Finding your Style

I often get questions from people about finding their style, and yesterday I had a really great question. Somebody asked me how she could learn from me, but not just make replicas of what I teach and really make the drawings and paintings her own. I thought this was a great question, so I thought I would share my answer here in case it’s useful to anybody else.

Just for fun I have included some examples of my work from as early as 2006 up to last year. As you can see my style has changed hugely over this time as I’ve experimented with materials and my drawing skills have improved.

Personal work completed whilst I was at sixth form College

It is definitely tricky when you’re starting out for your work not to look too much like the illustrators that you admire.

Personal work completed whilst I was at sixth form college

My first piece of advice for finding own style is to draw from life. Set up a still life and sketch it, paint a vase of flowers, sketch your pet, try a self portrait. Drawing from life is really important to develop your drawing skills and to help you find your style.

Personal work completed while I was at university

The other thing is it’s important not to just be taking inspiration from contemporary illustrators. Create work inspired by your favourite films, or the books that you love. Look at illustration throughout history. Look at fine art, set design, photography. Try to find really broad sources of inspiration that represent your interests, and that will help you find your style.