Trying to Develop Artistic Style

Stop Trying So Hard!

Most budding artists focus so hard on trying to develop artistic style. It was a constant topic of conversation in art school and I’m sure things haven’t changed much. It’s such a hot topic, I felt it prudent to repost a post from a year ago. Hopefully it will help to focus more on learning and developing proper techniques rather than focusing so much on style…

Stop Drawing Like Other People!

One of the biggest concerns for budding artists is developing artistic style. One of the things that happens is that they start copying the styles of other artists that they admire. I did this for a while, too. I had never drawn comic book characters before and I happened to love Jim Lee’s style. At the time he was drawing for The X-Men. I liked his style so much that I found myself trying to draw just like him.

The problem was, that wasn’t my style. It was his!

Imitating someone else’s style prevents viewers from recognizing your work. (Photo Credit: 123RF.com Copyright: Kaspars Grinvalds)

So my work ended up looking like someone who was trying to draw like Jim Lee. That’s not what I wanted. I want people to look at my work and know it was my work, not someone else’s.

So then, how does one go about developing artistic style?

Here’s the ironic part…