What exactly is style? The most I can define on my own and based off of Internet links is it's a way of doing things, like how folks draw the same things differently, their way. I like what was said Kian's thread in regards to learning the basics to later use/distort that understanding to put the image in your head onto paper.
However, whenever my artist friends (who are actually majoring in art-stuffs like animation) say "sense of character", I get confused all over again. They praise my "style"/"good sense of character" and I praise their ability to actually make their characters DO stuff. I want to, but can't draw stuff like a person riding a horse charging into battle or a group hug, whereas my friends can easily pump out comics depicting such. Is that even possible? Can you really have a style before actually knowing "how to draw ('right')"? How on earth do you develop a style?
I'm mostly asking since I do know of artists (somewhat controversial ones on dA, in particular ::cringes:: ) who draw lazy/yucky/lazy/awkward(?) things and call it their style... And of tracers/art thieves/"style-stealers"(?). And I want to avoid being like them at all costs.
I like to think of style as a person´s form of representation/expression/stuff that is special and unique for that person. There are styles that are more abstract while there are those that are more, for the lack of a better word,"realistic".
i dont know how to articulate it in a nicer way aaaa
I guess more than anything i could show you examples of who has a personal style. Whenever i see a drawing made by most of the members in this forum I can tell who made it.
I dont think of this as a 100% true thing but sometimes I feel that artistic style (wether its cartoon,etc) sometimes reflects a person\\\'s character or personality, i dont know if anyone else feels this way.
referring to the last part of your post I also believe there are inspired AND uninspired styles/artists. Theres nothing wrong with experimenting with someone else´s style or attempting to find out what tricks make that style work. The problem is some artists copy elements from many styles, but their final product is crappier because they forgot to add a few drops of reality in that style.
Think of the lots and lots and lots of crappy anime/stuff in general in deviantart. Those people make drawings of already made drawings instead drawings of reality. Even for cartooning, you have to look at reality first because a style is just a representation of life, not a representation of another representation, you see where im getting at?
I should know, I used to be one of these people
im gay btw
also I think 99% of abstract artists (who also have a "style" as they call it) are charlatans and what they make is fucking bullshit
for reference type Jackson pollock in google
In style, I think you've pretty much covered what I think. It's the mark that makes the art the persons own, in a sense.
By sense of character they might actually mean that you are very good at portraying the characters personality only through pose?
Style is just how reality is interpreted by the artist, obviously along with whatever is influencing them at the time.
i don't think people are limited to one style either
What is art?
or better yet, what is anime?
style is something all artists have unless you draw anime in which case you are unoriginal hentai loving slut
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.fuckinslack.com%2Fuploads%2Fstyle.gif&hash=a3e6c7db866cd4a359ac0c74a8d1d7f24df5cc25)
I myself still have no idea how to define anime anymore. It's one of those "I'll know what it is when I see it" kind of things, but that just doesn't fly anymore and when people say any animation-thing from Japan is anime... Uhh... Yeah. It just confuses me. "Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland" and "Aeon Flux" are technically anime 'cause they were animated in Japan... It makes sense, but it's still confusing 'cause folks still go by the "looks/style" more than anything... And call "Avatar the Last Airbender" anime...
>_x; Then it goes into folks who describe their style as "Disney style" when technically, there've been a lot of different character designer peoples behind different movies like "Hercules" versus "Lilo and Stitch" bdgkjadnhgjakha [further confusion ensues]
Anyways, thanks for the explanations, guys~ It makes more sense now, especially everything Eman wrote and the whole perception/interpretation of reality thing. It's all... Whoa.
style =(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.gawker.com%2Fassets%2Fresources%2F2007%2F02%2Fneil%2520strauss.jpg&hash=528114939a46c5f37286e64a4a7d622a5a9192c2)
Hardstyle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1-q4MbAQbk
Take me to the place where the white boys dance.
Take me to the place where they run and play.
My baby is gone, you might have a chance.
Just take me to the place where the white boys dance.
They hug in silence,
As the sun sets.
On their empty street,
Their suspicions where they rise and hide.
And then who sweeps them off she doesn't leave.
She walks inside him,
pours a strong one.
Put her mind at ease.
It's the calm before another storm.
And the friendship's from the whiskey to the keys.
Take me to the place where the white boys dance.
Take me to the place where they run and play.
My baby is gone, you might have a chance.
