History Main / EccentricArtist

* Creator/AndyKaufman's offscreen behavior was at least as, if not ''more'', eccentric than what he did onscreen -- and those two worlds had a tendency to overlap. He'd freely assume various and sundry personae in everyday life to befuddle others and amuse friends and himself. A friend recounts in the documentary ''The Real Andy Kaufman'' that during one visit to Coney Island they rode through a cut-rate NightmareRetardant haunted house attraction and he feigned terror by screaming the whole way through and emerging in tears, much to the shock of the ride's operators, who had never seen anyone actually scared by the ride, much less terrified to the point that they tried to calm him down. He also would be ridiculously committed to a given "bit" -- such as, after suffering a minor neck injury in his first wrestling match with Wrestling/JerryLawler, publicly wearing a neck brace that he didn't need for ''six months'' (except in certain situations such as shooting ''Series/{{Taxi}}'') and only giving it up because it started to smell bad.

* In ''Film/TheUnbearableWeightOfMassiveTalent'', affluent aspiring screenwriter Javi pursues his desires to script a Creator/NicolasCage movie through unconventional tactics. Some of these include paying Nick a million dollars to discuss his writings in person, renewing Nick's interest in storytelling by tricking him into helping improvise an adventure, and sharing LSD with him when they need new ideas for the movie's plot. [[spoiler:The tactics all prove worth it, as moviegoers end up loving the completed film.]]

->''"Hwel snored. In his dreams gods rose and fell, ships moved with cunning and art across canvas oceans, pictures jumped and ran together and became flickering images; men flew on wires, flew without wires, great ships of illusion fought against one another in imaginary skies, seas opened, ladies were sawn in half, a thousand special effects men giggled and gibbered. Through it all he ran with his arms open in desperation, knowing that none of this really existed or ever would exist and all he really had was a few square yards of planking, some canvas and some paint on which to trap the beckoning images that invaded his head."''
-->--'''Terry Pratchett''', ''Literature/WyrdSisters''

* The Great Gonzo from ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' comes up with acts like smashing up a car to the tune of "The Anvil Chorus" or reciting Percy Shelley's "To a Skylark" while disarming a bomb, so maybe "eccentric" is putting it mildly.

* From the ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' series, there's an eccentric human director who puts on a production of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' with an all-elcor cast. Elcor are an alien species who all speak in a slow, emotionless, monotone voice (which sounds like [[Franchise/WinnieThePooh Eeyore]]), and convey emotion through pheromones and extremely subtle body language, neither of which can be detected by other species. For everyone else's benefit, they simply [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry state the intended emotion of their next sentence before they say it]], making a play with nothing but elcor an extremely boring concept. The director's idea was to "force audiences to judge Hamlet by his deeds and not his emotions". The final production clocks in at fourteen hours long, but nevertheless goes on to become hugely successful. His next planned project? ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''... [[RecycledInSpace WITH]] [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy KROGAN]]!

* Video game developer Creator/TaroYoko, the man behind ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' and ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', wears an [[VideoGame/{{NieR}} Emil]] mask in almost all of his public appearances. That's just the tip of the iceberg that is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhDL3Q86ofY his eccentricity]].

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Literature]]

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]

[[AC: Music]]

[[AC: Video Games]]

[[AC: Visual Novels]]

[[AC: Webcomics]]

[[AC: Web Video]]

[[AC: Western Animation]]

[[AC: Real Life]]

* Video game developer Creator/TaroYoko, the man behind ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' and ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', wears an [[VideoGame/{{NieR}} Emil]] mask in almost all of his public appearances. That's just the tip of the iceberg that is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhDL3Q86ofY his eccentricity]].

Specific subtypes include ThePrimaDonna and the PrimaDonnaDirector. Also compare DitzyGenius, where a character's high intelligence is offset by a lack of common sense and/or cluelessness about mundane subjects beneath their intellectual interests.

