like sharing his technique on approach of coloring via tutorials or such.
10.PRIEST: This comic of the hands of Min-woo Hyung remains for me the epitome of how wonderfully amazing a great comic can be in drawing aswell as story. Never have I come across a more gripping tale (eventhough he aswell took inspiration from many known areas) but it works so masterfully well altogether.
If you love western where they use 1930' style of machineguns with zombies, fallen angels and demons, medieval time and futuristic intertwined in the story, than you have to get a hold of these books!!!!
The reason I chose to show this is because the cover art is all done by Raymond Swanland, who's choice of earthenlike colors is so gripping to me.
I hope to achieve a colorpalette like that one day of my own.
11.SPAWN: Comics have been a part of my life from a child onward. For a moment I lost interest in them in my later teens as the regional comics were losing their appeal and seemed to become all so generic. I remember the day when I came across this particular cover of Spawn by Todd McFarlane years later, and it resonated with me.That was the time when these great comics were surfacing and brought me the likes of Joe Madureira, Humberto Ramos, Dave Finch, Marc Silvestri, J.Scott Campbell,etc... .
12.The Tasmanian Devil: Love cartoons, especially those old ones with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom & Jerry. My favorite ofcourse the whirlwind being the Tasmanian Devil, only blurting things out, screaming, always hungry, hehehe.
13.Michael Turner: He was a comicartist like none other with a style I very much like to aspire to and incorporate into my own. Alas,he came to pass in 2008. But he remains, seeing how he was born just two years before me, as someone I can relate to and to look up at and draw inspiration from, that with dedication and commitment, it can be done to become an artist and make a living off of it.
14.Adrian Smith: I encountered his body of work via an artbook named "Dark Fantasy" printed by a french distributeur, and I was hooked from the moment I went thru those pages!
I also sought out a korean artbook named "Imago" which has nothing but drawings and sketchings from Adrian Smith and is sooo thick, it became for me my bible.
In search of more about him, I stumbled upon his facebook page and than last year I was lucky enough to be one of the few to subscribe to an online course given by him via Phoenix Atelier for 8weeks with live reviews on every sunday!
I learned soo much from him and am so grateful for it, beyond words.
He also has done work for numerous companies the likes of Games Workshop, Blizzard, etc... .
And he now has released a comic for free via his second facebookpage: www.facebook.com/pages/Adrian-…
I can strongly recommend checking it out!!
This is also the reason why from all his work, I chose this picture to show in my influence map, because once you read the comic, you come to know this little fella that turns out to be an unlikely hero, and he is so endearing that you just don't wish him to befall any harm.
15. Sculpture/PC-games: On the right side of the background picture, you will find a statue of Sylvanas Windrunner, one of the characters of Warcraft. Next to my growing love for sculpting, I used to collect some statues for quite a while back. It embodies also my love for PC-games, ranging from Lucasarts' Grim Fandango, Outlaws, Wing Commander series, Half-Life, Unreal, Stronghold, to Blizzard's Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series. Aswell as having spent numerous time as an Nightelf Rogue raiding in World of Warcraft.