Its pretty obvious by looking at my art style, I was inspired by old Disney stuff, which funny enough was out of convenience more than anything. Back in 2017, I had wanted to go for a more anime esc style but I was disney films I was reference drawing from of course didnt have that style. Back then I didn't know how to apply a more anime look to my animal characters, and I didnt want to have human characters be in one style and animal characters in another (I know Kingdom Hearts does it but thats its own thing). At some point, I figured that, since I was reference drawing disney stuff for the character designs and such, might as well do the same for human character designs. And as time went on, I figured that it would help make my series stand out visually. While other stories may have had styles more reminiscent of anime, manhwa and maybe even the 'calarts' stuff that was all the rage in the 2010s, you'd have my series whose style was not even close to that. Of course I could never fully master the disney style one to one, especially as I implemented elements from other art styles I liked, like Toriyama's older art style for the dragon ball manga and styles from artists I followed online.
If you asked me, I dont know, a few months ago if I liked my art style, I would probably say yes but it could do with some adjustments. Now, Im not so sure. I've realized the flaws in going with this style, one of them being that, while it stands out on tapas, there's a reason why more people like stuff that look more like anime/manwa. And in general, my art style isnt as pretty as those types of styles and could be considered 'generic'. And one thing I couldn't account for back then was the furry connotation, which granted isnt really fair since the designs of my characters are fare less flamboyant than what you would see with other furry styles (I guess the same could also apply to the first reason). And this next reason may not make much sense but I feel like in trying to emulate the disney style, Ive trapped myself in a state of being derivative. What Im drawing has been drawn before by other more talented people and all Im doing is coasting off their success while also preventing me from trying something new. I may be distorting things my professors have told me about things not related to my style because, believe it or not, Im very insecure about my abilties as an artist and art school has brought them out to the forefront but I dont want this to turn into a vent session.
Am I open to the idea of changing it completely. It depends but I want it to be for the right reasons. I dont want to change it because of pressure, or to appease others. Just like how Im never going to make my characters anime people with dog and cat ears to appeal to the tweenage girl audience sites like tapas and webtoon pander to, Im wont develop a completely different art style from the one I currently have unless I want to try something. I also understand that if I do change my art style completely, my characters would look completely unrecognizable from how they looked before, and most probably loose any appeal they had before.
