Do you ever feel like your visual preferences for art clash with how you actually draw?

[spadedigsbutts]

I absolutely love love love line-less and painterly styles with lots of textures and sketchy styles...yet in my main comic and most of my art I use almost entirely strong blacks and harsh inked lines, something I usually hate seeing when I look at art. Does anyone else have similar experiences? And why do you think it happens if so? 🧐

[streetcat]

I think everyone feels this kinda thing from time to time, probably because you have a certain art taste that looks pleasing to your eye, but it does not necessarily mean you can instantly recreate/copy it cause you have your own drawing habits that are super hard to change . For example, I loooove blocky and plain colours, yet when I draw, I cannot help but mix them and do smooth transitions between them、otherwise something feels kinda odd?
If you want to change your drawing techniques, try to imitate those artists that you like: use their brushes, look at how they use them, and in what order they draw, that might help!

[rmdooley]

No, but there are definitely times I am simply not skilled enough to draw the image I have in mind.

[Eightfish]

we all want what we can't have

[DokiDokiTsuna]

My answer to this problem was to simply fall in love with a style that I could draw (and quite enjoy drawing~).

Although I do still feel that angst that comes with simply being incapable of creating something you like...I've always enjoyed that shiny, professional-looking, effortlessly-detailed anime-esque art you often see in RPGs, but the most I can do is sketch something similar. The coloring process that really brings the effect home would drive me insane before too long...I'd either quit or start cutting corners; either way I wouldn't be satisfied with the end result. :[

[Rhonder]

Frequently haha. I think the biggest feeling of contrast is when I look at really detailed works, which I often think look really cool. Like when a character's hair has a lot of texture/strands drawn, or really beautiful detailed depictions of background elements, or whatever. Compared to my style which is like... relatively simple and cartoony, i think. And, like, I've tried to emulate those types of styles before, but I was never satisfied with the results when I tried them and they never took. Aaaaaaand I also like my style too. It's not worse, necessarily. Just different

[JRHoch]

No, my visual preferences and my art coincide pretty well, though if I didn't care for keeping an audience I would go more raw and abstract.

However, the way I look and the way I wish I looked are very far apart!

[Iris-Grimoire]

They clash, but I don't really mind. I love more painterly, concept art-y styles and bouncy, angular looking compositions, but the comic needs to be grounded so I'm not destroying my hands every page and it also wouldn't display too well when printed; I think this stems from just plain looking at more illustration than sequential art to begin with. It's valid to like horror more but the story you want to write and get attached to is scifi, as a comparison, sometimes tastes just work like that.

[elyss]

Oh yeah, but for me it's such a small thing. I love thin and weighted line art, but my style uses thicker lines because it suits it better. It's so small, but I can't help but wish I could get them to meet.

[frgmnt]

I only feel like that some 95% of the time.

For example, I love cartoony styles with a bit of an anime touch that are so expressive, very stylized, have so much energy, playing with shapes a lot, bold linework... and I just can't draw like that. I've tried but it ends up looking the same as my usual stuff. Stylization in general is a big problem for me, it seems like it's so easy to draw in a loose cartoony style, but for me it's extremely difficult. I keep wishing for a simpler style, while being unable to stop over-complicating everything.

Another one, I love horror art! ...and I really wish I was drawing something more spooky/horror-esque but somehow either I don't get any good ideas, or can't execute the concept the way I wish to.

[Hodge]

Definitely, all the time. It used to frustrate me sooo much back then, less now since I'm not as limited by my abilities. But back then things like "style" and "aesthetics" were such a mystery since I would become narrow-minded every time I reached a wall with my skill level. Still kinda mysterious, but I know how to be more deliberate and particular in my decision making.

[RCGates]

Without a doubt. I grew up with the Batman the Animated Series Bruce Timm style of art, and now, as an adult, I have wanted to have a style similar to him. Unfortunately, every time that I do create art, it is not like how I wished it would look. I have gotten more used to my own style, but I do still have an inkling of desire to have that other style.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I really think Sci-fi horror artwork always looks really awesome. Also Metal band logos and cover artwork. They tend to have a dark semi realistic style to them that I just can't do.

My stuff looks so cartoony. But I do like my style. I just wish I could crack that other style but it's an uphill battle that frankly isn't worth the time and effort.

[JeanGuillet]

yes. I will never be Albert Bierstadt. But I'd settle for being Tom Kincaid, even. Honest. ugh. *adds more sparkles to the comic *

[gempompadour]

Sometimes. I adore a soft watercolor-like pastel colors combined with equally light colored lineart. The problem is that I'm very used to doing a dark, heavy lineart that stems from my traditional ink-heavy past. I'm very new to coloring my art.

Other problem is that I draw my panels on pen and pencil and then add colors digitally. I have to use black/grey tones for the lineart and can't get the ethereal look I love. But my palette is very much pastels. I think the darker toned grizzly looking demons add a nice contrast to the otherwise soft world.

[feardeer]

Frequently!
But there are things I like about my current style as well, which I've only been able to say confidently for the past year or two. I wouldn't want to swap styles with anyone though. Rather, I'd like to continue to experiment and hone mine so that it remains uniquely feardeer, but also embodies traits that reflect my tastes better.