This is going to sound whiny, but this is an issue I really struggle with as an artist. I know you said before that artists should try to develop their own styles instead of copying the styles of artists they admire. But what if you can't figure out your style? How do you know what your style is, and how do you find it? I love to draw but sometimes I can't even tell if I like what I'm drawing. I always feel like I'm drawing the wrong stuff the wrong way you know?
I think you feel that way because you grew up in a world that believes the product is more important than the process. And this is the same world that allows only certain, elite people to dictate what counts as art. Or what counts as valuable.
Take the Mona Lisa as an example. It’s a very nice painting, but it’s still just a painting. It’s rotting. It will be gone someday. We think it’s priceless. But it’s not really valuable, and I know this because my mother, who is very important to me, doesn’t have the Mona Lisa on her wall. However, she does have a drawing I made of apples in fifth grade on her wall.
My point is, there’s no rule that says artists have to produce a body of cohesive, unique works to count as successful. In fact, there’s no rule that says you have to make anything at all if you don’t really feel like it. You can burn your drawings and leave this life weightless. You can draw donuts on coffee shop napkins if you want. You can keep your art a secret. You can make sandcastles and watch them melt in the high tide and never show them to anyone.
I mean if it’s practical advice you’re looking for, then I suggest you start throwing things away. Because when you say, “I can’t tell if I like what I’m drawing,” that tells me that you believe that anything you produce is more important than you are. And that’s just not true.
You will always have your skills. However you develop them, for as long as you’re alive, they’re yours. The rest is just stuff—almost all of which will rot and turn to dust or become obsolete. So draw something and throw it out. Draw ten things, throw them all out, and then draw them again. Give your drawings away. Delete the drawings with the most notes off your blog. Fill up a sketchbook and burn it. Finish a drawing and then tear it to pieces. Practice destroying your art so you aren’t afraid of it.
Art isn’t precious. YOU are precious. The skills and the passion come from you. Your style is you. Get into the habit of being in control of your skills to serve your happiness instead of letting the rest of the world turn you into a vending machine that produces only the “right” kind of art.
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