early artistic influences include: illustrators howard pyle, n.c. wyeth, dean cornwell and mark english. fine art painting influences include: edgar payne, joaquin sorolla, john singer sargent and richard diebenkorn. noting his film influences in an article, kooser selected 5 production designs that continue to inspire him creatively. the selections include disney's "lady and the tramp", tyrus wong's work on "bambi", dennis gassner and richard l. johnson's work on "road to perdition", ralph mcquarrie's work on "star wars", and dean mitzner's work on "tron".