How did you develop/improve your art style

[shazzbaa]

I know everybody says this, but seeeeeriously don't worry too much about your style or what your style is!! Just worry about making your art as good as you possibly can imo!

The way you get a style is to draw a heck of a lot without closing yourself in -- instead of being like "THIS IS THE WAY I DRAW EYES, THIS WILL BE MY STYLE" you just always are open to learning new ways to draw eyes, and when you find ways of drawing things that you like, you draw them a whole lot -- whether that's something you hit on while studying real eyes, or if you see an artist who draws eyes a way that you really like and you start kinda drawing eyes that way too.

And never be afraid to change the way you draw things -- if you've hit on a way you draw legs that you really like, but you see someone else draw legs a way that's really cool, feel free to experiment on integrating that into the way you draw!! Or if you draw eyes a certain way, and then realise it's a little off when you look at real eyes -- don't be afraid you'll lose your style if you fix it!! That's the way a style develops -- it's allowed to grow organically.

As you draw a whole bunch, all the things you like and the things that look cool to you and the places where you've changed something that you realised looked weird and the bits and pieces you've picked up from other places will all combine together into something really unique, and that's how you get a distinctive style!

[sarrowsmith10]

don't be afraid you'll lose your style if you fix it!! That's the way a style develops -- it's allowed to grow organically.

I love this. I think the biggest thing that has held me back in the past was trying to make my art a certain way. Having the attitude that my art must look more anime.. or more western.. or whatever. Being open to just draw, without judgement from myself or others is when I grew the most as an artist.

Most of the time, I improved my style the most was when I was drawing from life, and just trying to be myself, and not copy other styles I had seen or liked. Just sort of do what I had in mind and just run with it. Not hold back and not hold onto what I had already learned.

I also consciously decided to work on specific things. Like, spent a month just drawing backgrounds and trees and buildings and crap. Or a few days of just drawing hands and gloves and things to improve on that area. Just a thought.

[alaingrey]

I think the biggest way to develop a look for your art is to look at art, and look at art that you really like. Try to draw like the art you like. Make pieces in the styles of other artists. When you try and emulate someone, you realize the ways that you instinctually develop an image, versus their instincts.

For example, in school I chose to copy a piece from the Cannabis Works book by Tatsuyuki Tanaka for an assignment, because I wanted to emulate the muted colors and the fine details. I did one copy, and one painting of my own in the style. The one I had designed on my own was extremely different because what I learned is I have a better sense for brushstroke and painterly instinct than the artist in question, whereas his strength was more in composition and detail. So I learned that my work really benefits from some more looseness because it allows my paints to do a little more. These are the sorts of discoveries you can have.

It drives me insane when people think that accessorizing an image, or adding some gimmick makes it stylish. I've seen people be like 'my style is to add a circle on every joint' or 'my style is that the hair will be collaged' or something like that. Style is not the icing on the cake, it's the cake itself. If you make the cake, you can do whatever you want with the icing without changing what really gives it the flavor you want. /bad metaphor over,,,

[Shanny8]

Lots of practice. In time you will find things that you are very good at naturally, and things that you may want or need to work on. It's not going to happen overnight or within a short span of time, but you will notice improvement in your work over a 6 month span if you apply yourself (almost)everyday. Surround yourself with books and materials that will help you to become better...also take it in stride and dont stress out when it looks like it's not going the way you want it to.

[UrMom]

It's kinda hard work. The way I developed mine was wanting to like the human body, and take art seriously. After shoving nudes, books filled with photos of people (My favourite to this day is 'Anatomy for the Artist'), and realism and surreal art in my face it developed on it's own.

If you're really serious, I could give some resources that might help a little, but you gotta do some not so fun stuff if you want to improve. -coughstudycough-

[Amymone]

How did you improve/develop your own art style ?

I picked up 100 fanart challenges as a hobby. Basically, I chose one series and tried to draw 100 pictures for it, trying very hard to study and replicate the series art style to get the most out of the experience. It took me about six months to do one challenge. I think I started doing this back in 2003 (when I was 16), but I gave up in 2013 because I got interested in webcomics.

