Inspirational Images

Voice of Space, Magritte

This image by Magritte hung on the wall in my father's study. It disturbed me deeply as a child; I thought it was a photograph. Something about the immensity of those mysterious spheres hanging in space. They look to be miles wide and suspended by an invisible force that I could feel. Whenever I see an image with the right immensity of scale I get the same feeling I did when I first gazed at this painting, a mix of dread and awe.

Skeksis Castle, Brian Froud

The Dark Crystal was my favourite childhood film, and it was a treat to watch as my cousins owned the only copy of it. It was on a VHS tape after a bunch of Disney films and they were too afraid of it to watch it. so it took a lot of coercing. Something about the establishing shot which was very similar to Froud's concept drawing really drew me into another world.

(artist unknown)

I think what amazed me about this was the fact that it is pixel art and probably took a horrifying level of obsession to create. It looks as though it was done in MSpaint, and as far as MSpaint drawings go, it is by far the most eerily dream-like image I have ever seen that is made from a limited pallette, pixel-by-pixel. The ripples left by the shadowy figure's footsteps are the only indication of a watery plane, creating a dream-like breathable underwater feeling that I intend to attempt someday.

(artist unknown)

This isn't the leviathan painting I was looking for, but it will do. Massive shadowy underwater creatures pretty much do it in the horror department for most people, and upon closer inspection it's a fairly straightforward digital speedpaint with some simple textures, so all of the impact is in the concept, composition and colour choices, which I find brilliant.

(artist unknown)

This ornate fantasy cityscape is only made better by the crumbling bits and leafy overgrowth and overall ghostly emptiness. The glimpse of sky in the background is instant vertigo. The paiting describes an entire world on it's own and is pure daydream fodder.

If you know the artists for the last 3, let me know. I found them on random image boards.