Sooooooo out of curiosity do you have any advice for both dealing with a very loud inner critic and defining your own style of art?
Hi there! I can give my two cents on both matters, but as a fair warning, this is all personal opinion and I don’t consider myself a “professional” in any regard. I just happen to be an artist who is (for the moment) content with their art and their style. Sure enough, I wasn’t always like this and am still working to defining myself.
An art style is what separates you from the rest, but how you develop it is the tricky part. You’ll find that artists tend to feed off each other – we inspire one another with our pieces and ideas and we produce more and more as a reaction. I believe a way to define your art style would be in testing different styles, even if that seems a little counterproductive. Though, personally, this is how it’s worked out for me. If I could name all the cartoons and artists that I got inspired from, I’d have a list of at least 10+ different shows/people. And that’s assuming I remember all of them, sometimes you end up absorbing traits from others and not even realize it.
When I was a child – I’m taking baby piggu drawing with crayola crayons – my drawings were of Pongo and other dogs from 101 Dalmatians. As I grew I went with Power Puff Girls, then some Sonic stuff (cause i was probably 10 and a closet furry,) and then I messed with animes like Naruto, DBZ. I was into Xiolin Showdown for a while. And I was really into Sly Cooper (again, furry fuel.) The list goes on and on for another decade worth of cringy artistic adolescence.
But all that junk was my foundation, and from all that experimenting, I evolved into how I draw today! If I hadn’t been exposed to all those forms of media and if I hadn’t been inspired to draw things based on them, I probably would have developed an entirely different style. You learn from what you see.
As an example of a well defined art style, a guy like Tim Burton has such a distinct look to his pieces that you can show their artwork to any average person and they could either name who made it or associate it with one of Burton’s movies. In all cases, you have to ask yourself: what is it about this style that is so appealing/memorable? Being critical plays a big role in this as well, because being able to analyze and deconstruct art (specifically pieces that you love or inspire you) can help you apply it to your own. And I’m not saying you should copy another person’s art style, but you should learn what captivates you. And then it’s just a matter of practice, effort and time.
Now when it comes to silencing a loud inner critic that’s beyond my reach in knowledge. I’m not a psychologist, so I don’t know the definitive answer to this question, but what worked for me is what worked with A LOT of my inner turmoils, not just with art. At one point in my life i learned to genuinely stop giving a fuck. Or rather, I learned to stop giving as much fucks as I’m used to – if that makes sense.
I don’t mean to devalue anyone’s experience. I’m fully aware some people have a tougher time accepting positive comments about themselves because there’s a voice in their head that tells them otherwise. But an inner-critic is apart of you, there’s no silencing it, especially if you’re an artist. In fact, the inner-critic is actually meant to help you. Without self criticism, you would never see faults and you would never strive to be better, which can also result in disappointments when others can see them crystal clear.When I find myself in a slump and dislike my art, I immediately remove myself from my work. Even if I have a deadline or an urge to keep trying, I take a break because once you’re irritable, it’ll be reflected in your work. So my advice is to take breaks, learn to appreciate your efforts, be conscious of your inner critic and learn to tell em to shut the fuck up. Again, its all practice, effort and time. Also here’s some articles I’ve read about this subject, they might help you too!• http://kalimunro.com/wp/articles-info/emotions-and-feelings/the-inner-critic-accepting-ourselves
Please Please Please have an intervention with Ask-Brick-Flash about his Johnny Test addiction it has gone too far, and i tried to talk to him IRL but he will not listen so please please please take his mutuals and just have an intervention.
ask-brick-flash you're hurting your loved ones with your obsession, look at this shit.
