Talking about personal style can be very overwhelming, it feels like it’s something everyone already has and you’re way behind in finding it. But don’t worry! A personal illustration style is something that all illustrators eventually find, and by understanding it, being aware of it, and working towards it you can also achieve your own illustration style.
Illustrations by Michal Sawtyruk
So what is a personal illustration style and why is it so important? To put it simply it’s your signature woven into your work. Your personal style helps people recognize your illustrations without even seeing your name under it, and why is this an important trait to have you may ask? Well in a world with millions of illustrators you want your work to stand out, this can help you get more recognition and bigger opportunities to grow both artistic-wise and business-wise. Having your own style helps clients remember you and specifically ask for your illustrations. And as an artist, the journey towards achieving a personal illustration style results in you discovering and understating yourself much better both as a person and as an artist, this helps the people looking at your illustrations to connect to your work on a deeper level.
To achieve an illustration style you have to give it time, nothing good comes easy and with a lot of practice and a lot of work eventually, you will realize that you have developed your own style. But there are still some techniques that can help us achieve this quicker, a more efficient approach than just letting time pass by.
Now you have taken the first step towards finding your own voice as an artist. Congratulations!
Illustrations by Willian Santiago
After doing your exploring try using the same colors, textures, shapes, forms, and overall feelings that your favorite illustrators have used. You don’t have to copy anything, just let their works influence you as much as possible.
After a while you will realize that you are starting to like and enjoy your illustrations more and more, this is the second step to developing your own style. The feeling that your work is reaching out to you on a deeper level is a good sign and it means you’re making progress.
After exploring different artists it’s time to explore different mediums. Sometimes the only thing keeping you from discovering a whole new style is your fear of experimenting with new mediums. Some people are more comfortable illustrating with wet mediums like watercolor or acrylics, and some like to use dry mediums like pens, pencils, or chalk. And using one or two mediums for a long time makes you feel scared of stepping outside of your comfort zone. Trying something new and crazy, like mixed media, really helps to grow your creativity, and just by trying out new mediums, you might find that something that seemed distant and scary is the exact thing that your illustrations needed. And you might even stick to it.
Illustrations by Carolina Rodriguez Fuenmayor
It’s easy to forget that your style is something that comes from within you and not something you can force. The third step of this process is to think of what you love and what makes you who you are as a person. Your family, your home, the things and people you care about, your favorite foods and your favorite books, all these things make you who you are, and by connecting your personality with your work, you are done. You will have found your own illustration style. Start by making these things the main concept of your illustrations, or just try to fit them into your work somehow and you will see that the effort you put into designing the things you love is more than the effort you have put into your other illustrations. You can show who you are better by drawing things you are more familiar with, things that have made you who you are as a person today.
At this point, you have gone through many different styles and have been introduced to new illustrators and their works, you have experimented with these styles and have used many new mediums. You are using new concepts and new forms in your work and now all that is left is practice. Work work and work and you will see that just by being aware of the choices you make in your illustrations and letting time do its job, you have developed a style that couldn’t be seen in your illustrations in the past. And this scary idea of a personal illustration style is now a goal that you have achieved and put past you.
Illustrations by Guilherme Asthma
Remember, your style is not something that stays the same forever, and it will always be evolving as you grow and change as a person. This is a good sign and after a year, if you look back and see that your work style has drastically changed, don’t be alarmed, it is just the natural process that all illustrators go through and it will be a sign of your growth as an illustrator.
Great content! Keep up the good work!