There’s an interesting meme making the rounds in the last 6 months or so – courtesy of Fox O’Rian over at DeviantArt. It’s called an influence map, and it is an organized cheat sheet of imagery from artists, movies and games that inspire you to create great art. Kate Beaton from Hark! A Vagrant recently did one, and it caught my eye and gave me an idea for a blog post. I’ve done an ‘influences’ blog post already – but with this map, I’ve been able to expand upon it and make it more in-depth. Check it out.

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It’s filled with all the artistic influences in my life. I may have to do a second version of this, since I haven’t included even HALF of the major ones. These are the ones with the greatest impact on my drawing and imagination. The second part will probably explore more of my artistic and creative writing influences. Here’s a quick rundown of each block and a brief reason for including them.

1) Frank Miller – the noir stories he’s involved in are a HUGE influence on my storytelling. Plus, the ability to do more with less detail is what makes his work magic. Imagination to fill in the blanks is so underrated.

2) Todd McFarlane – his work on Spider-Man and the initial work on Spawn is some of my favorite work from the early 90s. The dramatic details and edginess in character design are things that caught my eye.

3) Geof Darrow – Another hyper-detailed artist, his work on Hard-Boiled and Shaolin Cowboy is fantastic. Despite all the details, his panels never appear muddy and overworked since his linework is clean.

4) Carlos Hierro Nin (Iron) – This guy is a tattoo artist, but his contribution to Heavy Metal magazine about a miscreant bad-ass named Angel, influenced my storytelling and forced me to get darker with the subject matter.

5) Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez – Their B&W work on Love and Rockets opened my eyes to a different world of everyday lifestyle comics beyond the typical superhero stuff.

6) Peter Bagge – the artist behind HATE comics. This was one of the first indie comic artists I got into. I loved that his work was ugly and freaky looking – a big contrast from the slick Super Hero type stuff I was used to seeing.

7) Tim Bradstreet – My absolute favorite artist. His photo-realistic style and use of noir elements are the style I aspire to emulate.

8 ) Shawn Martinbrough – His work has also influenced my noir style. His inks on Batman are incredibly moody and his instruction book ‘How to Draw Noir Comics’ has been a tremendous help in crafting El Cuervo.

9) Jose Ortiz – His work with Antonio Segura has been an influence on my artistic style, allowing for more of a rougher, ‘drawn’ style rather than a clean, perfectly inked and balanced work. Every panel looks like a great piece from a sketchbook.

10) Stephen Bliss – Known for his Grand Theft Auto illustrations, Bliss’ work has helped define my work for El Cuervo, with thick outlines, and using shapes and silhouettes to create depth – forcing the viewer to use their imagination to fill in the blanks. Also, his colors are well selected. He can create subtle moods and he totally captures the feeling of living in certain Metropolitan centers in the 80s, 90s and present day.

11) Mike Mignola – A legend in the field. Using blacks to create depth and suspense, Mignola is one of my favorites and acts as a huge influence on my work.

12) Andy Kubert – His work on X-Men has always been some of my favorite Superhero comic type work. His pencils were always consistent, and before the use of Photoshop color, his work was clean enough to allow the colorists to shine through and add an extra dimension to his work, rather than muddying everything with linework and fills.

13) Katsuhiro Otomo – The AKIRA manga was my first exposure to the world of Japanese comics. It was the perfect blend of drawn comic characters and photorealistic backgrounds. Highly influential in my artwork…

14) Mad Max Trilogy – I love post-apoc styled work. The Road Warrior was the first ‘grown-up’ movie I ever watched as a kid, and Mad Max became my favorite movie growing up. Mel Gibson and I share a birthday, and after the celebrations were over, one of the local channels would play Mad Max late at night – and that is how I used to end every January 3rd. I suppose that the repeated views of the movie created my love for the post-apoc genre – I love Wasteland and Fallout and all of the after-nuke based work that is out there…

15) Leon the Professional – This is a great movie, and a lot of the themes shown in it have heavily influenced El Cuervo (and many other hitman with heart type stories.) After watching this movie, I’ve watched most of Luc Besson’s work…

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So there you have it, my influence map. What are your greatest influences? Maybe you should make a map of your own!