Discovering my style.

[Inge Permentier]

Hey everyone I thought i'd post my progress here for anyone who wants to give feedback. I just finished gathering 17 images from artists, painters, illustrators and so on... That i would want in my dream portfolio. Thoughts are welcome
I am following the 'How to discover your style' Class by @Lee-White. so i guess this is also a bit homework

[Zachary Drenski]

@Inge-Permentier Looks awesome! I just watched the same video. I remember Lee saying that you should pick art from the market that you are in. What kind of art is your portfolio geared toward?

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

I second what @Zachary-Drenski said. What field do you want to get into? Are you interested in comics?

[Inge Permentier]

with some exceptions i do think comics is what i want to do. illustration for children books is also very interesting to me so it's hard to really pick between the two ^^" I love working with colours but that would mean comics would be very hard to do because it would be extremely time consuming.

[NessIllustration]

@Inge-Permentier If it's hard for you to pick, I think you should do 2 different dream portfolio: one for comics one for chilldren's books. With all the different things you have in there right now, it's really hard to find trends in what you like which if one of the most useful things of this assignment..

[Inge Permentier]

Thank you for all your insights.
@NessIllustration I have been thinking the same. I can't seem to find one thread that binds them together. So my next step will be to separate them

[Meta]

@Inge-Permentier My first impression also was that your portfolio is highly diversified. But looking at it for another moment, does indeed male me find some elements these works have in common: You do like fantastic elements and creatures, dramatic lighting and composition, and most of it has a turn to the darker side of life.
I do not see a color pattern though.
I think the central idea, as above mentioned, is that you choose works of which you think you would like to do them yourself as an illustrator. Putting together two portfolios for either children's books and for comics, is a good idea.

[Chip Valecek]

@Inge-Permentier I am currently doing the same thing. I even started to do a master copy of one of the pieces. I found while picking images from some of my favorite artists is the style they use as well as the subject matter. I started to go down a path with my art that wasn't getting me where I wanted to be. I think doing this work has helped me with the direction I want to go. I feel recharged after doing it. I hope you find it the same way.

[Miriam]

@Inge-Permentier, I agree with the idea of creating 2 separate "dream portfolios".
The commonalities I see within this group are:

• Mostly busy scenes (either with texture or objects)
• a large curve or circular element
• angular lines in the comics
• low key / dark tones

[xin li]

@Inge-Permentier becautiful collection of artworks.
I did this excise earlier this year. One thing I found it very interesting is sometimes I love looking at something, but it does not mean I love the process of making similar things. For example, I love those detailed nib cross-hatching drawings (Tove Jansson has done a lot beautiful ones from the Mummin universe), but it would drive me nuts to work with cross hatching myself - I am very impatient

So when you reach to the point of doing master copy, pay attension to the process - what you enjoy doing. Try to incorprate things you enjoy doing into the style you are working towards. Have fun with this course, I learned so much from this.

[Inge Permentier]

Alright, i have split them up and according to the topic i have added and removed some works. I also looked for better images to represent what i want from the artist/illustrator.
@xin-li i considered your advice about the process in which it was made as well. I can think it's beautiful but the technique could be wrong for me. So some things have changed because of that too
The one for comics:

And the one for children's books:

Thank you everyone for helping me in my thought process
Next step will be (finally) doing research for the actual portfolio piece i will do. I have thought of making a master copy but i assume (correct me if i'm wrong) that can't go into the portfolio @Chip-Valecek so i will do that as a side project.

So from what i have to go on now, i think i will go for a children's book illustration for one of the many stories i have in my notebook

Comments on my dream portfolios are still welcome, i value the input greatly

[Amanda Bancroft]

I did this process twice, with many months in between. The first time, my dream portfolio looked like yours with a lot of different kinds of artwork. What finally helped me was this:

What 5 artworks from other artists look the way I want my artwork to look just for the next long-term project I'm working on, AND I can replicate the feel of them using mediums I know well? Each image had to meet both requirements.

Gone was anything I knew I couldn't do without many years of study, and gone was everything that I enjoyed looking at but wasn't exactly precisely how I want my project to look when finished. It helped me to use only a few images instead of a bunch. Also, because I realized I can't find anything exactly like what I want to create, I used 3 full images that represented the overall feel / colors / composition etc, and 2 images that I cropped very narrowly to show the way I want to draw my characters.

Next, I added 3 pieces of my own drawings (also cropped to show a specific part) which I felt got the closest to my goal for my project. I made a collage of the other artists' work touching my own (no spaces just one big image). I immediately noticed where I was headed, what about my work was wrong, what about my work I liked better than the other artists' - lots of insights. I put this image as my desktop background to see every day an idealized version or symbol of the kind of work I want to do.

I am a fellow fan of Miyazaki's work too

[Meta]

@Amanda-Bancroft Do you want to show it?

[Amanda Bancroft]

@Meta Sure I'd love to, but I didn't add the artists names within the image so I'll give them credit here. Also I cropped and modified some (like squirrel - the squirrel's eye, for instance, is my own, so not everything is 100% the way the artist intended but that was my purpose for this exercise experiment.
Karen Hull
Jane Maday
Kimberly Shaw

[Inge Permentier]

It's been a while since i posted but i wanted to update this at least. I was sick the past week so my process for all projects was slowed down.

When it comes to my style i came to the conclusion i like to work either very colourful or black and white. When i do make anything i experiment a lot and try to use different items than the obvious paint or ink. Experimenting is fun but doesn't actually turn out into a possible job so i decided to focus on one part of my big array of interests. That will be inking and developing my style within inking. I am a patient person and enjoy taking the time to put down every stroke necessary. on the other hand i like to have a sleek and clean line (lineart) so my style is most likely best fitted with a bit of both these types. I like busy and eventful images rather than still life or landscape.

Now for the next step within the discovery i will make a master copy next.

To be continued....

[Eywin]

@Amanda-Bancroft I really like your suggestion of making a collage. I have just listened to the course and gathered some drawings of the artists I like their styles. I have started with the 1st master copy and am trying to analyze the style during the process. But, I was having hard time to understand what will be my style coming out of these different ones. I like the collage idea. Hopefully it works for me too Thanks a lot for sharing your experience.