My Influence Map

What it all means (to me):

1:  This is a piece (called Mine Gate) by Daniel Dociu. Dociu is an artist for Arena Net, who make Guild Wars (which is what most of his work is for), and my favourite artist of all time. I chose this piece because it is the one that always comes to the forefront of my mind when thinking of his work. I love his work for its incredibly energy and style, which he injects into his pieces through his almost painterly visual style (even though he mostly works in Photoshop) and his clever use of light, which is prevalent in almost all of his pieces.

2:  This is a piece by the famous illustrator Gustave Dore. This piece is an illustration by Dore for Dante's Inferno, entitled 'Paradiso'. I've always enjoyed Dore's work, as he illustrated some very famous pieces of literature, including Dante's Inferno, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Edgar Alan Poe's The Raven. His work has always got this epic feel to it, which I really love.

3: This picture is of The Merzbau, a piece by the German artist Kurt Schwitters. Basically, Schwitters built a three story pillar through the middle of his house, and festooned it with all kinds of random shit that had meaning to him, and needed explanation to pretty much anybody else. This picture, within my Influence Map, represents the art movement Dada, which was formed during the Second World War by a group of artists in Zurich who had decided that the current society was to blame for all the war, and that it needed to be torn down and built again. I find the movement incredily inspiring. Dada is basically the art movement that started the ball rolling on what we now know as Modern Art. Their stuff was just miles better and way more interesting than some bullshit dissected shark.

4: This is an image from the game Zeno Clash by the small game studio ACE Team. It's a first person brawler and probably one of my favourite games, purely for the art style and the world it is set in. Considering you see very little of this world, you get the feeling it is incredibly well fleshed out, without actually being told all that much about it.

5: This is the cover art for a copy of The Aeneid, an epic poem written by the Roman poet Virgil. This poem has a very special place in my heart, as I studied it extensively for two years for my IB diploma. The Aeneid is set after Homer's Illiad, which follows the destruction of Troy. The Aeneid follows one of the Trojan surviors, Aeneas, son of Venus, on his voyage to safety, which eventually culminates with Aeneas starting the city that will one day become Rome.

6: This is a Space Marine from Warhammer 40,000. Nerdy as fuck, I know, but I used to play a lot of 40k back when I was younger, and do still read some of the novels. This picture more represents my love of novels/games with one/ a group of big badass hero(es), who just chug through the story fucking things up. Not that I don't like more cerebral books/films, i'm just more entertained when shit blows up and people jump off of things. (Just realised it is missing from the map, Die Hard. It will fit under this umbrella of badass hero though, so I can live without it being on the image.)

7: Duke Nukem. Need I say more? Well I will anyway. I guess Duke does fall under number 6, but I enjoyed the game itself so much, I felt it needed a seperate image, as it can represent that particular kind of game play (run around the level solving puzzles/shooting things, like Doom/Quake) that seems to have completely died out, and I would very much like to see return.

8: This is the logo for a band I like called Five Finger Death Punch. It's more there to represent my love for Heavy Metal music than any particular favouritism towards the band.

9: This is an image of the protagonist from the film Highlander, my favourite film of all time. The soundtrack is great, the lines are great, it's so quotable (There can be only one! etc), I throughly recommend you watch it, it's fucking awesome. It's about Connor MacLeod, a Scottish Highlander who discovers he is one of a group of Immortals who can only be killed by having their heads removed from their bodies, and who must fight each other until only one remains, who will claim the mythical Prize.

10: The Princess Bride. THE stereotypical swashbuckling, cliff-climbing, giant fighting high fantasy novel/film. Here representing my love of that kind of stuff. If you've never heard of it, shame on you. Go out and buy a copy of it (book or film) and read/watch it as soon as you can.

11: Dr McNinja. Dr McNinja is one of the many webcomics I keep up to date with, but probably one of my favourites. It's about a doctor who is also a ninja. Adventures ensue, including, as seen in the image above, the good doctor riding a robot Dracula off the moon. This image also represents my love for web comics in general, because it helps comic artists who may not necessarily be able to sell their work in a material sense still get their work out there and known. And there really is some good stuff out there.

12: Team Fortress 2. One of my favourite games, alongside Zeno Clash, mainly due to the art style/fluff that goes with it. (Saxton Hale is a work of pure genius) The gameplay is also bloody enjoyable.

And that's that. While finding images for the map, I was really struggling, but now that i've finished writing about them, i've remembered a few influences that it was criminal for me to leave out.

13:  Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton. Moreso the book than the film. One of my favourite books, and before you laugh, it's actually a lot more cerebral/preachy than you'd think. Crichton manages to shoehorn in a lot of expositon on the morality of genetics and how life will always find a way to work around whatever constraints you seek to place upon it.

14: The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. My favourite books of all time. Fact. Incredibly well written, with some fantastic characters. The story is quite stereotypical, but with some nice extras. Where the series really shines is with where Abercrombie takes the characters emotionally, leading some to places you really wish they wouldn't go, and others in completely unexpected directions. He is also a master of dropping in little bits and pieces which really help flesh out the world and immerse the reader, and also leaves the door open for many more books. Which I sincerely hope he writes.

15: Most Bioware games, especially the Mass Effect series and the Dragon Age series. Bioware seem to be the kings of making fantastic, immersive, life eating rpgs, and I absolutely love them for it. Mass Effect was the first Bioware title I picked up, and after finishing it I went and hunted down some of their back catalogue purely on the fact it had their name on it. Fucking love them.

16: On the same note, anything by Blur Studio instantly gets my attention. They do mainly trailers and cinematics for games at the moment, and they are the best I've ever seen. My main ambition is to either work under Daniel Dociu or for these guys, they are awesome.

All images copyright of their respective holders, just in case anyone comes in swinging dicks about me using their images without permission.