firstly.. i havent been about purely because I have been using the 310 studio blog but also I've not wanted to whinge and moan on and on about the same stuff.. however I think im over due a venting..
For AGES i have been worried about STYLE.... i have jumped from technique to technique in hopes of finding the perfect style.. the perfect way of working for ME... but again i am having my doubts. Recently in the studio we decided to all have a go at a Halloween themed piece...
and this is mine..
I have moved away from using vectors all the time because I felt like any character in my work was lost through the digital medium and so I turned to inking my images in hopes of maintaining some of the character from my pencil sketches...
once I had finished this piece, i knew straight away that it was a giant step away from my inspiration... in terms of execution, composition, and colouring for example... my piece just looks and feels flat. the line art is meant to be thicker and thinner in parts.. mimicking comic book and cartoon like illustration.. but to me it just looks unprofessional... like a piece of fan art rather than a serious illustration for publication etc. without deconstructing every part of my image I can clearly see where this piece needs improvement but I think rather than me crying about the final execution of my images all the time I should focus on the idea and initial development of it in order to make sure the piece is as strong as it can be...
now I already have a reputation for over thinking everything and so this is still very difficult to do, making sure I have enough thought behind a piece without letting the idea go stale and becoming bored of it before I have even begun making it.
I think this is why a lot of my work stays in sketch form, because I worry too much about the final execution and that I will spoil the original idea.. but there is nothing stopping me from re-doing an idea.. only the time in which it takes to execute it repeatedly.... the Halloween piece took me approx 3 hours from sketch to finished piece.. and that ISNT enough time...
but after all.. i am still learning... i am still developing my "style"... it hardly seems it but i am still young....
I have tried so hard NOT to copy any of my influences, Not to regurgitate the same old thing just with a different subject matter I chose... but I have seen many young designers taking elements from popular and successful artists, adding it to their work and gaining a lot of coverage because that particular style is popular at the moment...
I know all my drawings have come from my own hand, my own way of creating and so already have my own style to them.. but what if I dont like my own style?
My main inspiration nowadays are Guy Burwell, Jay Ryan, Jonathan Edwards and Mike Budai, purely because they use their drawings directly in their work.. they dont vector it! I always thought I'd have to vectorize my work in order for it to look professional and finished but these guys prove that I dont have to. It's this hand drawn quality in their work that I aim to achieve in my own, only in this Halloween piece i've missed the mark some what...
through Twitter I have actually chatted with Jonathan Edwards about his own working method of sketching out ideas and then traditionally inking his work with a brush and ink...... i am yet to try this properly for myself... but with this method it would mean my line art isnt as patchy as when I use fineliners and the thickness of the brush also adds character to the piece but at the same time it still comes down to being able to draw. The beauty of cartoons and comics that I love is that your only limitation is your imagination and that you can exaggerate aspects or draw something unrealistic and new.
