Professional Practice: Why Worry About Style?

The question of personal art "style" is one that seems to come up really often for artists. Especially if you are a young artist, still learning your fundamentals of drawing. Teaching at the college level, I get questions and concerns about style all the time from my students. I looked it up and this was this definition I got - "A particular, distinctive, or characteristic mode or form of construction or execution in any art or work." I get it, there are many artists out there working in a myriad of different ways and everybody is looking for a way to differentiate themselves from the next guy. Some styles speak to us more strongly than others and sometimes, a particular style can scream at us so loudly and become so overpowering that it starts to sneak in and overpower our own, natural way of drawing. It's a real danger for younger artists and it can derail your progress as an artist considerably if you aren't careful. It can actually hurt you in several very important ways -
  • If you put style above fundamentals, you can get caught up in finish and neglect the construction of your drawing.
  • If you are basing the look of your artwork upon another artists work, you may be picking up the bad habits of that artist. If they aren't constructing their drawings correctly, if their proportions, anatomy, or perspective is flawed, yours will likely be too.
  • You could be considered a knock-off of a particular artist or style, which could hamper your ability to get work. Why would somebody hire you when they could get the original artist?
In my opinion, you are better served to just forget about style altogether. You should focus on learning your fundamentals and drawing from life as much as possible. The more figure drawing you can get, the better. Don't get caught up in style too fast, spend the time to construct your drawing accurately and then worry about style. Knowing your fundamentals will give you a better foundation for developing a style or working in a variety of styles because you'll already be able to construct a drawing with correct proportion, anatomy, or perspective. Personally, when I was learning to draw, I found inspiration in many places and from many artists (and as an artist, you should always be looking at other art), but when I needed reference on how to draw something, I looked for real life reference. If I wanted to draw exaggerated muscles, I looked at body builders. If I wanted to draw a mountain landscape, I looked for photos of mountain landscapes. And from there, my style naturally developed to how I work today. Don't put the cart in front of the horse in regards to style - your style will come to you as you put in the work to learn how to draw. Good luck! JM

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