Michael Whelan
I first encountered fantasy art on the cover of a Swedish role-playing game called Drakar & Demoner (Dragons & Demons). The artist who had made the painting was Michael Whelan. I was fascinated by the sense of triumph the painting radiated, and I still consider Whelan to be one of the best artists out there. The painting (called Stormbringer) was the reason why I began drawing dragons and knights instead of astronauts. Whelan's pictures radiates symbolism and infuses me with the same kind of moods as you would expect when looking down from the top of a mountain.
Luis Royo
Later on, when I had begun using airbrushes, I discovered Luis Royo. He leans much more on airbrush techniques than Whelan (I have also read in an interview with Whelan that he's not particullary fond of airbrushes, so that figures). Royo's work is filled with strong, independent women with unreal beauty. This makes some call it erotic art - I'm not bothered by that, but I have discovered that erotic art encompasses a lot... =) His works are also filled with death and danger, which I find appealing. Whelan made me start painting, but Royo inspired me to practise harder, and try to excel. Regretfully, there aren't any easy ways, just practice. If I were to descibe Royo's works in a single sentence it would be that they are erotic... in a disturbing way. What really impresses me though is the fact that Royo never uses live models. To achieve such results without a model speaks volumes about his skill. He uses 'photographic references', and so do I, but I always find it VERY hard to find photographs that fits the picture I had in mind.
Luis is by far my greatest inspiration nowadays. Now if I only could get my hand on the painting The Announcement... *sigh* =)
Hajime Sorayama
Hajime Sorayama was to me for a long time just his sexy robots-pictures. Since I didn't really like those pictures (still don't), I never bothered to look at the rest of Hajime's work. But then I 'accidently' jumped onto a webpage featuring his artworks... Wow! His works are filled with beautiful women painted with such perfect detail that some of the pictures look almost like photographs! His motives are (apart from robot females) often beautiful ladies, painted with a minimal background (just plain white in most cases), which gives a portrait-like feeling to the pictures. And the worst thing of it all: he uses no airbrushes - oh, my, god!