100 challenges are not for everyone, in fact many friends in my circle were inspired to try it themselves, but they never made it past the first two pictures. I personally had an addiction for producing piles and piles of pictures, which ended up benefiting me when I started building up my webcomic buffer.

I guess my best advice to get out of a slump is to get yourself excited for something. Even if that something ends up not being art related, it's perfectly fine. My other hobby is doll collecting, and I used to be addicted to designing and making clothes for them, which in turn effected my character designing process.

[JessJackdaw]

Shazzbaa, how is it that every time you post on the forum, it's pure gold?

And never be afraid to change the way you draw things -- if you've hit on a way you draw legs that you really like, but you see someone else draw legs a way that's really cool, feel free to experiment on integrating that into the way you draw!! Or if you draw eyes a certain way, and then realise it's a little off when you look at real eyes -- don't be afraid you'll lose your style if you fix it!! That's the way a style develops -- it's allowed to grow organically.

...This happens so much to me. My "style" changes so much so often, usually because I experiment with drawing a lot of strange things fairly often and my style just kinda gets tainted by all the things that draw. Maybe tainted isn't the right word. Perhaps more like it adapts and evolves to each time I draw. God, now it sounds like a superpower. XD

@Starlover200 I think most people have said it, but really, foundation first. Style just naturally happens when you start experimenting with the skills you forge over time.

Honestly, how I went about it was to try learning realism before going stylistic. I figured if I practiced what I consider the hardest "style" of them all, any other style would come more naturally to me. It actually worked fairly well for me thus far, but I don't know if it works for everybody. XD

[nessiefynn]

Don't think too hard about your style, it will develop as you improve your artistic fundamentals and on practicing. As you keep on drawing, you'll find shortcuts and tics to your art that you like, and eventually these tics will become your style. I only really found a style I like after drawing several pictures every day for a few months. Just keep on drawing, keep on experimenting, and you'll find something eventually.

[nikacomics]

As someone continuously experimenting with different styles (though hopefully you don't notice it as much in my comic), this topic is of great interest to me! While I agree to an extent that focusing on the fundamentals of drawing is important to development, I also think it is important to be aware of your style. What is style, anyway? Colors? Anatomy? Ways of drawing backgrounds? Style can help you set a mood, draw backgrounds more quickly, make a character seem cuter or more sinister. It's pretty useful to look at other artists' work to see how they do this. If I were to say this differently, learning how to draw realistically gives you a useful toolkit, but style helps you figure out how to apply it.

Over time, you'll naturally gravitate toward a certain way of doing things, but you should give yourself room to experiment. I think one-off illustrations are great, as are drawing exercises. (Has anyone here done the challenge on Twitter where you tried to draw your characters in your friends' styles?) It can also be good to do mini-comics, where you define the character and background concepts in a slightly different style from what you're used to, and you force yourself to stick to them from beginning to end.

These are just a couple of things I'm currently doing. Ultimately, the goal is to draw and draw some more until I discover a style that is efficient for me! xD

[indagold]

draw from life/photos and realize anime isn't for me. As a young baby on the internet I grew up seeing everyone draw kawaii desu moe blobs and my friends could not relate to me being a baka gaijin. I stopped drawing lumpy dogs and drew anime at 12. I could not even get into manga or anime at all outside of drawing it. Took me like 5 years to finally develop a style for myself and give up trying my hardest to be a weeb. Ah the sad pathetic tale of me.

Too bad anime is like a heroin addiction and it never truly leaves your system.

[Mharz]

For me, training and working in animation industry really helped me improved my drawing skills drastically. Srsly working in animation is absolutely challenging. Not only you have to make the character move, you have to learn lots of variations in drawing styles bcos some of our projects is like cartoony then the next is anime-ish then it's back to cartoon style so on and so forth. So our boss told us if you can learn the principles of drawing (shapes, proportion, perspective, volume, appeal, etc.) you can draw any kind of style, regardless of what medium you use be it traditional or digital. I take these words to heart up to this day.

