How To Develop A Consistent Art Style: 6 Proven Strategies (including examples)

hello dear readers and subscribers welcome to another video with some industry approved practical career advice for artists and in today's video we'll be tackling a hot issue a Hot Topic a highly requested topic that among artists is a source for a lot of consternation frustration and where there are a lot of misconceptions a consistent art style or a consistent ever a coherent body of works is a necessary pretext for a prosperous and successful artist's career however this does not happen overnight nor does it fall from the sky and nor does it mean that you have to do the same thing over and over again in this video we will discuss six proven strategies with real life examples in form of 12 case studies why some established artists how you can develop your style and create this consistency elevating your artistic practice and your chances for success in the art worlds [Music] foreign the one thing almost all successful artists have in common is that they have a very consistent recognizable coherent body of works as you might have heard collectors and galleries are looking for artists who have very clear and recognizable visual identity and very clear Vision as well however this consistency is not only commercially driven it is also driven by quality for instance if you would paint a hundreds of different things once all the paintings will be rather mediocre however if you paint one single thing 100 times then by the hundreds painting you'll be an expert in the specific subject it takes time expertise and repetition hence this consistency hence this consistent development that makes sense however I cannot stress enough that consistency does not mean that you have to be a one-trick pony there is nothing more boring for an artist but also for a collector or a gallery director to have another in which we're seeing the same thing year in year out with nothing new to discover so we entered this tricky playoff balance of remaining recognizable and consistent while keeping your audience at the edge of their seat so the good news here is that you don't have to pin yourself down to one specific style if people say so that you have to focus on one specific style they're kind of wrong however hopping from one style to another from painting to painting does not make any sense either so the successful artists are the ones that Master display of balance of Versatility and intriguing development and recognizability and consistency now that we have briefly and kind of vaguely discussed this play of balance let's illustrate this with some real life established examples by some case studies and identifying the six strategies and also please note how these artists kind of combine different strategies feel free to take note with every single strategy if there are elements in your practice that you could amplify to increase that consistency or different strategies that you could combine and feel free to pause this video at any moment or after watching this video consult or fill article or written article to go through the strategies at your own pace now the first strategy is probably the most straightforward one a warm-up it's technical consistency here in this case an artist dedicates his life to a specific medium even more a specific technique within a specific medium and ones that are really successful are the ones that develop a kind of personal and unique technique a combination of materials or a methodology that no one else is doing and that they have perfected in a way that only they can do you might think now that this is easier said than done and you're absolutely right so first let's illustrate the strategy with two specific case studies followed by some additional advice how you can figure out your Technique the first case study is brambergart's unique mixture of paint Bogart's abstract paintings are actually marked by his ongoing exploration of using a unique mixture of paint that he developed throughout his career he boiled and riped Poppy oil with pigment powders and zinc white and mixed it with water shortly before applying it to the canvas Bogart explored the possibilities and limitations of this process resulting in a varied abstract yet very recognizable Earth ranging from textural monochromes to colorful geometrical compositions to abstract Landscapes so here his personal mixture was the starting point of this technique and of his recognizability it was the core of his practice and he was very free within this framework another great example is our second case study with mircha suchu's monotype technique in this case his personal technique he combines acrylic paint a type of monoprint transferring printed image onto the canvas and oil paint he starts with often edited photographic material which is transferred onto the canvas with several monoprints creating a vibrant grid-like effect before reworking this image with paint by doing so suture creates even more consistency by doing this recognizable color palette marked by the blue and acrylic and oil paint and also the black and white of the photographic transfer but also by tackling recurring Concepts so we see that there are various strategies in place here please note how with these case studies of personal unique techniques that they all first experimented with the material attributes of their medium they