My Inspirational Artists

These are just some of my favourite artists who I have come across and have in many ways shaped who I am. The artists are not confined to any one genre in art.

Hokusai was born in 1760 and died in 1849. He lived through the Tokugawa period, a period in Japanese history known for its traditional feudal and Confucian values. He was quite the rebel and disagreed with traditional viewpoints and his art was considered very unjapanese.

Hokusai was greatly influenced by french and dutch pastoral landscapes, in particular their use of perspective, shadows and lighting, and shading.

Hokusai changed Japanese art by focusing on the everyday man. Instead of producing artwork depicting japanese aristicrats, shogun, samurai or geishas, he chose to focus on man's relationship with the world around him, the environment and nature.

Hokusai also drew thousands of short sketches (manga). So many that they fill 15 volumes of Hokusai manga..

This guy is the main man when it comes to popular manga. His level of detail is phenomenal and his creativity especially when designing machines is legendary. In fact at one point, he was more popular oversees than in his native Japan.