Finding inspiration from others

All art created - whether it is visual, written word, or music - will have both conscious and subconscious influences. While many artists will be unaware of the majority of sources, there will likely be a few notable ones that have inspired them somewhere along their journey as a creator. 

Many people shy away from admitting what artists have inspired them and why because of the inevitable fear of being viewed as a copycat or unoriginal - just take a look at the number of ‘gripping thriller’ books with an ‘unstable female lead’ that followed Gone Girl.  It is always a risk when you love someone else’s work that aspects of their style will seep into your own, but evolving your own unique style will happen naturally. 

If you have browsed my work, you will notice that I have a seemingly varied style, but regardless of whether I am painting abstract or portraits, the underlying constant has always been colour for me. My first real experimentation with colour came during my art A-Level in 2012. I chose the theme ‘contrasting moods’ for my final piece, for which I decided to contrast the colour palette with the facial expression of the subject. Since then, I have explored other artists that experiment with bold colours in portraits such as Pedro Albuquerque. The scale of his art is something that I can only ever aspire to but his bravery in the use of colour to accentuate facial features and expressions has encouraged me to be braver with my own. While I am not where I want to be yet, I am finding myself taking more risks with each new portrait.

Prior to discovering Pedro Albuquerque, I came across the works of Jonathan Yeo, and following a visit to his exhibition in the Lowry a few years ago, I became inspired by his ‘half-finished’ style of portraiture which had intense focus on the face and a messy, unfinished style for everything else. As someone who gets bored painting any features of a person that lie outside the face, it was refreshing to be reassured that I didn’t have to complete the rest of the subject in detail if I did not want to. Now hugely popular, Yeo still inspires me as one of the greatest living portrait artists and continues to influence my work.

After my transition into producing more abstract work earlier this year (see here), my friend who is one half of local DJ duo Versus said that it reminded him of the work of Mikey Brain. While I hadn’t heard of this artist at the time, I recognised his work from being cover art for some of my favourite music producers and DJs and have since fell in love with his style. Since being made aware of certain similarities, I have made a conscious effort to ensure that my style remains unique and to not let his work influence my own too much.

So while we will always have outside influencers for anything we create, my numbers one tip would be to not look at anyone else’s art while you are producing, and to find other ways to inspire yourself instead such as listening to music or finding the right environment to completely zone out in.

My inspirations

Check out my top three favourite artists’ instagrams:

Pedro Albuquerque

Jonathan Yeo

Mikey Brain