Just take me to the place where the white boys... dance.
Her heart is racing.
She phones a friend to say:
I'm in an awful place.
That fool's been messin' round on me
I've seen it in his eyes and on his face
Hold on a minute.
You're talking crazy.
Don't be that jealous girl.
Just telephone you need an hour or two.
Cause we're gonna go and change somebodies word.
Take me to the place where the white boys dance.
Take me to the place where they run and play.
My baby is gone, you might have a chance.
Just take me to the place where the white boys dance.
It's the calm before another storm...
It's the calm before another storm
And the friendship's from the whiskey to the keys.
Take me to the place where the white boys dance.
Take me to the place where they run and play.
My baby is gone, you might have a chance.
Just take me to the place where the white boys... dance.
style is something a lot of artists worry about. whether their "style" is cool enough, whether their "style" is influenced too much by their friends/favorite artists, the limits of their "style". style is kinda just defined by "the way someone draws", but it gets made into a much bigger deal often, especially on the internet, because people often pigeonhole themselves to specific methods of drawing facial features/bodies/etc. based on what they take from other artists. i think true style is different, though. i think everyone has a true style that they are naturally born with that defines certain aspects of their style that will usually always be there. i have found that this "true style" often comes out more often when figure drawing, especially in the beginning.
in general though, after multiple years of worrying about my style, whether i ripped too much off other people, whether my features were cool enough, whether the bodies of my characters were as i wanted them and pretty much everything else, i realized that the foundations of learning how to draw are waaaaaaaay more important than the style you take on. of course i still have an occasional "style crisis" because well i think everyone gets sick of the way they draw certain features after a while and want a change. that is probably why people rip off each other so often. examples being furries, the "indie" artist batch who has no talent but slaps paste-on noses and wiggly arms to everything (what a great cop-out to learning how to draw right), the "scene kids" on deviantart who draw in that same paper flat style and a whole other list of people that i can't remember anymore because i left dA specifically so i wouldn't have to see these people's art. but my point remains
personally i think a really skillful artist can be more above style and can copy a lot of different styles without much effort. i mean can you imagine the old masters being in our generation and being like "OH MAN THESE PASTE-ON NOSES! WHAT ARTISTIC BRILLIANCE I DON'T HAVE THE SKILL TO COPY THIS!"
Style is what people use as an excuse to cover up there lack of artistic skill.
"Hey, you forgot the knees, the eyes aren't level and the perspective is broken"
"Fuck you! Thats my STYLE!"
when I saw this thread for the first time I tought bug was going to post that textwall about what is art
Surrealism is an excuse for bad art.
i hope you're joking bam
yeah bam if you're serious we're going to dogpile you on the internet, taser you and beat you senseless with iron batons
for we are
THE INTERNET POLICE
XD
Holy shit mang this is like totally a work ofart look at all the EMOTION and DESPAIR
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpatioculture.files.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F01%2Fjackson-pollock.jpg&hash=585b4b93c8d54481ce020d981584d2c50a6e78aa)
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frocioflores.files.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fjackson_pollock_gallery_272.jpg&hash=7bdd24fb5f9238c8635d613dd404300951171363)
eman you clown that isnt surrealism
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sauer-thompson.com%2Fjunkforcode%2Farchives%2Fsurrealism1.jpg&hash=6e3fb96b064f8e931ab9d72d9a37b55b2265eda9)
i meant more like "abstract art"
but that covers a lot of kinds of art
Quote from: sentry(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frocioflores.files.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fjackson_pollock_gallery_272.jpg&hash=7bdd24fb5f9238c8635d613dd404300951171363)
this cubism and its beautiful fuck you (nah jk it sucks but dis guy is clearly a noob so f)
surrealism is essentially interpretation of the artist's dreams and hallucinations
surreal paintings are done extremely well done with realistic shading which is why its fucking scary as shit to some people, especially the artists who make them
now dont knock it just yet
it might make a good background for something
My drawing professor:
QuoteStyle is something you develop organically as time passes. It's something you gradually develop as you draw more and more. Everyone has a different visual process and everyone's drawing will look different drawing the same object, and this original stamp develops more and more to be more sophisticated. Distortions and changes from reality are placed in when the artist has a good grasp of reality and alters it for farther intellectual input to the artwork based on the artist or artwork.
