Trying something new

Hey guys,

I'm sorry that last week there was no post, but this week I've got something that I think a lot of us as artists have trouble doing; trying new things. So I, like many people, have had a difficult time finding my own style. Everyone has different approaches to this topic and I just thought I'd throw in my two cents.

Every artist out there has their own style deep down, even if you don't see it intially it's there in every piece you do. It could be as simple as the thickness of your lines or the proportions of the people you draw. One of the best examples I can give is the Animatrix. Each lead artist or artists involved in every short has a very distinct style that has to be followed to keep the cohesion of the story together. Now what I'd like to bring up to help improve your own style is not to try to be different, because inherently you already know what about different styles you like. What I'm suggesting is to try those different styles out and copy them to figure out how to use those styles to you advantage as an artist.

I've always learned by doing more than people just showing me how to do it. I'm sure that's the same for a good number of artists, and in today's world with today's technology almost anyone can post a tutorial of how they draw or what processes that they followed to get where they are. Now that's all well and good if you, as an artist, are willing to give it a try. I have been experimenting with different styles for a long time, and I'm really only know starting to find my style hidden in all the styles that I found useful and some that i found unhelpful.

The best way to do that is to use reference. I know that there is a weird stigma about using references, and I think that in reality that is slowing a lot of artists down in their progress because they think of it as something they shouldn't be doing. In actuality it is probably the best way to improve your skills, because if you can see how things behave in react to different environments you will know how to use them in your own imagination. So references are where it's at. Find art or artists you like, go outside to an event with lots of people, watch movies and stop it on a certain scene and try and capture that scene under a time constraint. Rob talked about this last post, I totally agree with the idea of doing quick sketches. Practice is the best way to get better and using references helps to relieve the tension of creating your own images from your mind. Just go and sketch. don't worry about the result because not every piece is a sale piece. You have to be willing to just let something go. Once you can look at your art as a process that keeps moving forward it becomes easier to see those sketches as a stepping stone. Do as many as you can to get to the finished and polished pieces you want.