One good practice is trying to copy drawings 50-100% larger than the original (Just don't upload it). That way you will really be forced to work on your proportions and volume. Don't be afraid to try something new. If you see a style or a method that interests you, try applying it on your own drawings. Just like almost everyone said here, don't worry about having your own style first. It'll show up eventually.

(Has anyone here done the challenge on Twitter where you tried to draw your characters in your friends' styles?)

Yup!

This is a good practice, btw. I'd definitely do it again when I have some free time.

[Menbung]

The God of art once said, "Only one word: draw".

[AnnaLandin]

Lots and lots of practise of the fundamentals.

Anatomy, perspective, colour theory, composition, clothing and drapery, etc. Over and over and over and over and over (and still to this day), practise and try all the things until it sticks.

At the same time, I've been reading and watching a bunch of comics and animation and live-action movies and so on, and while I haven't tried to consciously imitate it - I don't want my style to be a copy of someone else's - all those visual impressions have helped me form an idea of what I enjoy in a drawing.

Put all of those things together with a whole bunch of time, and at the end of it, you get my drawing style. It literally just happened one day, and it's still in a constant state of change. I don't draw my characters the same way now as I did a year ago, when I began posting my comic. Change is good! It means you're learning new things!

[shaneoid77]

I think a good exercise in developing yourself as an artist is pushing yourself in to other types of art. I started out doing comic book art, but in the last few years I tried painting and 3D sculpting and you'd be surprised what that stuff can bring to your over all style. I don't feel I was skilled at detailing faces until I watched RuPaul's Drag Race and watched the contestants contouring their make up, that really helped me see where the light and dark goes to highlight a face!

[infectedbloodcomics]

I practice as much as I can drawing the human figure from all angles. There are many tutorials online, along with countless poses. That's what has helped me the most

[Vikiro_Hop]

Like everyone said it sorta comes into its own after a bit, meanwhile work on your foundation. Stealing bits you like from various artsists is pretty common though. Just make sure you don't borrow too much from one person.

[acealmansoori]

I found that creating a comic made me challenge myself, I tried different poses and perspective. Also, art trades, collabs helped alot.

[R.n.P]

I look for critics cuz their words are like a super saiyan power up for me but when someone compliments my work it makes me go One Punch Man power up drive for improvement. So the more critics and compliments the better
THE LAST SAMURAI

[inkythoughts]

While I to 100% agree with shazzbaa, I'd also like to add: don't just experiment with styles, but also with media!

I used to do pencil-drawing a lot, then I got my graphic tablet, and had to learn so much about drawing again because, well, I didn't have a comfortable digital style for myself. Half a year of almost only digital drawing (where I went through so many different versions of drawing processes) later, I came back to traditional through Inktober - but with ink and watercolour, which also changed my style a bit, or my general approach.

Changing media can be so interesting, and sometimes it helps you boil down what is "you" in your art. You don't have to pinpoint it, but having a feeling of "this is me" is basically where you start to get your own style. Sometimes you start at 0 when you change media. Sometimes at 40%, or even 80%. But the rest to 100% is you figuring out what works best with you.

And yeah, getting down the essencials will make it a lot easier because you get "the look" for things like anatomy etc. and it'll make it not look off automatically.

In short: Experiment with everything you can think of (copying others' styles, change media, do colour palette challenges, or literally whatever), you can only grow. Notice why you like or don't like this or that aspect of it. Find out about your preferences, your aesthetics. Challenge yourself. But most importantly: don't be afraid to not stop looking.

[Rabbit]

Make sure that the artists you look up to are good; don't copy another style if you aren't sure that that artist is considered good BY PROFESSIONALS. For instance, a lot of people make fun of young anime fans copying the old 'giant-anime-eyes-unusually-far-apart-from-each-other' style that was used in stuff like the old Clannad visual novel, instead of looking at how current popular anime art looks and how the style has subtly changed.
Another thing is that 'art style' is not just about how you personally draw noses, or hair, or faces.. it's also about color palette choices and how your drawings.. feel. For instance, I like using bright, primary colors, with food designs everywhere I can put them, and some people have told me they can recognize my art just because of that! So keep, I guess.. your style's aesthetic in mind, as well as the technical aspects.