(not a direct quote, this is from a lecture from month ago)
Quote from: Bamyasi
Hardstyle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1-q4MbAQbk
I actually have this song on my broken iPod.
this blog article might help you sort out what style is, it helped me anyway: Thoughts on Construction and Expression (http://artsammich.blogspot.com/2010/01/thoughts-on-construction-and-expression.html)
while he doesn't specifically talk about style, what i got from it was that the manner in which you express structure makes up your style.
there is no *!&^~$ to this question for it can only receive subjective answers
Many thanks for the insight, guys~
And for a lot of subjective answers, I sure am learning a lot about what this "style"-thing is.
It's all very fascinating to me!
Style is when you draw things wrong on purpose because they express how something is perceived rather than just showing how something really is.
Example:
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.carmelodestefano.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F06%2Ffrench-woman-team1.jpg&hash=e0d877cd5869b0ec7dc3e5a56ad60d9cf48564d4)
This is a photo of naked french women.
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.moma.org%2Fexplore%2Fconservation%2Fdemoiselles%2Fimages%2Fdemoiselles_NewFINAL.jpg&hash=4e8ed5e9b414a2955bc560d37bbb3fce06fc4005)
This is a stylized painting of naked french women.
Quote from: sentryi meant more like "abstract art"
but that covers a lot of kinds of art
the specific style you are mocking is called abstract expressionism
what do you dislike about it? the fact that it would be "easy" to make or do you find it pretentious despite its historical context
whoops went to edit and accidentally quoted myself apparently
most people who do think it's pretentious/artsy for the sake of usually don't know anything about its history or why it emerged
style is somethin I got and somethin all you jokers want heh
hahaha cdm
[noob] Do any of you have the style you have now because you were inspired by others?[/noob]
Quote from: Sapphire[noob] Do any of you have the style you have now because you were inspired by others?[/noob]
Well, for me, I grew up trying to imitate the anime I watched and failed
pretty hard enough to not know how to draw any other way for the longest while. I couldn't draw anything without drawing the eyes first. Drawing anything else first just threw me off and made the end product look awkward... At least, more awkward than my original technique.
After being exposed to more art styles, especially more stylistic ones that appealed to me (TF2, Gurren Lagann, my friends), and being told that what I had going was a unique style, I decided to quit being so hard on myself, run with it, and expand on my own style.
@@; [dork mode] ...And after finally getting it into my head that style is actually a bunch of things, especially the personal perception/depiction/distortion of reality parts, I find myself even more inspired by the stuff around me now and I'm breaking my "eyes first" habit the more I doodle/draw! At least, as long as I draw because I
want to (experimenting lets me try out stuff that does or doesn't work with me) and
not just because I'm pressured to "make it look good" for my peers... 'Cause I was trying to guess at their perceptions (and "standards of good art") rather than going off of my own.
Thanks, TBA! ::hugushibushu's everyone:: <--- learned a lot about arting from her friends, but learned even more here!
See, I ask this because I'm like trying to get out of this anime style so hard, and it's just...not... happening. :l I see other artists' work that I really admire and I'm always thinking, "man I wish I had a style like that."
Quote from: Sapphire[noob] Do any of you have the style you have now because you were inspired by others?[/noob]
yes. i'm very much inspired by other artists. i think everyone is. i think if you can just formulate a style and just be inspired by concepts instead of other people's work then you're incredibly unique, but most people are inspired by better (or, in some case, worse) artists
Quote from: Sapphire[noob] Do any of you have the style you have now because you were inspired by others?[/noob]
initially i just tried to copy other artists' styles (five years ago my style was like a bleedman/clamp hybrid, it was pretty fantastic). after i started studying the basics, though, i kept trying to apply them to my stylized stuff and eventually figured out what techniques worked for me and which ones didn't.
so yeah, i think my present style is partly inspired by others, but i don't think you can build a style from inspiration alone. even from exaggerated drawings it's pretty easy to tell which artists know the fundamentals and which ones are just making things up as they go along. i know it's annoying to hear another person stressing the basics, but honestly, once you have those down i believe you can even get great things out of very limited styles.
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi40.tinypic.com%2F34euxz5.gif&hash=a79951bc12c98f14dc9a9fe91abc8e8fffc6221c)
Quote from: anigenQuote from: Sapphire[noob] Do any of you have the style you have now because you were inspired by others?[/noob]
yes. i'm very much inspired by other artists. i think everyone is. i think if you can just formulate a style and just be inspired by concepts instead of other people's work then you're incredibly unique, but most people are inspired by better (or, in some case, worse) artists
Yeah, this makes plenty of sense. Thanks for the explanation.
