Week forty-seven

Some Thoughts on Style

As a developing artist, finding “your style” is akin to finding the holy grail. For some, it’s the ultimate goal. It’s that special thing that sets you apart from the rest, that thing that makes you a recognizable artist. We work hard to get there, but we honestly don’t really know what we’re looking for! I’d like you to think about it this way: your style is what happens when you are NOT trying.

I think “your style” is the look that comes naturally once you’ve mastered your skill. It’s not a look that you have to work hard to achieve, it’s what emerges from you instinctively when you practice creativity. So if you’re still in the learning stage, or even if you’re much further ahead, don’t feel bad if you don’t know what “your style” is yet. Your style will emerge even before YOU realize it does! All that being said, you’re style is something that you can actively work on developing through experimentation and a consistent art-making practice.

Last week I showed you how you could brainstorm some new style ideas using inspiration found in other artwork. I encourage you to continue experimenting with style this week as you work on your next Scene School Assignment. Be sure to check out my article “Using Inspiration and Influences” to teach you how to take a more active approach to absorbing inspiration and use it as a form of research and idea generation.

What to Do

Identify your style! Go back though all the drawings and illustrations you have made this year, and pick out the ones you love the most. Also try to identify which ones were the easiest for you to create (meaning you weren’t trying super hard to achieve a certain look). Once you get a collection of your work, start to identify any similarities you see, or techniques you use over and over, colors you use a lot, or visual styles.

New Tutorial!

My second Scene School video tutorial is complete! Join me as I show you how I drew this garden scene. I’ll walk you through the process of how to put together the scene, one piece at a time. I’ll teach you how to develop each component of the scene and assemble it all together. I’ll also show you an exercise that I use to experiment with style.

November Prompts

Scene School!

This week’s Scene School Scene School assignment is to draw an Interior Scene. For this, you should choose a room from inside a home such as a living room, kitchen, office, bedroom, bathroom, etc. The question is…who’s house will you be drawing? You could create a scene based on your own home. You could pick a character you created earlier or a character from pop culture and imagine what a room in their house would look like. Or just begin by drawing pictures of all the furniture and decor items you want to buy and put together your dream room!

Here are some ideas for each of the prompts:
seating (dining chair, rocking chair, office chair, toilet, couch/sofas, etc.)
decor items (wall art, clocks, rugs, pillows, picture frames, etc.)
house plants (potted plants and trees, vase of flowers, hanging plants, etc.)
furniture (end tables, appliances, cabinetry, etc.)
lighting (lamps, sconces, windows, chandelier, etc.)

One more thing…I’m working on a tutorial about one and two-point perspective that will be out later this week! This information will help you a ton when it comes to drawing your final interior scene. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, so you don’t miss it!

Head over to the Interior Scene section of Scene School for instructions about how to approach each prompt this week that will result in a fully developed interior scene!

Week 47 | Nov 16-22

interior scene

Mon: seating
Tue: decor items
Wed: house plants
Thu: furniture
Fri: lighting
Sat: sketching it all together
Sun: color & finish

This piece was drawn using my Midcentury Illustrator’s Kit brush set.

You can access each week’s prompts, with links to reference photos, at makingarteveryday.com

Making Art Everyday // Bardot Brush

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