Favorite Artists + Inspirations

A heads up: some of the art shown further down this page contains cutesy, pastelly body horror and gore. You have been warned! Scroll at your own peril.

Kosuke Fujishima

I was nine years old when I first played Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube, for which Kosuke Fujishima did the character designs as well as the cover and promotional art. I can't gush enough about how influential this game as a whole was for me: I became a lifelong fan of the Tales series and fantasy RPGs in general, it made me want to do character design and concept art for video games growing up, and I'd even go as far as to say that it shaped my sense of morality. Or maybe it just really resonated with that part of me in a way that nothing ever has since? But I digress - the most relevant thing to this list is probably the artistic influence it had on me. Kosuke Fujishima was the very first artist whose style I tried to emulate, and that unintentionally ended up being the foundation upon which I've built my own artistic skills and style over the years. I cannot write a list of my all time favorite artists without mentioning him.

Mutsumi Inomata

Mutsumi Inomata was the Tales Series' other regular character designer for years. Tales of Graces (official art pictured above) was one of the games she worked on, and I was enamored by the bright and light watercolor-esque aesthetic. I think my love of the style of that particular game (and much of its promotional and cover art) was part of what eventually drove me to try out watercolors, and eventually stick with it as my primary medium. I think my artistic preferences have always gravitated towards trying to draw/paint something much like the above illustration.

Imai Kira

Imai Kira is probably one of the first artists people come across when they get into lolita fashion, and her name may as well be synonymous with it. She's been doing promotional illustrations for Angelic Pretty for ages, but even outside of those, she's done tons of illustrations of doll-like girls in lolita fashion. I've always loved her thin and steady linework and the careful and meticulous way in which she details things like lace, ribbons, and ruffles. If there's anything I seek to emulate from her style, it's the linework. Also, there are so many prints and artbooks from her out there to collect!

Saccstry

Saccstry's art mixes the aesthetics of cute pastel-clad and doll-like girls with unique surrealist body horror and gore. The semi-realistic style is detailed enough to give an uncanny feeling to the realistic proportions from the get go, and that's before she starts warping and twisting faces and bodies to tug at various phobias or get under the viewers skin. Saccstry is a master of blending creepy and cute together, in my opinion. I think pastel gore and body horror is not for everyone, but I personally adore it.

Yurie Sekiya

Yurie Sekiya's art has always been captivating to me, but I find it a bit challenging to pinpoint exactly why. I think there's endless cute, bubbly, chibi-esque pastel artwork out there in the world, but the eyes in Yurie Sekiya's art absolutely stand out as unique. Dark, heavy, sparkly, and jewel-like, they're definitely the focal points of every piece, the part that draws you in. I love the contrast of it, alongside the cuteness, simplicity, and overall composition of her works.

Sam's Sketchbook (Sam Hensley)

Is it any surprise that I have another surrealist pastel gore/body horror artist on my list? I actually remember that my first encounter with Sam Hensley's work was How to Decay Gracefully, a poster of which now lives on my wall. I love the introspective, dreamlike, and meandering vibe of much of her artwork, exploring suffering through cute critters drawn in a childlike visual style. But I also seriously admire Sam's multimedia stuff, with some creatures made into sculptures or plush animatronic puppets that breathe, twitch, and convulse, and short videos reminiscent of analog horror. There are also very few podcasts out there that I genuinely find interesting or would ever recommend to others, but I think anyone with a free evening should check out Museum of the Vanishing Dog.

Gummygunk

Gumi does tons of bright and colorful multimedia collages and fiber art pieces that look like a person gorged themselves on all the cute things they could find at a nostalgia buffet and then threw up on a page. Okay, I know that sounds unappealing, but I do mean that in the best way possible. There's something new to explore in any one of their pieces every time you look.