* Italian FashionDesigner UsefulNotes/ElsaSchiaparelli at the height of her career during the 1930s and 40s. Being a FashionDesigner who is also affiliated with {{Surrealis|m}}ts, her designs included atypical and "shocking" motifs like the shoe hats, the Lobster Dress, the Skeleton Dress, and the Tears Dress.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': One of the celebrities Miguel meets in the Land of the Dead is Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, whose idea for a performance art piece involves dozens of dancers dressed like her emerging from an enormous papaya, climbing up a giant cactus with her face on it, and drinking its tears.

* Italian FashionDesigner Elsa Schiaparelli at the height of her career during the 1930s and 40s. Being a FashionDesigner who is also affiliated with Surrealists, her designs included atypical and "shocking" motifs like the shoe hats, the Lobster Dress, the Skeleton Dress, and the Tears Dress.

* Spencer from ''Series/{{iCarly}} is an extremely talented artist, but he's also a quirky {{manchild}} often considered strange by other adults. His sculptors are just as oddball as he is.

* Mabel Pines in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' is an arts-and-crafts loving twelve-year-old who can make professional-quality wax sculptures and has knitted herself an UnlimitedWardrobe of customized novelty sweaters. She is also the biggest {{Cloudcuckoolander}} of her rather eccentric family.

* The Great Gonzo from ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' comes up with acts like smashing up a car to the tune of "The Anvil Chorus" or reciting the poetry of Percy Shelley while disarming a bomb, so maybe "eccentric" is putting it mildly.

The creative process is associated with breaking from convention. By definition, creativity and originality involve the ability to produce something new, or to interpret the familiar in a way that people haven't seen before. Because of this, it's no surprise that highly creative people tend to see and interact with the world differently from others, in ways that less imaginative people around them may not be able to follow or understand.

Eccentric artists are highly prone to being {{Large Ham}}s, {{Drama Queen}}s, and/or {{Attention Whore}}s, although such flamboyance is not a required element of their eccentricity. They may show up playing the role of BlitheSpirit or ManicPixieDreamGirl to more straitlaced characters, or may be the "doer" half of a TalkerAndDoer partnership.

Specific subtypes include ThePrimaDonna and the PrimaDonnaDirector. Also compare DitzyGenius, where a character's high intelligence is offset by lack of common sense and/or cluelessness about mundane subjects beneath their intellectual interests.

* In ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPicasso'', most characters are artists (painters, poets, singers and ballet dancers), and pretty much everyone is a CloudcuckooLander.

* ''Music/KidsPraise'': Psalty and the kids are mistaken for this while time-travelling to an 1820s tent meeting, due to the fact that they were wearing 1980s clothing, which would look strange to someone from the 1820s:

* Sousuke Taira in ''VisualNovel/OurTwoBedroomStory'' is a popular writer of erotic fiction who's in high demand by editors for how well his work sells. He's also prone to doing things like running out of his apartment half-naked trying to chase after a (non-existent) woman he was dreaming about, and insists on "acting out" love scenes with female editors for greater authenticity. The protagonist does her best to tolerate his behavior for the sake of his contract with the magazine she works for, but some other editors take a much dimmer view of his shenanigans.

* Mabel Pines in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' is an arts-and-crafts loving twelve year old who can make professional-quality wax sculptures and has knitted herself an UnlimitedWardrobe of customized novelty sweaters. She is also the biggest {{Cloudcuckoolander}} of her rather eccentric family.

* The title character of ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' has a very vivid and whimsical imagination that causes her caring but prosaic guardian no end of frustration and sometimes leads to mishaps like nearly drowning when she tries to act out the funeral of [[KingArthur Elaine of Astolat]] in a leaky rowboat. Although even some of her closest friends can't help finding her a little strange at times, her flights of fancy make her a talented writer who could probably have made a successful career of it had she chosen.

* Artist Gérard de Nerval kept a lobster as a pet and walked it around on a leash as if it were a dog.