LeeCheezy Inspirations!

Thought this would be pretty fun!!

1) Drake

I’m highly influenced by music, which might seem out of place on dA, but I couldn’t draw the way I do without the music I listen to. My 2 favorite genres are Rock and Rap, with Dubstep/electronic following closely behind. Drake is a highly skilled rapper who shows a lot more class than lots of other rappers out there, although his mentor (Lil Wayne) has become one of the most annoying lately. Drake’s music has lots of heart, and people end up saying that his music makes you miss someone that you don’t even know XD I respect Drake as a musician. Rap in general helps me draw, and I have other favorite rappers out there too: Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, Dr. Dre, Childish Gambino, Eminem, Ludacris, Kanye West, Hopsin, Earl Sweatshirt, Mike G, Snoop Dogg, Method Man, and even Lonely Island XD

2) Mastodon

As a lover of music, I’d say it’s pretty important to stay multi-dimensional. When I say I listen to everything, I’m not kidding. But I won’t go into every genre right now. Mastodon is one of my favorite metal bands. My #1 will forever remain System of a Down but Mastodon is really great to listen to when drawing. Their music really conjures up all these different energies and images with their sounds and lyrics that I find myself drawing all sorts of mythical creatures or enhancing certain scenarios. And Mastodon has some very skilled musicians behind their names! Brent Hinds’ style is highly complex due to his southern/banjo style, and he ends up being able to pull off a lot of things that other rock artists couldn’t ever dream of accomplishing. Brann Dailor is a badass drummer, any praise wouldn’t do him justice, so just go listen to them XD There are other bands that help me envision images to draw, like the Beatles, Godsmack, Dethklok, Slipknot, Disturbed, High on Fire, Korn, Johnny Cash, GROUPLOVE, Jack Johnson, Pepper, Andrew W.K., Foo Fighters, Beck, (hed) p.e., and Breaking Benjamin. I know tons more, but I’m trying to keep this short lol

3) DragonBall Z

There is no artist out there (in my generation at least) that hasn’t been influenced by the greatest fighting anime ever made. It seems cliché to have this in, but it’s only fair. They can try, but NO ONE can ever make anything like DBZ. Naruto tried, I mean come on. There are lots of similarities and references in Naruto that nod to DBZ. It’s just not the same -_-

4) The Boondocks

This is one of the few cartoons that helped solidify my cartooning style. In high school, I used to do comics for the local newspaper, and I have Aaron McGruder to thank, among others (Mission Hill, Rooster Teeth Comics, Gorillaz) to find a style that fits me perfectly. I know it’s hard to imagine a style with ALL those things infused, but I made it work!

5) Joe Mad

Probably where I get most of my inspiration from the great Joe Mad! His style is so unique and it’s right where I was aiming to be. I really solidified my drawing style for my “actiony” stuff back in middle school. I watched a lot of anime and liked the style, but I didn’t want to be an anime artist, but I ALSO wanted to keep drawing it. XD I was torn. So I figured why not fuse anime with western? I wish I could say I made it, but that’s disrespectful lmao It turns out, Joe Mad basically MADE that style and perfected it with his stuff, from Uncanny X-Men to Battle Chasers to Darksiders (probably my current favorite of his catalog). So I turned to Joe Mad to look up to for my style of drawing, I knew I loved it before I even knew of him, so it’s destiny!

6) Batman

My absolute favorite superhero/vigilante. And no, not because of the Chris Nolan films (which are groundbreaking), but because the rawness behind it all. The man in the suit, his allies and enemies, every element in the Batman series was perfectly complimentary of eachother and had the best chemistry. Every villain and ally reflected and interacted with a different emotional and physical side of Batman. The inspiration drawn from here is basically the cool costumes and the personalities from each character!

7) YuYu Hakusho

Alongside DBZ, Yuyu Hakusho was the other best fighting/action anime series, just more adult-themed. I wish it got just as much praise as DBZ, but I guess drawing fight sequences into 3-5 episodes is the better play. XD That was only one of the aspects I liked YYH over DBZ, most fights started and ended within the same episode! You won’t find another anime like this, unless it’s another failed copycat (Bleach X( bleck…)… yeah, I hate Bleach. It started off ok, but the way that Tite Kubo just whips up any random looking character just to keep the series going is disgusting. Seriously, new characters are always coming in and they have no creativity or imagination behind their designs. ANYWAY, back to YYH, I adored watching it on Adult Swim and I was excited to see it came back to Toonami earlier this year!

