At the end of 2020, I counted that I drew nearly 1,256 pictures (including 23 sketchbooks and 4 picture books) , which is actually quite impressive.
Recalling from the first sketchbook to the most recent paintings, in the process I repeatedly questioned myself and condemned myself, because in the first three months I could not see my progress at all. However, I always remember that the professor often said to me something that hits my heart,
“If you want to be perfect, you are already perfect.I believe you have the ability to complete your work,but it is not the purpose to be here, take a risk, like a child enjoy all the experience.”
In the past, if I didn’t paint well, I would just erase or tear off my paintings, but now I’m very thankful that I left all my sketchbooks, because I can clearly see how I make progress every step of the way. And I decided to make all the learning illustration processes and works in this master’s into a video to record a milestone.
6 Tips :How to explore your own drawing style?
1. In the initial stage, don’t control the final style you want:
Many times, when we see which illustrator we like, we want to try to imitate their style, but after imitating for a period of time, we will find that we have two serious problems:
The first is that we can only draw what the illustrator has already drawn, and there is no way to draw what we want. The second is that we will develop the habit of lacking inspiration. 2. Observe and draw a lot of materials from life: Observation and sketching of life is actually a good practice for novice illustrators to coordinate their eyes and hands. It is also a way for illustrators to maintain their inspiration and draw good materials daily, so try not to use photos to draw in the initial stage, because it will limit their ability to observe.
3. Dare to take risks and break through the framework of media:
Most of us have a comfort zone we are used to, even in the use of media. But in the process of finding one’s own style, just like finding one’s own inner visual language, different media will make one’s own feelings different and show different results. Maybe there will be a lot of unsatisfactory works when facing the media that you are not familiar with at the beginning, but please allow yourself to have a trial period, because sometimes you will be very surprised that your own style will slowly emerge from the unfamiliar attempts.
4. Keep and date all processes:
In these 23 sketchbooks, some tentative illustrations are not what I am satisfied with, but they have become some sources of inspiration in my picture books, so each process may become a database of later works, and I can really see myself progressing at every point in time.
5. Self-analysis (Pros and Cons)
Self-analysis is one of the necessary abilities of an illustrator. As an illustrator is a highly independent worker, we need to have the ability to analyze the strengths of our own work to continue or multi-combine, and make progress where there are the weaknesses that are not yet mature. And you need to collect the works of different artists or illustrators from multiple sources as a basis for your own analysis.
6. Seek feedback from others
For the novice practice, you can seek feedback from the teacher, because the novice may not know where his blind spot is. The advice for everyday illustrators is to look for the opinions of different people before finishing the work, which will be of great help for thinking free.
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