Do you have a style? Something about the way you draw that makes it you? Or do you doodle in all sorts of ways?

I think the only thing that'll constitute as "my style" in my art is the eyes. Ever since I discovered CLAMP in the 6th grade, I've been drawing eyes the same way. They have the long, pointy tip. Even though it doesn't look exactly how CLAMP does it, everyone associates just that one aspect with them. And I get called out on drawing in their style. (which is kind of an insult to them XP)

The thing is...after all these years, I want to change how I draw eyes. They're too restrictive for me to express the characters the way I want to. Or I just haven't figured out how to draw them in that manner. I do have another eyes style that I play around with, but they're REALLY generic anime eyes. And my goal is to stand out. To have people say, hey, that's ToriKat's art!

The last time I have heard people recognize my art as mine was when I was in an oekaki community that shut down a couple of years ago. Now I'm just your average anime style artist! (I obviously care far too much about what others think :D)

So, do you have a style?
Is it recognizable to others?
Have you ever tried to change it?

My style pervades any media I use, which is pretty cool. I have things I favor putting in my art - things I find pretty like long noses. XD That have just become so common and characterstic. Also, my process. I'm comparatively methodical, considering how most other artists work. I always go spine -> shoulders -> hips,-> muscle -> etc like we did in lifedrawing. and i always do like base -> shade darker -> put in toher colors -> highlight. I think a lot about what I do. It's actually very hard for me to just sketch because i just THINK too much. lol. That said, I have a very odd way of thinking. A lot of what I like isn't mainstream or side-stream, just weird. Haha, and the things I like find thier way into my art - for example, medicine and World War I are common.

I don't think I have my own style, which I find very frustrating. I've been trying to find a style that I like and suits me and settle down with it, but I just can't seem to ever be able to find it. My work is very often heavily influenced by the art I've seen recently, often very influenced by the atmosphere in other artists' pictures. The only thing I can find my pictures have in common is the way I draw the mouths, but that's just because I'm stuck with only a few experessions, haha. Maybe it's more the kind of pictures I draw that represent my style, or perhaps my heavy use of textures when coloring? I don't know, but at the moment I feel like I have no style.

Lol. I always wonder deep down inside if i should change what I like to be more like what other people like so my style will be better.

Hmm I wonder that once in a while too, but I think the quality of the art would suffer then. It'd be really unnatural to draw something you don't even see as your own art style. Though I think everyone takes influences from what other people like. For example if one of your pieces suddenly gets a lot of attention and praise, you will probably (even though it might be unintentional) do more similar images or images with similar elements in the future too.

I'd say mine's soft-style semi-realism. At least, when I do lineless digital painting, which is what I do most. I'm constantly making adjustments to features and whatnot, trying to inch toward realism - I'll get there someday, but for now, I'm enjoying where I'm at pretty much. In sketches and whatnot, it's more cartoony, western style, though working with the painting stuff has really shown me the areas I'm cartoonizing everything...such as the size of the eyes, length of the nose, placement of the features on the face, etc.

There was only one instance where I really tried to change my style and that was about a year or so ago when I decided to go ahead and try to make the leap into lineless from the lined art I had been doing all along. I think it freed me up quite a bit, not being restricted into outlines.

hummm i wouldnt really say i have a set style yet? i really like doing little light circles on lips and adding funky backgrounds (kinda) like Alphonse Muchas.. but i dont really think anything of mine really stands out when you stare at it as being "oh thats Jitsumi's!" i'd like to think im getting there though. *shrugs* i try different things until i find something i like and then it ends up sticking in the rest of my pictures forever.

I think I manage to develope mine but it's prone to change foverer anyway and in a good way.
But I'm happy to have mine and I think it identify me.

I don't have a particular style because I'm not set in stone. I've changed over the years. I can do most of what comes into my head, about 80% of the time. And the 20% I can't do, I just keep trying or eventually I give up for the time being.

I have preferences though. I like softer edges. I like either action in the picture, or thought/contemplation, by the characters in it. I think most of my paintings are either very light or much much darker. In general though, when it comes to commissions, I'm up for almost anything, because it expands what I am able to do. I kind of have a foundation in what I know how to do...and a general idea of how to get from point A to point B...but I like to try Point K or L sometimes, because although in theory I know how to get there, it's nice to get the practice, and actually get to that different point, to that particular style, to that particular request. Just to be able to, and also to be more efficient at it the next time I have to do anything similar. Theory and practice are sometimes quite different, so it is nice to get practice in, though theory is your first vague map as to how to get there.

hmmmmm I think I'm still trying to develop my own style. it's not something that I say it's mine yet since 2345234523423 people have similar style as me. not like jitsumi and ming that really have definite styles? I can just pick yours if there are pile of arts around *nods*

u____u; My style is pretty Moe... My friends like I'm trying to become an H-game artist or something.

>.< I say I am trying to be like Aoi Nanase and Koge Donbo and Torhu Adumi..

*snort* mai you cant pick my stuff out of a group, it just sorta blends in *cackles* though i agree with Fongmingyun's and Luciole's watercolor it really stands out as different *nods*

Hehe, Luciole's normal water colors you can tell a mile away...SOOOoooOOOooo sparkly and uber pink-purple-girly-shiny-happy....but she is capable of more than one style too you know? Would you have guessed that the picture below, for example, was hers? Of the artists here, maybe yes because she's one of the watercolorists...but if you had like 200 artists I wouldn't have guessed the picture below was her style. Tis a lot more dark than usual. :)

Jitsumi, Mai - thank you. Mai, i didn't know you were on this site *hughug* I saw the pic you did for Shox - gorgeous! And if you're wondering, I can recognize your work. You have a distinctive round face shape coupled with a unique method for doing eyes. I mean a lot of artists do similar subject work - round faces big eyes, but the way you draw them and your use of lineart is distinctive, for me at least. Jitsumi, I notice you favor thick and dynamic lineart (and markers, but I'll get to that in a sec). Id your major graphic design, by the by?

