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How did your style evolve or are you still searching ?
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Message
Posted
I don't think a style can be planned, it evolves from the art that interests you. In my case it came from the comics I read (and copied) as a kid, then I discovered illustration...spending hours in the library looking at books on the great illustrators. It was my mid-twenties before I took an interest in so called 'fine art.' Illustration is still the great motivator, for every 'fine-art' picture I admire I'll find twenty illustrations that provoke the same admiration. I guess it's 'linear' art that appeals to me. Not sure if that's the correct description, I mean I like art where the outlines are shown. This abounds in illustration of course, but many 'fine artists' use it. Gauguin, Paula Rego and even Botticelli, to name a few.
Art is a constant learning process, but basically you just have to get on with it. I simply enjoy doing it, although it's often a source of disappointment. Sometimes the best stuff (for me), is something done in a relatively short time in a sketchbook.
So, I guess I'm saying get on with it and forget about style. That'll happen, or not, on it's own.
Posted
Good subject Tony. I hope and believe mine is still evolving and improving, and I’m certainly still seeking something slightly different. I also have a different style according to what medium I am using. Because I paint mostly in oils I’m more able to be looser and try out different techniques than if for example I try gouache or pen and wash. I’m sure we are mostly more comfortable in one medium.
Interesting theme which I’d like to know how you answer for yourself, as you have an individual and attractive style which stands out on the Gallery.
Posted
As has already been said , I think style is constantly developing as we paint and learn. Like Lew I started sketch by copying from comic and have sketch on an off most of my life. It’s only in the latter years of life that I’ve started to paint. I do have a tendency to use a brush very much like a pencil, in that I tend to draw detail as if sketching. It also depends on what I’m painting, I tend to be more loose with landscapes, less so with others things. I’m not sure I have a style, and don’t particularly look to having one. I do believe it develops, and not something you do as it would possibly force your paintings. We do developers a preference for how to do certain things, is that a style?.
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Posted
People are always telling me I have a recognisable style, although it’s taken years to evolve and for me to accept it - not that it was intentional, but I’ve found that using pen and ink with watercolour in an illustrative style is what I’m happiest with and although I often experiment with different media and techniques it’s what I always go back to (especially after a few experimental failures!) I think for most people they don’t set out to create a style, it just evolves naturally, but it can sometimes be difficult to accept and be true to your own style rather than constantly envying other people’s!
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Posted
I would love to be able to paint lovely soft loose landscapes but I can't so do what i'm most comfortable with, usually pen and wash, so I guess that's my style like in my last Grasmere painting. When I paint wildlife, my style is different again, I like to add detail but still try to keep a style that I have developed as my own, I don't want to copy anyone else. But I do like to experiment with different mediums, something that I think I have done more since joining POL.
Posted
...it can sometimes be difficult to accept and be true to your own style rather than constantly envying other people’s!It's ok to admire other artists and aspire to produce stuff like them, but it's when you start copying their style because it's their style that you need to back off the throttle and try to use them just for inspiration.
Posted
Interestingly Stan I usually know who a painting is by on the gallery when it is posted by one of the regulars, I also used to hang exhibitions for an art society I belonged to for many years and always knew whose painting I was hanging without looking at a name.
If you think about most great artists you know who they are immediately. So no , style isn’t a cliche it’s a fact.
Posted
I think one isn't necessarily aware of it in one's own work - but as soon as I see an Alan Bickley, an Alan Owen, a Sylvia Evans, a Paulette Farrell, and countless others on here - I know who the painter was before I look for the name. And I'm told my stuff is recognizable, whatever medium I've used..... but I can't see that myself!
Posted
Oh yes, your paintings are recognisable Robert, instantly in fact, along with the other names you’ve mentioned.
I do try and vary my style, painting ‘thin’, at times, sometimes heavier impasto style, but I’m always recognised.
I have changed styles over the years, I’m still searching though, I’m still not happy!
Are we artists ever?
Edited
by Alan Bickley