Greetings, Artisan!
Is there such a thing as a 'mistake' when it comes to art style? Can you really mess anything up? Or is it just a matter of slowly but surely making your way to the promised land of 'your style'?
Let’s take a closer look… I can share some of my personal experience with trying to find my own style... so that hopefully you can avoid some of the mistakes I made.
I think it's easy to become obsessed with style as an artist, especially as an aspiring comic book artist, where style is a major part of your identity. But it can also be a major concern for artists trying to figure out which industry they want to enter or what things they want to create.
Will a particular style work? Will it be accepted?
Some of the best advice I've heard was to let it happen by itself. I've heard great artists say that their style came as soon as they stopped thinking about it. It's kind of Zen... but then again, art style is one of those mysterious things.
While this is true, I want to talk about both the intuitive artist's way of finding style and the more analytical ways we can think about our art. Some of us are technical thinkers, while others are more intuitive, non-verbal thinkers. It's good to have ways to help discover your style no matter where you fit.
I'll get to the practical, intuitive approach in a bit, but first, let's look at some ways to think about style...
In a recent YouTube video, I talked about my journey towards understanding the technical limitations of style and how it's important to heed what I call 'Stylistic Archetypes'.
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Art style can be a mix of several things:
- Stylistic Archetypes and patterns which have evolved out of the way our tools and technology allow us to make things look. (The Art Nouveau style of Alphonse Mucha, based on line and color, inspired by the technical printing limitations of his era... Or the pixel art of early video games)
- The specific story or emotion we are trying to convey in a particular piece.
- Visual Design Language (using existing visual cues in people's minds, like spikes for danger, or lifting existing stereotypes like Gothic/Horror design language)
- The idiosyncrasies of an artist's hand: The way you hold the brush or pen, the way you make a line or a brush stroke
When I was starting out, I had all of these things mixed up in my mind. The mistakes I made were in thinking I could just pick whatever I wanted. I was trying to mix and match, to combine different things into one ultimate style that would be my own.
My own unique style!
Above is an early example of mixing painted looks with comicbook art
As I talk about in this video, I was developing painting skills and detailed anatomy knowledge because it was what everyone else was doing. But often, my comic book style was very simple and cartoony, and I would frequently accidentally render things differently from panel to panel.
Not the worst thing for sure... But one of the key components of style is consistency, and the bottom line was that I lacked consistency!
Paying attention to the Stylistic Archetypes is vital. There is wisdom in what great artists have found before you. You can stand on the shoulders of giants!
A good way to approach this is to think of the larger archetypes as patterns that work... and to heed them.
Think of the look of a classic Ghibli film or the first Disney movies: painted backgrounds with simple cel-shaded characters. This works!
Above is a frame from Ghibli's Porco Rosso... a great example of simple animated style.
Black and white comics are always simple and graphic; this works well. The simple shapes created by a low-poly video game, or the simple designs created for animation and comics so they can be redrawn quickly, are other examples.
Consider the high contrast and focus on form in Rembrandt's work, or the emphasis on color contrast created by Monet and the Impressionists.
Above is a crop from The Night Watch, by Rembrandt.
In my case, it was paying attention to a simple line and color style for comics (this is quick, effective, and prints well).
People have often already figured out what works in a particular medium for a particular audience. The problem is that this seems formulaic to aspiring artists, especially those who wish to create something new.
But the trick is that the other components of style are just as important, and these are the things we can make our own.
How you paint a brush stroke is unique to your hand. It will develop over time and become a signature which you barely notice. But others will see it as unique to you.
The emotion you bring to a particular story, project, scene, or illustration is defined by your life experiences. The way you think something should be told drastically changes your point of view. This is what we like about our favorite artists.
We enjoy seeing how a particular artist will draw a popular character! It's interesting because it tells us something specific. It's a statement that can only really be made by that artist; it is something unique.
Lastly, an artist's use and manipulation of stereotypes (this can sometimes be a contentious topic, but speaking to things that already exist and are known by the viewer is key to creating an artist's point of view and subverting expectations).
It is often these other three things that make up most of what we admire about great artists, rather than just the nuts and bolts of how they create art in a particular medium.
Yet in the beginning, we are entranced by the surface, and we try to copy other artists' idiosyncrasies. Instead, we should be learning the 'why' behind their process and discovering the artists and ideas that inspired them.
To summarize:
- A lot of what we think of as style is actually linked to the technical limitations of a medium. It's less about choice and more about doing what makes sense, standing on the shoulders of the great artists who have come before us.
- The other elements of style are where we are more likely to find uniqueness. These will grow and mature over time, no matter what you do.
- The point of view you have and the ideas you have will drastically change how you shape formulaic and well-trodden techniques and processes.
- The way you see and manipulate existing stereotypes and visual language gives you a distinct point of view that people will often see as style.
So there is actually wisdom in letting it happen by itself, in that Zen-like manner of ignoring something to find it...
But wait... that doesn't help avoid the mistakes!
Mistakes often happen when we try to build a style outside of a medium. Like I did—building a style I thought was unique, that I wanted to apply to comics... but never actually doing it.
I was building a style in a vacuum, void of practical feedback.
When I finally went to do the thing—to draw the actual comic—most of my style just didn't work. I had been ignoring the important archetypal patterns!
And it also doesn't help if you just want to jump in and do it... without all this thinking.
Luckily, there's an easy solution. This is what I base a lot of my teaching on these days.
To align all these elements of style... you must do the thing. You must simply practice doing what you want to do.
You must train the way you wish to fight.
Above is a crop from a Star Atlas: CORE cover that I created more recently with a much simpler flat coloring style.
If you work in a particular medium or technique used in an industry, or you practice creating the art you want... it will sort out the process and technical side of style. You'll quickly find what works and what doesn't, and you'll probably start to see the wisdom of the archetypal patterns for your chosen field.
If you make illustrations, comics, covers, animations, or concept art, you'll also be forced to have a point of view. To tell a story. To have something interesting to say. This helps you develop the personality of your work.
Above is a design I did for Gunfire Games. Concept art often needs more rendering and a 3D Base to explore dimensionality. But I still use a very similar process to my comics.
If you draw a lot... you'll develop style in your line or brushwork. Even if you try not to, it'll happen (for better or worse!). You WILL develop a unique way of drawing, if you do it enough.
If you actually do it... the style will come.
But there's often less choice than we think. It's more of a discovery.
Like Michelangelo with the David... we hack at the marble to find what's underneath. Only unlike Michelangelo... we often don't know what's under there until it's all chipped away.
So yeah... Technical limitations are really important to pay attention to when thinking about your art style.
And maybe think of it more like discovering something that's mostly there already. That's part of us from the beginning.
-Tim
If you haven't lately:
Check out The Line and Color Academy:
One of the key aspects of Style and 'getting the look you want' is to know WHEN to really focus on Style. The Line and Color Academy breaks down the Illustrators Journey into 5 Stages. So that you can know when to focus on a particular part of the journey.
Most people tend to focus on style way to early. Before a lot of other key skills are built.
