Inspirations

Yeah, it's time for this kind of post... So I've recently been drawing a lot, filling at least three sketchbook pages a day for the last month. My drawings are always very (if not 'too') expressive and I am influenced by the slightest event happening to me, from frustrations to inside jokes throughout the day. Due to my personal lack of artistic background I've never learned another way of drawing (I am however currently taking life drawing classes which will hopefully allow me to accumulate a minimum amount of technique). Anyways, besides my everyday life I have stumbled upon artists who express their emotions in a similar illustration style.

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac 
by Jhonen Vasquez

So yes, his inner demons are apparently more bloody than mine. the expression remains the same however. By exponentially exaggerating a specific emotion I tend to arrive to the same sort of illustrated outcome. The comic is itself really interesting to read through, but definitely not for the weak-hearted.

Tim Burton

For me, this is where it's at. Already booked tickets to New York in order to see his retrospective at the MoMa. I hadn't been in contact with his earlier work before I took a copy of The Melancholy Death of the Oyster Boy into my hands. His illustrations are simple, beautiful and expressive, everything I want mine to be. I am also currently in a 'stitches, masks and pins and needles' phase, which his work seems to satisfy perfectly.

Nobuo Uematsu

I'm not only influenced by visuals. I have recently started listening to those beautiful piano tunes I had once heard while playing through my Final Fantasy collection. I've had those melodies in my head for the past few days and I guess their melancholy affects me.. But yeah, absolutely amazing piano pieces by Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu... I would recommend to find the pieces individually in their full length, but here is a short collection of the most beautiful ones: