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Are these things still popular? No? Well, time for me to do one, then! Yep, it's ol' toixstory's influence map, the map of all my influences. How...redundant. And it's technically a map, so shut up. I even challenged myself to use art only from DA. Though, since deviantART makes approximately all of the internet's art and steals whatever it doesn't, that wasn't hard. So yeah, I'm going to explain these by number, in a kind of order of importance. Prepare yourself, most of these are concepts more than actual stylistic influences, because I'm stupid in a very special way. Anyway:

1. Cities: One of my largest influences for just about any map I do, as well as my own writing and just about all the work I do. I just adore cities, plain and simple. For most of my life, I admit, I've lived in the country or at the edge of suburbia, but to me that makes cities so much more exciting. From my perspective, country life is good for the soul, but city life is good for the rest of you. I think Europeans could identify with that sentiment better, really. When I see pictures of cities, it excites my brain, and I think of all the crazy adventures everyone is having, even if their whole adventure is getting on the train to work. The fact that so many people can live, work, and play in tandem with each other in small areas is just amazing to me. While I love nature and its beauty (I'll get to that in a sec), I also love mankind's unique, artificial beauty. Maybe I'm an architecture geek, but I could look at skyscrapers all day (and I have before). So the way I think of cities, of hives buzzing with adventure, usually scales up in maps when I can imagine whole countries doing the same, which is just exciting.

2. Halloween: Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange? Ah yes, favorite holiday. I had to choose between Halloween and Christmas, but I went with Halloween. And yes, it does influence my maps...somehow! Well, in general, it affects how I think about things. See, my favorite part of year is between 31st October and 25th December, the holiday season. Just good weather, lots of presents, and happy people. I think Halloween is my favorite not just for the costumes, but how it marks the changing of the season, from the dreary fall to autumn, the wondrous time of leaves changing color, the weather having a crisp coolness to it, not to mention all the cool movies, costumes, and candy. Definitely tons of fun, and, again, affects how I think about things, even in my maps. Probably. I'm just talking to myself at this point, anyway.

3. Starship Troopers: The first "adult" book I ever read, and possibly the book I've read the most times. Love it or hate it, Starship Troopers has been one of the most influential works of sci-fi out there, despite the somewhat...questionable...politics put forth in the book. I love reading it every time I pick it up again and it's been one of the major influences behind how I think of sci-fi, and some day I'm going to write something or make something that really shows it. Plus, the idea of power armor is just so freaking cool. By the way, I do, in fact, love the movie, kind of like two peoples' perspectives on the universe, one from a patriotic soldier and the other a jaded moviemaker.

4. Blade Runner: Probably my major stylistic influence if anything else, Blade Runner is far and away my favorite movie of all time (so long as it's The Final Cut). I love the mood, I love the world, I love the characters, and I love the story. To me, it's sci-fi noir at its finest, a genre that I love dearly. It's also probably the darkest I get in my influences, with the story's dystopian feeling sometimes carrying over into my worlds. Much as I love cities, it's no surprise I love 2019 Los Angeles, and a lot of my own work (ESPECIALLY writing) is influenced in some way by Blade Runner. I also own every soundtrack released from the movie, even obscure .mp3 links. This is one influence that hasn't really been shown on DA yet, but it'll get there, trust me. Helps that I'm writing a book (which will be released for free on here, Wattpad, and FictionPress) that is a loving tribute to the film. Just...excellent.

5. Countryside Tranquility: Really, this one is pretty much just a concept. While I did live a good part of my life in suburbia-lite St. Louis and a year in da UP, the rest of my life was spent in (relatively) rural Texas, giving me a fine appreciation for country living. While cities are adventurous and exciting, country life is tranquil and peaceful, the kind that is, in my opinion, good for the soul and a way to unwind from the rest of life. As a sort of opposite of winter nights, I also love bright summer days, with bright blue skies, puffy white clouds, and green grass stretching far and wide. There is a sort of majesty in it, and something that I think the United States is blessed to have in abundance. I chose that specific picture, too, because I just love lighthouses. Seriously, if I could, I would move into a house with a lighthouse, and turn the entire interior of the lighthouse into a giant library. Ah, that's the life.

6. Winter Nights: In general, if I ever need to lose myself in anything, whether it is a map or everyday life, I imagine a winter night. Since I spent most of my young life in the outer edges of St. Louis and a whole year of college in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (love those Yoopers), I've spent many a night outside, just looking at the world covered in white sheets of snow. The silence and purity of it all has always stuck with me, and it's generally one of the scenarios I imagine about life in a particular map. No, really. I'm not crazy, I swear. Okay, I am in a technical and literal way, but still. Winter nights are beautiful and winter itself my favorite season, so there you have it. It's also why I like making maps of places in colder climes.

7. Science Fiction: Yes, this is a different category from Blade Runner. This is my larger sci-fi influence, that comes from so many sources that I lumped them all together when I realized that I had never been into one source (BSG, Firefly, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) to fully embrace it. In general, barring Blade Runner, I am a fan of more lighthearted science fiction. Not fluffy utopia, but more optimistic, in the vein of Star Wars or Foundation. The kind of stuff that shows that mankind can have a future, and one that is bright and wonderful. It influences a lot of my future-related works and even my general optimism as a person, and is also by far my favorite genre of fiction for just about anything. Again, hard to tell from my maps, but sci-fi was pretty much my first artistic love when watching Star Wars Episode IV as a kid and still influences me today. I think a lot of that optimism bleeds over into the maps I make, too, since I'd hope people have noticed I don't exactly do grimdark, even if I have a healthy love for Warhammer 40k nonetheless.

8. Maps: Well, this one is kind of obvious, I think. I specifically used enannglenn's Europe 1884 map, because it was the one that got me into mapmaking. How? Through simple jealousy, of course. I realized that my pixel-based maps just weren't ever going to look as good as that one, so I decided to learn Inkscape so I could makes as good as his. I like to think I've at least partially succeeded on that front. In general, that really reflects how I do maps and art in general. I'm not an innovator; I admit it, it's relatively rare that I have a completely original idea in my head. I like to think that, instead, I am very good at building on the ideas of others to create combinations that are interesting to look at/read, and maps is definitely a big one. I hope that I'm still entertaining, though. Also, in general, I just love looking at maps, especially alternate history maps. I love thinking of the lives of people in the countries, how the world is a different place, and what it'd be like to be there. It's a magical experience to gaze at a particularly well-done map for an hour, just thinking about it.

9. A Song of Ice and Fire: Whoo boy, now this is the series that brought me into fantasy after a life of loving sci-fi. Is it the best fantasy series ever? Well, it's certainly my favorite. I love ASoIaF to pieces, and have loved each and every book, even the 4th one that everyone seemed to hate. I just can't get enough of the universe and story, not to mention all the fluff that can be found everywhere that makes it such a joy to explore. From my newest map to how I create pretty much any medieval map or timeline, ASoIaF can be felt in what I do, and I absolutely can't wait for season 5 of the show and book 6. It's hard, really, to describe why I'm such a huge fan, but it's definitely been one of my favorite fantasy adventures to experience through books and the tv show, and will soon continue to be experienced through a map and possibly even a big fanfic.

10. Religion: Heh, this should at least get a few comments going. Yes, one of my major influences in life and art is through my religion, mostly in how I feel about the peoples I create in the maps, how I treat their portrayal, and how I try to do right by them and by people in real life. I also tend toward more religious countries/peoples as a default, but can you really blame me? Yes, you can, but that's not important. Of course, it'd be a lot easier to talk about this if I could figure out what religion I actually am, though currently leaning toward Islam. And before anyone complains, Jesus was in the Quran so having a picture of Him up there is valid. I'm sure this won't make this map controversial at all. Nope. Not. At. All.

11. The Beatles: It would seem strange, to anyone who knows me, to see music put so far down on the list of influences, but these are (for the most part) artistic influences, and music is more a lifestyle thing for me. That said, I listen to music constantly and it really is one of my favorite parts about life. Often, when I'm working on a map or a timeline or a story, I'll listen to music to fit the mood and spur me on, which is always nice. I chose The Beatles to represent the music portion of my life because they're the band I listen to the most and the ones that line up a lot with my personal philosophy, so I put them up there. Not that I don't love many other bands, but The Beatles will always have a place in my heart.

12. My Little Pony: Oh shush, ya scrubs. Yes, I like My Little Pony. It's a sin on some parts of the internet, but hey, this is my influences and I'm not going to lie. My Little Pony got me into writing via fanfiction, which from the beginning was really just all-original characters so I could practice writing to a wider audience. But hey, it's a fun show and a fun world if you don't take it too seriously or get really into the whole fandom thing. And before anyone points fingers, the Sherlock, Harry Potter, and Doctor Who fandoms aren't exactly ahead of the bronies, either. Anyway, I like the show's optimistic tone, particularly in the first season. It's also produced some amazing art and artists, including here on deviantART, so I think the show, overall, has done a bit of good, though admittedly has bad sides to the fandom. Overall, though, I'm happy to say it helped me out of a rough spot in my life and helped me be a more optimistic person in general. Also, that picture there? Yeah, that's my very first commission on deviantART. In fact, commissioning that picture is why I created an account in the first place, so the whole reason I'm here is because of that. So there you go.

13. Texas: God Bless Texas, y'all.

So yeah, no one is ever going to read all that, but it was rather therapeutic to get all that out and really helped me realize what kind of artist I am (besides a bad one), so I feel pretty good about it. Well, back to mapmaking!

Description
Are these things still popular? No? Well, time for me to do one, then! Yep, it's ol' toixstory's influence map, the map of all my influences. How...redundant. And it's technically a map, so shut up. I even challenged myself to use art only from DA. Though, since deviantART makes approximately all of the internet's art and steals whatever it doesn't, that wasn't hard. So yeah, I'm going to explain these by number, in a kind of order of importance. Prepare yourself, most of these are concepts more than actual stylistic influences, because I'm stupid in a very special way. Anyway:

1. Cities: One of my largest influences for just about any map I do, as well as my own writing and just about all the work I do. I just adore cities, plain and simple. For most of my life, I admit, I've lived in the country or at the edge of suburbia, but to me that makes cities so much more exciting. From my perspective, country life is good for the soul, but city life is good for the rest of you. I think Europeans could identify with that sentiment better, really. When I see pictures of cities, it excites my brain, and I think of all the crazy adventures everyone is having, even if their whole adventure is getting on the train to work. The fact that so many people can live, work, and play in tandem with each other in small areas is just amazing to me. While I love nature and its beauty (I'll get to that in a sec), I also love mankind's unique, artificial beauty. Maybe I'm an architecture geek, but I could look at skyscrapers all day (and I have before). So the way I think of cities, of hives buzzing with adventure, usually scales up in maps when I can imagine whole countries doing the same, which is just exciting.

2. Halloween: Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange? Ah yes, favorite holiday. I had to choose between Halloween and Christmas, but I went with Halloween. And yes, it does influence my maps...somehow! Well, in general, it affects how I think about things. See, my favorite part of year is between 31st October and 25th December, the holiday season. Just good weather, lots of presents, and happy people. I think Halloween is my favorite not just for the costumes, but how it marks the changing of the season, from the dreary fall to autumn, the wondrous time of leaves changing color, the weather having a crisp coolness to it, not to mention all the cool movies, costumes, and candy. Definitely tons of fun, and, again, affects how I think about things, even in my maps. Probably. I'm just talking to myself at this point, anyway.

3. Starship Troopers: The first "adult" book I ever read, and possibly the book I've read the most times. Love it or hate it, Starship Troopers has been one of the most influential works of sci-fi out there, despite the somewhat...questionable...politics put forth in the book. I love reading it every time I pick it up again and it's been one of the major influences behind how I think of sci-fi, and some day I'm going to write something or make something that really shows it. Plus, the idea of power armor is just so freaking cool. By the way, I do, in fact, love the movie, kind of like two peoples' perspectives on the universe, one from a patriotic soldier and the other a jaded moviemaker.

4. Blade Runner: Probably my major stylistic influence if anything else, Blade Runner is far and away my favorite movie of all time (so long as it's The Final Cut). I love the mood, I love the world, I love the characters, and I love the story. To me, it's sci-fi noir at its finest, a genre that I love dearly. It's also probably the darkest I get in my influences, with the story's dystopian feeling sometimes carrying over into my worlds. Much as I love cities, it's no surprise I love 2019 Los Angeles, and a lot of my own work (ESPECIALLY writing) is influenced in some way by Blade Runner. I also own every soundtrack released from the movie, even obscure .mp3 links. This is one influence that hasn't really been shown on DA yet, but it'll get there, trust me. Helps that I'm writing a book (which will be released for free on here, Wattpad, and FictionPress) that is a loving tribute to the film. Just...excellent.

5. Countryside Tranquility: Really, this one is pretty much just a concept. While I did live a good part of my life in suburbia-lite St. Louis and a year in da UP, the rest of my life was spent in (relatively) rural Texas, giving me a fine appreciation for country living. While cities are adventurous and exciting, country life is tranquil and peaceful, the kind that is, in my opinion, good for the soul and a way to unwind from the rest of life. As a sort of opposite of winter nights, I also love bright summer days, with bright blue skies, puffy white clouds, and green grass stretching far and wide. There is a sort of majesty in it, and something that I think the United States is blessed to have in abundance. I chose that specific picture, too, because I just love lighthouses. Seriously, if I could, I would move into a house with a lighthouse, and turn the entire interior of the lighthouse into a giant library. Ah, that's the life.

6. Winter Nights: In general, if I ever need to lose myself in anything, whether it is a map or everyday life, I imagine a winter night. Since I spent most of my young life in the outer edges of St. Louis and a whole year of college in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (love those Yoopers), I've spent many a night outside, just looking at the world covered in white sheets of snow. The silence and purity of it all has always stuck with me, and it's generally one of the scenarios I imagine about life in a particular map. No, really. I'm not crazy, I swear. Okay, I am in a technical and literal way, but still. Winter nights are beautiful and winter itself my favorite season, so there you have it. It's also why I like making maps of places in colder climes.

