What it is that inspires me, you ask?

 

 

There are many things that inspire me, too many to name them all, but I will try to show a few.

The first thing that comes to my mind is something that inspires many artists since centuries: nature. Especially woods and water are rather inspiring to me and though I can’t tell why, I always prefered the company of trees over humans. It simply soothes me and just by listening to the wind rustling in the leaves I gain thousands of new ideas for paintings. Knowing this it’s also unsurprising that many characters I create have a very close bond to nature or that I tend to criticise the way humans treat nature in my stories.
But not only plants are what I love, but animals – and especially birds – as well. Is it any surprise that one of the main characters of my “Yokai Tales” (Yokai = japanese for “spirits” or “ghosts”, they’re very much like our mythical creatures in Europe) is a crow? I always loved how animals were personalized in fables, so this is kind of where I take my ideas from.

Oh and speaking of Yokai – another source for ideas for me is Japan. It’s astonishing to see how even nowadays, legends are still alive – and to see how historic sights and modern ones coexists in the cities is simply beautiful. Just take a look at a city like Kyoto, then you see what I mean. Though I have to admit that I’ve personally never been to Japan (I dream of visiting one day, though!), I still love to think of stories that take place in the feudal era of the country. Same goes for reading Japanese myths and legends, by the way, this is something else I love to do.

Japan however, isn’t the only country that gets me daydreaming – and by far not the only country with tales and legends I love. I read a lot in general and of course there’s also myths from all over the world that interest and inspire me. To name a few: Tales of One Thousand and One Nights, the Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs), Irish or Nordic legends and of course the unforgettable fairy tales of my youth.

As for artists that inspire me: there’s two I’d like to mention.
The first being Caspar David Friedrich. As I said, I love nature and to see how humanity plays a minor role in his paintings and how nature seems so majestic and strong... It just impresses me, to say the least. Besides, I also like the kind of dark and mysterious touch of romanticism.
The second artist is Yoshitaka Amano. He’s always been a great inspiration to me and made a big impact on my art style when I first began to draw. Not only did I learn so much through analyzing his artworks and improved a lot thanks to him, but I also admire him because he managed to succeed in what I can only dream of: he’s both, character designer (for example for Final Fantasy) and an illustrator (e.g. for Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D novels).

I told you that there’s thousands of people or things I could list – there’s authors like J.R.R. Tolkien or Bram Stoker (both authors I respect greatly) or Manga artists like Kentaro Miura (I love Berserk <3) and Inoue Takehiko (Vagabond has such a beautiful art style and a great story), but this entry would possibly become too long if I name them all.


The final inspiration I'd like to mention are videogames. And if I say 'Final', it's also because Final Fantasy (and a very certain one winged angel) was part of the reason why I first began to draw and write, so I simply couldn't leave it out. For far over ten years that series has been my main source of inspiration and though sad events and heartbreak caused me to step back from it a little, it will always hold a special place in my heart, just like Dragon Age: Origins. The latter has been inspiring me ever since I discovered it in 2015 and has kind of saved me many times over. So be sure to expect some Fanart of it here on my blog ^//^ ♥