So, What’s Your Style?

Do any of you struggle with this question? I remember when I first started illustrating, I was obsessive about finding my style. It used to haunt me to the point where I’d be actively reminding myself that I do THIS and I do THAT as I was drawing. Always chasing the notion of uniformity. When I finally felt like I had one, it didn’t suit me. I liked the pursuit of a style, more than putting the rules of that style into practice. Right now, I feel happy with the idea that my style is a combination of things that no one else has. My tastes. My choice of brush combinations, my colour schemes, my shapes. None unique on their own, but unique to me in the way I mix them up.

Developing Style

I wrote that in an Instagram post after being asked this same question for what felt like the 657th time. It’s a difficult question to answer and going by the responses I got on Instagram, I’m definitely not on my own.

When you start out, I mean, like right at the beginning when your eyes are wide and you have the ideology of ‘I will draw and they will come’ you want this style thing so bad. I remember instead of just drawing, actively stopping myself from doing what came naturally when I was drawing eyes. I remember erasing them over and over because they had to look the same as the last time I drew eyes.

Now, if I’d stopped and really thought about it, I would have realised that the last time I drew eyes wasn’t natural to me either. So what I was really doing, was training myself to rote draw eyes like someone else, because I liked how they drew eyes.

Because I liked how THEY drew eyes.

Hmm.

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About The Booklet

I’ve put together this short (10 page) booklet to help any illustrator at any level who is struggling with seeing and defining their style. It’s a quick read to help with what is a BIG problem for lots of illustrators. It’s short and sweet for a reason. How many books do you have unread or just flicked through (I see you) on your shelves? There’s just too much reading and not enough doing.

This book is less about reading, and more about doing. It’s an open it and read it now thing. There are no pictures and I’m not going to preach about how to draw – this book is about developing and recognising your style. Padding it out with tons of words is just going to make you put it on the shelf with all the others. The lack of pages is a conscious decision on my part, because believe you me, I can talk for days.