[staind vc] it’s been awhile

I was wondering how or what developed your art style? I’ve been struggling to find a consistent one for myself so I want to know how settled on yours? Especially since it’s so simplistic but extremely expressive and masterfully colored?

first, know your fundamentals. i know every artist ever says that but we mean it. do your life drawing, do your plein air painting, do your cafe gestures. its so much easier to get into stylization when you have solid ground to stand on first. it is exclusively beneficial. even if you already have a good handle on stylized stuff, fundamentals only bolster that. I was one of those kids. I did not draw at a professional level until I completed my first year of college, when all of my classes were on fundamentals.

I found an artist that I really really really really liked, and then tried to emulate it as best as I could for a hot bit. That’s not to say I was going for a carbon copy; I just wanted a foundation to start. I treated it like an academic study. and when I figured out the parts I wanted to, I just kept drawing until my own voice started seeping through the cracks. 

The biggest part of art style that a lot of beginners ignore is cohesion; a style is a style because all of its elements adhere well to each other, rather than frankinstein-ing different techniques arbitrarily. nobody photobashes when they’re designing a character for a 2D animated kids cartoon, y’know?

and of course, breaking those rules can be a style choice in and of itself; a bunch of people do it really well! but they can also do it because they understand those contrasting aspects really, really well. They’ve likely tweaked both techniques so they compliment better.

...ah. I went on a tangent.

Sorry if most of this doesn’t make sense, lol. My main point is just to keep drawing! It takes a long long long LONG time to refine a style! It never really ends, tbh :0 hope this helps!