Alrighty then friends, lets talk about art styles!
What exactly is an art style, anyway? Well, it’s a combination of the formal elements of art that is unique to you. To put it even simpler: it’s all down to your tastes.
The formal elements are:
Line: what line quality do you use? Are they bold, clean lines? Soft, thin lines? Do you use any at all? Head to my inking tag to read up on line quality.
Colour: what sort of colour palettes do you use? Are they all warm colours? Pastel? Analogous? Colour theory is a whole subject of its own, understanding it is a key part to making your art your own!
Shape: Shape design is really important to distinctive art styles i think! the shapes you use will define how everything looks.
Shape design is a little trick to explain though. Certain shapes are pleasing to the eye, i find a large part of it is due to contrast.
a great example of this is straights vs curves, but you can also create contrast by using different basic shapes. I cover a this a little towards the end of this post.
Another part of contrast is making things unbalanced. straights vs curves & simple vs detailed creates contrast due to things not being equal, there’s a difference between the two sides.
Big vs small is another way to create contrast!
And lastly, having a clear silhouette is a really important part of shape design.
Tone: do you like to use a lot of contrasting values in your work? Or do you prefer a softer, dreamy kind of value range?
Tone ties in heavily with understanding light, and is closely linked with Colour!
Texture: do you use texture in your work? Do you use thick brush strokes? Do you prefer things to be smooth and clean?
Form: form is about how three-dimensional your work looks - do you have a lot of depth in your work? Or is it flat and graphic, like hieroglyphics?
Realistic form in your art is down to understanding perspective and anatomy. This isn’t the same as Tone - you can use Tone to enhance the Form in your art, but you can still convey a 3D form with lines alone!
Anyway. Let’s look at some examples shall we?
What makes up Steven Universe’s style?
One thing that sticks out to me is the Colour - the palette is very warm and often contains a lot of pinks and warm blues.
If you look at the characters, the Lines are very bold and clean, and while there is not a lot of Tone there is a lot of care put into the Form.
There is not a lot of Texture in the characters, the colours are all very clean and flat and different materials are not coloured any differently.
In the backgrounds though things change! There is a lot more colour variance, the brushes used are textured and the lines don’t quite meet the colours giving it a rough sort of look. The backgrounds often have a dream-like quality I feel
The shape design in steven universe is very strongly based on one particular shape per character - steven is made of hearts, garnet is made of squares, pearl is made of triangles, amethyst is made of ovals, etc.
The backgrounds are also very graphic, with big blocks of colour used to represent clouds and the like.
Now lets take a look at Splatoon’s concept art
The first thing to note is that there are no Lines - solid blocks of colour are used instead, the contrast between the Colours is what separates the different Forms.
Unlike Steven Universe, Splatoon is full of Texture - heavy grungy brush strokes are used, and several colours are used to make up one surface instead of solid flat colours.
Speaking of colours, that’s a really key part to Splatoon’s art direction!
The colour usage is largely neutral colours - greys, browns, dull greens, dark yellows - with select areas of extremely bright vibrant colour. The neutral tones are used to provide a lot of contrast, and it’s like. my jam hot damn thats the aesthetic
On a complete flipside though, how about we take a look at A Link Between Worlds?
The art style of the paintings in the games is extremely distinctive - bold Lines, heavily textured brush strokes, patchy blocks of colour, and very flat forms. Also very distinctive is the use of white lines!
It’s like if you took the linework from Steven Universe and combined it with Splatoon’s textured colours, but removed the 3D form. See how combining the different elements makes a new style?
Now then, how do you develop a style? It’s all well and good looking at styles, but how do you do that yourself?
Well! You do what you like! I suggest making a moodboard of your favourite artists so you can figure out what it is about their art that you like. Is it their use of colour? Their lines? The shapes?
I personally have a folder on my computer called ‘aesthetic’ which I have filled with art that really inspires me, I look through it when I’m feeling directionless!
Once you identify what it is you like about other people’s art, you can strive to incorporate it into your own work. That’s the secret to making art you love!
Your art style will develop naturally as you study the fundamentals of art, it’s your interpretation of all the elements of art that makes up your style.
kaledo-art
blakekathryn
annaxmalina
janainaart
origamiaround
gummygunk
dailybridgerton
jacobvanloon
