Gonna start this off by saying I love your art sm like I could look at the details for hours
You have a lot of different artstyles from what I can tell 👀 how do you think you got these distinct styles/ what did you use to study art?
Thank you very much!
My main tool to study art is Pinterest. I have all kinds of reference there, color mood, human photography, manga drawing, hands, body, leg, illustrations, fashion, clothing, wrinkles.. Just make tons of folders and keep everything organized. Second is Artstation, when I already had professional studios in mind.
Abt my artstyle, oh gosh it will be a long topic. Just think of it as my own mumbling.
Back then when I was still a fresh graduate, I had only 2 artstyles
The job hunting (aka overrendering) style:
When I was in art college, I mainly learned LOL's splash art rendering style for job hunting. Here I learned how to paint without lineart. And often straight up color blocking after rough sketch. It was so stressful because I tended to overpaint everything.
2. The personal (aka I only draw for fun so pls dont look too seriously) style:
Heavily influenced by manga style and fanarts, but sometimes plays around with weight of line.
Start from 2020:
The job hunting style just keeps growing:
2020→2024
I often felt burnt out from rendering, so I became more experimental in exploring new artstyle, seeking something fun and raw. I usually start by experimenting on one piece, and if I feel fond of it, I keep developing that style. In the end, this process helps me learn more about myself, what I enjoy, what I prefer to study, and what I choose to let go.
So besides jobhunting my artstyle has split into 3 I guess:
1. I got the Disney vibe/Cartoonish style:
2020→2025
Disney 2d animation was a huge part of my childhood. They were so good at shapes, expression and gesture flow that I feel like the vibe grew into me over time. In this style, I let go of details and heavy shadows, prefer simplicity and dynamics, as an extreme opposite of my job hunting style.
Other than Disney, Pokemon is also a huge part to me. The TCG art and fanarts always blow my mind on how they draw a simple-shaped creature design with such dynamic energy. I had learn a ton when I illustrated the Twst x Pkmn Fanbook cover art which makes me believe that I prefer simplicity and dynamics way more than realistic rendering. Also sometimes cute stuff doesn't need much rendering, so I can switch styles if needed.
I think my early Azul and Kalim in these 2 drawings, and most of my very exaggerating expressions showed a lot of the cheekiness of this style too, maybe something that’s been deep down in me all along.
2. I got the Traditional-ish style:
2020→2025
I went back to how I used to color block without line art. In this style my main inspiration now is Kleiner Hai. I really like the heavy noise/canvas texture and brush strokes that looks like traditional painting, and I can just keep overpaint without caring too much on details. Also no heavy filter is needed in this style, just raw color sense.
If the Cartoonish style has exaggerating expressions, this style has only calm and relaxing expressions, because that's just how I feel when I paint with this style. It's like a tavern where I take a rest from a long journey and sip tea.
3. Combining all I learned to my personal style, and do more experiment:
2020→2025
Unlike my job hunting style, my personal style is more energetic, and emotional. I feel like jobhunting has kept me from expressing who I really am, so I pour all my heart into my personal style.
After recalling my roots in loving Disney’s gesture flow, I started paying more attention to flow in my art. It significantly changed how I draw Jamil's hair. It became so fluid now that I basically turned myself into a hair fetishist and have no regrets.
And after recalling the color blocking method I changed my workflow to "not everything needs to be perfectly drawn during lineart, let some of the hair strands or accessories be the final touch". It really helps alot.
And Sheya Chen and Redum are truly one of my art gods right now. Since last year I found out I am really really fond of China artists' color sense too, u can actually feel warmth through their color, so I studied alot of their art on Pinterest and set as my color goal. Some of my color art is finally heading in a direction I like
And now honestly it become some kind of a mix between rendering and personal style, cuz now I only render small focus point like hands, face or hair. I love that, that means I don't need to overburn myself to overrender everything again.
Also experimented alot on Jamil's face too(poor guy).. Sometime I want to know if eyebag or lower lashes looks good on him..Pretty or handsome.. I kinda want my version of him stay unique so I've been very greedy..
Yea I guess thats all about my overall style.
Basically I didnt really lock down what my style should stay, but I do have a clear vision of what kind of color moods that I like, remember whats my root as an artist, let go somepart to remain the part I prefer, stay experimental and learn new things, and try not to stay stubborn on one
Look at more art, seek inspiration, find a direction that may excite you, that's when you ready to learn new things. If your artstyle right now is blocking you from the new direction you're excited for, just believe in your new potential and turn it into a new one.
I see myself as a person with very rich and emotional feelings, so one artstyle may not fully convey how I feel. But they are all still different sides of me, and i hope u can recognised parts of me from them too🫰