Revisited and refought the process and methodology resulting in a unique combination which became their personal trait and which also resulted in visual recognizability so you should try to find your own combination of the materials for instance by experimenting with new surfaces such as Claire tabore who painted on works or Remy Iceberg we currently have on view who paints on velvet or with new mediums think of Marco reichert's machine generated ink structures or Maya machinos Indigo die for her panels and also new materials think of Richard Sarah's recognizable steel patina or Fred sanlak's use of colored quartz see there are numerous examples and numerous possibilities and it takes a specific technical starting point or experimentation with the material attributes of a medium Reinventing it in a certain way and from there on you can start to see the possibilities and naturally your Earth will develop into a personal and unique recognizable Style so what to remember is don't always go for the most straightforward or the most predictable combination of materials there are already too many painters who paint on pre-stretched canvases on wooden stretchers with acrylic paint straight from the tube it feels very mass produced stock and personal so try to do something different think out of the box and try to assemble your own material attributes the next strategy for consistency is visual consistency and here it is in a very similar vein as the technical consistency however here we don't have to reinvent or invent our own Technique we can simply use an existing technique existing materials even more we can do this within numerous media we'll illustrate with a few examples the first case study is Luke diamonds his palette and brushwork Luke diamonds is a contemporary oil painter examining historical narratives themes and icons from a contemporary and painterly perspective even though working in a traditional and predictable medium such as oil painting toy Monster server is marked by tremendous visual recognizability due to his characteristic muted color palette and rather nervous brushwork a perfect example of the personal icritur or like writing of a painter by doing so taymans is as free as it gets to explore his conceptual undercurrent in his Works which is also a result of conceptual consistency something we'll discuss later in this video going from painting a political portrait examining Belgian Colonial history to a metaphorical still life contemplating the trauma of 9 11 to an abstract landscape which is actually dirt throwing on the floor illustrating the deceiving nature of painting or a conceptual series of Life-Size numbers contemplating the calculated representation of death and sickness with Statistics during the covid-19 pandemic so the artist's Everett is varied and genre and subject matter but unified and consistent visual recognizability within his medium another great case study how you can be consistent even when working in various media even when having a multi-disciplinary practice is Eve Klein and his International Klein blue his multi-disciplinary practice in which he worked in painting sculpture drawing performance installation and photography is Unified by the constant appearance of his iconic ultramarine International Klein blue Klein was in search of communicating Universal truths by making those invisible traces visible in art think of as monochromatic painting liberating the spiritual notion of color his pure pigment installations but also entrepometry using the human body as a brush or revitalizing classical sculpture in Contemporary Art if Klein's Blu-ray than blue hue enabled the artist to take on whatever artistic discipline while remaining visually recognizable due to the recurrence of this specific color so here very important for you is to find this visual consistency by feeling what is comes natural to you what is a natural urge for instance this Equity the signature brushwork from toymons that's something that came natural to him as us the color palettes so what things do you see that come naturally to you and your artistic practice and how can you amplify those things to improve the visual consistency and recognizability for instance with the use of color not only with if Klein but what about you got on the noni's use of fluorescent colors or the process of the way you can apply the paint so the artist's equity for instance Fernando boteros chubby little figures that even when he depicted the still life and painted a knife or an orange that they still have this chubby character or some image strategies for instance Georg baslitz who paints his figures upside down so identify your visual desires focus on them develop that voice and speak it loudly as we have mentioned before be yourself and be yourself radically further be aware of how these aforementioned artists used this visual consistency to be tremendously free so here we see that we don't have to do the same thing over and over again as long as we visually connect the dots between what I we're doing next we have an often overlooked strategy which is consistency in the presentation or in the way an artwork is finished this is actually a very common mistake or a forgotten aspect of an artwork the presentation or the way it is finished is an integral part of the artwork but very often artists don't really think about it don't see it as an opportunity to