Kultnation: Influences That Forged His Professional Style

Learn about the illustrators, painters, and animators who inspired his artwork

Vinny Morales, better known as Kultnation (@Kultnation), is the founder and director of Estudio Medellín. Over the last ten years of his career, he has worked for the film and television industry, designing and directing credit titles for movies, branding projects for TV, and independent animation shorts.

His work has been shown at the OFFF festivals in Barcelona and Mexico, at Pictoplasma Festival, on IdN magazine and Gestalten publishings, Type Directors Club in New York, La Bienal del Cartel in Mexico and at Cultural Centre of Contemporary Mexico. Since 2015 he has been studying drawing by observing the streets of Mexico City. This activity allowed him to approach design and animation and tell stories from different perspectives.

Read on as he shares some of his influences in photography, design, and animation. His idols have not inspired him to do what they do, but to understand the places, emotions, and creative thinking in which they operate.

James Jean (United States)

An illustrator and painter of Taiwanese origin and US nationality, he has created covers for DC Comics and collaborated with publishers such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Time Magazine, The New York Times, and many more. What inspires Kultnation most are the subtly disproportioned characters and the precision of the lines drawn by this artist.

Jamie Hewlett (United Kingdom)

Jamie is the world-famous designer who, among other things, created the characters of British virtual band Gorillaz. Rather than by the characters themselves, Kultnation is attracted to Jamie’s handling of anatomy and how he creates pleasing and well-balanced images in terms of color, contrast, and shadow.

Juanjo Guarnido (Spain)

The artist behind one of Kultnation’s favorite comics, Blacksad, his style is predominantly French, which, contrary to its American counterpart, includes more traditional graphics and illustrations. Kultnation is particularly attracted by Juanjo’s skill in handling light and textures using ink and watercolor.

Ren Hang (China)

The art photographer based his work on nudity and human body expression. His images have been around the world in 20 personal and 70 collective exhibitions. This transgressive artist took his own life at the height of his success, at only 29 years of age in 2017.

Paul Gustave Doré (France)

Painter, sculptor, and one of the most important illustrators of the 19th century, he earned his place in history for illustrating literary classics such as Don Quixote and the Divine Comedy. His work stands out in the precise lines achieved through the engraving technique and his knowledge of human anatomy.

If you’d like to know more about Kultnation’s influences and learn key elements of traditional animation to create digital animation clips, sign up to his course Introduction to 2D Animation with TVPaint.

English version by @acesarato.

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