[gLitterbug]

By looking at some pictures of you and reading some posts a question came to my mind.

How did you develop your style? I mean have you tried to get it into a specific direction or did it "just came up from itself"?

Hm, I hope you understand what I mean and answer. I would be very happy about a reply from you!

[EviLToYLeT]

I'm not isric.... but seeing that this post has gone unanswered i'll try my best to answer it for you and give this one a good bump up.

Usually... you get inspired by artists... (aka Isric, spoogey, etc. etc.) and you go, hot damn! They so cool... I wish I can be like them... so you try to copy their style right? Right....

But then again, you try and you try... you get pissed off it doesn't work. The reason is.... your just copying what you see... not what he thinks...

in laymans terms.. say you watch a cook throw in some pepper here and there, and then some salt and his food tastes great...

so your gonna just throw in some pepper and salt cuz you think it tastes great?

You don't know what kinda dish the chef likes.....and what kinda dish you like, and plus you probably made the whole thing too salty anyway..

( i really have no idea where im going now....)

and like drawing, you can't just draw an upside down 7 for all noses.... just because..... you have to UNDERSTAND the reason behind it...

so first... uh..... establish the basic drawing foundations.... you know, figure out how lighting hits and etc..... you'll notice that most of famous painters early work look similar..

then you notice that they deviate.... to either convey an emotion.... or make it just prettier....

for example, anime is really common. you'll notice that in every anime....chances are EACH eye is different....but it still looks damn great

so....yah.....establish foundations....don't like....find soemthing you do and pursue it.... may just pop up one day while your doodling

[gLitterbug]

Thx EviLToYLeT, thats exactly the thing I wanted to know, what everybody thinks about.

Even when I wrote Isric in the subject, I would be more than happy if other artists reply too.
I just took Isric because he always gets compared to disney and I wanted to know if he said to himself something like "So Isric you now will develop your own style. You�ll take a bit of disney, then a grain of...".

[gekitsu]

i develop�ed my style till today like this:

in general i had a more outline-weighted style. then, i saw shirow... i was going nuts in copying the style, but everytime i spent a look on my drawings, there was a lack of life.
so i decided to take looks at other artists, how they solve their problems. after that, i started to just draw, with no special style in it. after a while, a natural looking mangaesque style came out. i was able to draw living manga-like persons, mecha etc... and after that i was going back to shirow and was looking for things that could improve my artwork. so i have a strong shirow influence in my comic drawings without copying him.

my "casual" style is developing more freely: i just draw, still very symbolic (remember the comic "roots") but there are influences that change from drawing to drawing.

don't wonder, even i learned about anatomy etc... but it's long time ago.

what i register sometimes when taking a closer look at my style: i am often impressed by something and then, i am drawing everything concerning with that. i do this for a relatively short period and very intensive. when "mini-specializiing" to a topic like atm submarines (i am reading this great book "the boat" by buchheim) i adapt my style in parts to this topic. this may sound like a not very dominant, recognizeable style but i thnk it's right like it is, it's a fine way to learn new things. my art teacher last year at least had the opinion that there is no way to bring me away from my own style and to the "traditional way", what could cause the bad marks, another teacher gave me...

[VanhoozerArt]

Wow, some great advice on here! I can not stress enough how important it is to think your drawings through. That is the only way you will ever develop a style that you are comfortable with

When I first interned at Disney, I went nuts trying to copy all of the best artists at the studio. I struggled to copy the expressions, movement, etc. But I kept coming up short. Something was missing. That "something" was the ability to draw because I felt it, not because I was copying it. When I started working drawing the characters, I found that every artist there draws Mickey in a different way. Yes, he has to conform to a model sheet, but a person's style will always creep into his work.

Take elements of a style that you like, and try and work that into your drawings, and you will start to adapt the things you like into your everyday work.

If you begin with a solid knowledge of drawing (light, shape, anatomy, etc.) you can then focus on what establishes your personal style. Expression, line quality, etc.

Just my two cents

[Lunatique]

Hm. For me, it's been:

1)Looking at everybody else's work. Pros and amateurs. Dead or alive.

2)Analyze what you like and don't like about other's work.

3)Ask yourself what YOU want to capture and convey in your style.

