Inspirations

[Kitexa]

So I'm curious; what inspires you as a creator? As a person? Anything in particular? Anyone?


I know for me, personally, my ultimate inspirations come from:

Shakespearean tragedy (duh XD)

Greek mythology - also, you know...bit of heritage pride there X3

Walt Disney - not talking '101 Dals' or 'TLK' or anything, but Walt himself, as a man, as a creator, as a dreamer especially.

Tim Burton - less as a creator and more as a person. We're REALLY similar, unintentionally, as people, and for an oddball angst-addict like me, it's kind of nice to see someone out there like myself making it big in Hollywood. Gives me hope for my own future.

Classic Horror - 30s and 40s horror films. I leech off that stuff.

Bela Lugosi - I love him. He's my favorite actor of all time and I just respect him so much and he's such a master of old horror, and he's DRACULA...if I do anything with my life in the mainstream world, I want the world to remember this man for the brilliant actor he was. His career...didn't end well, it was so sad...but I love him and want to do him proud as an inspired fan <3


God - :3 It's true. God inspires me as a person - He's the reason I'm the way I am and why I want to do my best to help others, to teach them from my experiences and mistakes so that they can be spared what I've endured <3

[Mo]

Life in general inspires me a lot XP But here are some specifics:

Disney- I agree pretty much with what Tex said. After reading a biography on the man, I definitely have a deep respect for him. He was a man of innovations-- not just to the movie industry but to modern technology as well. He was just such a creative, innovative guy and I have to respect him for that.

Music- Count how many pictures & stories of mine that are based off songs. Can't count all of 'em, can you? Music has ALWAYS been one of my biggest inspiration-- from classic rock which will forever hold a special place in my heart, to classical, to techno, to heavy metal, to country, to pop-- anything I listen to is bound to give me some idea or another.

Movies- Not just animated movies, though those have probably the largest impact on my life, but just cinematography in general. The whole proccess of making a movie fascinates me to no end, I've always wanted to play a part in that long, grueling, but ultimately wonderful proccess, and that's still my life goal. And I can't how many fantasies I've had as a kid that were similar to movies I've seen, be they original or fan-based-- movies are probably the biggest influence I have as a creator, they're my creative fuel-- without them I'd be NOTHING like I am today.

Newspaper Comics- Once I learned how to read, I was ALL OVER comics. Peanuts was my first big inspiration, developing my sense of humor and even my art style-- in my earlier art you can definitely spot Snoopy-style snouts until I figured out how to properly draw heads. Then once I picked up Calvin & Hobbes for the first time, and understood the humor of the strip, that became another huge inspiration. Not nessisarily art-wise (though I do envy Watterson's simplistic but expressive style and his landscapes that he sneaks into his strips), but as far as building characters go. All the characters are colorful and fun aand I began to realize that good characters have flaws as much as every person has their flaws-- Calvin is a likeable character but EXTREMELY flawed. And it also developed my sense of humor as well; I blame this strip as the reason I have such a snarky side

Comedy- As I'm sure plenty of you know, I adore comedy and comedians. I would die if there wasn't humor in my day. I can make a joke off plenty of things, even if the joke is dark or very tongue-in-cheek. I love to entertain with humor. Stand-up comedians are people I really look up to. They've taught me how to appreciate humor as a sort of medicine to the doom and gloom of life, that if you can't make fun of silly things in life that life is just plain boring, and that jokes are what can bring people together, and of course that it pays to make someone laugh or smile. Granted, I'm still not a very good comedian, but I appreciate comedy for what it is-- making fun of life, because really, it is RIDICULOUS most of the time.

...That's about all I have for now ^^

[assassinvulpy]

Japanese history + Fairy Tales:
My Web-Manga, Katana Kitsune, is hugely inspired by Japanese history and fairy tales. If you play Okami, you might have noticed that some of the characters and story events come from Japanese fairy tales. I was surprised, and intrigued when I found out. After playing Okami and reading some of the fairy tales, I decided to take a 'deeper' look into Japanese stuff. Not just Anime. The culture and the history. I also looked at their religion and mythical creatures. I've even learned a few Japanese words and phrases. After all of this research, Katana Kitsune was born. ^^

William Shakespeare
I've always loved his stories. Romeo And Juliet is my favourite. A Midsummer Night's Dream is my second favourite. The tragedies inspired my darker artwork. My recent MLP Story, Storm Chaser, was inspired by the tragedy in his stories.