7. Science Fiction: Yes, this is a different category from Blade Runner. This is my larger sci-fi influence, that comes from so many sources that I lumped them all together when I realized that I had never been into one source (BSG, Firefly, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) to fully embrace it. In general, barring Blade Runner, I am a fan of more lighthearted science fiction. Not fluffy utopia, but more optimistic, in the vein of Star Wars or Foundation. The kind of stuff that shows that mankind can have a future, and one that is bright and wonderful. It influences a lot of my future-related works and even my general optimism as a person, and is also by far my favorite genre of fiction for just about anything. Again, hard to tell from my maps, but sci-fi was pretty much my first artistic love when watching Star Wars Episode IV as a kid and still influences me today. I think a lot of that optimism bleeds over into the maps I make, too, since I'd hope people have noticed I don't exactly do grimdark, even if I have a healthy love for Warhammer 40k nonetheless.

8. Maps: Well, this one is kind of obvious, I think. I specifically used enannglenn's Europe 1884 map, because it was the one that got me into mapmaking. How? Through simple jealousy, of course. I realized that my pixel-based maps just weren't ever going to look as good as that one, so I decided to learn Inkscape so I could makes as good as his. I like to think I've at least partially succeeded on that front. In general, that really reflects how I do maps and art in general. I'm not an innovator; I admit it, it's relatively rare that I have a completely original idea in my head. I like to think that, instead, I am very good at building on the ideas of others to create combinations that are interesting to look at/read, and maps is definitely a big one. I hope that I'm still entertaining, though. Also, in general, I just love looking at maps, especially alternate history maps. I love thinking of the lives of people in the countries, how the world is a different place, and what it'd be like to be there. It's a magical experience to gaze at a particularly well-done map for an hour, just thinking about it.

9. A Song of Ice and Fire: Whoo boy, now this is the series that brought me into fantasy after a life of loving sci-fi. Is it the best fantasy series ever? Well, it's certainly my favorite. I love ASoIaF to pieces, and have loved each and every book, even the 4th one that everyone seemed to hate. I just can't get enough of the universe and story, not to mention all the fluff that can be found everywhere that makes it such a joy to explore. From my newest map to how I create pretty much any medieval map or timeline, ASoIaF can be felt in what I do, and I absolutely can't wait for season 5 of the show and book 6. It's hard, really, to describe why I'm such a huge fan, but it's definitely been one of my favorite fantasy adventures to experience through books and the tv show, and will soon continue to be experienced through a map and possibly even a big fanfic.

10. Religion: Heh, this should at least get a few comments going. Yes, one of my major influences in life and art is through my religion, mostly in how I feel about the peoples I create in the maps, how I treat their portrayal, and how I try to do right by them and by people in real life. I also tend toward more religious countries/peoples as a default, but can you really blame me? Yes, you can, but that's not important. Of course, it'd be a lot easier to talk about this if I could figure out what religion I actually am, though currently leaning toward Islam. And before anyone complains, Jesus was in the Quran so having a picture of Him up there is valid. I'm sure this won't make this map controversial at all. Nope. Not. At. All.

11. The Beatles: It would seem strange, to anyone who knows me, to see music put so far down on the list of influences, but these are (for the most part) artistic influences, and music is more a lifestyle thing for me. That said, I listen to music constantly and it really is one of my favorite parts about life. Often, when I'm working on a map or a timeline or a story, I'll listen to music to fit the mood and spur me on, which is always nice. I chose The Beatles to represent the music portion of my life because they're the band I listen to the most and the ones that line up a lot with my personal philosophy, so I put them up there. Not that I don't love many other bands, but The Beatles will always have a place in my heart.

12. My Little Pony: Oh shush, ya scrubs. Yes, I like My Little Pony. It's a sin on some parts of the internet, but hey, this is my influences and I'm not going to lie. My Little Pony got me into writing via fanfiction, which from the beginning was really just all-original characters so I could practice writing to a wider audience. But hey, it's a fun show and a fun world if you don't take it too seriously or get really into the whole fandom thing. And before anyone points fingers, the Sherlock, Harry Potter, and Doctor Who fandoms aren't exactly ahead of the bronies, either. Anyway, I like the show's optimistic tone, particularly in the first season. It's also produced some amazing art and artists, including here on deviantART, so I think the show, overall, has done a bit of good, though admittedly has bad sides to the fandom. Overall, though, I'm happy to say it helped me out of a rough spot in my life and helped me be a more optimistic person in general. Also, that picture there? Yeah, that's my very first commission on deviantART. In fact, commissioning that picture is why I created an account in the first place, so the whole reason I'm here is because of that. So there you go.

13. Texas: God Bless Texas, y'all.

So yeah, no one is ever going to read all that, but it was rather therapeutic to get all that out and really helped me realize what kind of artist I am (besides a bad one), so I feel pretty good about it. Well, back to mapmaking!