4)Also find characteristics and elements in reality that captivates you, and incorporate them into your work.

If you do all that, you'll develop your own style in no time.

[Fate]

Hi I'm the kid who is still trying to learn anatomy
just wanted to say Isric's work is so cool and I too had strong influence from his work and I'm still developing my style (heavily influenced by Japanese anime but getting out of that stuff)
but I was wondering
how important is it to know about anatomy when trying to develope a style?
Is it style first or anatomy?
I just wanted to learn anatomy cause I thought it's the basis of all drawing and I thought if I know anatomy I can establish a style of my own I'm just wondering if I am in the right direction
sorry to throw you guys off the subject

[Breakerboy2]

ALL the fundamentals of drawing and painting come before style. Anatomy, color, composition, basic drawing skills. Without these, style is pointless. Like a mangled sports car without an engine or transmission. It won't get you far, and it'll look bad at the same time.

Style is something that takes time and develops naturally. It's hard to be patient, but it's really worth the effort. Looking at other people's styles is a great way to educate yourself about the possibilities, but your own style will develop around your personal strengths and weaknesses, and that is what will make you unique.

Sorry for the run-on sentences.

[c]

breakerboy that's an excellent response and i agree 100%

a lot of times i will see artwork that looks pretty good, and a lot of comments like 'what a great style', etc.

it kind of makes me cringe. for me, style implies a set way of doing things, and pretty much the same thing. i almost get a negative connotation from it.

i think truly impressive 'style' comes from artists who don't aim for any certain style in the first place. i wouldn't know personally, but i think it just kinda creeps up on you and as long as you work on improving yourself and not resting on your laurels w/ any particular style it'll just kinda happen on it's own.

ok i make no sense. ^_^

[Isric]

*Whfew!* Am I late? Sorry I didn't find this sooner, I don't usually come to this side of the Forum.
My style basically formed like this:
a) copying newspaper cartoons
b) copying comic artist like J.Scott Cambell and Ed MdGuiness
c) realizing I didn't have a style of my own
d) drawing from life for a real long time
e) simplifying reality to make it easier for me to draw
f) realizing to my delight that a style had been born

Basically it just sort of hit, I didn't even comprehend that I HAD a style until someone mentioned it to me. I haven't set out to copy disney stuff, and I think I know why. My style is really just simplified reality. It's taking what I understand of the world and making it easy to re-produce, and that's exactly what Disney is, simple reality with a twist of lemon. Does that answer your question (from my point of view at least)?
If not, just ask and I'll see what I can do

[Probus]

ehm, i was wondering.. maybe it�s an idea to look at some early works of good artists.

I�m sure it can be a good help to newbee artists to determine whether they are on the right track or not, and maybe it could be a physical help(or not) to see how these elite artists did it when they weren�t that good.

Hope someone good on this forum answers with some "old stuff"

[ August 04, 2001: Message edited by: Probus ]

[blindphan]

Isric I was wonderin' if you ever got my e-mail? The subject name was "art ronins" i sent to your hotmail account, I just wanted to know cause it was kinda of important to me...

peace
..:blindphan:..

[gLitterbug]

That was exactly what I wanted to know, thanks!

I asked because I tried to "create" my own style for quite some time, but in recent times, reading forums, looking at art and started to try doing art serious, I thought that wanting to "create" a style would be dumb the way I wanted to do.
You confirmed me with your reply what I thought of. Simplify from real life or exaggerate what�s there - not build up from nothing.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts, maybe some more join in here, as I think it�s a very interesting thread.

[klash.jr]

Hey guys, Awesome topic lots of good advise
I'm working to achieve my own style. It's going to take hard work but it's possible.
=)

[ August 04, 2001: Message edited by: klash.jr ]

[nova]

I copied just about everyone's artwork I liked, trying to match their style. After a while i combined styles kind of without knowing it and came up with my own. I realized I had reached my goal of finding my style when people started saying things like "yea, I can tell that's your art because of __" That was neat. I still am always experimenting with other artists' techniques to to challenge myself.

[LordArioch]

I think that style is something that just happens naturally. Most of us start out emulating our favorite artists, but even then our own individual quirks still show through.