The myth of Style

As artists/illustrators/cartoonists/whatevers, we get too caught up in the concept of “style”.

As artists/illustrators/cartoonists/whatevers, we get too caught up in the concept of “style”.

I’ve seen a lot of people ask popular artists how they find their “style” and the usual answer is something like “just draw all the time and it’ll come to you”.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think that’s kinda bullcrap.

I mean, sure, there’s some truth to it just in the fact that the more you draw, the more your drawings will start to resemble each other and people will know it was you that drew it. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing or good advice.

To be fair, the question itself is also kinda bullcrap, but if you haven’t stopped reading in disgust by now, let me elaborate if I could.

First, let’s define what we’re talking about here. An artist’s “style” is really just a collection of design choices…. the shape language you use, how much detail you put in your line rendering (if you even include lines), color choices, how much you exaggerate a form or pose… there are a ton of them. As humans, most of us are inherently lazy creatures. We don’t want to have to make a thousand decisions every time we create an illustration so we fall back on decisions we’ve made in the past. After a while, those decisions become muscle memory so when we want to draw a hand we subconsciously remember that we drew it a certain way that we liked once, so that’s how we draw hands now.

There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s what every artist does.

The bullcrap part is telling someone that you just have to draw and draw and draw and then at some point you’ve arrived at your style.

That is ridiculously oversimplifying it.

The truth is, your “style” is really just your collection of lazy design choices, and those choices are always evolving. This is neither good nor bad. The trick is that you have to be intentional with it.

When I look back at a drawing from ten years ago, all I see are the annoying design choices that I made back then. It might be subtle things that only I notice, but it’s still annoying to me. And by the way, if I ever look back at old drawings and don’t see a difference, that might be time to hang it up.

If I would have just kept drawing with those same lazy design choices, I would have never evolved or improved as an artist. If I would have just said “whelp… I guess this is my style” I would have given myself permission to be stagnant.

This is why I’m saying the concept of “style” is a myth… at least the way most people think of it.

Having a “style” doesn’t matter. In fact, I would recommend that you seek out projects that allow you to expand to a different “style” than you’re used to doing.

The design choices you make on one project might be completely wrong for a different project and if you don’t have the awareness to recognize that, you could be doing a disservice to your client or limiting the projects that you get.

So the point I’m making here is that your design choices are like a toolbox that you have at your disposal. What people would call their “style” are the tools that you use most, but if you only use those default tools and aren’t experimenting with new tools to add to your box, you’re not growing as an artist.

As always, you’re free to disagree and if you do, feel free to drop a comment and let me know where I’m wrong. I actually really like these kinds of debates.

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So now that I’ve crapped all over this concept of “style” here are a bunch of sketches and drawings that I’ve played around with lately to, hopefully, add more tools to my toolbox…

Thanks for reading!

-Brad