"Among the most frequently asked questions of the aspiring visual artist, I would expect to find “how do I develop my style” near the top of the list. The answer I typically give is to not worry about finding your style because once you’ve mastered the fundamentals of drawing, light and shadow, perspective, color, anatomy, and/or any number of other technical skills required, your style has more than likely found you. Style is nothing more than the sum of your intentions and you limitations. You have a vision and execute it to the best of your ability. Once your skill is at a high enough level to yield consistently satisfying results, you will be producing work with a consistent and recognizable style to it. This is because you are always pitting what you want to create against what you are able to create and style is where the two meet. Over time you reinforce your habits and learn to control your weaknesses so that they all cooperate and result in something uniquely “you”. "
Especially this part: "...you are always pitting what you want to create against what you are able to create..." Yep. I am constantly hitting up against that, the wall of my own limitations.
I just happened to read this right after Erika Holt posted her wonderful Inkpunk article; To Follow The "Rules", or Not. It's like a message from the universe to get my act together, figure out the rules, hone my skillz, and make good art.
(Many thanks to the amazing Lisa Grabenstetter, for sharing David's article on twitter.)
Oh, you've already discovered the super special award I made for you!
ReplyDeleteBTW, I made you an super special award. It's a lobster.
8D
I love this definition of style. I feel like I have some sort of control over my style, though, because I choose which artists to imitate (or DO I?) and the lessons I learn from them go into the mix of my own stuff. So maybe another way to think about style is that it's the collection of quirks that you sift out from other artists, throwing away the ones you don't like, adding the good ones to your own katamari ball.