Stop trying to FIND an art style

some people have said my style is pretty distinct those people ask me how do i get my own style how do i find it how do i just find a style but to be honest i never actively looked for a style and honestly i feel that this whole idea of trying to find your own style can be problematic [Music] [Music] hey guys it's cynical pantoa and today i'd like to talk about the topic of trying to find your own original art style uh style let's talk about this so there's many reasons why a lot of younger artists want to have their own original art style and the most common ones i've heard are to stand out and to be recognizable to be original not to get called out for copying or just being a mere copy of someone else to get work and be hired based on your style and to have a business plan with it whether that's branding merchandising whatever it is it's going to make something back for you whether that's monetary or clout however when i was learning how to draw back in the mid 2000s that viewpoint was kind of different sure people did appreciate an original or cool art style but i remember that having an art style was always associated with pretty bad things and those bad things could be drawing habits that you can't get out of comfort zones you're only going to draw this because it's comfortable for you drawing excuses this is something that pops up every time someone critiques someone's art they say this is just my art style bro and then this whole idea of failure to adapt to other projects so back then i didn't think that having a unique and strong art style was important but maybe things have changed over time especially with social media how it's become a lot more mainstream i'm pretty sure that adds a lot to that mentality of trying to find your own art style so you can stand out in a sea of faces paces daces gotta untie my shoelace so first of all how would a schmuck like me describe what style is some artists will argue that style is a way that an artist solves a drawing problem or solution how they solve problems but i would strongly disagree with that because that's more of a design point of view rather than style because some styles don't solve any drawing problems at all style to me is basically three things for me it's voice it's tastes and it's how you execute it let's talk about voice some people like to sing monotone soprano falsetto some people have high pitched voices some people have low pitched voices if you heard my voice it could be distinct maybe not maybe if i talk like this sure it's annoying but hey it's distinct i would also say that this is kind of close to someone else's handwriting then there's tastes a selection of things that you like and don't like what you value or you don't value at all i would also see this as bias some people like anime whereas some people prefer western cartoons so yeah there's definitely preference on this matter in the animation production there's a thing called the style guide and it tells you how to draw a certain character and how not to draw a certain character even though the wrong answer is technically right but it's because of the style direction that this production is going for they're being selective and what to keep and what to eliminate finally there's execution how you decide to go about it and that could be based on factors some circumstances and highlighting on what to prioritize in your work there's a lot of online videos by artists and professionals who talk about style and how to obtain it and they'll show examples of other art styles that they like and talk about why it works for them and so there's already bias in these videos now i personally don't think bias is a bad thing and in fact can be good if you're trying to keep yourself grounded kind of reminding things of your goal where you want to be where you don't want to be what you value and don't value and honestly i would recommend anyone to gather all the artists that they like right now get their art pieces and kind of break down why it works for you what you get out of each of them and what you can learn from them now the only thing i'd be careful about especially when it comes to bias is that someone new will watch these videos and think these are the only ways to get good you should only look at these artists you should only look up to these types of individuals do this type of work and if you're not careful that might narrow a way of thinking so here's the ultimate truth you already have a style you have a handwriting that's distinct a voice that is distinct style is influenced by things like culture culture and background play a huge role in your style overall tastes overall bias how you grew up what you like and don't like what inspires you and what doesn't you'd prefer waffles over pancakes and so and so so when you do draw or do art you're kind of selecting inspirations and influences you strive to absorb i'm pretty sure there are art and artists out there that i personally find appealing that you won't find appealing one day i showed ayami kojima to my co-workers and talked about why i love her work but some of those co-workers did not see value in that art and they just didn't like it look you can do things to improve your own art style by doing things like drawing out of your comfort zone studying your fundamentals studying from life that's a big one experimenting and studying from other artists that you admire and why they work for you like really think about their work and analyze it like what is it that makes it click for you as i said you already have a style but style needs maturity it needs to go through experiences it needs to take risks it needs to go through hard times and fail and those could be learning lessons and self-discovery for that style and what to do next and you need to explore that and in that way you can help make that style a bit more unique with every journey it's been through so in this video i'm just going to talk about some of the most popular and the most heard comments of why a lot of people want a style like i pointed out earlier and i would sort of kind of argue against these pointers first let's talk about being recognizable to stand out and maybe eventually to be famous the fear of being generic is a common thing i often hear and there's many things that can contribute to this whether it's just drawing in the same comfort zone over and over again so let's say you like drawing cute girls for example and you only draw cute girls then that's probably the only thing that you're going to be good at drawing another contribution to this is if you're only drawing inspiration from one or a few artists so you're really only going to be doing that type of work over and over again without adding anything new to the table so again there's a few things that can make an art style feel generic only taking inspiration from only one or two artists not studying from life and drastic not breaking out of your comfort zone and not even tackling different