I’m doing great, if we don’t consider the huge amount of work I have to do for school. But it’s already April (2021 didn’t start just like, 3 days ago? No? Alright.) and then I’ll finally graduate from art school in a few months! That’s huge for me! I’ll still have two more years of university (I’m currently majoring in Communication for the creative industry), but finally getting that small degree in illustration makes me feel so proud. If I could hug myself from 4 years ago, studying in a regular university that just wasn’t for me, I’d do it. Past Sara deserves it. You go girl, hang in there!
This month I want to talk about something I get asked about quite often (I don’t know why honestly): finding your style. This is a real pain for some, and it was also for me! Going back to the intro to this post, I have to admit that Past Sara was someone completely different from Today’s Sara. I consumed art in the form of anime and manga and my style was (obviously) leaning more towards that style. Without shame, I can admit that if it wasn’t for FullMetal Alchemist I’d probably be elsewhere now.
We hear about finding your style a lot. How many videos and podcasts have you already consumed, trying to capture who knows what secret recipe to suddenly unlock that style everyone was talking about?
On my part, I can say: a lot. A ton. And they all said the same thing: you have to draw. Draw for a lot of time and draw a lot of different stuff. But drawing is hard, isn’t it? Sitting in front of a blank page, pencil in your hand, ready but for what?
A very important lesson I’ve learned in art school is that you just have to draw. Small doodles, nothing fancy, nothing beautiful. Draw a cat, a car, a carrot. My mom once bought some veggies and I just drew them, then I got sick and changed the subject. It doesn’t matter what, just draw.
Learning that I don’t have to be always perfect, made my art more fluent. Now there are so many things I want to try drawing that I just can’t pick sometimes. Of course I have some fav subjects, but some days I just go “Frick it, I wanna learn how to draw dogs with very long snouts.” (they’re super fun btw). I knew I liked things drawn in a very specific style, something childish and loose, colorful and suitable for children’s illustration. Bold textures and simple shapes always fascinated me, so I incorporated them as well. I knew where I wanted to go, and I was determined and also having fun, so I kept going! I drew such bad stuff sometimes but it was ok. Turn the page and start over.
And with that, unexpectedly, it came. I saw something I recognized myself in, something fun and that I enjoyed!
My friend always says that when we constantly look for things, we don’t find them. And I wasn’t trying to find my style or something, I was just sketching for fun. That daily sketch session to warm up, ya know?
I’m obviously still evolving, and I don’t think that I suddenly came up with something people will recognize me for (or they do? Who knows. That would be nice), but I learned a lot from this experience. Looking at my sketchbooks now, I can recognize myself a bit more, page after page.
This doesn’t mean to be some kind of lesson. “Learn how to find your style in 3 easy steps!!”. Nah. I’m not a teacher and I’m still waaay too inexperienced to teach something, but I think I’m on the right path to build something solid. Maybe you can get some inspiration from this :-)
Anyways! Book rec time!
This month’s book is something I’ve got for studying purposes: a silent book. That’s right, the only word this book has is the title itself! And that title is “Island” by Mark Janssen.
I got this wonderful book because I’m trying to come up with a silent book myself! And I needed to study a bit more: since words are such an important part of illustrated books, the complete lack of them makes storytelling very hard.
How do you tell a story without words? With colors.
And Janssen does that wonderfully.
I thought I was going to flip through that book for five seconds, because it’s mute and I don’t need to read anything: but I was wrong! I found myself observing each page for minutes, narrating a story in my head with every single detail I could see. And I think that’s a wonderful thing! It lets you write a story of your own, just with a few, wonderfully composed illustrations that pop with colors and textures.
Can you tell I fell in love with this book?
And with that, we’re done for April! Next month I’ll be very busy studying and preparing my finals, so I think I’ll tell you something about them. I’m currently finishing up a couple of book projects for school I’m very proud of and I can’t wait to show you :-)
I hope you have a wonderful day, a wonderful month and that you enjoyed this month’s newsletter illustration. If you want to get it, you have to subscribe to my newsletter to get notified whenever a blog entry gets posted :-)
Spring is my absolute favorite season, with denim jackets (because it’s still too cold and because they’re cool), t-shirts and that inebriating feeling up your nose. Maybe pollen, maybe just excitement.
Despite having to spend this time in quarantine (new year, new lockdown! yay!), I still feel excited about this new season. And so here I am, writing for a new blog. I’ve always liked the idea of blogging. Maybe this is the time I’m actually going to be consistent at it.
Since I’m feeling particularly positive this time of the year, I wanted to talk about something that I’ve recently discovered and that made me incredibly happy.
Some nights ago, as I struggled to fall asleep (thanks to my very clingy little cat-gremlin), I started to remember another night like that. I wasn’t able to fall asleep, it was spring, and my cat was probably attacking the monster living under my blanket.
But it wasn't totally Mamo's fault for my lack of sleep.
A year ago, I wasn’t happy with my art. I was in one of those tough art blocks that make you question all the decisions in your life (pretty dramatic huh?).
No matter what I did, I hated it. I finished some pretty terrible illustrations for my finals and called it a day. I was feeling so terribly that I couldn't even sleep.
And almost a year later I asked myself: what changed in a year?
I remembered a promise made to myself some months ago: that I would stop hating my art and I would start (or at least, try) to love what I was doing. To escape that art block, I focused on what I wanted to do, what I wanted to accomplish. I realized I didn’t have to make perfect art, I understood that I had to make art that I loved. I researched and practised, I studied from other books and realized that what I wanted to do, that what made me super happy were children's illustrations. Colorful, fun, experimental.
I think that learning to love my art was what really pushed me towards improvement. I still have a long way to go, obviously, but it feels good now. So incredibly good to just create for the sake of it. It cleared my mind and made me enjoy making art again. No matter if I’m not perfect at something (anatomy, I’m talking about you), no matter if I make something with no context, just because I wanna draw something random it doesn’t mean it’s useless. It’s fun and I like it, and that's all that matters.
I don’t know if this is a good idea, if this blog is going to take me somewhere or not. But it’s fun writing about what I think, about the questions I ask myself or about what I’m going to do in order to reach my goal. Maybe I can help someone like me, who knows!
If you're struggling like I was, try to reflect on what you do and on why you do it. And keep in mind that being perfect isn't everything. Art doesn't have to be perfect, art (or music, writing, acting and so on!) is fun and cathartic and it should stay this way!
If you're blocked, try being messy: use clashing colors, different materials, start a new sketchbook with a thousand different techniques in it, make the pages swell with new stuff! And get new books, go for a walk (with your mask on of course), follow new artists that inspire you. Feeding my brain with new stuff I loved it's what has saved me many times.
Anyways, something else I want to do (and that I LOVE doing), is giving book recommendations! I get most of my inspiration from children books I buy (mostly for studying purposes, but also because I actually love reading them).
Maybe you can get inspired too!
A book I recently got is “How to make friends with a ghost” by Rebecca Green. I’m a fan of Rebecca’s work, it played an important role in the research of my own style!
The book is adorable, with muted tones and accents of colors that give personality to the characters. Also loved to bits all the little word-plays and lists of ghost food. The finale got me teary eyed, but just because I’m a little baby and love happy endings. I’m about to get more of Rebecca’s books, I can’t get enough!
Time to close up this first post. Next month I want to talk about finding your own style, since it’s something I get asked about quite often. I think I figured it out (good job Sara).
Now a question: what you do to get out of a bad creative block? Tell me down below!
