Inspiration: Joe Mad, Conan and Luis Royo.

To begin with I will talk a little about what artists and art styles has influenced me, and helped shape my personal art style.

I find inspiration in pretty much anything, however, certain artists and pieces of work have been more influential than others.

Joe Madureira: A comic book artist turned game developer. 

Among other things, he drew the Uncanny x-Men comic in the 90’s. He was the artist behind several classic story arcs, such as the Age of Apocalypse.

 

In 2007 Joe Mad signed on to be the creative director for a game called Darksiders, developed by Vigil Games. He personally did the character designs for the game.

 

Most recently Joe Mad was the artist on the Ultimates 3 comic book. 

Joe Mad’s style is typified by massive character. Big beefy characters with a tangible sense of mass for male characters, and voluptuous forms for females. Even by comic book proportion standards, his art often borders on the extreme. A common trait for most Joe Mad characters is broad shoulders, large arms and hands, small heads.

It took almost a decade before I actually realized how influential he was on my art style.

I was a big fan of the x-Men growing up, and read the comics fanatically during the 90’s. The art style from the 90’s Uncanny X-Men book influenced me, both in terms of 2D and 3D.
I’m also a big fan of fantasy art. Dark fantasy (or low fantasy if you like) in particular. I always loved Robert E Howard’s Conan, and read the books and the comics. I always loved stuff like Conan and Heavy Metal.

Due to my love of fantasy art, I became very found of painter Luis Royo and his sensual fantasy art.

Luis Royo is a Spanish painter who specializes in dark fantasy. He’s done the cover art for many books and comics. He does some truly amazing female characters. Whenever I have to do a female character, his work is guaranteed to be among my reference material.