both distinguish yourself and create this consistency let's illustrate with a couple case studies once more a great example is serenis vandevelde and his wide borders and blank space at the bottom of his drawings preserved for the title or the story of rhinos vanderveld's charcoal drawings in which he depicts fictional narratives his wrong-based practice is incredibly versatile working in sculpture as well installation film and drawing yet everything is connected his sculptures and installations are actually the attributes and full-skilled decors for its films and drawings exploring fiction and reality and even more especially with this strategy due to the presentation of his drawings using his typical artist's frames and the natural frame of the surface of his drawing these white borders and the title at the bottom the artists can draw any scene or any narrative imaginable without losing visual consistency this is proven once more as he recently allowed caller to enter his drawings first with colored pencil drawings than with oil pastels allowing himself to develop further and keeping us at the edge of our seats in a recognizable visual frame another example are Johnny Abraham's floating artist frames we encounter a tremendously consistent ever with a substantial amount of Versatility as his latest Works illustrates besides our previous two strategies in terms of a personal technique and visual recognizability in terms of color and shape we also notice a very subtle but powerful and consistent presentation of his pictures it is to say Abraham's floating frames have the same edges the same depth and the natural wood color of Walnut increasing his paintings overall quality in terms of the presentation but also the consistency of their works as collectible objects notice how the artist's frame is often the visual Continuum when he pivots his style and technique softening the visual transition and maintaining visual Unity when retrospectively looking back at his works especially with these two-dimensional artistic practices so drawing painting and also for instance photography or collage this final five percent is often forgotten because it's not only about creating the image it's about creating a collectible object because an artwork is a three-dimensional object even if it is a painting So this last step this final 10 is so important to elevate your work from something predictable to something unique and recognizable so try not to be lazy and skip this step and simply leave the edges of your paintings blank or simply call them in the same color think about possibly mounting them onto panel or creating your own artist's frames doing something consistently and also elevating the overall quality of the artwork as an object I would not advise you to Simply order the same frame over and over again because other artists are also using these frames it's mass produced and it will also feel not as personal I believe it's actually very valuable to create possibly these things self in an era that's been dominated by Moss production so don't think about presentation and finishing your work as an obligatory task that's inferior to the actual picture think about it as an integral part of your artwork and an opportunity to create consistency here foreign [Music] with our next strategy we're moving a bit away from the more visual strategies for consistency in this case we have consistency of motifs and subjects an artist can also achieve consistency in the subject matter first and foremost by using recurring motifs and subjects and making them their own by repeatedly revisiting those motifs from a different angle different perspective possibly a different medium or within a different series or aesthetic first and foremost the case study of Yaya kusamos pumpkins and polka dots if one encounters an artwork marked by polka dots or a pumpkin chances are the piece in question is by the hand of yay kusama whoever is marked by her unique and colorful take on dazzling sensations of infinity in which the polka dots is the main or Soul motif kusama's life career and work are dominated by autobiographical and especially mental experiences and issues the Japanese artist suffers from hallucinations experiencing infinity and seeing dots into Infinity resulting in the stress therefore the Paul cardos Motif came naturally to her artistic practice obsessively painting them in her Infinity Nets imposing them onto existing structures and objects or populating her mirrored Infinity rooms to replicate these sensations of infinity we can often find the dots on her iconic pumpkins paintings as well or her sculptures and installations the pumpkin symbolizes life due to its human-like quality and form and it is also a symbol for fertility a poetic peace and her childhoods evoking sensations of laughter joy and enthusiasm to create pumpkins obsessively another great example can be found in the illustrious Earth of Louise Bourgeois at the roots of her artistic practice we encounter an introspective take on her personal reality revisiting Early Childhood trauma as a cathartic process these autobiographical elements results in examining female sexuality jealousy violence anxiety feminism and loneliness which is visually translated to specific motifs to give form to these experiences with her iconic spiders cages titled as cells spirals but also houses body parts and more these motifs