10 Artists Who Influenced Me

Kazuto Nakazawa-Samurai Champloo Character Designer-while I couldn't find any of his actual work, his character designs are probably the most recent influence on me. His style influenced the way I draw eyes and influenced me to actually give my characters lips, something that's been present in the pictures I've drawn in the past few months. I loved the sharp line work in Samurai Champloo.

Patrick Spaziante-Sonic the Hedgehog comics-If you were an artist and read the Sonic comics as religiously as I did growing up, you would be lying if you said Patrick Spaziante didn't influence you. While I outgrew the whole Sonic drawing style years and years ago, you can still see his influence in the way I draw hands, monsters, and mouths.

Hiromu Arakawa-Fullmetal Alchemist mangaka-I didn't notice until recently that she's made a pretty big impact on how I draw hair and faces. When it comes to facial expressions there's very few artists who can top her work.

Masashi Kishimoto-Naruto mangaka-I first got into Naruto my senior year in high school so I've been into the series all throughout college. Having a series like Naruto to follow as I've been growing as an artist has made a pretty big impact. When I look at my work I can see the poses, facial expressions, and outfit designs rubbing off on me.

Todd Mcfarlane-Creator of Spawn-When I first picked up a Spawn comic book in 4th grade, my whole art world was turned upside down. I think Todd Mcfarlane helped me get out of the Sonic art phase and get into more detailed work. While his influence isn't as easy to spot anymore (in elementary school I pretty much ripped him off heh), the attention to detail and stray line marks is still present.

Jeff Smith-Creator of Bone-Back in middle school I got into a whole indie comic phase, Jeff Smith and the next artist on the list were there to kick me out of the wannabe Spawn/Image comics style. The way he drew the character Thorn completely changed my way of drawing women. Angela has been around since about 5th grade and I never knew exactly how to make her eyes feminine without having long girly eye lashes, so when I saw Thorn I was like oh snap I could draw female eyes like that! To this day I still see Thorn when I look at my female characters' eyes.

Dave Sim-Creator of Cerebus-He was another independent comic artist I really got into in middle school to late high school. I really loved how detailed his work got without you know, actually being that detailed if that makes any sense. His linework also left a big impression on me. Gerhard, his assistant, was also influencial with his lush backgrounds.

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto-Gainax Character Designer-from the day I bought my first volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion back in middle school, the way I would draw would be forever changed. The influence is much more obvious in his work on the Evangelion manga but I think Sadamato is probably one of the biggest influences in the way I draw faces and eyes.

Akira Toriyama-Dragonball mangaka-Back in 5th grade I would stay up until 6 am drawing and watching cartoons. One fateful Saturday I was up late and the original Dragonball anime came on. Not only did seeing Dragonball for the first time get me into anime, it also was what inspired me to create Angela and Gleeko. I was really impressed with the series and wanted to do my own and the character Pu'ar was the inspiration for Gleeko. I literally started drawing A Burden the night I saw Dragonball for the first time. Aside from inspiring me to create my comic, Toriyama's art style has always been a huge influence.

Kosuke Fujishima-Oh My Goddess! mangaka-while the influence isn't as easy to spot as it was in my earlier work, Fujishima left a pretty big impression on me. OMG was the first manga I ever read and I loved all the detail that was put into the art and strived to have that sort of detail in my own work.