When I first started, I remember seeing a lot of things about “style”; “draw this in your style, #DTIYS!” I remember it left me thinking, “what is my style? Do I have a style? I don’t think I’ve been doing art long enough to have a style…”.  Have you had thoughts like that? Well, read on to see what I think about how to ‘find your art style’.

First and foremost, I would say that whatever way you draw or paint, or make marks, however you do that, that’s your “style”. It doesn’t have to be something deliberate that you plan, work at, and develop. It can simply be the way that marks come out of your pen or brush or pencil. (If you’re interested, I talk more about this in my class “Tap into Your Creativity“).

My daughter had a recognisable art style when she was in nursery. I would look at her pictures and I could tell that they were hers and not one of her friends.  

However your hands make marks, whatever ways feel the most comfortable to you, or that you enjoy doing, that will naturally be the kind of things that you make. Let’s call this your inherent style. 

There is another element of style that is created through practice, repetition, and deliberate intention. Let’s call this your developed style… because it requires the development of specific skills and abilities – see what I did there?

For example, I really love Art Nouveau. I particularly love artists like Alphonse Mucha and Margaret MacDonald.

I love the beauty and gracefulness of their images. I love how Mucha’s pictures often poke out over their border – like this Princess’ dress does at the bottom of the piece above. The sweeping curved lines in MacDonald’s pieces, particularly the one below, make my heart sing.

Over time I deliberately incorporated some of their elements into some of my pieces. The piece below was a very deliberate ‘homage’ to Mucha where I was using this painting to notice many of the elements that are part of Mucha’s style.

So, if you look at certain artists and you think “I really want to do some of the things that they do” go ahead and study them to learn how they do those things. (Some quick Googling tells me) this is something usually required in formal art education, often referred to as “master studies”.

To be clear I don’t mean, “go ahead and make carbon copies of one particular artist’s way of doing things and try to pass it off as your own” because that’s… not cool, particularly if the artist you do this to is a present-day artist. I think it maybe speaks to – perhaps – misplaced enthusiasm alongside a lack of understanding of how impactful it can be when someone straight-up copies your work.  And when folk do this I wonder if there’s also a lack of confidence, feeling like they don’t have something unique and wonderful to offer (pro life tip: they absolutely do). 

What I suggest is:

• Pick at least three, preferably five or more artists that have elements in their works that you really like and want to be able to do.
• Save some screenshots of their work for your personal reference. Or make a Board on Pinterest. Or find some other way to get a bunch of their pictures together in one place where you can look at them all together.  It will make it easier to pull out the specific elements that they share that you admire.
• Take the time to carefully look at the images and figure out what those elements are that you admire.
• Then try to recreate those elements in your own way. 

With practice those elements will start to become incorporated into how you make your art, just like any skill. So practice! (Another pro life tip: you get better at a thing by repeatedly doing the thing). 

And that’s my thoughts on how to find your art style. Or at least, that’s one way to find your own art style. 

If you have other ways, I’d love to hear it. Please share it below.

Until next time!