Finding your art style can feel like discovering a secret part of yourself. It’s a journey of self-expression and creativity, and while it’s deeply personal, it’s also something many artists struggle with. If you’re feeling stuck or unsure, don’t worry, your style is already within you, waiting to emerge. Here’s how to uncover and nurture it.
1. Explore Different Mediums
Your art style is not just how you draw or paint, but also with what you use. Experiment with different mediums like watercolors, oils, computer drawing, charcoal, or even mixed media. Each medium has its own unique characteristics that can influence the way you express yourself in your work. For example, the essence of watercolor could have you using smooth, organic shapes as your defining element, while computer graphics might encourage you to experiment with sharp, bold lines as your defining feature.
2. Study Artists You Admire
Learn from your favorite artists and analyze why you’re drawn to their artwork. Is there a particular way that they employ color, line, or emotional reaction in their paintings that draws you in? Observe how they do it and try to replicate small sections as an exercise. Just be sure to learn rather than merely copy. Eventually, your influences and tastes will have blended, revealing your own art style.
3. Create Regularly
Consistency is the secret to improvement. Make art regularly, even if it’s just quick sketches or doodles. Producing on a consistent basis enables you to find patterns within your artwork (such as recurring themes, shapes, or techniques) that are pushing you toward your natural art style. The more you produce, the more pronounced these patterns are, and the simpler it is to recognize your stylistic tendencies.
4. Embrace Your Interests
Your style will be an extension of yourself and what you’re interested in. Do you love nature, fantasy worlds, or urban landscapes? Incorporate your passions into your art. By aligning your work with subjects you’re interested in, your authenticity will come through, and your style will be more genuine and authentic.
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5. Experiment and Take Risks
Challenge yourself by trying something new in your art. Combine styles, play with unusual color combinations, or attempt abstract concepts. Experimenting often leads to happy accidents that can lead to new possibilities for your art. Even if an experiment doesn’t work, it’s a valuable learning experience that brings you one step closer to your own personal style.
6. Focus on Your Strengths
What do you excel at in art? Maybe it’s realistic textures, action poses, or fantastical characters. Play to your strengths and use them as a foundation for your style. Focusing on strengths doesn’t eliminate the necessity to improve weaknesses, but it enables you to highlight the aspects that make your artwork unique and provide your art style with character.
7. Don’t Rush the Process
Finding your style is something you work through, not arrive at. That’s okay if it takes a while. Visual development is an ongoing process, and your style will happen on its own as you get more experienced and confident. Take pleasure in the process of discovering and be patient with yourself, knowing with each painting you do, you are getting closer to your own voice.
8. Seek Feedback
Share your work with others and listen to what they have to say. Sometimes, individuals can observe patterns and unique traits in your work that you might not notice. Other people’s criticism will enable you to refine your style, and discussions with other artists can stimulate new ideas or areas of direction to explore in your work.
9. Let Go of Perfection
Perfectionism is a major hindrance in finding your art style. Allow yourself to make mistakes and create imperfect pieces of art. Most often, the imperfections are what make your style distinct and memorable. Embracing imperfection also reduces the pressure to make perfect work, allowing you to experiment and take artistic risks.
10. Keep a Sketchbook
Utilize a sketchbook as a safe haven for experimentation. Draw without the expectation of producing a completed work. This liberty allows for experimentation and play, which are essential for finding your style. After a while, looking through your sketchbook can provide insight into repeated themes, stylistic decisions, and areas of improvement that characterize your art.
11. Revisit Your Childhood Art
Return and look at the paintings and drawings you created as a child. These tend to have raw creativity and honesty that can generate your work now. Children’s art is a reminder of a time when creating art was just about having fun and expressing yourself without expectations or comparisons. Returning to these pieces may help awaken ideas that influence your style now.
12. Analyze Your Everyday Scribbles
Notice the doodles you inadvertently create. Impromptu doodles tend to show natural tendencies in your work, from the quality of the lines to your subject matter preferences. Since you’re not making them under tension, they have the potential to give you access to your most spontaneous artistic biases and style habits.
13. Take Art Challenges
Participate in art challenges like Inktober or Draw This in Your Style. These activities test you to create over and over as you translate prompts into your own language, and in the process, you find new stylistic details. Art challenges also foster community, allowing you to learn from and be inspired by other artists and their tastes.
14. Learn the Rules and Break Them
Learn basic art principles like anatomy, perspective, and color theory. Mastering these basics provides you with a solid foundation to start from. After mastering the rules, consciously break them to create something that feels original and personal. Breaking the rules in a considered way can lead to happy accidents and exciting stylistic breakthroughs.
15. Explore Cultural Influences
Immerse yourself in the art and aesthetics of other cultures. Delve into the traditional forms of art, motifs, and methods of different regions. This can offer new eyes and prompt stylistic experimentation that is relevant and grounded in wider traditions, enriching your own creative practice and style.
16. Create a Series
Choose a theme or subject and create a series of works around it. Having one idea in mind allows you to work on and refine some stylistic elements over time. For example, a series of mythological creatures can lead you to experiment on larger-than-life forms and intricate textures that become your signature style.
17. Practice Storytelling
Use your craft to tell a story, be it in a single image or a series. Storytelling makes you think about composition, mood, and character which are essential elements of an original style of art. Narrative art also deepens the emotional bond between you and your audience, rendering your artwork stronger.
18. Work with Limited Resources
Limit your palette, tools, or time to challenge your imagination. Working within constraints can make you find innovative solutions and create a unique art style. For instance, using three colors only might lead to innovative mixing techniques or striking compositions that are your signature style.
19. Document Your Progress
Take photographs or keep a portfolio of your work over the years. Seeing your earlier work can indicate how your style has evolved and highlight trends that you may not have noticed. Monitoring your progress also provides you with a sense of accomplishment and tangible evidence of your artistic growth and style transformation.
20. Trust Your Instincts
Finally, listen to your instincts. If it feels right, do it. Your instincts tend to be the best guide when trying to identify your true art style. Trusting yourself lets you create pieces that feel authentic and uniquely yours.
Final Thoughts
Your personal style of art is your uniqueness. It’s shaped by your experience, taste, and experimentation. Be kind and patient with yourself as you discover it. Remember, the journey to finding your style is just as worthwhile as the destination. Keep working, and your unique voice will shine through.