subject matters if you're good at only drawing cute girls try drawing grotesque older men and that will probably challenge the way you approach drawing do you only draw characters and by the way i'm guilty of this well i should try drawing more backgrounds and maybe i can learn a thing or two from that also the idea of being recognizable does not always mean good and in fact can also mean you're recognizable for obnoxious reasons and there's a lot of artists who are famous and recognizable but tend to break the anatomy or make it purposely hard to look at so yeah you can stand out for having an obnoxious art style to be original and unique and this is kind of related to the last one i talked about so for anyone who's learning how to draw or is undergoing training on how to draw or how to animate or how to paint you're not original most of the universally well-known and highly followed artists online right now are a knockoff of several different other artists i think the most creative people on the planet are children ask them to draw an invention and they'd like make something that is something really absurd and would probably not work in real life children are also incredibly unique and creative because they aren't grounded by all these rules for what is right and what's not and there's a ted talk talking about how children tend to lose their creativity and uniqueness over time when they undergo training when they're doing something and they're often told you're doing it wrong you're supposed to do it this way and therefore it makes them a bit more timid about taking more risks and the same thing can be applied to this industry too where we're only following certain artists because it's what should be considered right if you still want to be super original and unique maybe just think like a kid and break a lot of rules however uniqueness or originality does not always mean it's well appreciated or good you can still be a terrible artist and be originally unique i think what most younger artists want really and generally is a style that is appealing universally i think deep down they're really thinking i want a style that can be universally well liked and highly appreciated it can attract a lot of people or clients but to them that is blanketed with having an original and unique style now there's another fear that i do want to cover which is the fear of being a copy of someone else or just being a ripoff of someone else that usually only happens if you copy every decision making that they make in their drawing habits into your own work and not adding or implementing any of your own takes on it so let's say you look at milt's call drawings and you only draw that melt call face or that melts call facial expression and nothing else people will only see you as an imitation of milt's call whereas you could draw inspiration from you know japanese animation russian animation painters and then mix all of that with your love for melts calls so let's say you like egon shield paintings too and then you love 70s japanese animation and then mix that up with your love for melt call that way you're kind of challenging your own execution which is a part of your own style to maybe make that work honestly i would ditch the whole idea of trying to be original because no one's original you're not original and if you see a lot of popular artists out there they've taken bits and pieces from other artists and then utilized that in their own work if you want to be a bit more unique you have to take many different inspirations and again break traditions and rules of what is considered correct drawing you know taking risks and just getting out of your comfort zone and in that way you can help grow your style now let's look at another reason to get work and to be hired now there's some small truth to this honestly since working for a production is mostly about you know matching a certain style i think this is something where we'll have to talk about different scenarios so let's talk about an animation so an animation sometimes they'll look at your overall work look at your portfolio and look at your style and make a conclusion if you can match their overall production so let's say you're trying to get into disney animation they're most likely going to try and find elements in your portfolio that sort of matches what they're looking for or elements in your style that matches that studio style and this applies to many different studios so it would be weird to submit a portfolio full of spongebob-esque style drawings for a studio like mirror which does avatar cora last airbender voltron and that's why people make portfolios to cater to certain studios now let's say they see potential in your work and they'll see that you meet some of their criteria either they decide to bring you in or they give you a test to see if you are actually fit for that production but then let's talk a bit about the animation production itself because most of that work is matching to a certain style you have to be able to draw in their style to get the work done and that's why in animation productions there's this thing called the style guide like i mentioned earlier it's a guide that tells you how to draw certain characters how to draw short hands or drawing rules set for that production so again you have to have decent draftsmanship to be able to match to other different styles however it's a probably different story if let's say you're a guest artist or guest animator for a show or they want a production to follow under your style directly that's an entirely different story also don't think having an art style is a reason for becoming an immediate leader of a production that's not how it works last but not least to have a business plan with it whether it's for clout monetary income or branding actually there is also some truth to this since a unique art style can be recognizable there's a lot of artists online that i'm a fan of that i would love to buy a sketchbook from because i know exactly what i'm getting from them so there is truth to this but that is also a pretty simple way of thinking about it if i'm following an artist it's also for the sole reason of you know certain themes they're tackling or the stories they tell and the subjects they explore when i look at art with characters in it in a scenario i love to see clear personalities that have wit and charm and it makes it more engaging to see it makes it feel a bit more alive some artists do really simple comics and tell some great stories whether grand or miniscule in scale sometimes i follow people who just make you know gag comics just you know for shooting giggles and it's all done with a very crude and simple art style but because i resonate with the storytelling and the humor from those comics i associate the visual imagery and the style with that humor that i sort of relate to some artists show more of their voice that reveals that they're not just an artist but someone who you know shows their love for