It shouldn't be a huge surprise that my original inspirations for drawing were DC comics animated series, Teen Titans, Justice League, and Young Justice to be specific. So after the geometry project that got me started (check out my about me to learn about that), I started putting grids over screen caps of my favorite shows (Using the app "Grid Drawing Assistant") and drawing them. While I'm not able to claim any of this beginning art as my own original thought it was still a great starting point for me. Since I like these characters and these styles studying the source material was a great practice, I just didn't know it. I really need to do more like this today, since I'm really trying to nail a more traditional comic style.
Here's a few more examples of drawings I did, if the poster project I did wasn't enough. (You can also see a more recent drawing, for comparison.)
How did this impact my art in the long term? For a really long time I drew eyes similar to the ones in Young Justice, which probably still impact the size and location of my current eye style. I struggle with consistently pushing my line art past cartoon and into the comic realm. The typical comic style has amazing line weight and shadows, which takes a lot more time and effort to achieve than the simple cartoon line.
How do you find inspirations? Look up artists who do what you want to do. My newer art inspirations are professional comic artists, and since that's what I want to do, the more I follow their work the better. I'm sure I'm not the only one, however, to struggle with stopping and analyzing why you like your favorite artist. Why do you admire their work so much? What can you take from their art and put into your own? The more often we take this extra step the faster we can grow as artists. (If you're wondering my top two comic artists are Jim Lee and Jorge Jimenez.)
Another classic source of inspiration is to just do what you love. If your day lights up every time you do sketches, but you hate doing anything further than you don't have to. It never hurts to learn new skills, especially since it can help you rethink what you already do, but don't force yourself to do something if it only upsets you. Besides, doing what you love can push you to do more- and with art the more you do the better you get.
I hope you're all doing well, let me know in the comments where you find your inspirations:)
I want to make longer posts, but don't have the time yet:(
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