Concerning Style Development (Patreon)

I think reality is the best basis for style, but I also think there are different kinds of style ( this is just my opinion, haven't really heard anyone else talk about this )... But I think there's an inherent style, and that comes down to a lot of physical attributes and how you've practiced. And then there's a manufactured style, which comes down to your ideas and personal tastes. So to take the example of a signature, your manufactured style is the way you choose to sign your name. The inherent style would be the way your hand moves.

It's much harder to control your inherent style, so that's something I choose to work with and not against. I think this inherent style is also what a lot of people talk about when they talk about style developing naturally.

With manufactured style, I think some people don't really even consider this, but it's where I think you really get to push things and choose what you want to show the world. To me this is the thing that requires thought and experimentation.

I think when you choose to base your manufactured style on reality, you allow yourself much more range than if you base it on nothing, or maybe other artists, without understanding why they made the choices they did. You are more informed, and if it were writing, you would have a larger vocabulary, so instead of only being able to say "Big dog smell mouth" you can say, "The timber wolf's breath reeked of the freshly caught snow rabbit's blood". Before you write, it helps to know grammar and have a vocabulary suitable to say what you want to say. In art, it's the equivalent of knowing anatomy, proportion, perspective, having a large visual library etc...

So basically, I don't worry about inherent style, but I think it's not really good to rush into manufactured style before you have a solid grasp of the fundamentals.

If you say you see a style coming along, but you don't know how to improve on it, maybe it's more a case of you want to say more, but you don't have the vocabulary to say it. If you work on your fundamentals more, using reality as a basis, you'll probably be able to do more with your style.

Good luck!