Music
This might sound weird, but some of my story ideas only came from ONE song. XD The lyrics are normally the parts that inspire me and give me ideas.

[Luisa]

Persons? A lot of persons.
Kitexa herself as a person inspires me like, a lot, honestly ^^ Also, OccasionalCoyotes inspires me as well, I really like her because of her, not only because her art is great or because she used to draw ponies. Coyote is still my coyote <3 Also my friend, Bienie, inspires me a lot.
Those are DA people, as real life people usually just inspire me to have feelings AGAINST them ^^"

Music inspires me a lot. Songs just fit my mood sometimes, and the poof, I have a creation.

And mythological creatures inspire me as well at times. I have a soft spot for dragons, kirins and quilins, unicorns, pegasi, hellhounds and stuff of the sort. They just call my attention a lot XDDD

[Namacub95]

JK Rowling
My number 1 inspiration for writing. The Harry Poter series was the first major series I ever got into and the first ever fanfiction I published was from this fandom. I cannot imagine anyone better than JK Rowling for getting my creative juices flowing, even reading a paragraph of Harry Potter can usually get my creative juices flowing.

Music
Especially anything Nightwish. Whenever I listen to music, especially instrumental, I can usually put a feeling to it and assign certain songs to characters and scenes and so whenever I'm writing a certain character/scene I always play the music that inspires me most.

A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones
I'm only new to this series of books/TV series but already its inspired me, especially when it comes to developing characters. George RR Martin has the ability to inspire me to develop as much of a character as I can think of, especially characters I already have set personalities for (e.g. The Harry Potter Next Gen). His style of writing also appeals to me and lately I've been testing out writing in a style similar to his.

Mythology
Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a huge mythology geek. I love nothing more than reading stories because it helps me connect with the culture and the ideas that people had. I often sneak mythological references in wherever I can get away with it. My favourites have to be Greek, Roman and Celtic mythology (the latter because of my heritage).

[Paws]

Music- As most people have stated before me, music is a huge inspiration to me. I can listen to a song and get some rather good ideas, ranging from sappy to completely creepy. Upon these noted ones would be Mumford & Sons and Coldplay- hell, Coldplay's song "Amsterdam" is what sparked a few...specific ideas for my lion character of the same name.

Musicals- One of my biggest sources for new ideas. I love musical theatre. Like, everything about it. And when I'm in the environment, I get some of my best ideas. It's just a non-stop flowing fountain of ideas and inspiration- plus, there's singing included! A recent example of this would be two musicals that I keep raving about- you guessed them;
"Shinbone Alley" and "Holy Musical B@man!" Which brings me to my next source...

Team StarKid- They are some of the most wacky, wonderful, thought-provoking and not to mention absolutely hilarious people that I both am glad that I got to meet and show them my artwork. I think that's another reason they're one of my inspirations- they like what I do, and that inspires me to keep going. Also, "Starship" is just a big, big idea bag to me. It's like Disney. <3

Edgar Allen Poe- His stories are just so delightfully creepy yet well-written, and of course his violent stories are some of the best...SO much inspiration just found there. This has only become a recent source of inspiration, but it's a good one. We read "The Cask of Amontillado" in English and I was so sparked for the time after.

Newspaper Comics and Other Cartoons- Similarly to Mo, newspaper comics and comic books like that were (and still are) very big. I remember every morning in the summer my grandpa would finish reading his newspaper and I'd take it after he did to read the comic strips. I always loved Peanuts, but I think my favorite still stands at Calvin and Hobbes. That heped to fuel other art projects I did later on when I was younger. And of course, other cartoons- we had this really good "draw cartoon animals" book at my elementary school, and I'd take it out ALL the time and draw from it- well, trace, but I did create a few original (some non-traced) characters from it that I hope to revamp someday.

Pure happiness- I get inspired from other peoples' happiness. 'Nuff said.

[Patchy]

Books and TV for me