Discussion: artistic style

[mekare]

So, I‘ve been looking at my art and was wondering how to develop a style. I experiment with different media which is fun but it always leads to such different-looking results. Which can also be fun but I think I want to try make my art more recognizably me, you know? So, seeing as several of you have a strong style, what did you do to develop it, did it happen by accident, did you make deliberate choices? Do you have artistic styles that inspire you or even artistic idols?

Should I focus on getting better at the basics like anatomy or backgrounds first? I really want to push my art skills this year but I’m wondering what direction would make sense to focus on. (Maybe not style at all? Maybe that’s more of a long term goal?)

Comments

[lynndyre]

I don't know exactly. In a sense I think people might develop different styles for different media, like having different handwriting styles. I know I still practice other people's styles especially with fanart for drawn or animated canons, but basic anatomy helps a lot. Backgrounds are hard, and a different set of stylistic things to work out.

On a different tangent, Kazuya Minekura is one of the artists I love the most for a strong style I absolutely can't match- some of her art seems like the individual aspects should be ugly but the full pictures are often amazingly beautiful.

[mekare]

Thank you for your thoughts. :-)