You got style?

Style…man oh man, style has been an issue I’ve faced with my work since…well, high school at least.

I remember drawing characters in the high school auditorium thinking “How do I draw this?” “What is MY style?” And lacking a cohesive answer to that question I moved away from illustrating for many years.

A decade later I started doing more illustration I decided to ‘just draw it’, (I’m sure Nike stole that from me.) And at this point, I do enough freelance that I find myself wandering across styles, being asked to push things in one direction or another.

But I still wonder - what is MY style? And I know whatever it is I do there are art directors who don’t like ‘my style’. Great…I don’t even know what they don’t like. So it feels like they don’t like ME! That’s the core emotional issue with working in the arts. A rejection can feel very personal. It’s not. I know that. But still…

I’ve always enjoyed many different styles of art. In illustration classes I was the one who liked abstract expressionism and rolled my eyes at the critics in class - (My 6 year old nephew could draw that!) - it isn’t JUST about how well you draw. Artists can also get at feelings and ideas that are personal and a reflection of the world from their POV may not look like the world we’re in.

But in illustration classes and later animation I very much admired the folks who had great control over form and perspective. ‘Traditional’ animation art always inspired me.

So here I am today. No good answer except that the act of drawing, of creating is what guides me. It’s what brings me pleasure and hope and honestly keeps the tears away. That I sometimes get paid a decent wage to do it it makes me a very lucky person. I know that and believe you me, I have gratitude for the opportunities that have come my way.

Maybe one day I’ll know exactly how I want to draw something. Until then it’s an experiment, it’s starts-n-stops, searching for what I want to express. And perhaps that’s what I enjoy most.