Description
1 - Bob Eggleton/dragons | 2 - 2000s music (Dido) | 3 - Pokémon TCG Art | 4 - Danny Phantom | 5 - Bionicle/Bohrok | 6 - Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift | 7 - LhuneArt | 8 - Shinerai | 9 - glitchedpuppet (PurpleKecleon) / Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness| 10 - The Legend of Zelda/Katsuya Terada | 11 - Exileden (PearlEden/Kilaq) | 12 - A Redtail's Dream / MinnaSundberg | 13 - James Gurney | 14 - yuumei | 15 - Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment / the 1969-1970 film adaption
So, about half a year ago, I thought: "What do you do when you have so many assignments that you can barely get them done and you really have to work on some school things tonight?"
Make the Influence Map of course! I’ve wanting to do this forever but I never came around it.. But I’ve been thinking a lot about what kind of things influence my work a lot when studying in Prague, so this seems to be the perfect time. But yeah, I didn't finish this thing until, well, now! And then to think I'm not that bad when it comes to procastinating! 
Anyway, I have to say that with this map, I went really for what influenced me rather than my interests. Therefore most the things mentioned here are things I spend a lot of time with or thought about when I was younger. I'm not as much into it all as I used to be. It is rather chronologically, though, as you can see I couldn't at least put a little Crime and Punishment shot in there, which has been a huge interest for only the last year or so.
Bob Eggleton. When I was little, all I drew where dragons and dinosaurs. I remember once (this must have been in the early 2000s) searching for ‘dragon’ on Google Image search and finding all these amazing dragon paintings, a lot of them were done by Bob Eggleton I later found out. He is practically the painter of my very early childhood. He showed me what a true dragon was, basically - a beautiful and majestic creature. 2000s Music (Dido) Although I can’t remember ever having created an artwork directly after a song (Zelda might come the closest), I always felt deeptly inspired by hearing music and lyrics telling a story, especially when it conveys a mood. Dido’s White Flag album was often played in the car during summer holiday and I still feel inspired in a special way hearing her songs (same goes for a lot of songs from the late ‘90s - early ’00s). Pokémon TGC cards. I got my first Pokémon cards from a friend at the age of six or something, and I’ve been always mesmerised by the artwork for them. I think artist like Midori Harada, Kouki Saito, Kakemaru Himeno and later kawayoo have influenced me at least a little how to lay out an illustration with a little more story and character than just displaying the creature. Danny Phantom. This has to be one of my favorite cartoons of my childhood, if not the favorite. I remember roleplaying it with my sister long after it stopped being broadcasted. I even asked her to make little comics of it. I was so, so obsessed with it, I just loved the character relationships of this show... Bionicle. When I was 10 or something I bought a Bionicle figurine (probably this one ), I got a promotional CD with it with some animations and small games on it, as well as backstories for all the figurines. There was so much worldbuilding in there, every creature had a backstory, every thing had a reason. I didn't understand everything back then, which surely adds to the mysterious atmosphere that hung around the whole world. My sister and I would make up immense arcs of stories we would play out with the action figurines. Same goes for PlayMobil and Lego, actually, but as it is about influences - Bionicle beats all that. I recently discovered that the island Mata Nui is actually a sleeping giant and my mind was litterary blown away. What an amazing concept! Talking about worldbuilding - Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. Every mission has a story and the way the objectives are given context gives each mission such personality! There is simply no boring mission description to be found in this game, same goes for every piece of loot, armor or weapon. Everything is thought of and that’s why I love this game so much. I’ve been thinking hard what it is that makes this game feel so alive - Adelle is my favorite character - first I didn’t like her but when I discovered she is an outcast - boom! I love you XD LhuneArt . I’ve been following her for years now, I remember her uploading the dragon painting that I’ve included here. She has been pretty much an idol to me and she is exactly doing what I wish to be doing with my life - drawing and painting for games. I’ve been following her for so so long and the improvement she’s gone through is so so inspiring! Shinerai . Her knowledge of dragon anatomy, the way she draws scales, wings, depth in her paintings, the sheer detailism of her reference sheets… Everytime I saw her ref sheets i wanted to make one for my characters too.. but her line-work was so so delicate! I remember I discovered her trhough her animation of her titular character Shinerai and I was amazed by the liveliness of Shinerai.. 
glitchedpuppet . (Purple Kecleon) this image stands not only for PK’s artwork, but her PMD-e storytelling project as well.I know PK’s work from back when I was still googling ‘dragon’ to see nice images - I googled Rayquaza soon after that and I found this drawing, believing it was official art. Later I was fooled again by her Shaymin form, like everyone else, but it was then that I discovered that she went by the alias Purple Keckleon.When she launched PMD-e, I was blown away - that no one else came up with such a roleplay group! (maybe there was, though, I had never seen such a thing before) But then again, no one could have done it so well and with such commitment as PK anyway. I was thinking, this is exactly what I want to do too! Build a story world and have people join you! Naturally I was very sad when PMD-e ended but I understood her decision to focus on original content. I’m sad to say that Floraverse, although I’ve never read any further than Seeds, doesn’t resonate on the same level als PMD-e did.AAAND PMD Explorers of Darkness basically inspired my OC Danysh which would later become Virha’qi. That game is one of my favorites ever and I can’t imagine it hasn’t influenced my taste in the very least. It’s also a game I bought very quickly after the relase date, I even planned it so tath I would get it during my holidays in the US because it would release later in Europe. That’s something I never did before. I adored the story and I must have finished the game in weeks (the main storyline, that is - I defeated Darkrai just months ago XD ) that’s very fast for me, I usually take my time and most games take years to complete for me, simply because I don’t play that often (I still need to catch the Red Gyrados in Soulsilver, for example!) The Legend of Zelda. I put up Terada’s work as I’ve studied his Zelda illustrations a lot - his use of colour is amazing and it’s said he used watercolours, but it looks just like markers to me… I don’t know if the Zelda games themselves have really ‘influenced’ me (yet?) but they inspired me a lot, and not only to create quite some fan art. 
Exileden or back then still PearlEden - her art is mesmerizing and ethereal and her travel stories inspired me so much - I'm sure she (and fox-orian ) inspired me to do urban exploring, which I did a lot during my studies in Prague. MinnaSundberg . The A Redtail's Dream comic book I bought from her was the first art thing ever I bought via internet and the way she lays out comic pages with paneling keeps inspiring me.. If you don’t know her current webcomic Stand Still, Stay Silent yet, go check it! It’s even better! And now she’s even making a video game herself wth the same characters. Is there anything she can’t do?! James Gurney. I got his books only a couple years ago but he’s amazing. Together with Natan Fowkes he inspires me time and time again to do more studies from life. yuumei ! I almost forgot her to add, which is pretty embarrasing as I've followed her since the days of the first Knite flash comics. Her storytelling abilities are amazing just as her talent at painting is, though I envy her the most for her ability to put meaning so beautifully in her stories. Crime and Punishment (first the film, the book quickly followed) is my most recent obsession and even though I've been hooked on this for only two years now, I can’t imagine it hasn't influenced me. Raskolnikov is my favorite book character straight when I finished watching that film! What a poor tormented soul! And then there are people I couldn’t include in the meme but I still want to mention as they have inspired and advised me over the years: griffsnuff , drachenmagier , Culpeo-Fox and more recently LiLaiRa ... Thank you!
Also, excuse for the wall o' text. No tl;rd. If you read all, you're amazing. 
Saskle — Influence Map