I find that a lot of artists, people group 'style' in with 'media' and 'subject'. For me, style is more like artistic voice. I can use markers, pencils, a whole lot of random arse junk, but I have a very consistent style throughout (at least, I think so) because when I do anything, my though process isn't changing. (*is very opinionated*) What I see as beautiful isn't changing. For example, I like drawing seated lounging poses and conveying regality in my characters - but like, suffice to say, even if they are bishounen, I don't want to make them seem like eye candy. This personal, completely non-artistc-related opinion, feuls a lot in terms of composition in my artwork. ((But gah, half the comments I get are about my natural media technique! lol.))

In short, for me - style is a matter of voice. My personal goal as an artist is to be able to put any idea I concieve down onto paper (or screen) but still be recognizable because of how I execute said idea. And if it's my idea (not a commission), people should be able to see, "Yeah, because they think like that." I want a balance between variety and distinctiveness.

((And yes, I could have guessed that picture was Luciole's. She has a very distinctive way of texturing and layering colors whether in CG, marker, colored pencil, or watercolor. She draws shapes out from forms in the brushstroke. That, or I talk to her too much and can recognize her stuff often because of it, haha. :heart Luc:))

*nods* i could have guessed that was Lucioles (she loves those swirly things and i see them in almost every single one of her pictures. bseides she still using a lot of purple like in her other images in that one too (it just happens to be very dark)

*nods* mai's style i can pick out easily. Prolly because i tlak to her so often and watch her on her thread quite a bit, so i've picked up on her drawings more? *hugs* love the piccy you did of Bijou BTW! perfect as always

Id your major graphic design, by the by?

dwah? *blank stare* not understanding this statement ; ;

hummm dont think i reflect personality too well in my drawings yet to be able to have it recognized in that way, but yes i favor thicker lines (really more of a habit since markers tend to bleed on the bpaper i use and i hate when the colors go where they arent supposed to. and lordy i'd love to make them more and more dynamic ^o^ but im working on that now *grin* though i like to think my style looks pretty much the same no matter what medium i chose...even when i paint i like using bright bold colors and clearly defining the outline of things >.<;

Haha, yeah. see jitsu, you do have a distinctive style.

There are some anatomy inconsistencies in my worek that I very well know exisst but i keep anyway. I draw my noses considerably longer than they should be because I thinks guys look better with long, straight noses. And I like long legs on everyone so I draw the shin/claf as long as the femur/thigh, the latter which is the longest bone in the body and is thus decidedly longer than the shin. It's my personal homage to anime influences.

Lol. All I can say is that my art proves I'm obsessive compulsive. I do so much detail that people can't see - color variants and all that. WHich is really dissappointing to me emotionally but makes me still confident about my work.

Gotta go. Class.

oh oh.. JUST got that statement >.<;; sorry.. im so slow sometimes. actually.. last time i was sorta double majoring.. drawing and pre med >.<; but i had to stop classes when i had the baby because we havent anyone to watch him >.<; though i expect i'll be starting back up again in summer (which i cant wait to do cause i REALLY miss school >.< )

heh and hopefully with more art classes i can develop my stuff better. i learn so much better when people are telling me what to do and giving me limitations? (like you can only use this and this color.. no lines such and such) i suppose that mean im pretty un er.. un-creative on my own?

If I was given a list of names, half of the artists I didn't know, and Luc's name mixed in there, I would not have guessed it was hers at first because it lacks the usual white dots, and it's not the uber-girly-anime-type. She does swirls..but a lot of people do something similar to that too. So it'd have been more difficult for me to realize it is hers. I'm more used to her bishoujo. ^^' Mentally it's what I associate with her, is shiny sparkly happy girls with flecks of white paint. Very sparkly, faerie-like.

Well I used to have a style, but since I just recently came out of a very long art block... I'm sort of in limbo style wise.

Though in general I try not to restrict myself to one specific style, and am always experimenting. Though in general I'd say most of my art has some sort of 'Seth' element within it.

I would hope my art was recognisable, but I don't know because I made it.

Seth! You're here! Haha. There's something I notice in the way you draw lines, and you like green and red and orange a lot, I think.

Hmm XD;;

I don't know... I probably do, but it's hard for me to recognize it myself D:...

I tend to try a lot of new things but I've had a friend of mine say she can still recognize stuff I did 3-4 years ago... but she can't figure out what it is XD.

however.. I'm -very- good at recognizing other artists by their art O:

Originally Posted by Tirael

Hmm XD;;

I don't know... I probably do, but it's hard for me to recognize it myself D:...

I tend to try a lot of new things but I've had a friend of mine say she can still recognize stuff I did 3-4 years ago... but she can't figure out what it is XD.

however.. I'm -very- good at recognizing other artists by their art O:

You're easy to recognize. XD large, parallelogram shaped eyes - look very asian. Petite, upturned noses, cherry blossom mouths. XD With CG, very smooth and painterly with fading-edge brushstrokes, often muted color. Pencil - extremely high contrast crosshatching.

XDDDD pshhh. THATS JUST MY RECENT STYLE OK? 8D;;... alright FINE. SO MY ART SCREAMS TIR ALL OVER D8>

and look: ROUND eyes 8D;;!!
NO EYES /fighting a losing battle/

Lol.

Haha. XDD

omfg, noeyes.