Oooh, fun thread

I, too, have been around the Archive now for a... very long time. I first stumbled upon it in late 2002, then registered in March 2003, so by next week I'll have officially "existed" on the Internet for ten years. Woha. Let's do some reminiscing then, shall we xD

These two by the wonderful hibbary always come to mind when I think of my early inspirations. I still consider them beautifully screenshot-like, especially the first one, and I love them.

I also fell in love with Atan's work early on, when she became Artist of the Month, I remember. This "poster" was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen, haha. I remember she was the first artist I came across that I really thought was able to draw exactly on-model. My favourite of hers is this one.

Then there's Akril. Akril! She's been around for such a long time and makes such wonderful art that I expect you all to know who she is already... :P I love the comments and theories she makes about the TLK fandom.

My biggest idol of the TLKFAA has to be The Black Cat though. I remember I was so fascinated by her history of the Pride Lands and all her characters and for some time I knew all of them off by heart, hehehe. I also really liked the simplicity of her art and it was very motivating for me back then, as someone who was just starting out without all the fancy colouring and shading, that someone with such a "clean" style still could be successful and popular.

Then, of course, there's the reason why I took up Lion King fan art in the first place - TaniDaReal's WeuUkoo clan. She's deleted pretty much all of her old drawings, but those characters are the original inspiration for Kanu's existence, haha. I was such a Tani-wannabe in the early days... I'm kinda glad that those original e-mails and posts are long gone, even if that means I can't give an exact date for when Kanu was first thought up... xP

For more recent times... Gaah, I have so many people to list xD Clock (This picture... this picture! Just... aaah!), Koraden (her work is becoming more and more impressive and her dedication to exploring the TLK universe is awesome), Kohu (of course), Sami (the amount of life and motion in her lines is just fantastic, and I love pretty much everything she uploads, even if there isn't a lot of TLK work any more. I really want to be able to draw like her :P), Rai-che (I just love the "rawness" and concept art feel of her drawings), TamberElla (she doesn't upload much on TLKFAA any more, but look at this progress...! I can't get over how much her art has developed in such short time, the Tojo in the first link was drawn in 2010!)... Then there are of course the wonderful artists Kasei mentioned; Tima, Tigon, Tailbrush/Sarafina, Kourukon, Daanzi... the list goes on and on. I could be here all night XD