Who are your artistic influences?

This is a very long list, but there are some who stand out that really affected me:

Arthur Rackham, Jon Bauer, Ernest H. Shepard, Norman Rockwell, Arthur B. Frost, Jim Henson, Beatrix Potter, William Heath Robinson, Dr. Seuss, Edward Gorey, Harry Rountree, Maxfield Parrish, Heironymous Bosch and Heinrich Kley have continually been an inspiration to me.

Some of my favorite contemporary artists are Brian Froud, Alan Lee, William Joyce, Scott Gustafson, James Gurney, and Kadir Nelson.

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Never Abandon Imagination Tony DiTerlizzi: Never abandon imagination.

Imagination is a world of possibility that exists within each of us. It is what makes us uniquely human. It is our creative fingerprint that touches and influences the world around us. Imagination is essential to art and science; to innovation and prosperity. It gives us hope, calls us to action and leads to change.

Whether it’s fairies, dragons, robots or aliens, all of my children’s book characters are siblings born of my imagination – an imagination strengthened through years of encouragement from family, teachers and friends. While so many others abandoned it during their transition from childhood to adulthood, I fiercely held onto mine, hoping for a day when I could share it to inspire the next generation of dreamers. Innovators. World changers.

Imagination empowers us to envision and create a reality of what could be. We must hold it dear, foster it and never abandon it.