Find your own style. How and is it important?
I will start this blog with a very direct answer to this topic. NOBODY can help you to find your own style, even not you! And i dont say that to discourage you, ou hell no. I’m telling you that because i want you to understand what 'your own style' means. Finding your own style is nothing you can search and practice (at least in my opinion). Well, maybe some of you will say now, "Of course, you can practice a certain style. Just copy someone and there you go." But when you practice something, is it not the skill itself that you are practicing? Copying someone else art or a specific type of art is just the skill of how to do certain shapes, colors, shadings, renders, etc. This has nothing to do with your own style because style is not a skill, it is something that comes from inside of you.
Something that tells stories and gives the viewer some kind of emotions. But is it even important to have your own style? It’s the same question to ask if having your own personality is important. Of course yes! Do you need it to get a Job? Not really. At least not in all areas. When it comes to jobs, you often just have to do what is already created. For example, as a 3D artist, you often have to create something out of an existing concept. Besides that, companies already have their own style which you have to do as well when you wanna work there. So your own style is more important when you wanna sell your own art or just for personal projects.
⭐ Let's define a style for a minute. Your own style is a combination of 4 things. Your Personality, your Interests, your Environment, and your life Experiences.
➥ Your Interests are the section where you get all your art references from. It’s like searching all kinds of different things for a new art piece, to get ideas and inspiration before you even start. For example, you like Disney and creepy ghost stories, nature walks, cooking, and reading crime novels. These are the things that will automatically flow into your art style. Because these are the things you most likely watch, read or interact with.
➥ Your Environment is your daily input. Things we see more often or on a regular basis are more burned into our minds than things we dont have around every day. For example, if you live in a country where it’s raining all the time or you are living in a house that is old and damaged with old used furniture in it, then you have this specific kind of sad, depressive, grey, muddy, broken things around you daily. Now, this can go in two directions. You are more used to creating something out of this environment OR you choose the total opposite of it. For example, i live in Germany and we often have grey rainy cloudy weather here and i guess I’m so used to it, that i chose to go the opposite direction with my art. That’s why most of my artworks are very colorful and saturated.
That’s why we also tend to change our style or mood for our art when we are in different places.
➥ The next one is your life Experience. The important part of finding your own style lies in the things you went through over your whole life. Because that is the place where all your emotions and feelings come from. Style has a lot to do with emotions and how you tell a story with your art. That’s why this part is very crucial. Telling stories and letting the viewers feel something while looking at your art is a whole different topic, but just keep in mind that you can create your own style when you dont let the things, that are inside of you, flow into your art. Humans in general love to listen to stories, no matter if it’s in movies, or in a book, or listen to other people’s life, success, failures, etc. We are curious creatures by nature so try to put this into your art. Your experiences make your art whole.
➥ Personality is the last thing you throw in the pot to get your own style. It is the little cherry on the cake, this little 'something' that grabs people’s attention. It is hard to define but the good thing is, we all have it and it comes naturally to us when we do or say something. So you actually dont need to take too much focus on that.
You see, art is not just a skill you can learn. That’s why it is so hard for any artist out there to find it. We struggle and worry so much about that, that we totally forget that it already lies in us. We just dont know yet how to use what we already have. That’s why it takes some time until we feel more comfortable and secure. But you know what, I’m totally with you. I still learn how to use what lies inside of me and turn that into my own style. But it gets easier when you know the fact that creating your own style is not only improving your skills. And yes, sometimes i have these worries as well. So i totally sit in the same boat with you. But i often heard that people already think i have my own style, which is surprising for me because i can’t see that by myself. That’s why we often struggle to look into the mirror and see something that we like about ourselves. Or accepting a compliment from someone. It’s just hard to see our own value and beauty compared to others, which is actually sad. So we need to work on that. but that is another topic.
When you keep that in mind you shouldn’t worry so much about the journey of exploring your own style. Be patient. Let it come to you while you dig deeper into the things that make you unique. And YES! Everybody is unique, no matter how negative your mindset is right now. I promise you are.
But what are you doing now with this kind of information? I know most of you want some practical tips to speed the process up and finally get the results you are hoping for.
