Developing Your Style

 

Developing Your Style

This month, I’m investing in exploring and developing style. Writers call it voice. It’s the part of what you create that identifies it as your work. Take handwriting for an example. We all write differently, and when people we know see our handwriting, they know it’s ours before they read who signed the letter.

Developing your style can feel daunting. Defining style and voice in creative works seems impossible at times. Writers, artists, and designers all wrestle with the concept in their work. It’s easy to identify style in someone else, but how do you find it in your own work?

Do you need to have one style? Do you need to be able to label and identify it? If you want to sell what you create, having a style helps. But … do you choose your style or do you discover it?

Style must land more on the creative, right side of the brain, making it a little ambiguous. Words don’t always make a complete definition. Sometimes I need to get my fingers into it and make it visual.

But I’ll try words first and then, I’ll show you how I experiment with it visually.

I’ll start with explaining the different parts of me that lend themselves to my style and some of the things that have changed over the years.

 

 

Pieces of the Style Puzzle

For me, style or voice is a combination of the pieces that make up who I am and how I offer glimpses of myself to the world in what I create.

Maybe I pick certain colors consistently, maybe I usually like mixing abstract and crisp lines in my art, maybe I use only watercolors and ink to portray shapes and characters, maybe the type of strokes on the page tell others I painted it.

The pieces grow and change over time.

And sometimes the search for style comes at a price, especially if you define your style by a single element, boxing in your creativity.

I know I’m not the only creative person who wants to hone my style but doesn’t want to be confined by it. Creativity, by nature, relishes the exploration of a unique path.

Does finding a style take away from the exploration?

It doesn’t have to, but that’s the risk.

Honestly, painting, drawing, and creating a small range of the same thing to make a buck doesn’t sound very appealing to me. I want to find my style. I want to make the occasional buck, but not if it costs me my creative sanity. Boredom would reign in no time if my art turned into cookie cutter copies with only different flavors of frosting available (even if that does make me hungry).

Style has to be more than sameness. Maybe style isn’t an arrival but a journey, a marathon, a quest involving much more than the finish line.

Here is a free printable to help you organize your thoughts on your style.

Your Style printable

 

What affects style?

• Likes/Dislikes in appearance
• Tool preference
• Personality traits
• Emotion
• Story
• Ability and knowledge and skill
• Color or absence of
• Details or lack of

Look at that list! Some of these pieces can change. Some of these pieces remain consistent.

People usually have the same basic personality from childhood through adulthood. They may hone their traits, understand themselves more and learn to interact better with people, but their basic personality remains the same. It shows through what they do.

Some of us love itsy details but others lose interest in the little things. They want to show the big picture. Some grow impatient with things that take too long, while others can easily spend days on one piece or immerse themselves in repetitive tasks.

Ability, knowledge, and skill grow with learning and practice.

Likes and dislikes can change with influence and experimentation.

Emotion and expression emerge new within each piece. With each day or moment sometimes.

My favorite tools may stay consistent over time until a new tool gives me a different experience and becomes a new favorite.

But … Do you need to have one style? Do you need to be able to label and identify it? Do you choose your style or do you discover it?

Here we are again.

Maybe style is a journey, not a destination.

Maybe the journey is part of the reward.

Over the month of April, as I explore and invest in style, I’ll work through two studies of style, one visual and one verbal (artsy letters … can’t quite get away from that right brain impact).

If you want to join me, the first part of the project is below. Explore as much or as little as time allows. When you’re finished, I think you’ll have a better feel for what you like to make and what appeals to you visually. Today.

But remember, don’t jump off the ride after the study. Keep exploring.

Write it. Draw it. Dream it. Dance it.

 

Visual Project, Part one

You can follow along with my project exactly, if you want to, but I encourage you to step into your own exploration. If you mimic my project, you will still learn techniques and looks to add to your exploration, but you will stimulate your own creativity less along the way. Because exploration is a process, neither method is right or wrong, just learn from what you do. And Make It Yours when the time is right.

1. Gather pieces of your style, make a collage if you like. The pieces can be pictures, colors, works from your favorite artists, stories, movies, and anything else that you feel represents you. I’ll put some of my style thoughts on a board on Pinterest. 
2. What stands out to you about your choices? What do you like or dislike?

Next week, we’ll move on to the next part of the project.