Intro
Hello visitors! Art style is a subject that has been on my mind as far back as I can remember. I know it’s a subject that is also on the minds of young artists as well, so I thought this would be a good time to talk about style. This blog will be about going over what style is, finding your own style, and developing it. Before I go on, I should say that while style is important, it is something that can develop organically. Even more so when you have technical ability. That said, it doesn’t hurt to digest some information so that your road of development is more streamlined, avoiding common pitfalls so you can get to where you want to go more quickly.
Lay of the Land
I want to limit the scope of this style to pure visual aesthetics. While a lot of what I’m going to write can be applied universally, for the sake of easy consumption I think it wise to keep the information in this blog limited.
You can think of aesthetic style as what your art looks like as a still. As an artist, your job is to create, but to also capture your audience’s attention. To stimulate, inspire and engage with their mind. So the way something looks is very important to get to that point. The good news is that humans have been creating art for many, many years before you or I were even a fever dream. The great news is that due to all of the varieties of style out there, there’s a good chance that someone has made something close to what you imagine your voice to be. The best news is that the journey to find this voice is both rewarding, and at times, exceptionally difficult, so there are many who quit before they land on something, leaving more space for you to cement yourself in your viewers minds.
How can I find my style?
This is a very important question, and it’s one that has bothered all artists at one point or another. As concept to engage with, so that you can create what is in your mind, style can be very difficult to grasp if you’re seeking it out. Fortunately, there are methods to approach the discovery process that are actionable.
For me, the best way to find your style is to set up a visual board or folder of the art styles you like. Don’t limit yourself. Find as much content as you can. Screenshots, dragging and dropping, photographs, etc. Do what you got to do. Once you have enough examples, I suggest organizing them. You can do this in any way you like. I like to separate art by style, but I also have reference libraries of classical pieces separated by topic. Once that is handled, the next part is where things get interesting.
Ask yourself why you like these pictures. You don’t have to get verbose with it. Maybe you like how someone makes hair, or maybe you like how they use shapes, it doesn’t matter. The point is to get your mind to look across many images and break up, with surgical precision, things that caught your eye. By understanding what you like about a piece, you give yourself a direct channel to absorb that into your own voice. For example, if you like how someone makes thumbs, in your future pieces, you might be more prone to draw hands, incorporating what previously inspired you, but also giving you a chance to diverge and experiment.
The fun happens when you begin to incorporate multiple voices into your mix. Maybe you like how the thumbs of one artist are drawn, but the full hands of another artist as well. So you experiment and find a way to incorporate what you like and remove what you don’t, and if you’re lucky, you might even discover something completely new. In this stage of the process, the key is to have fun. That will be your guide. You know when you land on gold when you have so much fun creating, you don’t even think about style anymore.
Develop, Refine and Evolve Your Style
Once you’ve explored a bit, and you’ve landed on a style you like, the next step is to take it to another level. It’s not enough to have a style, you must push it further. You do this by polishing out the rough spots by drawing a variety of different things in your new style. You have to really explore your new voice. See how restrictive it can be, and how far it can take you. It is better to know this before you start making more serious pieces. Once you put out a piece, you can’t really take it back, so you want your style to be as polished as possible. The goal is cohesion. You have to develop continuity between your images and this will let people know what your thing (or style) is.
As you continue to create in this style, you should be mindful that as you go through time, and you begin to do more optimizations, the style will also change. You can be conscious about it, or unconscious about it, but it will happen given enough time. This is my favorite part of the process. I love seeing the evolution of my style. Sometimes I look at my current work and compare it with my past work, find things I don’t like, and fill in the gaps with reference of how I want to do things that I feel aren’t strong enough. That process will continue to refine my style, while also providing my viewers with something new, but also familiar.
Outro
Before I finish, an important thing to note, is that style is not the end all, be all of an artist’s capabilities. Many artists go years before developing their own style and voice. This is part of the process and everyone goes about it differently. If you haven’t landed on anything yet, don’t let it bother you, everyone’s road is different. Just remember these guidelines, take a step back and enjoy the process. Style takes time to develop, but what’s important is that you keep drawing, keep searching, and keep experimenting and in time you’ll make something uniquely you and special.