Let's talk about art styles

[Leyelle]

What inspired yours? do you like your art style? Do you feel like you've fully "found it?"

I watch a lot of cartoons and LOVE comic strips. Read them obsessively as a kid, so I definitely consider myself a cartoonist in the realm of art style, and I think that shows in my art. I love when my art makes me think it could be in a TV show or a retro comic strip, and I think I'm getting close to that point. I see a bit of Kim Possible in the way I draw characters' lips (which I find funny, because I didn't really watch that as a kid) like in the picture where Alicia is wearing the turtleneck. And I see some old cartoon influence in the way I draw faces as well (like in the picture of Alicia with the ponytail.)

I'm honestly getting close to the point where I feel like I've found my style, though my skill itself definitely has a LOT of room for improvement. I like the way I draw people and it feels like me. I used to spend a lot of time trying to draw in a more manga or manhwa style, but in the end I realized it didn't suit me and just decided to go with what I felt drawn to and suited my personality, and since then I've improved a lot more and been able to find what suits me well. It's very stylized, but I like things to be a little cute and quirky so...

I suits me...

howsabout you? what are your thoughts on your art style?

[JoshRaed]

I guess mine was anime and webtoons.

[KevinReijnders]

I honestly don't think you can "find" your style. It's something you already have. It's the influences and shortcuts you use to portray a certain thing. It changes and evolves as your skill and understanding evolves and grows.

[enderdragonfive]

I draw in sort of a highly cartoony CalArts-ish kinda style. I like my characters to be as expressive and vibrant as possible.

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[enderdragonfive]

I agree with this. Style kinda comes from an innate subconscious source, and how it's manifested will change/adjust over time.

[BoomerZ]

The best explanation of style was all your mistakes and shortcuts to drawing. It's usually very hard to copy a style for most people, that is why for animation they have turnarounds and style sheet to stay on character. Even then, some or you will creep in.

[2DLenzy]

I initially didn't think I had an art style, just drew how I drew. Over time though, I set out to refine my style and took some inspiration from Disney while not really being Disney (I guess cartoonist is the best way to describe my style). A lot of my own innate style has evolved, though I'm generally aiming for better shapes(in construction mostly) and clean lines as I'm learning 2d animation.

One of the big changes I made was changing the chicken head shape from a circle to an oval, which improved spacing of features, in my opinion

Old Style:

New Style:

And redesigned how I constructed human heads, based off of how I drew the former.
Old Style:

New:

Still make mistakes and draw a bit off model though, but it's all my style evolving (and sometimes going backwards) and I'm proud of the journey and excited for wherever my style will end up.

[galvinlink70]

i was influenced by the 70's and 80's comics (Calvin, Hagar, Peanuts, Asterix, Turma da Monica, Mafalda) and the japanese Manga, of course

[king-goldfish]

Not really super relevant to the topic in general, since I'm not much of an artist myself, but I just wanted to say that the last time I was on these forums, I remember seeing some of your art, and it looks like you've really developed your style a lot since then! These drawings look super clean and appealing.

[delladz]

having a "base" style isn't a bad thing to have, it just means you have a comfortable style that you can consistently maintain the quality of but also dont be afraid to branch out and try new things! You'll def grow a lot more as an artist once you get out of any "box" you put yourself into

I know I have a pretty standard "manga" look but I also love to play around with more realism and even stretch in the other direction to do more cartoony things! It just depends on what you're drawing and what sort of vibe you want the image to portray really

[itsforevermonday]

You have improved so much! 🫶🏼Well, I also think that our art style comes a lot from what we’re exposed to. For example, I’ve been reading manhwas and mangas obsessively for half my life, and my style leans heavily toward the Korean style. I like to experiment with other styles, but I haven’t been that successful with them, so I’ve tried to stay consistent with the one I’ve developed, even though it’s still evolving.

[ArtGremlin]

My artstyle is VERY inconsistent. Because I like it that way. I don’t like drawing the same way every time. But I think this mainly applies to my doodles (which are more experimental) ex:



On the other hand, when I draw in CSP my style becomes much more uniform.


I suppose this is because the process for making small projects is easier to vary, change around, and experiment with than with a big project where you have a specific goal in mind and there isn’t room to mess around.

[vapidink]

My style is straight up anime/manga inspired. I watched a lot since I was little so I never stood a chance, lol. The biggest influences are probably Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon, Final Fantasy concept art (especially Yoshitaka Amano and Tetsuya Nomura) and any anime/manga I've consumed. Which is a lot.

But I really love the black and white look of manga so that's probably why I love sketching more than anything. Here's my latest little sketch for OC-tober's prompt, fav OC. You can probably tell I'm not fond of backgrounds.

