Influences

This is something thats been spreading around DeviantArt and I thought I'd make my attempt at listing my influences. In no particular order:
Bobby Chiu - For his influential positive mentality and desire to teach others. Has made a huge impact on the way I work mentally.
Craig Mullins - The grand daddy of digital painting! His work never fails to amaze me what you can do with digital paints. A master of the medium.
John Singer Sargent - Legendary traditional painter. His use of strong colours and ability to punch out forms makes his figures particularly stand out to me.
Mythology - Grew up loving these and has ever since kept my imagination running wild.
Studio Ghibli - Poetry in motion! Visually beautiful and great story telling and strong likeable, unconventional characters. Also highlights some of the beauty of nature and little things.
Studio 4C - A studio making high quality and very stylish films. Refreshing to see how they experiment with style and still maintain their high standards.
Jana Schirmer - Fantastic artist who's knowledge of lighting and colour really shows out in superb rendered paintings.
Jason Chan - One of the first digital painters I encountered when I first picked up a Wacom. Since then Ive been admiring his work and imagined if I can ever reach his level.
Marko Djurdjevic - Another awesome artist whom I followed when I set off on my journey. His intense rendered drawings, dynamic poses and lighting stands out to me most.
Asia - Ive been surrounded by Asia all my life but it still feels slightly alien to me being raised in the Western world. The culture, folklore, landscape, architecture, tradition, everything about Asia inspires me. I cant even begin to discuss it for fears of flooding the place :P
Martial Arts - Something Ive been interested in a long time not just for the physical aspects but also the philosophy and folklore. Maybe you can tell in some of my work!
Evangelion - My favorite anime series for its concept, intensity and for the characters who are all humans with their own problems and weakness. Underneath the cool action packed robot fights is a honest story about character.
Zelda - The game that made me obsessed about games! Many fan art followed and my own expanded universe.
Final Fantasy - Not an avid fan of the games but one for their crazy designs, worlds and epic scale.
Lord of the Rings - The film that moved my career path! The cinema experience left me stunned, the DVDs made me realize there are artists creating the assets, the artbooks inspired me to rediscover my love for drawing monsters, the books itself kept me imagining.
Pixar - The perfect company not only in the animation industry but in everything I believe. An environment where art rules art and art is what drives the productions I hear is something extremely rare and something to desire.
William Bouguereau - Masterful MASTERFUL painter. His treatment of flesh amazes me especially when they are subtly ambient lit. If ever you feel like you are great at art, this guy will smack you down :P
John Howe - Childhood art hero of mine. His illustration of Smaug the dragon made me pick up the Hobbit book and thus plunged me deeper into my fascination in folklore and legend.
Paper Blue - Unfortunately I dont know this guy's real name but you can still admire his art!
His Dark Materials - An epic story that left me staying up pass 3am in mornings reading slowly, savoring each page. Whilst reading the books years ago I hoped for a movie adaption that I would be able to work on :D And No! I didnt cry after finishing the books! Not at all!
Claire Wendling - Great drawings!
Animation - After studying animation I have a soft spot for the medium and a greater respect for it. Seeing the animation process gives me nostalgia.
Min Yum - Another artist I followed when I started out in digital painting.
Jon Foster - Makes me want to do book covers hehe.
Stephen Chow - Grew up watching his films. His influence can probably be found in my grad film.
Jean Gerome - The painter I kept coming back to near the beginning of my studies.
Jaime Jones - Ludicrously skilled artist! And so young too hehe!
Football - Hehe a fun entry! Id like to carry over the energy and adrenaline of the sport to my art.
The Hungry Caterpillar - As my tutor said to class before... This guy should be our role model! The hunger for knowledge and hunger to grow should never be satisfied!
Life - The best artist! All the answers lies here and practicing art can make you more aware and grateful for the little things that makes life beautiful :D