Inspirational Artists

Wenging Yan

An artist that has been a huge inspiration for my work, especially as of late, is Wenqing Yan. I’ve been following Wenging for years as well. Her individual art pieces were stunning but it was her comics and illustrated stories were that really caught my eye. I followed her art through her comics 1000 words, Knight, and now Fisheye Placebo.

I have always been in awe of her use of color, the detail that she captured when rendering backgrounds, and her focus on lighting. She is one of the main reasons that I wanted to go into illustration. Whether she used muted or vibrant colors, her pieces were always alive. Her ability to capture the emotion and feelings in her stories is the reason that I’ve continued to follow and love her work.

Rovina Cai

 Rovina is a relatively new artist discovery for me and one that has been absolutely wonderful. Her art has reminded me of why I fell in love with illustration and creating art in the first place. Her use of lines and mark-making allow the stories she illustrates to vibrate with life.

A segment from her about section:

I love making illustrations that evoke a sense of intrigue; images that make you linger, hungry to know the story behind them. My work is often inspired by the past; from myths and fairy tales to gothic novels, these stories resonate with me because they bring a little bit of magic and wonder to the present day.

In my opinion, her illustrations do all this and more. Her limited use of color and her play with lights and darks gives her artwork an older feel (think Arthur Rackham with a modern twist) and makes her work stand out. Check out some of her illustrations below and let me know what you think. (Side note: she illustrated a cover for Melissa Marr so I’m not sure this lady could get any cooler. I’m officially hooked.)

Lenka Simeckova

Lenka Simeckova is an artist I discovered when I was most frustrated with my style. I knew I was missing something but wasn’t sure what it was. As I was surfing through Facebook I found her page and immediately fell in love with her work and regained a passion for creating art once more. 

Featuring darker tones, her work includes long-limbed and multi-eyed women, witches, and occult symbolism that brings magic and darkness to life. Her illustrations have a very tight and limited color scheme that effectively set the mood and theme for each of her comics. These color schemes add to her already phenomenal illustrations and add a richness that isn’t often seen in modern art.

I’m most impressed with how well she has been able to frame each panel in her comics, allowing her pictures to tell the story instead of relying on words to push the narrative along. She is definitely a master of her craft and superb at utilizing her illustrations to add suspense to her comics. Check out my favorite comic of hers and some additional (random) pieces below.

Gustave Courbet

Self-portrait (The Desperate Man), c. 1843–45, was what initially got me started trying to depict deeper emotions and auras in my art. I discovered this painting in an art magazine my freshman year of high school (2004!) and instantly fell in love. The painting spoke to me and I wanted to figure out how to make art that could reach the viewer and communicate as well as this one did. This painting really shaped my art focus for my high school years and probably contributed to my love for darker art.

 Arthur Rackham

The Old Woman in the Wood, 1917, Watercolor and ink. We are going to go old school when talking about this image. I used this image for my Myspace background and coded a personalized profile around this image. That’s how much I loved this image. When I first saw it I was stunned by the color scheme, the lineart, and character interaction of this piece. It still causes me to catch my breath when I see it. This piece definitely helped inspire my love of line art and whimsical themes in my artwork.

 Amanda Turnage

An Apple for Fey, 2008, pen, watercolor and white ink.

I found this artist on deviantart and saved this image in my “inspiration” folder to reference it down the line. I loved the limited color scheme, something I’m still working on perfecting, and the way that this artist’s style was so loose yet so detailed at the same time. The use of red tones in this piece still impresses me to this day.

 Bao Pham

Leafy, 2009, Digital

Bao Pham was one of the first digital artists that I discovered. Her work was so detailed, lively, and realistic that I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. I loved her smooth shading and crazy amounts of texture and detail that brought her creations to life. I had tinkered with creating my own creatures and her art inspired me to push for a more realistic look by better understanding lighting, textures, and movement.

Will Terry and Chris Oatley

If you’ve read most of my blog posts you’ll notice a common trend. Quite often I like to reference either Will Terry Illustration and The Oatley Academy of Visual Storytelling as two sources that I follow that have been extremely helpful to my art. I’ve posted about and linked to their YouTube videos/podcasts and have specified how my work has gotten better because of them. As a freelance illustrator these sources have been invaluable. They have given me a better sense of direction, have helped me to improve my style of art, and have greatly changed how I approach art as a business.

Wylie Beckert

In the recent past, I’ve also referenced Wylie Beckert Illustration‘s tutorials as being super helpful to me. Her tutorials have allowed me to refresh on some painting basics and have assisted in pointing out where flaws in my own paintings are.