Quote from: miraQuote from: Sapphire[noob] Do any of you have the style you have now because you were inspired by others?[/noob]
initially i just tried to copy other artists' styles (five years ago my style was like a bleedman/clamp hybrid, it was pretty fantastic). after i started studying the basics, though, i kept trying to apply them to my stylized stuff and eventually figured out what techniques worked for me and which ones didn't.
so yeah, i think my present style is partly inspired by others, but i don't think you can build a style from inspiration alone. even from exaggerated drawings it's pretty easy to tell which artists know the fundamentals and which ones are just making things up as they go along. i know it's annoying to hear another person stressing the basics, but honestly, once you have those down i believe you can even get great things out of very limited styles.
So what exactly would "the basics" include?
anatomy, proportions, construction, composition, color theory, etc
Quote from: Sapphire[noob] Do any of you have the style you have now because you were inspired by others?[/noob]
oh definitely
if it werent for jamie hewlett and akira toriyama i would not draw the way i do today
Quote from: miraso yeah, i think my present style is partly inspired by others, but i don't think you can build a style from inspiration alone. even from exaggerated drawings it's pretty easy to tell which artists know the fundamentals and which ones are just making things up as they go along. i know it's annoying to hear another person stressing the basics, but honestly, once you have those down i believe you can even get great things out of very limited styles.
Y'know, I have to say, I only took one art class in middle school and while I understood that the basics were important, the teacher made it out to be kinda annoying/boring than "interesting" (the teach wouldn't let us do anything with the shapes we drew; once drew a tiny smiley face the size of a pencil's eraser on one of the 3'x3' cubes I drew and got yelled at). I personally appreciate what you have to say about fundamentals making it easier to do the fun stuff, like making styles work out the way we want to in the long run.
an excuse for people on sheezyart to draw badly
i didn\\\'t read anything in this topic so excuse me if someone already said that
This will seem like a speech... Sorry in advance.
Style: To put a personal spin on something, making it your own.
(My definition)
An artist's style can be influenced by many things, anything from the way you hold the tool(s) of your trade to how you utilize them.
Sure, there's always an orthodox manner in which to do something, a standard set by someone else; but in the world of artistic expression, that standard should just be considered a base to start from, not to stay on for all time.
No matter what the medium; each person does it slightly different. If all artists did everything the same way, the world of art would not be anywhere near as diverse. The spectrum of styles would never be as wide as it is.
Take up your tools... whether they be pencil, brush, a musical instrument... a tablet & stylus or mouse & keyboard; and take your idea, and make it your own. Invest emotion, thought, time and energy into something; and it will be yours...
After all the emotion and time, etc. you've invested into your work; you will know that giving up is not acceptable. To give up at that point is to throw away the time and stuff you invested into it! I do that with my music.
While I don't have any completed, mastered, published works; I feel that I am working toward them, and although progress is slow, I know its happening.
tl;dr
Do it your own way. Don't do it to other people's standards if you want it to truly be "your style".
My style is very weary and i cant keep it strate. Like every 2 weeks my art looks very differnt then it dose later. Any help?
Quote from: ThelostmanMy style is very weary and i cant keep it strate. Like every 2 weeks my art looks very differnt then it dose later. Any help?
If you've been drawing a lot, as opposed to being super out of practice and rusty each and every time you draw (making every time essentially a warm up), a changing style isn't too bad of a thing.
Eventually you'll figure out a way of doing things consistently that'll come naturally to you. Kinda like practicing a physical skill until it becomes muscle memory.
I'm not out of practice, i just need to focus better. Compare to 5 months ago, I have improved a lot.
I don't see style as something you strive for, it seems like something you gain over time, the more things that influence you the more your style will change. for example if you have a happy childhood and high school experiences at the musical level, any art you produce will most likely have a happy overtone to it, but then if suddenly all your friends die in a bus crash and you lose the use of your legs, your view on life will change dramatically and so will your artistic style. event's in your life as well as seeing work by other artists are large factors in what makes up a person's style. i think this is why it is important for art history to be required for a degree in art.
Style is what shapes the art. Its how you differentiate one pursons art from another. And thats my problem.
your problem is that you suck OOOHH
ultimate PWNage