Every once in a while, my OCD tendencies actually work to my advantage.
This is one of those times.
In my study of art and drawing, I hear constantly to study from the old masters: Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Monet, etc.
But the thing is, I’m not trying to copy them!
I can definitely see the value in studying their work and applying their principles to your own work, but besides the broad strokes, not ONE BIT of their stuff looks like anything I want to make!
So I chose my OWN masters!
For so long, I’d believed the advice of studying from the old masters, repeated ad infinitum by teachers, YouTube tutorials, and the like. When I tried it, I always felt like I was pretending to learn something from it, but I knew there were artists whose work I appreciated much more than Da Vinci’s.
SORRY LEO!
What I did was gather a list of ALL the major influences I’ve ever had. Pinterest was a huge help since all I had to do was notice the common patterns in my top boards.
THEN I narrowed down that list to the artists I actually want to copy, not just admire. Artists who had an element in their work that I wanted to “steal“.
THEN, I narrowed down that list to the TOP 5 artists whose work I definitely wanted to steal from. And this was the hardest part because I COULD NOT GO OVER FIVE no matter how much I wanted to make exceptions! Sorry, Sam Keith (The Maxx)!
In the end, I decided that the five artists I did choose, would stand in as representatives for the ones that didn’t quite make the cut. With my minor OCD nature, this was the least I could do for them. The only rule for the list was that it had to be comprised of singular artists or visions.
Finally, I chose 3 works from each artist that would represent the best elements of their work.
Only hours afterward, it dawned on me:
I would have to copy these drawings.
The best way to steal from each of my top influences, wouldn’t be to just take elements from their work to incorporate into my own,
But to copy each and every work WHOLESALE.
Not to display as my own, of course, but to do my own MASTER STUDY. These are the artists I hold in the highest esteem; whose work I want to copy most. So without further adieu, here they are with the elements I chose them for:
MY Top Visionaries to Steal from:
- Koji Morimoto: For his exotic color choices and integrated use of 3D graphics in animation to create an atmosphere.
- Tsutomu Nihei: For his god-like, borderline impossible use of architecture and movement to evoke mood without color
- Matt Laskowski: For his atmospheric, peaceful, even nostalgic use of color composition and character design
- Gerard Trignac: For his use of composition, space, and values to evoke eerie moods
- George Morikawa: For his use of BOLD lines and shapes and visceral sense of action to evoke character and emotion
The top 5 encapsulates all that I love about storytelling and art. They encompass the majority of the elements any of the other artists on my long list could have. That’s why they are at the top.
I cross-checked each of these guys with the traits I value most in my art (what I call my “Core Tenets“) and they all checked out perfectly.
I figure if I can copy the total of 15 works and discover the secret behind what makes each so powerful to me, I’ll be well on my way to creating the kind of art I hope to make. Here they are arranged even further from easiest to copy to the hardest:
- George Morikawa
- Tsutomu Nihei
- Matt Laskowski
- Koji Morimoto
- Gerard Trignac
I’d say those last two are tied in terms of difficulty level!
I think I’ll give myself a week for each work, (15 weeks in total) to get the best result I can. But I’ll tweak this as I go along.
I’d like to think that I’m the first to come up with this method, but I bet everyone’s been doing this forever!
You don’t have to be as extreme with it as I was, but I leave to YOU:
Who are your top 5 influences that you can copy TODAY?
I await your results, as you’ll soon see mine!
Until next time friends,
-Ken