So like i said before, these 4 areas (Personality, Interests, Environment, and Life Experiences), should be the first thing you are working on. And to do that, you have to get to know yourself better! Try to look into all these areas and write down the things you realize about yourself. Maybe that is the first time you ever do that. Write them down, analyze them, and find out which techniques and materials could be the best fit for them. Close your eyes and see the artworks you are creating from your future self. Visualize what you are doing with it and how you do it. Dig deeper into your mind and feelings. When you do that more constantly then you know better in which direction you are going. And we all know, having a path or goal in front of our eyes, makes it easier and faster to achieve that.
But besides that, here are some other tips.
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Practical Tips for improving your skills
▪️ Take 3 different artists whose art you admire and love and put yourself in the center. (Like the Zelda Triforce. You can sketch it on a piece of paper for a better visual view.) Look at their art more deeply now and write down what you really like about it. Be specific with it, because it doesn’t help you when you just write down 'everything'. We dont love EVERYTHING on a piece of art, it’s just some key points which we are really drawn to. Write them down. At least 2. After you wrote down a few points for all 3 artists, try to use them in your own art now. Learn more about them and improve their skills.
For example:
You love the color combination which brings so much atmosphere to artist A, the dynamic flow and camera angles of artist B and the rough more cut outlines of artist C. Look at their art and try to find out how and why they are doing it. Also try to learn more about these three things in a professional way with tutorials, practice, workflows, etc.
If you have more than 3 artists whose art you love, then you can do that whole process again with 3 other artists after you practiced the first ones. Don rush it and take your time.
When you only pick out the most valuable points from someone’s work, then you won’t copy his style, because you combine these points with others as well, which creates a totally different and new thing. Remember, nobody is creating the wheel again. Everything was already there when we do something. The key here is to combine the already existing to create something new!
▪️ Copy other artists’ artwork. I have to be careful how to talk about that because 1. It is not cool to copy art and tell everyone that it’s your own work. Be careful with that, because in today’s age, people will blow you up and find out pretty fast when you do that. And 2. It is hard to find your own style when you copy someone else own style. If that makes sense. It will slow down your own journey.
What i mean with copy other artists’ art is just for your own practice of having an already existing picture in your head, like concept art, and you just practice your skills on it. We all did that when we just started drawing as a kid. I drew and copied a lot of Sailor Moon, Dragonball, and Dinosaur pictures out of books when i was a little bean. It helped me to have something finished at the end of the day that i could be proud of and be motivated to keep going. But i still think that YOU are able to come up with your own ideas, which is also pretty important for being an artist. Especially when you want to do it professionally. (you still need reference images to do that, keep that in mind.)
▪️ Go out of your comfort zone and explore things you never did before. This also means trying out new styles or even new art materials you thought would be boring or uninteresting for you. Give them a second chance, because our interest changes from time to time, and maybe what you thought would be boring in the past, is pretty cool right now. Be open-minded about changes. Don’t stick to one art style all the time. I know doing a different style could be a discomfort because often our skills shrink down to 0 when we create something we are not used to, and we struggle with being motivated to do messy art again. Nobody likes to start at 0 to try something new. But i highly recommend doing it.
▪️ Draw things again and again and again. Only when we get used to something we are more comfortable messing it up and changing things. And while you do things, again and again, you can slowly change things up and try out small pieces of them. For example, when you want to draw characters, draw them until you feel good with them, and then, for example, change the size of the eyes and see what that looks like. Or change the hair that looks more blocked in the first place and combines it with water and make it look more like that. Or when you always drew the colors in a more cartoon way, try out one character with colors that are melted with watercolors. Doesn’t matter what you do, just try to draw it again and again, so you can slowly change things.
▪️ Combine different kinds of art areas together. For example, you are a creative artist. Go outside now and take some pictures of your environment (which can be fun as well when you never took any pictures). Maybe a nice forest, a place with a river, take pictures of a plate full of fruits or go to see a car racing and take pictures there. Then take that picture, print it out, and draw creatures over it. Try to melt it together, so it can be something really cool and unique.
I hope all of these tips can help you a bit in creating your own art style. But keep in mind, that it takes time, it also is a long life journey and even when you found a style you really like, doesn’t mean you have to stick to it forever. You can but you don’t need to. Life is a constant change and hopefully your art as well. As long as you feel happy with what you are doing, don’t worry too much about what style you have. Everything will flow and be at the right time at the right place.