of personal symbolism result in psychological release using the power of Association memory fantasy and fear by doing so Bourgeois spiders embody her mother and also herself for their cleverness industriousness and protectiveness but also for being misunderstood Bourgeois discusses how spiders don't get mad when you destroy their family's weap but they simply start restoring it they start weaving which is another important aspect in her artistic practice to restore her web and to protect her family an allusion to her mother's strength in times of infidelity and betrayal during Bourgeois youth hence titling her spiders most often as Mamo the cages or cells are psychological microcosms in Bourgeois in which he collects and displays various objects symbolic of her youth to evoke an emotional resonance in a defined space as if entering an interior world in the exterior world of the exhibition space but also the metaphor of the inner World filled with memories as a cell or cage challenging to access and simultaneously to get out to conclude Bourgeois spirals symbolize an ongoing natural cycle from birth to life death and rebirth as a result it is associated with her experiences of motherhood but even more with personal memories from twisting and turning the tapestries in the river when she was a child ringing them to dreaming of ringing the neck of her father's mistress into a spiral as a result the spiral symbolizes a natural cycle but also control Freedom revenge and more so these motifs become true emblems for those artists if we see a spider we immediately know it's by Louise Bourgeois and if you see a polka dot or a pumpkin we immediately know that it's and the same is true with Campbell's Soup cans as an emblem for Andy Warhol or the melted clocks with Salvador Dali we instantly associated with the Artist as they made it their own these ambulance or Motif Source subjects can be found in various ways and in various forms think of the abstract shapes like squares with Joseph Albers homage to the square but also the rectangles with Mark rotko or what about genres such as the portraits with David hockney or the landscape with Emma Webster so here for you it is important to think about what motifs occur naturally in your practice what subjects are you drawn to and really focus on those and make one of these motifs or subjects your own in your own way and amplify it once more the recurring motifs and subjects are very strongly linked with this next strategy for consistency which is conceptual or methodological consistency having a very clear conceptual Foundation or a very clear vision and artist statement is a terrific strategy to achieve a naturally consistent body of works even when being very versatile this consistency will be less obvious to the audience but it will be more powerful it requires some some context some knowledge and for the Observer it's also very interesting because the better you get to know those artists the more obvious or the better you will see this consistency and the more I intense your relation with the artist will be here a tremendous case study is Tracy emin's autobiographical multidisciplinary practice which in a similar vein as the aforementioned Luby's bourgeoisama starts with an artist whose Earth is marked by autobiographical elements the British Artist deals with personal experiences and Trauma and an unseen genuine manner exposing her life flaws and struggles with no filter opting to show us the most Frank intimate raw and honest version of herself by doing so the artist shifts from ready-made sculptures to installation to figurative painting however remaining consistent due to her recurring autobiographical starting point and the aura of honesty and rawness resonating from every single piece think of discussing her sexual partners in her Infamous everyone I have ever slept with 1963 until 1995. also known as the tent writing all the names of the people down and attend the people she slept with with my bet from 1998 Eman presented a sexual and depressive face of her life by showing the unmate and stained bed in which he slept eight had sex and drank alcohol for four days straight or what about hernian sculptures sharing her private thoughts and deepest desires highlighted in neon lights and to conclude in her more traditional artistic disciplines such as bronze sculpture and painting we encounter the same conceptual Foundation depicting scenes of self-exploration pain passion her abortions and the most expressive and visceral manner another great case study is Christian boltonski's installations as Memorial monuments in the works of voltanski we encountered the recurring concepts of loss memory death Oblivion and the artist's childhood as he was born during the second world war while the Nazi regime occupied Paris by doing so boltanski fuses the everyday with high art to create installations that function as memorials this conceptual undercurrent transforms sculptures into shrines or relics and insulations into monuments to contemplate lost lives and to reflect Oblivion connected with lost the halt of memory think of his Monumental site-specific installation at the Grand Pala in Paris titled person with Monumental piles of clothes suggesting lost lives Mars murders massacres the Holocaust and the ongoing Refugee crisis or what about his lightly installations creating almost religious altars for Unknown