# Furry inspiration through fine art



## Skyfire (Jan 11, 2008)

As I reside in New York City, I live in a nexus point of art galleries.  Just some time before Furfright 2007, I made a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and viewed much in there like the Greco-Roman statues, paintings, Asian art, Egyptian artifacts, the weapons and armor displays, and all kinds of neat stuff.  But this wasn't necessarily a sightseeting trip.  The purpose of my visit was to get inspiration for more artwork.  The way I see it, anthropomorphic art needs to be invigorated with new ideas if it is to remain fresh.  Some out there may just look at other furry art and try to copy it, only recycling what has already been produced.

I know that many fantasy artists get inspiration from the pre-Raphaelite paintings and the works of Hieronymous Bosch.  Are there any artists or artistic movements anyone could recommend for inspiration in furry artwork?  (i.e. Baroque, surrealism, abstract expressionism, pop art, etc.)


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## LobaHuskita (Jan 11, 2008)

Yeah, I was gonna say Baroque. lol! I find Caravaggio to be inspiring because he was famous for naturalism. HHmmm...maybe he came from the late Classical era? I forgot XP


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## The Red Alchemist (Jan 16, 2008)

Oh man.. everything.  Seriously, drink in as much as you can.  Pay attention to the technical aspects.  The tools they used and how they used them.  The colors used.  The stylistic conventions.  How pictures tell a story, etc.  You can learn from *all of this*.

I agree that art in the fandom needs constant exposure to outside sources to keep growing.  The 20th century has been mostly about feeling and conjecture in art rather than figurative works, but there's still a lot of really impressive figurative stuff if you start looking back to the Edwardian era and before that.  And don't forget popular art as well, but not the stuff everyone expects.  Rather than look at anime (despite how awesome giant robots really are), look at the work of illustrators like Loomis.  Despite how cliche'd a lot of Rockwell's stuff has become, a lot of it still pretty awesome from the standpoint of an illustration.  I'd say that illustration from the turn the century to the early 60's is where I draw a lot of what appeals to me in art.


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## talakestreal (Jan 16, 2008)

It's actually rather funny, but I get a great deal of inspiration from pre-columbian art. The way they meld human and animal...it inspires me.  You see art from that time that just blows you away (I saw one piece, a carving on a wall, of an anthro winged lizard interacting with humans, and it was AWESOME).  Sure...their art was very simplistic, and more often that not, horribly anatomically incorrect, but the feelings and such behind that art is still there. That's where I draw inspiration from. The idea of melding two lifeforms into a cohesive greater whole.


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## Ozriel (Feb 19, 2008)

Greek Classical and some of the Mannerism.

Donatello is one of my Favorite Artists because it has a Quality of Feministic Details, along with the Favored Classical Contrapasto

It inspired me alot, and still does.


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## shiftyfox (Feb 21, 2008)

take in everything possible, try to imitate it, realize you suck at it, go on to the next style.  Eventually all the little details from each failed attempt will creep into your artwork to form your own unique style, kinda like Red Alchamist said.
At least thats been my approach to the whole thing, but im pretty new to the whole thing too so I cant say it works.
But honestly i don't think you can really get people to recommend a certain type of style to influence you.  What you find interesting influences you.  I guess try looking at things that are interesting to you and try to figure out why they catch your eye.  Be it  painting in a museum, a car, a bird, a song you like, a leaf, or other artists on FA.  And just have fun with it.  I know this all sounds like bullshit I got off of Oprah or something, but it makes drawing a hell of a lot of fun.


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