Figuring out style

[Chip Valecek]

@Aleksey fun you mention figuring out style, i just had a post about this myself. When I first started getting into digital art, i was inspired by a bunch of concept artist's and their rendering techniques. I tried to reproduce that style and struggled. But as time went on, I started to find that realistic rendering was not where I wanted to be and started to do the more cartoon fun characters and found process that worked best for me. Over the past Inktober I found a new style that just seemed so much more natural to me. Almost like going back to when I was a kid and would sit at my kitchen table just drawing and coloring with colored penicls (i still enjoy doing that with my kids.) So with that and the feedback from many of the SVS people, i am going to continue down that path and not try to pigeon hole myself into childrens lit.

[ArtofAleksey]

@Chip-Valecek hey thanks for sharing. I totally align with your experience. I got absorbed into wanting to create similar work as the concept artists I’ve seen. Now im poking out of that hole and it feels great.

[NessIllustration]

Haha yeaaah that happens!
I've grown up always drawing manga because that was the art I was most exposed to. Took me until college for me to look at it and realize I didn't like the style I drew in, that it looked boring and uninspired. Thankfully around the same time, in my character design class my teacher had us do an assignment in which we had to design characters for existing TV shows, in many different styles, and make the character fit the style exactly. I was surprised to find out the one I had most fun with was the super flat and stylized Kim Possible! Since then I've been experimenting and including things I like from other artists to my drawings, eventually leading to a style I'm comfortable with. But I still try out different things all the time so it keeps changing. It's normal for a style to change and evolve, as long as you have some sort of baseline in your portfolio I think you'Re golden

[ArtofAleksey]

@NessIllustration character design class sounds very fun. I might try that exercise. Thanks for sharing Ness!

[NessIllustration]

@Aleksey I highly recommend the exercise, it's very fun and you learn a lot! It's basically drawing fan characters haha.. But practicing emulating someone else's style is incredible practice, it makes you understand a lot of things. Some of it you will like and will stick to your style, until your style is a mix and match of all the things you like the most

[Kat]

@NessIllustration What a great exercise! Maybe you should start a new challenge on the forum Name the show/style, and people come up with one new character to fit it.

[NessIllustration]

@Kat What a great idea! But I feel like if I start a challenge I'll have to participate (or I'd be a big hypocrite haha) and I'm buried in work right now with my tight book deadline However if you or anyone would like to take ownership of this challenge and start a thread, that would be awesome and you're most welcome to do so!

[ArtofAleksey]

@NessIllustration @Kat this was a fun style to try

[evilrobot]

Did you do @Lee-White dream portfolio? You might want to check that out. It will help. I'm really into ink drawings so I've been looking up my favorite artists and doing studies of their work...then I find out who their influences are and look them up and do the same. When I look at their work I really study their strokes and try to figure out how they made them. I take what I like and try to add it to my own work. Also if you are interested in pen and ink you might try this book It's older but super helpful.

[ArtofAleksey]

[ArtofAleksey]

@evilrobot cool thanks for the tips. Yeah i checked that out it was a helpful exercise. Ive also seen that book before! With me it’s just practice at this point. Im gonna see if i can find that book used on ebay

[Kat]

@NessIllustration me too - I don't want to start something that I can't participate in all the time LOL! Well, maybe someone will do so, or at least challenge themselves to the task and then share their wonderful creations for us to enjoy.

[Kat]

@Aleksey :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_smiling_eyes: Love it!

[A Former User]

Back in 2005/2006 when I started making my own art after leaving college, I took 5 artists who I loved so much and I studied their work. My five artists were Andy Warhol, Norm Breyfogle, James Jean, Jack Kirby and Brian Bolland. I look at what they did with their lifework, tones, shade and energy. I also looked at how their work made me 'feel' LOL. And that's where I sorta built my style from. But I also drew an awful lot, for nearly a year. I was pumping out the really obvious stuff. And eventually I started to enjoy what I was making.

[ArtofAleksey]

@lovetherobot this made me happy, I’m glad you started to enjoy what you were making. I am starting to get there.