Not a character related question, but I love your art style! What/who do you think inspired your style? And also, what’s ur favorite and least favorite part of the drawing process?
Thank you so, so much, that's really nice of you to say!
I think these days my biggest inspirations are other artists I've encountered online, but I can't list them because it would be a million miles long and I'd be afraid I missed somebody. I try to reblog and comment on art that inspires me so if you're on BlueSky, you can check my following list or my replies to find really truly incredibly amazingly talented artists who constantly push me to be better. Indie comics especially are my biggest inspiration currently.
For formative influences, though, I think these are up there:
Sailor Moon (90s anime): So many animators from this series have had such an impact on my art style that I'm just lumping it all together. Even the more abstract visual design and directorial choices have influenced how I approach comics, and the various "Monsters of the Day" inform my own monsters and creatures and character designs. I take a lot of inspiration from various 80s/90s anime and their economy of line, timing, and colour to make a big impact with limited resources, but Sailor Moon is a big one. The key animators I take the most influence from are probably Kazuko Tadano (the baseline "look" for Seasons 1 & 2), Ikuko Ittoh (the baseline "look" for seasons 3-5 - especially in how I draw profiles - though I slightly prefer her work on seasons 1 & 2), and Masahiro Ando (worked on all seasons and is universally panned for making them look cute and squishy because people have no taste).
Naoko Takeuchi: Naoko's original art is incredibly gestural and high-concept and her use of colour, texture, and negative space are striking, especially compared to other mainstream shoujo manga. She taught me from a young age that it's more pertinent in comics to convey a concept or emotion than to be technically "correct", she got me into using watercolours for my traditional art, and also I stole the way I sometimes draw claw-hands in comedic scenes directly from her comedic panels lmao
Yoshihiro Togashi: Both Hunter X Hunter and Yu Yu Hakusho left a deep impact on me. He has a similar gestural quality in his work to Naoko (his wife!) and I remember studying his use of colour and silhouette in his cover illustrations. His linework is really lively.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: He was an artist who really stood out to me when I was doing general art studies in high school. It was my first time as a comics-loving kid seeing a "real" artist who valued looser, sketchier, livelier, more impressionistic lines and colours, and who depicted people emoting and moving in fun, unidealised ways. Both his painterly and his printmaking works have stayed with me, and his taste for "snapshot" compositions.
The Sims 2 for PC: I'm not joking lol. I think TS2 stands out less than other video games for its art direction and visual design, but it absolutely has informed the way that I draw. I think my sense for posing, expression, no-dialogue narratives, and slapstick comedy are all heavily rooted in TS2 (and the original The Sims for good measure).
Nick Harris for Usborne Books: I took this picture from my own beat-up taped-together retired-library-copy edition of "Dragon Quest", an eye-spy-like children's puzzle book. I remember absolutely poring over it as a kid, and as an adult, I still think it's just absolutely phenomenal. The blend of realism and absurd fantasy cartoonishness is just unparalleled. The detail is incredible without becoming messy or losing clarity. He crams in so many acting and comedic choices and I think it's what taught me to take every opportunity to sprinkle things like that into my panels. Just absolutely masterful. He's kind of hard to track down but you can find Nick's site and other examples of his work here.
Akira Toriyama: I think this goes without saying but it still deserves a mention. Toriyama's influence is global and it really reminds me sometimes that I don't have to get too stuck up over technical drawings - like cars or weapons or buildings - and I should learn how to have fun with them instead. Overall while DBZ has had a big impact on me I think I take more inspiration from the original Dragon Ball manga.
Eiichiro Oda: This is probably not a surprise to most of my followers lol. I think Oda is a master of his craft - his composition and colour skills are first-rate and I really admire his character designs (at least, when he's given enough time and energy). He also really knows how to make an impact with his manga panels.
Umihiko & Yamahiko by Jiraiya: This is a NSFW title, heads up - but it was one of the earliest (probably too early to be reading that sort of stuff LMAO) memories I have of just being in awe of another artist's style and observations. To me, he is the platonic ideal of ligne claire, and it's really really not hard to see his influence on my work LOL. That being said I haven't really read any of his other works so I can't vouch for any of the contents. Tread mindfully if you want to look him up.
My favourite part of the drawing process is probably concepting, which is funny because it used to be my least favourite part. It felt like boring homework I had to do before I could get to the fun part (aka racing to the finish line even to my own detriment). Now, I spend most of my time in an image playing around with the sketch to experiment with composition, proportion, impact, etc. Huge shock (/s), but it makes everything else actually go that much faster!
My least favourite part is easily colouring. I'm just not good at it haha. I like black & white comics so I don't practice it enough and I don't incorporate it early enough into my process so I'm always fighting myself. I don't hate it, it's just easily the area I know I need to improve in the most. Maybe I'll use my OCs as a carrot-on-a-stick to practice more value/colour/lighting-driven studies? 🤔
Thank you again for such a lovely question and kind words! I hope there was something useful or interesting in here 👍
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