For fun and inspiration for your fellow Posers.  Who is your favorite Artist and why.  Share images.  But please be sure it's allowed and for this thread they must be "G" rated for promotional reasons.  Thanks all.  I'll start.  One of my Favorite artists is Vermeer.  The lighting is amazing.

I have way too many to really list just one and feel good about it but if I had to choose, I guess I'd go with someone who is currently influencing my work, either Frank Tzeng Or Suengmin Kim

My favourite artist is Nature, cause Nature created the Human Woman!
And just in case I get told off, I'm being serious, that's who, and that's why :-)

I left out the "why". sorry. Both artists represent a personal goal I'm seeking to achieve in 3D human realism. From Frank's mastery of likeness sculpting to the beauty Suengmin Kim manages to capture in female models. The ability to capture the essence of a thing in 3D and then make it not only believable but appealing to the eye, even if it's the awkward face of a non-symmetrical actor is something I want to see in my own work. 

such a hard question, i guess my first favorite artist, would be J.W.Waterhouse. i just always found the mixture of heavy brushstrokes and hauntingly depicted pre-raphaelite scenes amazing

it was victorian art that first got me interested in art

newer stuff,  Audrey Kawasaki is someone who's work i check a lot. her work is simple, yet technically excellent, and it has a mood and quality to it that I love.a lot of her work has a sensuality to it.

too many others to list, and very hard to rank them in any form. a lot of the juxtapos & low brow art crowd had a big impact on me, as did alot of the superflat stuff, and the artists that it spawned.

but ultimately i usually return to victorian art when i feel like i've lost my way. it tends to clarify things for me.

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@Teyon, i looked up both those artists and the link you provided. amazing stuff, particularly Suengming Kim. the modeling is amazing. I hope you achieve your goal. for what its worth from what i have seen you are well on the way. the Roxie prototype you posted pics of quite a while back looked pretty great to me.

From the point of view of visual expression rather than techinical mastery and may be some people don't consider him an artist Ridley Scott. He has the ability to create rich and complex visuals on screen which draws the viewer in. Would also include Sergio Leone and David Lean for the same reason. I'm not refering to their ability to make films here, this is about taking ideas and translating them to a visual medium

Another vote for Waterhouse. Also John William Godward for his paintings of women. I like Erté also.

Laurie

long before PC's they sold these posters buy Luis Royo in spencer stores.I thought they where the coolest posters I've ever seen.

@RorrKonn
I wondered when I was going to see your post, I was beginning to think you hadn't spotted the thread!
I sort of knew we'd be seeing a few Luis Royo or Boris Vallejo pieces pop-up here ;-)

I like Milo Manara a lot. And I like Karl Spitzweg for his stage - like lightnings

https://www.google.de/search?q=Carl+Spitzweg&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=H_acVb6mI4OLsAHQnbzwDg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1600&bih=1012

@RorrKonn
I wondered when I was going to see your post, I was beginning to think you hadn't spotted the thread!
I sort of knew we'd be seeing a few Luis Royo or Boris Vallejo pieces pop-up here ;-)

and don't forget Olivia De Berardinis. there the biggest 3 inspirations for me being a Artist here terrorizing you all ,so blame them ;)
of curse over the decades and thanks to the web there's a lot of Artist I'm a fan of. and ScareCrow since there are countless nature paintings ,nature counts. 

I don't care to do Art with having the music to inspirer me. there's no rules as to what inspirers you.

I've been greatly influenced by the mid-Victorians, especially those that came right after the traditional academics but right before the impressionists...i.e., the pre-Raphaelites, the 19th century realists, the Hudson River school, etc.

1. James Jacques Joseph Tissot...beautiful women, elegant scenery, witty commentary on the British upper class.

http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=12

1. Jean Leon Gerome...exotic settings, vibrant colors, dynamic interplay of light and shadow.

http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=9

1. Edmund Blair Leighton...romantic (in the 19th century meaning), wonderful figures, great settings,.

http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=844

1. Albert Bierstadt...amazing, powerful landscapes, best of the Hudson River School.

http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=80

1. Julien Dupre...best of 19th realism, was the true bridge between the academics and the impressionists, painted the central figure in a detailed, academic style while painting the background in a looser, more impressionistic style.

http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=113

@Teyon, i looked up both those artists and the link you provided. amazing stuff, particularly Suengming Kim. the modeling is amazing. I hope you achieve your goal. for what its worth from what i have seen you are well on the way. the Roxie prototype you posted pics of quite a while back looked pretty great to me.

Just popped in to say thank you. :) I hope so too.

Maybe old school but one of my first inspirations, since before there ever was anything like Poser, was Frank Frazetta

Whoopsie, I am late to the table, but here are my favourite artists, whose stylised and sensual lines, and fantastical narratives inspire me : Aubrey Beardsley, Kay Nielsen, Arthur Rackham, and William Heath Robinson.

I would have to go with these three as my top favorites:

1. Maxfield Parrish

I have about twenty of his prints (original to the era) around the house, all different, most in the original frames.

1. Alma Tadema

I try to emulate (as best I can, which isn't saying much) this man's view of what life was like (however historically inaccurate) in his ancient settings. This particular image I had plotted out to encompass a set of french doors in my house, to use instead of curtains. Love how the outdoors backlights it, giving a soft glow to the living room.

1. Alphonse Mucha

I was collecting these even before I knew what art was. A postcard I got as a kid (4 or 5) and had it taped to my desk for years. Now long since lost, but I have stacks of calendars, hard drives full, and more of this man's art. He encapsulates everything that was Art Noveau, anything else doesn't come close. IMO, please no flames, my opinion only, and it won't change.

I don't really have a favorite artist but what inspires me is often music or a really good movie or book.

Like RorrKonn and others, Luis Royo, Boris Vallejo,  Olivia De Berardinis, and Frank Frazetta are all inspiring to me. But there are also many others, many that aren't even close to the same genre, that I find inspiring, for instance Charles M. Russell, and Oscar-Claude Monet.

Margritte, Salvador Dali, Karel Willink (dutch realist painter), Roger Dean, Antonio Gaudi, Keith Haring, Dick Bruna, Gill Elvgren, Vargas to name a few...