Creatieve Profilering
Inspiration Database
Laura Nooijen - DDM3A
For my new chosen subject in school, I had to gather all sorts of material that inspired me in some way or another. This material then had to be put in two seperate kinds of image banks: shapes and content.
I decided to combine the two in one big image bank in Pinterest to gather images quicker and I used Spotify to make a playlist with songs that inspired me.
I then had to do a bit of research of the materials I gathered, find the sources and explain what about the materials inspired me and in what way.
Research
I sorted my image bank in Pinterest in separate categories that interested me or showed what I want to do as an artist myself, starting with expressive character design, followed by different styles of artists that inspire me, the aesthetic/setting I want to try to mix into my own art and mediums I work best with and want to continue with after my study.
Starting with expressive character design. The people that I look up to in this direction, are mostly Stephen Silver and Ben Eblen. I have a book on character design by Stephen Silver myself and use those theories in my own practice. I love using exaggerated but simple shapes to convey expressive emotions and it’s not something for only the modern age.
In the period between 1500 and 1700 or the Dutch Golden Age, there was a new genre of portrait art called ‘tronie’: Very expressive portraits of people that almost seemed like they were pulling silly faces. Old masters like Rembrandt or the Flemish Joos van Craesbeeck made these tronies. These could’ve been the inspiration for expressivity in present day character design.
While Stephen Silver has more of a 2D style to his characters, Ben Eblen uses 3D-like shading yet manages to make his shapes so exaggerated. I’m not interested in painting in his 3D style, but it’s the exaggeration in the face and body that makes me look up to him.
Then, I have some more random work of characters I came across on Pinterest that look close to how I draw characters myself. Very clean emotions and clear poses, usage of lineart and simple shading and the expressivity. However, I also put those in because I feel like I could still learn a lot from them, use them as references; inspiration. My poses can still be a lot more dynamic like these, my character designs can be a lot more ‘outside-the-box’ and my emotions can be more expressive and fitting to the personalities of the characters.
Then comes the next illustrator that really inspires me with her work: Izzy Burton. The way she draws landscapes with the same exaggeration in shapes is the way I want to learn to draw landscapes. And her use of colors, forest or sunset-like, is very atmospheric and fits perfectly with each setting she creates. I want to be able to make my art atmospheric like she does and convey the right feelings with each setting I draw. She motivates me to learn more about drawing stylized landscapes.
She also works a lot with storytelling, which is something I’ve always been interested in and working on myself. I love telling a story with my art, through characters alone or a whole illustration.
After that, I have a lot of images that show the setting/feeling/atmosphere I want to try to include in my art style: old cottagecore aesthetic. The dulled down, forest-y colors, the dream-like surroundings and the calm feeling that I get when looking at these images are the things I want to slowly build into my art and find my own way in. It’s close to what Izzy Burton makes as well, which makes this exact combination a strong source of motivation and inspiration for me.
Lastly, from what I have in my image bank right now, is the mediums I work best with and want to continue working with after my study: digital art with Procreate and my setup with my big drawing screen. I mainly use Procreate on my iPad for school, but after my study I want to start using my professional drawing screen more to draw bigger (literally), store my files better and use different programs that are supported by more companies globally (e.g. Photoshop).
Research
Now the Spotify playlist I filled with songs that inspire me. They’re mostly related to the old cottagecore aesthetic I talked about earlier, because they help me visualize and feel the settings and emotions I want to recreate. Every time I listen to this playlist, I’m being reminded of these goals, which motivates me to keep learning and experiment.
Thank you for watching!