People implementing the decorum and iconography of Christianity as a non-religious person presumably hinting at the problem of theodisi but also salvation and the afterlife in this case living on in memory with this conceptual consistency it all starts with having a very clear artist statement and exploring it for yourself in a consistent manner often defined by the methodology think of for instance Francis Alice with his project-based practice on which it starts with ID works with the local community VI performance creates a video and then a video installation or what about Sophie call with her experiments in which she for instance follows strangers on the street and then creates a characteristic works so what is your desired starting point what is your vision and the methodology last but not least we have the strategy of intentional inconsistency and by doing so being consistent this counter-intuitive strategy is actually very common among multidisciplinary neoconceptual artists that defy any categorization they start with every single artwork from scratch with a different approach a new ID or simply revisit their radically throughout their career however I must warn you this strategy is kind of a slippery slope and even more within this inconsistency most often there is a coherent conceptual undercurrent or there are some consistencies to be identified over the years some others within a very incoherent Earth an excellent example is Mauritius catalan's playful witty humorous and satirical new conceptual Earth Catalan is one of the best known artists working in a so-called no Style Style every piece intends to evoke a reaction from laughter to controversy commentary to engage however formally and conceptually there are no limitations if the idea is good the artwork will be good as well regardless of how it fits into his Earth room nevertheless specific motifs and materials have been characteristic of catalan's ever throughout years think of the taxiderms or the wax mannequin figures another extreme example of intentionally denying to fit in a box is gerhardt Richard's ongoing quest to explore paintings possibilities and limitations often in relation to photography the thing you need to understand is Richter grew up in Eastern Germany where they were forced to create art in the academic tradition of social realism and this confinement followed by Liberation and creativity had sets the tone for various radical shifts and painterly Ventures throughout his life Richter continued to take on different subjects and ways of painting simply because he could because of his unending curiosity and dissatisfaction by doing so Richter has painted almost all genres with his photo paintings followed by more minimal figurative paintings of curtains corrugated tubes a sheet of metal doors windows and turning sheets of paper to entering abstraction in his photorealistic paintings via the Richter Haze covering the depicted image hear the abstraction again varies from expressive to monochrome positive to floods and colorful to black and white think of his large abstract color charts and strips yet even in this consistency it kind of all makes sense the strips are connected with the curtains the photorealistic haze on top of his pictures is in connection with the action of the squeegee for his abstract pictures when you feel the desire to Pivot in your Earth you must allow to do so however keep in mind these six strategies even if it's just the presentation or by maintaining a specific color or strategy to remain consistent to make it make sense while allowing yourself to make this pivot and when you pivot don't do it just to make two or three paintings do it for a couple of years do it for an entire Series so that it's worth it so when pivoting in your effort a great piece of advice is to actually allow you some time to reflect on the spivot and to see if it will stick the ongoing development is key because the other is never finished Bourgeois was more than 80 years old when she introduced the spider to the world and her already impressive over him and it will be one of the main motifs that she'll be remembered for David hockney shifted his rather naturalist works from the 60s and 70s that were tremendously popular to more abstracted paintings using inverted perspective revitalizing his relevance whereas the art movement of photorealism encounters a silent death so these pivots this development is what's resulted in the longevity of the artists and as the cliche States in this case it is about the journey and not necessarily the end result or the destination you can find the complete written article in written version to revisit it at your own pace or to write some things down at our website Contemporary Art issue.com and feel free to stay tuned for more industry-approved strategies for artists in the art worlds thank you so much for tuning in today feel free to watch our video on how to create a professional artist website next support us on patreon and please consider subscribing to stay posted for more Contemporary Arts bye foreign

Channel: Contemporary Art Issue

Views: 130,371

Keywords: art, contemporary art, contemporary painting, painting, art gallery, artists, contemporary artists, painters, art galleries, art books, figurative art, abstract art, figurative, abstract

Id: A3kyKh44EbY

Length: 27min 59sec (1679 seconds)

Published: Sun May 28 2023