skateboarding for fashion for martial arts for teaching in general i think if you want your art style to take you far and for you to become more unique how can you use your current style to say who you are what kind of individual are you what who do you cater to what do you like and what are some aspects of you that you'd like to tell all the great artists that i adore isn't just about their art style whether it's appealing but it's also the type of subject matters and the things that they say with it so if you were to look at an artist you admire try and find things in their work that say a bit more about them their tastes and what kind of subject matter they'd like to do and if you look at them long enough you'll probably get something out of it i think this also depends on what your personal goals are when it comes to drawing art and this overall discussion of art style so let's say you want to work for a certain studio right so let's say you want to work for disney animation then you're probably going to have to look at artists who draw in that disney art style or have a certain style that disney caters to so again if you wanted to work for a studio like studio mirror you're probably going to have to look at artists and the studio's work look at the type of work they do their style and see if your own work kind of matches theirs and some styles share similar traits to each other so for example people who cater to let's say studio mirror action storyboards might also fit well in superhero storyboards for animation so i guess it also depends on what kind of work you'd want to do full time okay so let's talk about standing out or standing out away from the crowd sure you can take a lot of different inspirations different influences and take bits and pieces that somewhat add to your own style but i would also say that it's more about your identity too so maybe it's recurring themes recurring subjects things that you personally like to draw and things that you like to explore maybe you like to tell your own stories tell your own narratives that kind of shows what kind of stories and narratives that you want to tell maybe you're a fan of something and you just want to give your own take that's another way of showing who you are that's another way of kind of showcasing your identity of what you like what you don't like and things that you do cater to what if it's for personal business you know to get clout and monetary income i think the things that i mentioned about standing out applies here too because as a business you want to have that unique element that makes you different from any other business but i would say that emphasis is also more about trying to do what's universally accepted so you're probably going to do fan art you're probably going to do a lot of tribute art you're probably going to draw in a style that's pretty popular i think that having an identity to show in your work is still really important but if you see yourself more as a business that really relies on the audience then you're probably going to do things that's going to cater to that audience now if you still really really want to be original and unique i think this is where you kind of want to surrender that whole notion of doing things that are considered universally accepted you're flipping the birds here art teachers and you're probably breaking a lot of rules remember being originally unique does not mean it's good or professional or universally accepted so when it comes to the whole discussion of having your own art style you kind of have to be honest with yourself like what are you trying to achieve with your own art style and you know what in most cases most of you probably don't know what you want to do with it and that's totally fine and you know honing that art style of yours is a lifetime thing too the only thing i would suggest is that when you do draw or when you do anything related to art have clear intentions of what you're doing in that present moment like why are you drawing the way you do and honestly i would just forget about the whole art style thing so if i were to replace a whole mentality of trying to find your own art style i would replace that entirely with just focusing on growing your style your art and yourself like i said those things can be challenged through things like experimentation getting out of your comfort zone tackling different subject matters taking a lot of different inspiration and just studying from life that's actually a really big one and just growing as a human being over time you'll make drastic changes to your own style and you're still going to make some questionable turns in that lifespan but hey that's all a part of life and we have our phases like i said a style that changes is also a sign of maturity and if you see an artist that you like and see their work from several years ago you'll see that a lot of it is drastically different but you can still see that overall dna of how they started that still retained in their current work that you can still tell that it was that artist that drew it and it has gone through several different trials and challenges that kind of formed the way it is now some artists however do not change over time and sort of remain stuck in a time capsule and so when i hear someone say that they want to find a style so it can grant them success in their career to me that reads off as i want to have a style where i'm comfortable where i don't have to keep challenging myself and it can still bring me benefits therefore i don't really have to change and grow the artists that i actually respect don't credit their style as a reason for their success and don't even brag about having a style and those are the type of artists that you know change over time and they grow a lot and they experiment but you know what sometimes their style changes to the point where it becomes so drastically different it becomes unrecognizable maybe for the better or for the worst but it just proves that style is a reflection of decisions and experiences made by the artist and how they tackle things so i'm just gonna wrap up this video by saying you already have a style it just needs to face a lot of different challenges and trials and how you decide to execute those solutions are going to add to your style also i made a video about how to improve your current art style with these practices so go check out what i have to say anyways i'm done bye interested in learning hand-drawn animation or learning how to finish an animated shot from beginning to end have a look at the store where you'll find the complete introduction to 2d animation video course tutorials and other resources learn classical animation approaches drawing lectures techniques and other process videos visit the store through the link in the description below

Channel: Toniko Pantoja

Views: 88,945

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Id: pTDQPInYw9c

Length: 18min 10sec (1090 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021