FIRST: RELEASE THYSELF FROM THE CLUTCHES OF THE CONCEPT OF “STYLE”seriously. stomp it dead. KILL IT. i’ve wasted SO MANY years of my life, worrying about style!! i’ve been jumping between “styles” left and right for all my life, never feeling happy with the way i drew. i’d see someone else’s art and wish my art wasn’t the way it was etc. after a while i had learned to draw in one million “styles” from semi realistic to realistic to anime-esque to disney-esque and i felt…thin…sort of…stretched…like an artist trying to master too many styles at once. like it was a bad thing.however one day (like..two years ago) i realized that NO i can’t do this anymore. this isn’t FUN. i have KILLED ART for myself. i tried to think back to the last time i was effortlessly producing art and having FUN with it, and it was back when i was 13-14 years old and just produced stuff for my own liking. it was horrible stuff semi inspired by tim burton and the good charlotte aesthethic (i was in my early teens during the green day (american idiot period), good charlotte, fall out boy, avenged sevenfold, my chemical romance black parade boom….so all my characters wore a lot of eyeliner and their key design feature were converse shoes in thier trade mark colour. yup. wow.) anyway my art was full of stuff i LIKED at the time and whenever i didn’t know how to draw, for example, a converse shoe properly i just looked a lot on real converse shoes and whoa i was so fucking good at drawing converse shoes. to this day i can draw a perfect converse shoe by heart. so that’s what i went back to a couple of years ago; drawing stuff that i LIKED. like i love stylized art, so i stylize a lot. i love children’s book illustrations so i try to emulate some sort of childish nostalgia into what i do. when i’m bored i just try to draw subjects that i like; dragons, fish, random little girls, rooms etc… so firstly, just draw what you LIKE and if you can’t draw it, look it up, and..you know what…then draw it in many different ways, or “styles” if you like. until you find a way to draw it that looks good and effortless to you. because you know what? after this insane journey of trying to draw in different “styles” i’ve realized this has been ONLY to my advantage. there is NOTHING wrong with having tons of styles. it’s only GOOD because you learn to draw things in a lot of ways and eventually you’ll be able to mix it up in a way you like!!like, just look at mayorvillagers artblog serevent. she has a lot of different styles that she’s mastered due to her working in a lot of different art related industries. it’s so cool!! she can pull off a lot of different techniques and it’s so fun to see her personal art absorb her new knowledge because it really shows. trying new things will ONLY aid you in your quest to develop your art!! also if you’re in a rut try drawing lines in different ways. i used to be very concerned with how “unfinished” and sloppy my sketches look, and in a way, i still feel like it, but i’m trying to make it MY thing. like, if i really wanted to make perfect line art in photoshop or sai i probably could with a lot of practise but i don’t find this fun at all. so i just started to draw even shakier lines etc. i guess the key to how i personally work is that i learn to draw something then i start stylizing it until it’s starting to get ridiculous. you should see my charizards (and misc. dragons.) as a hobby artist, i have the luxury to not get into stuff i’m not interested in!! it doesn’t really matter because i just draw for fun every now and then. however, i really should get more into light settings and perspective and dynamic poses. this is something i WANT to get into because i feel like it would help my art in a positive way.uuhh also tips!! if you’re ever overwhelmed by taking in a lot of art all around the web and tumblr. STOP. CONSUMING. OTHER PEOPLE’S ART. everyone is different and for some people seeing lots and lots of art made by others is a good thing, but for me it’s not. i feel overinspired and end up feeling unfocused. the best thing i’ve ever done is to just unfollow most artists online except a select few + my friends. look through your own sketch books. get inspired by YOURSELF. who says inspiration only has to come from outside sources? i can look through sketchbooks and feel bad but then suddenly there’s a small tiny doodle that makes me go “oh, i like THAT whoa it’s really nice” it doesn’t have to be something big but just something small and liked well enough to get me fueled to get better and draw more. trying to see the POTENTIAL in your own art, and enjoy the process getting there. OK WHOA SHIT totally long post i’m sorry but i am REALLY one of those persons who worried too much about style for YEARS and i just know how stressful and tbh STUPID it is. realize that “your style” is whatever comes out on paper when you hold the pencil. it’s your brain in combination with physical movements that creates art.HOPE THIS HELPEDtl;dr: stop thinking drawing in lots of styles is a bad thing. it’s actually great and developing. also get inspired by your own stuff. also, draw from life.
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