>>7683443
It's a mixed bag, really. Before digital, my goal was to be able to render realistically without relying on reference, so it was a lot of studying fundamentals of light, shadow, surfaces, you know, and then trying to apply them to portraits in the "Velazquez" way. When I went to digital I guess that at the very start I tried to emulate commercial illustrations from japanese artists on pixiv (most of them are indistinguishable, so just think of high effort anime girls), so I simplified my techniques.
As time went on, I noticed that a lot of artist tried to push detail in different zones, be it clothing, hair, eyes, etc. So I went that way (I also implemented actual color theory at this point, as well as relying on diverse brushes to add dynamism).
This is what I noticed, but most of "muh style" are subconscious choices I do based on taste, so I can't pinpoint the artists I based myself on. Though, I can say that Sui Ishida has been an inspiration for me in the sense that he showed me how to push the experimentation boundaries of digital art while still maintaining taste.
Another one is Artgerm, back when I was 14-15 I really liked to watch his speedpaints and see how he treated the drawing as a sculpture. Definitely a big inspiration.
As for animation, rendering is necessary if you want a complete product to define lighting, color, surfaces, etc. So yes, it applies.
