My Influence Map meme

Blank Meme here:


These are fun! You all should try one!

1)Ben Caldwell
_{My most favorite cartoonist/illustrator of all time. He wrote the how-to-draw book Action!Cartooning, and it was the first how-to-draw book that was actually helpful to me as a beginning artist. From there I discovered his website and forum on actioncartooning.com, where there was much more inspiring art. I just love his style! It's a blend of realistic and cartoony, and he has a love for color, details, and mythology and history. As he says, there are about 6 billion different ways of drawing a face, and he tries to draw unique bodies and faces in his sketches.}
2) Osamu Tezuka (Black Jack
_{While Tezuka’s style of drawing people is very cartoony and Disney-like, the stories that he tells-–from Astro Boy to his Phoenix saga–all deal with very serious issues, and they are presented beautifully and rhythmically in comics form. His way of juxtaposing silent, aspect-to-aspect panels with dialogue is something that has influenced me, though I’m not nearly as good.}
3) Jellaby by Kean Soo
_{Jellaby is a “children’s” graphic novel, but for me, the simple linework, coloring (usually shades of purple, but with the occasional yellow), and as the story, has a mixture of sweetness and mystery that isn’t noticeable at first, but gradually becomes apparent. It is something that is hard to attain for most, and that I wish I could have.}
4) Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet)
_{I have a penchant for cartoonists and artists who have childlike and simple, but well-rendered styles. Kibuishi is one of them! I’ve only read his Amulet books, as well as Copper, but I hope to read more of his stuff in the future.}
5) Shaun Tan (The Arrival)
_{Shaun Tan’s silent picture book, The Arrival captures the immigrant experience with incredibly detailed but surreal pencil drawings. This just goes to show that the realm of comics is NOT limited to just black ink and color, but shows me what can be done when you mix technical skill with creativity.}
6) Hope Larson (Mercury)
_{This does not mean to say that I scorn black ink! Quite the contrary, I adore it! While I love the subtle pencil drawings of Shaun Tan, Hope Larson’s bold, clear brushwork is something that I strive for whenever I ink with brush. I’ve always admired those who can create depth and shading with only black and white (no gray!) and Larson’s work is a great example.}
7) Flight Anthologies
_{Flight is a conglomeration of several different cartoonists with several different styles all combining their work in this series of anthologies! It’s very inspiring to me, to see the different ways artists express their stories, from very abstract and conceptual to very detailed and traditional.}
8) The Prince of Egypt
_{And pretty much all of Dreamworks’ 2D animated films before they started making things for elementary school kids. (Joseph: King of Dreams, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, The Road to El Dorado) They’re a great mix of realistic and cartoony, and great use of color and music for atmosphere. Plus, I loved the dream sequence on the walls in PoE.}
9) Blueludebar (Small Comics)
_{I love watercolored comics, and I love comics with silent sequences, and her work gave me the courage to finally get off my butt and work on “Earnestly,” along with contemplating the uses of color. I’ve already featured her on my journal. :d}
10) John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
_{He wrote LoTR, duh! And also inspired most of my sketchbook in seventh-to-eighth grade, as well as a mild interest in linguistics.}
11) Scott McCloud (understanding Comics)
_{I owe it to this guy. Around when I was going from 5th grade to 6th grade, I started to develop a contemptuous attitude towards comics, since, after all, they weren’t “real” books. Luckily my Dad had Understanding Comics lying around the house, and I realized the potential of the art form! Three Cheers for Juxtaposed pictorial images in deliberate sequence!}
12)Clive Staples “Jack” Lewis
_{A very big influence! I grew up listening to Narnia Audio Drama on tape as a kid, and later I read all seven volumes about 10 times, over and over. We still listen to the audio dramas (now on CD), and I’ve read some of his works for adults too; the Space Trilogy and The Screwtape Letters. I want to read The Great Divorce, but I haven’t been able to find it yet.}
13) D’aulaire’s Books of Mythology (Norse)
_{Some of my first introductions to Greek and Norse mythology, and very pretty illustrations, with pencil and colored pencil.}
14) Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles
_{The first manga I actually enjoyed reading (until it got all weird and wibbly wobbly), and it really showed me the difference between the storytelling styles of manga and western comics. It seems to me that manga is more concerned with the feel 0f what is happening, and for manga it’s sometimes okay to sacrifice clarity for intensity of feeling or emotion. In western comics storytelling is usually more straightforward, focusing more on the story and less on intensity. Of course, both styles are constantly being influenced by each other, and I’m not trying to over-generalize.}
15) Pluto by Naoki Urasawa
_{This isn’t so much an influence as inspiration, since it shows what realism can do for comics, and also I loved the use of value in the landscape scenes. I would have picked a landscape scene for the meme, but I also really wanted to have a picture of Epsilon in there, since he’s awesome and I loff him .}
16) The Bible
_{More like a life influence than art, though I have illustrated some things before! I should do more, and take advantage of all the detailed descriptions in Isaiah.}
17)Medieval Tapestries
_{“A single thread in a Tapestry, though it’s color brightly shine, it can never see it’s purpose in the pattern of the grand design” ha hah, couldn’t resist quoting PoE. I’ve always loved the crowded-ness of old tapestries and intaglio prints, and that has influenced much of my line drawing things.}
18) The Ring of the Niebelungs (Dark Horse Comics)
_{Proving that comics based on classic lit and mythology actually CAN be of good quality and interesting! I usually don’t care for superhero-comicbook style work, but the characters are all drawn to be different from one another and it is presented as dramatically as Wagner would have wanted it to look like.}

Whew! That’s all, folks… there’s probably a million other things that have influenced my style, including my family and friends, but there’s only room for so many, right?
I challenge YOU to make one for yourself! You know who you are, if you bothered to read everything.