Finding Your Style

"How do I find my style?" is one of the most common questions artists ask. The surprising answer: you don't find it by looking for it. Style is the natural result of your choices, influences, strengths and limitations, accumulated over many drawings.

What style really is

Style is a set of consistent choices:

• How much you simplify (realistic or stylized).
• Your line quality (clean, sketchy, bold, delicate).
• Your shape language (round, angular, elongated).
• Your proportions (realistic, exaggerated, cute).
• Your color and value preferences.
• Your subjects and the mood you're drawn to.

Stylization is simplification with intention

Good stylization is built on understanding reality. A cartoon character works because the artist knows anatomy and decides what to keep, exaggerate or remove. That's why the fundamentals come first: you can only simplify what you understand.

How style develops

1. Study the fundamentals (this whole course).
2. Study many artists you admire. Copy their work as studies (never as your own pieces) to understand their choices: how they simplify hands, how they use color.
3. Mix your influences. One influence makes you a copy; ten influences make you original. Look beyond your field: film, architecture, fashion, nature.
4. Draw a lot, for yourself. Your preferences will emerge: the things you keep drawing, the solutions you keep choosing.
5. Notice your strengths and lean into them. Limitations also create style.

Master copies

Copying a master's painting or drawing as a study is one of the oldest training methods. It reveals decisions you'd never notice just by looking. Always credit the original and don't present copies as your own work.

Consistency for professionals

If you want to work professionally, consistency matters: clients hire you for a recognizable look. But consistency is not rigidity. Your style will keep evolving throughout your career, and it should.