Well, I’ll actually go at this one backwards- because trying to increase your skill level is much harder than being inspired… but of course, being inspired makes it much easier to increase your skill level, so… I’ll shut up and just answer the questions.

Looking at things and drawing them is one of the best ways to get better- but looking at something and figuring out how it works is a much better way to get better. When you know why something looks the way it does; when you really know how something works, not just looks, but works, you’ll be able to draw it from the inside out. That makes an enormous difference, and then afterwards, when you imagine it, and when you imagine new, crazy, impossible things, you can take those things you know about real things and make your impossible things much more real.

Draw the things that you find hard to draw- I used to find drawing hands and feet really annoying, because I wanted to draw them well, but I couldn’t. I can’t say that I draw them well now, but I enjoy drawing them because I understand them- I basically spent a solid two weeks of summer just drawing hands and feet, from the inside out, bones and muscles and gloves and socks and shoes, and eventually I’ve got to the stage where I can do it and enjoy it. I’m not great at it yet, maybe not even good- but that’s the fun thing about learning, you never stop, and you can always improve. Some people seem to find that discouraging but I find that terribly exciting :D

As for what inspired my style, I still don’t know that I have one, and if I do I have a few different styles, but some of my biggest artistic influences are Hergé, Eiichiro Oda, Dali, Hogarth, Steve Bell, Robert Valley, Albert Uderzo, David Sutherland, Brad Bird, Tove Jansson, Spike Milligan, Milt Kahl, Dave McKean, Al Hirschfeld, Carl Barks and about a million more who I will kick myself for not being able to think of immediately later.

Basically the best advice I can give you is to keep trying, keep learning, and keep asking questions. Never think that you know something; that’s a very dangerous trap to fall into because then you’ll stop trying to learn, and that’s just about the worst thing you can do to yourself, as an artist and as a human being.