Heather @Rheall@comicscamp.club

It's from this stock image from DeviantART: https://www.deviantart.com/gloomwriter/art/Cochise-Stock-14-104615657

I saved it in my reference folder soooo many years ago. XD

I also finished playing through Strange Horticulture the other night.

It was SO my speed. Such satisfying puzzles and an intriguing (and dark) story, beautiful visuals, and it never punishes you for going slow and taking your time with it.

It also has eight different endings depending on your choices, which is super exciting!

Here's their website if you want more info: https://strangehorticulture.com/

I'm having so much fun with Dinkum, y'all.

It's basically Animal Crossing, but with some Stardew Valley elements. And VERY Aussie.

It's so sweet and charming, and I highly recommend it. You can pick it up on Early Access on Steam if you like! There's also a pretty useful modding community on Nexus for it already! (I found the fishing mini-game particularly punishing, so it's nice to be able to tweak it. 😊)

https://www.playdinkum.com/

Susan Seddon Boulet. For quite a few years of my teens I would ONLY have wall calendars with her work on them. So dreamy and beautiful!

https://www.susanseddonboulet.com/

(15/??)

Ken Hultgren, the author of my absolute favourite drawing how-to book, "The Art of Animal Drawing." He was also an animator for Disney in the 40s/50s.

His ability to show form and anatomy in such quick, gorgeous ink sketches have been so inspiring to me my whole adult life.

(14/??)

Eyvind Earle, the KING of gorgeous stylized landscapes.

You might recognize his style from the backgrounds of Disney's "Sleeping Beauty." He did a lot of concept art for that movie in the '50s.

(13/??)

I don't know much about Mirko Hanak, a Czech man who painted in a very Chinese brushwork-inspired watercolour style. Gorgeous animal paintings, though! I can't get over his brushwork!

(12/??)

Kay Nielsen, another art nouveau-inspired children's book and fairy tale illustrator who also collaborated with Disney (most notably on the Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria sequence in "Fantasia"). He also did some concept art for an earlier adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" which ultimately didn't happen; at least not until 1989, long after his death.

(11/??)

Another no-brainer: J.C. Leyendecker, an early 20th century magazine and ad painter. Known for his advertising illustrations made for Arrow Collars and his gorgeous stylized, hatch-y paint strokes. He was gay AF, and his paintings of men are so beautiful.

(10/??)

Walter Ratterman. Early 20th century genre painter of magazine illustrations, ads, and magazine covers.

(9/??)

Liu Jiyou, a Chinese painter who was known for his paintings of animals in a beautiful calligraphic style.

(8/??)

Of course, no list of inspiring artists would be complete without Alphonse Mucha. :D Here are some sketches and unfinished concepts of his.

(7/??)

Giovanni Boldini. Late 19th and early 21th-century portrait painter known for his energetic and expressive brushstrokes.

(6/??)

Virginia Frances Sterrett. Masterful illustrator from the early 1900s, known for her gorgeous art-nouveau style, and her depictions of fairy tales and fanciful worlds.

Unfortunately she died young, at the age of 31 of tuberculosis. 😢

(5/??)

One of the characters in Dinkum who sells you animals is named Irwin and looks just like Steve Irwin and it makes me so happy ;___;