How to build your own Art Style

[Bawfle]

As a lot of people understand, it's always hard to find a method to help guide you down a path to creating and developing your own art style. It's a hard process, and even when you think you've got it... you don't end up liking after a while. This is because you don't actually connect with it personally, but I'm here to help you find out how you can.

Believe me, I've tried creating my own after adopting Disney style. In the end, it proved either too difficult for me to keep up with, or I'd end up disliking everything I made after a while. However, quite recently I stumbled across a blog which really enlightened me, and after reading it I thought how it could enlighten and inspire so many other artists who just want to find their own style to connect with.

"Creativity is taking the same parts and pieces that everyone else has access to, and combining them in ways that no one else has ever thought of. There is nothing magical about developing your own personal art style. Style, like any other element of your artistic process, comes deliberately. It doesn’t need to take years or even months. Style is something you build, and you can build it in a week. Tops." - Christopher Kerry

Just a disclaimer, the steps below were developed and written originally by Christopher Kerry in this blog post. I have merely summarized his steps for better understanding and easy reading.


Step 1: Identify three artists or art styles that really resonate with you emotionally.
To summarize, you need to pick three artists or art styles or objects that you really love. They can be anything or anyone. The artists you choose should not work in a distinctly similar style to each other and the styles you choose should be as different as possible. We are going for variety. The most important part of this step is to choose artists that you really admire and styles that you really enjoy. You really really need to love what you pick, but don’t forget you can only pick three.


Step 2: Choose one image that best represents each of your choices from step one.
Step two is a hard one for a lot of people. What you need to do is choose one painting, drawing or photo that best represents your choices from step one. For example, let’s say you choose and artist. You would choose your very favorite piece from that artist. Or let’s say you chose Anime. Choose your favorite Anime drawing of all time.

No cheating, you can only pick one image for each artist or artistic style or 3D object. So take some time with this step and choose images that you really love, images you would hang in your house, images you would actually buy.


Step 3: Analyze each of the images you chose in step two.
Step three is the hardest part, the part most people don’t spend enough time on. It’s also the most important part, so please take the time to do it right. You need to really study each image you chose. Have a pen and paper handy so you can write down your observations. For each image that you chose there is one major artistic element that really makes that image amazing, one something that made it stand out to you over all the rest. Find that. Analyze it. Write it down.

Ask yourself WHAT grabs your attention first. That’s the thing you’re after. Next, ask yourself WHY that particular thing grabs your attention over everything else in the drawing. Now ask yourself HOW that particular thing was used in the drawing. There are no wrong observations. The only way to mess this up is to make too few observations.

Maybe it’s not the figure that interests you, maybe you find it’s the color that really stands out to you. What is it about the color that caught your eye? Are all the colors bright and vivid or are they dull and muted? Maybe there’s a combination of both. If there is a combination of both, are the bright vivid colors near or surrounding the main subject matter? Or are all the bright colors in the main subject matter and all the surrounding colors dull and muted? Did the artist use lots of different colors or are the colors mostly in the same color family? It’s things like this that you really want to know.

You should write at least a good-sized paragraph for each image describing the one artistic element in that image that makes it special for you. Ask yourself... What is it about this piece that caught my eye? What one special style in this piece stands out to me enough that I could write about it? It’s things like this that you really want to know.


Step 4: Combine each of the individual artistic elements you identified in step three into an original drawing of your own.
This is the step where Christopher Kerry's definition of creativity comes into service. In this step you combine the elements you chose so carefully in step three into an original drawing of your own. To be clear, here you are not combining the subject matter from the images you choose, you are combining the artistic elements you identified into a subject matter of your own. The subject matter for this new drawing should be the subject matter that you draw most often. It should be the subject that you love to draw most.


I hope fellow artists and newbie artists enjoy this great piece of hunka-hunka enlightenment. I cannot wait to try my hands at these steps in hopes to connect with an art style to call my own. Even if it doesn't work out for me, I imagine it will work out for others who struggle to connect with their own art.

Happy creating!

[Insoholic]

It was so thoughtful of you to share this. I can see how this will come in handy to many artists. +floof

[sanrio]

This is really helpful, Bawfle.
Even though I think I've found an art style of my own that I feel very connected with I'll be sure to use this as a reference in the future if I want to change things up a bit. I must admit, it is very difficult to come up with your own style that isn't exactly a 'rip-off' of someone else, believe me.
I praise you and Christopher Kerry both for helping all the artist out there that needed this. +floof

[Azurain]

-wild clapping- I love this! I need to read this 5,000 times over when I'm sitting here screeching about my artwork. Great job Buffy!

[Hakumi]

Ayee, this is very lovely of you to share this Bawfle <:

I'll be sure to refer to this whenever I question my artistic abilities. This is truly a wonderful thing you've done for all le fellow artists.

- Pandeer Sticker to le Snout - <33

[amythealpha]

Aaaa thank you for posting this! I've been having trouble with my art style lately, and I've been trying to find ways to fix it. I feel like this is exactly what I was looking for! I'll be sure to try this <3

[Bawfle]

Thank you all! You're welcome!

[Cookie202]

Ahh thank you so much for posting this. I know that a lot of people struggle with finding the style they wish to stick to throughout their art, myself included. Heck, I haven't even settled on one yet, and I've been drawing for years. Thanks again, and I will be trying this out for myself!!

[Melon]

guh huh

woah thanks for posting this mate

peeps will find this useful

[LordSuragaha]

Incredibly thorough and informative, I'm sure there will be a number of people who will learn a thing or two from this <3 Nicely done. Thanks for sharing your advice here!