Finding my artstyle

[EpithetSoup]

Hey so i've been drawing/ making comics for almost a year now and I decided I want to make my own artstyle. Now I know I can't "find" my artstyle very easily, but I want to develop an artstyle based on what I like. Is this possible to do? And for any of you who tried finding your artstyles, do you have any tips on how I can develop mine? Any help would be great!

[Zugaikotsu]

well, its quite possible, but usually have an original style takes years. I'm still refining mine, but what I did was draw everyday for many years and try to merge different styles (not only manga, or not only cartoon, etc. )

[VibrantFox]

I don't think there's any one way to "find" your artsyle. It's something that comes to you through practice and natural development and sometimes you wont even notice until it's really started to set in. If you know what inspires you, what you find aesthetically pleasing and just keep drawing consistently you'll figure it out.

[Rhonder]

I'll point out the obvious up front: if you draw, then you already have an art style However wanting to massage it into something more refined, different is natural. I have a few tips for that process!

• Since you mentioned wanting to base it on what you like, I advise seeking out some other artists that draw things in a similar way to what you're aiming for, and study their drawings. Perhaps someone draws eyes or hair in a way you think really looks cool, or uses a particular coloring technique, or has interesting linework. Take a look at those, try to figure out how they did it and try practicing it a lot, just in your sketchbook or whatever. By borrowing some techniques and mixing them with your own sensibilities your style will start to morph.

• Play around with different tools/techniques, see how they positively or negatively influence your drawings. I have an anecdote for this one:

  For the last like 10 years I always used to line my drawings exclusively with fine liners, just because they were what was readily available in like middle/highschool. Especially there was an artist I admired a lot who had said that they personally used the like really super thin ones (like .003/.005) so I tried using those too. My lineart was never really satisfying though, and I couldn't really put my finger on why. My lines were always kind of shaky which was really noticable with the super thin lines, and it just didn't mesh with my style well. Finally last summer a friend was looking at one of my drawings that I was working on and made an offhand comment about how it looked kind of flat, and asked if I was going to thicken the lines up at all. As dumb as it sounds, I hadn't ever really considered that. I was afraid of putting too thick of an outline on a character for fear of making them look "too cartoony", but I decided to take his advice and BOY did that picture turn out a lot better for it (it's this picture if you want to see). After that point I started experimenting with line weights more and imo my drawings have become much better as a result. On top of that, I also looked into different tools that could help get the effect I was looking for. I've since added Brush Pens and G-nib dip pens to my arsenal as my main ink-ers, and only use the fineliners in places where they're more appropriate, like detail areas, panel borders, and straight lines.

• Although you're probably already doing this, just practice a lot. The best way to learn the new techniques for your style is to just pump out tons of practice drawings. A lot of them wont look great, but that's okay because you're sprinting towards the light at the end of the tunnel! Last Inktober was the first I participated in, mostly just to get myself drawing consistently again (from 2012-2016 I drew very little in college). A lot of that album is pretty subpar drawings tbh, but I was able to use that period to practice the new line weight thing, and my drawings immediately following were a lot better tbh doing a comic has the same effect if you work on it regularly. You'll be drawing all the time and getting that practice in!

Best of luck in developing your style! Also can you link your comic? I wanna check it out :]

[miashuni]

try simplistic then slowy make it more realisteic so youll have a bunch of diferent styles to chose from!!

[silverraven0]

A few years back (like, way~back to my ten years old self), my drawing 'style' is heavily influenced by the typical shoujo manga character with big eyes, a dot for nose and overly big head that looks absolutely unproportional with the rest of the body (remembering my first ever manga style drawing give me chills).

Mainly its because that was the things I seen the most (you know, anime and manga) and what I can learn from a tutorial of how to draw a manga character in tv (yeah, that exist, but it's gone now).

In recent years, I started to ditch the overly 'shoujo' manga character drawing and goes more to a more 'appropriate' eyes that's doesn't looks big enough bit still big enough (get it? No? Me too).

I copied a lot of manga drawing style over the years (for learning, and because I fell in love with the mangaka works) while trying to search through my own style.

Now I sorta have my 'own' style (or something) of manga character drawing, but I couldn't say its not heavily influenced with other mangaka works.

My suggestion is, do copy the style of a drawings you like, and try to change it little by little while trying to learn how to draw that kind of style in YOUR OWN WAY AND STYLE.

So you won't be labeled as an impostor (I don't know what it's called, but I don't think plagiarism is the right word).

You'll figured your own style eventually, so no need to worry about it. Copy, but don't be too excessive. Make your own style along the way.

I hope I'm a little bit helpful for you.

[monotone_ink]

When concerning your different inspirations for your artstyle, there's at least one thing you should do: collect references

You will want a place where you can quickly refer to different pieces of art. I would suggest organising your collection more categorically, by aesthetic/artist, unlike what I've done here, but you get the idea.

Other than that, in regards to creating comics, keep in mind the kind of aesthetic or atmosphere you will want to convey - different 'artstyles' will suit different types of stories.

As an example, art styles with sketchy and frenzied lines may be more suitable for gritty, dark stories.

On the other hand, art styles that involve fine detail and consistent lines with stippling and hatching may be suited to fantastical, magical stories.

Have a clear idea on what kind of aesthetic you want to achieve. Don't even feel restricted to one kind of aesthetic - draw every kind of aesthetic. A good artist is flexible enough to morph their own artstyles to suit different situations - and even then, each artwork they make will always have their personal touch on it.

Good luck, here's a comfy image: