Style: Focus or Experiment?

[HGohwell]

Sooooo, let's talk about style. Mainly, whether you should focus on perfecting (or at least polishing) a style or should you experiment and be flowing with your style? Feel free to skip to the bottom if you wanna skip my obligatory rambling on how this effects me and get to the crux of the post.

Ramble for context ahead:

I have 2 main styles that are constantly evolving because I like to look at others people's work and steal it I mean, reference it and be inspired by it. The first is a more anime realism style inspired by artists on youtube like webang111 and jyundee. If you read my series you'll have noticed I've shifted to something more like this style but streamlined for time because I can't spend days on each panel.

The other end of my style is a more typical anime style, often with art nouveau inspired elements.

(And yes, all pieces are fanart because that's where I do the majority of my experimenting)

So, I am constantly swinging between the two and adding elements of each and mixing them together in my quest to find what I feel happy with. I've started to notice after my more realistic work, the strong coloured lighting like in the example and that goes through many of my pieces in that style, has started coming into my more anime style .And part of that is seeking validation (what's a popular style or how are other popular artist doing it? And before anyone wants to start a lecture on popularity and comparisons the point is they are doing something that people like, can I learn from them and if so what?).

But should I? Should I drop one style and just focus on one? Am I damaging myself by not focusing on one of these styles alone? Should we as artists keep working on different styles rather than just tunnel vision on perfecting one style alone? Does it even matter?

TLDR version:

So do you guys have different styles? How wildly do you styles differ? Are there certain elements you keep in every style? Or do you focus on one style? If so, how do you get it to evolve? Do you just go little by little or do you do a big jump to something new ands tart to perfect that?

[Kelheor]

I prefer to focus within one project.
It's okay when the author have a huge progress and some noticeable style changes in one comic with time, but if I clearly see that they go from lineless to heavily lined in 2 adjacent panels, and the style is very noticeable different, it may be quite off-putting to me. Thought I am hugely hunged up on the artwork, some people may not even notice those things, I suppose.
So I try to experiment in the artworks that are separate from the actual plot, or other comic projects if I can. Though I never go lineless (it's a pain), so it may be easier for me to incorporate something a bit different in the ongoing comic, since the overall "lined" look stays the same =)

[IndigoShirtProd]

I also draw in multiple styles. In specific I have a cartoon style, an anime/manga style, and I'm developing a painterly style.

For a long time I didn't think I had one set "style". I just drew in whatever way was comfortable. I feel like experimentation and skill improvement go hand in hand. It's during the time when I didn't have a set way of drawing is when I made the most improvement in my skills. Now that I do have a set style, specifically my cartoon style, I'm working on polishing that, while also improving on things that aren't physically drawing such as color choice and lighting.

So when it came to the development of my cartoon style, It took me a long while to pull away from drawing anime to drawing more western. When I finally did there was a focus on shapes, clean lines, and graphic(flat) construction.
Ex:

After a few months of that, I wanted to push the style more because it felt very restrictive. And so I pivoted back to an anime style, but only slightly. I kept the clean lines and decided to replace most of the curves with broken up straight lines.

This was the first thing I drew in the new style, which has gradually changed to what it looks like today:

And even then, I'm still changing things such as line weight and so on.

[joannekwan]

I don't think it matters. Work on one or work on a bunch! It's really up to you. The great thing about art is the freedom! Unless you're under contract to do something specific of course.

My styles are always evolving. I've always been a strong line-worker, so I have my usual illustration style

But about 6 years ago I began experimenting with lineless art.

As I got more focused on color, it gradually shifted and grew. And that naturally evolved into my favorite style of illustration.

I suppose one thing that carried over from the lineless style to my default drawing style is that I have kind of an angular way of constructing figures. It's pretty evident in how I draw hands.

[Pandastrophic]

If you enjoy working on both then I don't think you should drop either, a lot of artists including myself have a more "painty" illustration style and another style that's either simpler, quicker, more cartoon or more anime inspired, etc that's used for different types of projects, drawins, comics. I honestly think it's good to have more options when it comes to deciding what style to use for projects.

My illustrations look like this: (cropped preview)

My comic art usually looks like this:

I want my comic to be coloured so I had to find a simpler more streamlined style that works for it, I think my comic style is also a lot more expressive than my illustrations, but I like linearting in pencil and the colouring process more in my illustrations. I enjoy drawing in both and I don't think having both really stopped my art development. When you work on stuff like lighting, anatomy, other art fundamentals you can work on refining any styles you have because it's applicable to any style a person draws in.

I went through a very huge experimental phase a few years ago and it was really fun, I still experiment but not as much as I did before. The more you experiment and more you'll discover techniques that you like in art and the better your art will be, so don't stop yourself from experimenting if you're still inspired to.

[darthmongoose]

I like to do different styles, but I tend to try to keep each project consistent. When I was younger, I'd use my webcomics to experiment, but now I've had years as a pro, I'm pretty confident about my ability to work in different styles and like to try to keep some consistency. There are changes I'm considering, like subtle ones, for Errant, like perhaps integrating some more subtly coloured lines, but if I do that, it'll be a change I bring in after a chapter break rather than mid story arc.

Single Illos or commissions for sets of illos or short comics (10 pages or under) tend to be better than long-form comics for experimentation, because you can pick a style to fit the project, use it for that project and then do another different one, while with a long form comic it's like... well I hope you picked a style you like!

Some stuff I've done that's different from Errant, 'cause why not join the fun!

[HGohwell]

I just wanna say I really love that angular style. I don't think I've seem anything quite like it, especially with the shading also being so angular. It's really cool and unique.

[LovelyOtter]

I love how angular your style is!

[IndigoShirtProd]

@HGohwell and @LovelyOtter

Thanks so much! To be honest, i draw like that because curves can be so tedious some times, and shading is way easier.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I've always had lots of different styles:

This is just a few. I tend to create a new art style for every new project I start, even if it's just a character design series. It's part of the fun~

What's more, I'm happy with all of them. I'm happy to have them all, and to have the possibility of inventing dozens more in the future. I don't feel any pressure to "focus" or choose one over the others, and it's always felt kind of weird to me that most artists seem to feel the opposite.

It's not like my comics will get muddled; on the contrary, having so many different techniques available to me helps me avoid introducing alien ones in a comic that already has an established style: if I get a yen for realism, I just take a break and go work on a project that's been assigned a realistic style, and so on.

Apart from the fact that my galleries tend to look like 3 or 4 artists were contributing to them at once, I don't see any downside to being an experimenter. ^^; As an artist, I feel like it's important to do what you want to do. Don't close yourself off from new experiences just because you feel like you "shouldn't". Life is too short~

If there's any element that's nearly always present in every new style I come up with, it's cel-shading techniques (of varying degrees of complexity). Even the fluffy owl-child in the bottom center was just done with super-detailed cel-shading, for the most part.

This is partly due to the limitations of the digital art tools I have available right now, and partly because I'm just a very impatient artist. I want things done fast; I want my ideas out of my head and on a screen as quickly as possible. I can't imagine being one of those artists who spends weeks or even MONTHS on a single piece. I'd die. I'd kill myself. I'd crack my laptop over my skull and end it.

However, I do occasionally dabble in more 'painterly' things, just because I want to have the option. It's actually a pretty speedy style when I do it IRL with real watercolors, so every once in a while I set about trying to find a way to replicate that digitally:

[lucika]

Yes, I have different styles, and I also use different mediums sometimes too. I used to think that my inconsistency in my works is a turn off because it's hard for my followers to keep track of my works. For example, some of mine looks really cute and bubbly but some are more moody with dramatic lighting. But my friend told me that even if I did different styles of art, my works are still my works and there is something distinctive with my works.

Examples:
soft shading, pastel colors, thin line art

cel shading with bold colors, thicker line art

So now, I am mostly experimenting than focusing on one style. Depending on what mood I want to portrait in the drawing, what character I am drawing; I will change the way I draw and the method of coloring. I am also learning to reference other artist's works ( before I used to be scared to use reference because I don't want to be an art thief). I want to incorporate some of the elements from their arts into my works, and it is fun to do that too.

I am experimenting with this style now, more painting, messy line art, focus more on ambience

Anyway, I think you shouldn't drop any of your styles because it seems that both of them serve a goal. Unless you personally don't want to draw in a certain style, there is no reason to forgo one to another

[xabelmind]

I've learned that being an improviser is okay, and the skills of being an improviser can be refined as much as the ones of being an interpreter/planner.

So I have a project where I keep one style and refine my storytelling and the like, and then I have another project where the point is experiment with style, materials, mediums... in every step.

I post the first here and the second on IG, and my audience receives both projects warmly u-u​

[rajillustration]

Oh man I have a crazy amount of styles. It's just what happens when you've been doing this long enough. Honestly, there are illustrators that stick to one, and that used to bother me that I had no desire to stick to any one style, but then I read this post about style by...someone, don't remember who, and they brought up that there's two types of illustrators. There's the type who sell their style, and it's unique, and amazing, and that's their entire job--to sell all their stylistic works in that style (think James Jean, Barachan, Ovopack) And then there's the chameleon type that will fit their style to match what the project is, and that's me. I'm a chameleon type.

Both types of illustrator find work so...just keep doing what you do. Personally I think it's REALLY beneficial to branch out and try different things, especially as certain styles get really popular and drown out people who are new to it, and inversely, when styles change suddenly you don't want to be banking everything on one trick pony i.e. remember when everything used to be airbrushed? When everything used to be steampunk? When Flash was valid? Styles change a lot, and they change literally overnight so you have to be prepared for it.