A common influence... maybe: Yoshitaka Amano

Wandering the art that I have a tendency of favoriting on deviantART the other day while trying to be struck with inspiration, I found myself struck by something else: curiosity. It's not unheard of that art ends up being a mix of various inspirations and ideas which is escalated by the wonders of social networking, but I found myself looking at the works of 5 different artists and noticing that each had similar styles in some way. It took me a moment to realize that some of their work reminded me of the pieces created by Yoshitaka Amano.

"Light" by Yoshitaka Amano

For those who may not know of Mr. Yoshitaka Amano by name, you may recognize his work as being the illustrator for the animes VampireHunter D and Gatchaman. His work is perhaps more well known amongst gamers if they remember Final Fantasy III . He was the head artist up to Final Fantasy VI before he decided to step down. A beautiful fusion of Eastern and Western influences, I've seen some of his pieces copied by younger artist because of the action and passion his illustrations show. Fans of graphic novels also may know his work from his collaboration with Neil Gaiman where he assisted in illustrating The Sandman: The Dream Hunters series. 

Looking at the works from a small handful of artists, there was a part of me that noticed the slight similarities between their pieces and his more notable works. Maybe it the similarities were all in my head and I was just seeing things. Perhaps there was something to my wild imagination. There was only one way to find out, so selecting 5 artists I asked a simple question: 

" Was wondering if your work is influenced in some way by Yoshitaka Amano (the artist who created the concept art for some of the earlier Final Fantasy games such as Final Fantasy III)."

"Selene" by Edgar-T

Edgar-T.deviantart.com (Russia): 

An artist out of Russia who seems to specialize in black/white mixed media work, I had stumbled across his gallery by chance one day a month or so ago. Many of his pieces seem to show almost a raw passion to them. I think that my favorites among the pieces that he has posted are his sketchbook pieces. His response to my question has to be one of my favorites because he genuinely seems surprised at finding out about someone who has a similar style to him.

"No, I did not know about it. I looked at his work. This is really amazing! It is very close to me!" - Edgar-T

phungvulienphuong.deviantart.com (Vietnam):

"Goddess of earth" by phungvulienphuong

A young lady from Vietnam specializing in digital art, I believe I came across her work when wandering through the favorites section of another artist. Originally her style brought to mind of another artist, Heise, but there was something about it that made me lean more towards pondering if there was some influence there of Yoshitaka Amano. Her response had been the most surprising to me. 

"Thank you for your question. I admire master Amano, I have seen several works of him and I really love it. I will be glad if someone say that my artworks remind them about Mr Amano. But I must say, when drawing, I never think about his style,Ii never try to make my paintings look like his artworks. I just focus on how to create a decent painting. That's all ( = ^_^ =)" - phungvulienphuong

"Firefly Hunters" by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (California, USA): 

My dear friend and perhaps one of the major people I look up to when it comes to input on my own work (as I've mentioned before in my Q and A post back in June) and fellow watercolorist. She is perhaps more well known among card based gamers for her illustrative works for the Legend of the Five Rings card game along with her creation The Shadowscapes Tarot. I was actually quite surprised by her answer since I thought for sure there was maybe just a smidgen of influence in there. 

"Not particularly, though I do like his work!" - Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

The other 2 artists who I was attempting to contact have yet to respond but as soon as they do, I'll be sure to edit this in order to include them on this but in the meantime I shall share with you their work that makes me wonder if they might be influenced in some way by Yoshitaka Amano.

" The City of Kira" by hinshins

hinshins.deviantart.com (People's Republic of China):

A talented young man located in China and focused on digital art, many of his works are colorful and show his flare for the fantasy art genre. Of course with his work, he hasn't been able to post updates in some time so it might be a while before I'm able to receive a response from him. I had actually come across his work some time last year during the holidays. 

"Dilemma" by monotonelee

monotonelee.deviantart.com (People's Republic of China):

An anonymous artist from China, their work seems to be a mix of mediums but has the constant of pencil work. Though mostly fanciful, their pieces seem to have some unknown emotion behind each one which makes them a bit more grounded. Unfortunately they also seem to have been quite busy so haven't done any updates in some time.