This is kinda gonna be a 2 in 1 btw
Question: How do you find an art style? How to keep style consistent?

Asked by: anxious_earthy

Question: Do you have any tips on how to have a consistent style?? I can't figure out how people do that

Asked by: smallraven

Tbh? Me neither, for quite a while. Historically, my art style has been pretty inconsistent. However, I think I have achieved some level of consistency in the past few months, even if only on a minor level. Here are some tips!

1. Experiment! While this seems counterintuitive, it's really the best way to find out what you like and what you don't like. Here are a few examples:

Lineart: Do you like bold, thick lines or thin, light lines? Do you like many small sketchy lines or smooth, big lines? Or do you wanna go lineless?

Color: Do you like to use bold colours, or muted colours? Light or dark? Or (like me) do you like to mix it up? Do you like having many different colours, or just working with a few? Or do you like working in greyscale?

Shading: Do you like shading boldy, or subtly? Or a mix of both? Do you like to make your shading reflect the environment, or do you prefer flat backgrounds? Do you like bright, neon lighting or more natural lighting?

Please don't get tripped up by these questions, these are just some things to consider if you want to try experimenting. There are countless ways to experiment, the former questions are just a starting point if you don't know where to start!

 2. Create a formulaic way to draw. This is piggybacking off of my last point. After you are done experimenting and finding out what you like, simply identify those things and apply them to a drawing. For example, my average drawing consists of: 

Blocking out shapes with a huge brush, blocking out muscles with a smaller, sketchier brush, thin , sort of sketchy lineart, flat colours with slight variations in shading, colourful lighting and overlays, and sometimes a white outline. That's my formula, but yours can be whatever you want. 

3. Create a series! A series is defined as a collection of art that leaves no doubt in the viewers mind that they were created by the same person. Do y'all remember this from 2020?

This was technically a series I did at the time over the span of a few months! Though there are some slight changes between the drawing's styles, I think you can tell that I made all of these by the shading, lighting, eyes, bright colours etc. 

So how does this relate to consistency? Well, it's pretty simple. Doing a series means that you have to force yourself to draw in the same style in order to show the viewer that you are the one who drew it. The series doesn't have to be big and grand, it can literally just be a series of drawings that you try to make look as consistent as possible.

4. If you don't have the time or energy to create a series, you can simply draw multiple things in real time on the same document! This is what I did for these drawings:

On each respective drawing, I did each step at the same time. So for example, instead of fully drawing and rendering each one seperately, I sketched them at the same time, lined them at the same time etc. The reason you might not want to do each one separately is because after you fully render a drawing, you might feel too exhausted to start the whole process all over again. But if you dedicate an equal amount of time to each subject, then it feels like you are constantly making progress (because you are.) Since you are drawing it at the same time, you would naturally want to make it look as consistent as possible, which is lucky because your references are the other drawings on the page! Creating unity be referencing off of your W.I.P., if you will.

5. Study and compare your old art to your new art! There are two main benefits to this, being 

a) it allows you to see how far you've come and how much you've improved, which is very motivational

b) it allows you to see what worked, what didn't work, what you liked, and what you didn't like about your old (and new) art. (But mostly your old art.) It allows you to observe your experimentations in retrospective, essentially

6. This is not necessary, but I highly encourage it. Have an aesthetic/theme that represents your style! As you may know, I have a kind of vaporwave/neon purple style. In fact, I've had this exact same aesthetic and header since my very first post. The reason I chose this is that it looks hella cool, but also I feel like it sort of represents my art style. I often use saturated colours, and coloured lighting.

The point is, having an aesthetic or theme of your account can consciously and subconsciously reinforce your style and consistency, and remind you about the parts you like about it. Whenever I visit my page, I am reinforcing the idea to myself and others that my art style has many saturated colours and coloured lighting overlays (which are things I like about my art, and in certain ways, defines it.)

You can look for inspiration on Pinterest or Instagram, I recommend sticking to one or two colours and subjects, because what differentiates on theme from another are the colours and subjects. That is just what has worked for me in the past, but by all means if you find something with multiple colours and subjects that works for you, go ahead!

Final notes: The creation of a consistent art style if often an arduous task which can take years. I started drawing over 10 years ago (3 years ago digitally) and I only now just cemented a digital style that I can consistently replicate. An art style is always evolving. Don't be discouraged if it seems like it is taking a lot of time to find an art style, because you will find it eventually. 

Alright, I'm gonna go eat dinner. We are having crab cakes lol. Hope this helped!

-Atlantiik