8) Dead Space

Never have I watched a movie or played a game and thought, “Oh, that was pretty scary!” Any horror-genre’d piece of media tends to be corny and predictable to me. Dead Space popped my fear cherry. This literally had me shaking. Aside from their scare tactics, the designs of all the armor, people, aliens, machinery, ships, etc. are all beautifully crafted. I love the style, and the storytelling is really captivating! This is easily one of my favorite video game series!

9) Mass Effect

Storytelling doesn’t get any better than Bioware’s Mass Effect series. This isn’t a game where you just rush through the campaign and import your stuff to the next 2 games, you actually HAVE TO MAKE IMPORTANT AND TOUGH DECISIONS! And the amount of variables that change depending on the decisions you make in any previous game seems highly impossible, but Bioware and EA (also Microsoft in the first one) managed to be the best of its class. The designs, concepts, and everything else are really cool, but my mind is completely taken by how the story is told. For someone who loves storytelling, like myself, that’s a really important thing. And for any gamer, this should not be a game series to skip.

10) The Legend of Zelda

The first game I ever played was Ocarina of Time. I have LoZ to thank for getting me into gaming and I have its artists to thank for designing things so cool that I constantly want to draw and conceptualize just like they do! I LOVE the Legend of Zelda, it’s my #1 series in gaming, I don’t care what anyone says or thinks. I could go on forever with the praise and passion for this series, but that would take up way too much time and space XD just go on knowing that LoZ is my absolute favorite thing ever!

11) Tim Burton

I’m naturally drawn to anything dark and evil, but that doesn’t mean it has to be bloody and gruesome. Tim Burton’s art is beautifully dark and evil looking, but has so much soul and heart behind It all. I’ve seen most of his movies and am in love with his animations. I’m not sure how anyone could NOT love his stuff. I’ve been watching his movies since I was a wee lad, and now it’s affected my creativity in the best way I can think of. Thank you Tim Burton <3

12) Gears of War

The theme in this series is “Destroyed Beauty”, and that’s an awesome theme. The artwork and environments are a freakin wonder, and the only thing to help make it better than better is the storytelling of the lives and journey through it’s soldiers. The Locust look creepy as hell but brutally awesome at the same time. Needless to say, the art of Gears of War have inspired me to a great extent.

13) Avatar: The Last Airbender

I’ve been a lover for Martial Arts since… well, I don’t remember. I can probably be seen doing karate chops in my mother’s ultrasound pictures during pregnancy XD The thing that really took me into the world of Avatar is how it mixed my two favorite things: martial arts and elemental superpowers. Looking at everything else, Avatar seemed to have perfected the combo by surrounding it in a captivating world with wonderful characters.

14) Martial Arts

As I stated, I LOVE martial arts! I’ve watched plenty of MA movies, from Bruce Lee movies to Jackie, to Donnie Yen (I LOVE IP MAN!!!!!) to plenty of others! You’ll find Martial Arts in pretty much anything I do, I have a huge passion for it!

15) Mortal Kombat

I’ve followed this series since I was just a kid. After I found Legend of Zelda as my #1 favorite series, Mortal Kombat found its way into #2 when I was a youngin. I always wanted to personally meet Ed Boon! And my favorite character will always be Scorpion! Mortal Kombat inspired me to do just as they did: make these awesome, diverse, badass (in some cases, sexy XD ) characters and mash them up into one world. And they all do Martial Arts! That’s a winner right there. That, and it being super bloody, gory, and violent!

16) FLCL (Fooly Cooly)

Anime doesn’t get any better than FLCL. I feel like this series was made for me. They proved the philosophy that animation/shows CAN be driven by the music that plays alongside it. That’s pretty much what I do. There’s so much energy in the show, and it never gets old. Know why? Cuz it’s FLCL!!! That and Gainax didn’t do what every other anime series does: milk their show and see how many hundreds of episodes and arcs they can get out before everyone stops watching. This show is unlike any other that ANYONE’s ever seen, and that’s what makes it the best out there (in my opinion).

17) Samurai Champloo

I love Eastern culture, especially mixed with Western attitude XD Samurai Champloo is my favorite samurai series out there (with Afro Samurai and Rurouni Kenshin following behind). It’s not the “always quite” series with the “forever dramatic pauses” and protagonist that “refuses to kill cuz it’s against his code”. It’s straight badassness. I fucking love it.