Usage of Style

Use style as a tool, don't let it make you into one..... Don't let a personal style become a crutch or a fence or an excuse for drawing or painting wrong. You hear it all the time as a cover for a lot of bad artwork, 'Oh dude, that's just my style.' Each project deserves a fresh and different approach and possibly an entirely different drawing or painting style. To illustrate or draw every project in the same manner is not only doing the project a disservice, but yourself as an artist. Every new project is a chance to explore a new style or a twist on a old one. This sin't to say that having a good foundational set of skills isn't essential to produce compelling artwork, it is, but the style needs to work with the story and when it fails to do so it simply reads as disingenuous. Sometimes this happens in a non obvious way, but it still reads as wrong on some level. I've certainly been pages into a story and realized that I was drawing it wrong and had to chuck pages, but for me that's the right decision. I'd rather throw away and start fresh than try to fix that which is unfix-able due to a lack of forethought on my part. Sometimes tweaks can indeed be made but not always. I generally layout loosely and detail only what I'm sure about up front in case this sort of thing happens. It leaves me an out so that I don't have to commit to anything until the last minute. In this way I don't get too precious with my drawings up front by committing a bunch of detail to the page that I'm reluctant to toss out. Draw light, redraw until it's right. I have also mentioned in the past that drawing individual panel layouts rather than pages can help in this process and is a very free approach to getting to the page as a whole. Then if a panel doesn't fit you don't have to trash a good page or mess with cutouts and glue, etc. Really look at what you are doing stylistically and try to relate it to the story objectively. Ask yourself the hard questions. Be critical, but not overly so. Just make sure you are holding yourself to a professional standard in your work and not ignoring obvious faux-pas in your work. Before undertaking any big drawing or painting project I sketch, a lot! I usually do a sketchbook full of quick characters sketches, story beats that I can envision, world areas that I find compelling, etc. This is research and while it seems like a lot of work, it's work that pays you back later with solutions for problems you will inevitably run into. After you initial research, once you find a style that works with the story, commit to it and run with it. Don't think about it after that, don't second guess it, just do it. Compartmentalize your steps and don't backtrack. This will help you get the project done and stay sane while doing it. You will undoubtedly make a few mistakes and what not, but no artistic effort is perfect, just try to learn all you can from each project and do better on the next! IIId