Still learning how to render, but this is more or less my style when I'm rendering lined work. I tend to go for more elaborate lighting. Which I shouldn't 'cause it's a pain in the butt to do.

[kyupol]

I learned to draw because of combatron, yuyu hakusho, and Naruto... so yeah my drawing style may look similar

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I honestly don't think you can "find" your style. It's something you already have. It's the influences and shortcuts you use to portray a certain thing. It changes and evolves as your skill and understanding evolves and grows.

I feel like I half-agree and half-disagree with this...it probably depends on your definition of 'art style'.

If you define it as 'your thought processes and tendencies as you conceptualize and construct artwork', then yeah, that's gonna be a product of your artistic evolution. You won't really 'find' it so much as you'll find yourself in it, and it'll feel different throughout your life.

But if you go by the colloquial definition of 'the way your art looks', then yeah, you can totally 'find' that, practice it, and mold it however you want until you settle upon something you like.

Or several somethings. ^^; As I frequently boast, I have a plethora of art styles, based mostly on different anime (and a few Western cartoons, occasionally). I absorb styles readily; chances are, if you think my art looks like [insert media] I was probably directly inspired by it, even if all I ever saw was a single screenshot or piece of fan art.

And as someone who 'finds' styles dozens of times a year...I think the key to solidifying an art style is getting it to a place where it visually interests you. Y'know, so your art-brain is engaged by it and WANTS to use it again and again. You should be able to look at your own art in that style and go "more please~"

For example, here's one I've been working on lately:

Same character; original design on the left, and new design on the right.
And you may be thinking, "oh, of course they like it more now that they made it more anime", however (a) I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a preference for anime art styles. I used be, and I used to purposely 'de-anime' my art to hide that shame, until I...well, grew up. ^^;
And (b) what I like most about this new style is actually the high contrast; the big, bold sections of pure black that specifically highlight the face. The super-thick 'KyoAni' eyelashes were the first thing I thought of when I went to update this style, and they ended up influencing the rest of the drawing.

I don't think I'm quite done developing this style; but it already looks vastly more interesting to me, enough to get me to actually work on the story this character belongs to for the first time in months. ^^ That's when you know you got a good one~

[Lensing]

On the left is my art style I had in the 80s.
It was influenced by various euro cartoons and comics.
Everyone had a giant nose like in Asterix comics.
My OC didn´t have eyebrows and didn´t have a chin,
the thing on top of his eye is part of his hair. I never sketched anything because I didn´t know that
comic artists do that and started with the outlines. I usually started
with the giant nose. I never drew woman in the 80s

On the right is my style today, the style always depends on what kind
of comic I´m drawing. This one is for an all ages audiences. The style
varies a little bit but I think it´s always recognizable.

I read questions about styles a lot on the internet, especially people asking
how to "find your style". It´s just something that comes automatically when
you draw sequential art and it changes with your influences. I didn´t know
a lot of styles when I was a kid in the 80s and I´m influenced by more styles
now. But style isn´t something you find, it´s kind of something you can´t avoid
except when you are trying to draw hyper realistic, but hyper realisitic sequential
art doesn´t exist, sequential art is always stylized in some way

[Leyelle]

Thank you so much, I've been practicing like a lot lol

[Leyelle]

but also dont be afraid to branch out and try new things! You'll def grow a lot more as an artist once you get out of any "box" you put yourself into

I agree, I try different things at different times. This is just the style over time that I've found comes comfortably to me, and I like. When I want to do more serious looking things I often change it up, and also for my more whimsical type pieces.

You have improved so much! 🫶🏼

tysm, and I honestly think most people's art is always evolving as long as they keep on learning and drawing

[Leyelle]

But if you go by the colloquial definition of 'the way your art looks', then yeah, you can totally 'find' that, practice it, and mold it however you want until you settle upon something you like.

agree, and this is definitely what I was talking about in the OP. yeah, most people have ways of drawing things that they lean toward, but you can also actively craft new ways of doing things to make things more visually interesting for yourself and find what you like which I have done a ton over the years.

Since I have a DTIYS challenge going on right now for this character, I made a spreadsheet of her drawn in several different styles I've created over the years. Some for comic strips and some just for fun. I'll probably keep and revise a lot of these for use in my comic strips still, because as @delladz 's mentioned, I don't want (or intend to) leave my art in a box either.

But I think this mainly applies to my doodles (which are more experimental) ex:

yeah, i do this with my comic strips. I have a different style for all of them unless they exist in the same world as each other

[Lensing]

Here is a question for everyone. Do you like or love your own art style or do you constantly think you
could do better or are not happy with it?

I always loved my art style, when I draw a character it feels like the character is coming allive.
This doesn´t mean that I´m not aware of all the technical and anatomical imperfections, that´s
the part I want to improve on. Anatomy, rendering, coloring, shading etc.