O/T Frustrating art problem...artists any help...

Ok I'm in art school right now (Minneapolis College of Art and Design). I have the dumbest damn question/problem in the universe.

I know all artists are influenced by other artists, my problem is developing my own style...I tend to copy style more than become influenced by....sure I'm only halfway through my first semester and I know style takes awhile to develop....basicly should I just keep mimicking the style of my fav artists and just let my personal style slowly show through the xeroxed version of the influental works.....

Like I said I realize personal style may take a lifetime to fully achieve and all artists were in one way or another influenced by others.....just thought I would ask because there are some killer artists on the board.....

Thanks for any help!,
David

 

no big and famouse artist or anything but id say, yeah keep kinda copying the stlyes you like and eventualy threw a mix of them all youll find your own style


tim

 

if you're looking for your own new and unique style it will never come to you.
what you need to think about doing is looking at your favorite artists work and not trying to mimic it, but moreso figure out what it is about it that makes you like it. (it helps to have more than one favorite artist too.)
for instance:
looking at some old vargas pinups, sure they're really good, but what is good about them??? well, vargas paid great attention to reproducing feet and hands in a lifelike manner....
ok, another genre..robert williams does some really cool stuff, why's it cool to you?? williams uses the whole workable area (canvas or whatever) and absolutely FILLS it with imagery.
and for something completely different...h.r. geiger...
geiger uses some really great shading techniques. etc. etc etc.
anyways you get the idea...once you start figuring out what it is that makes the artist so appealing to you, you can start pulling in those influences into your own artwork. once you start referencing different things to suit the needs of your artwork, you will discover that you are well on your way to your own unique style...
sorry for the rambling, good luck and i hope i made some sense.

 

well put.

 

Very well said. It's not the art that you are absorbing, it's the essence of the style.

It's okay to study the masters, and influences, and copy some of their work to see how they arrived at their destination. To gain a techincal understanding of how they worked. Then after a while, the styles and techniques that are you just will just sort of take over.

One other thing, do not be too critical of yourself. First semesters at art schools can be overloading as you are quickly exposed to so many new styles and creativity in the various classes. Keep your head down, work through pieces, and then review them. Let what happens happen without conciously trying to make something fit the pattern or style of another. Losing inhibitions and gaining self confidence in one's vision is a big bridge to cross, but the other side is much cooler...just don't get a head trip.

Relax and have fun, those are the most important things.

 

The thing I have always looked at is the fact that every artist has struggled with this problem. This goes as far back as you could care to look. It is also why we have whole periods of time that certain styles were prominent. It is completely natural to get this anxiety.

The fact that you are in school is great. Right now you are able to see what other people your age are doing and gauge yourself against that. Aside from that you are also taking influence from your heros. This is never a bad thing. Wait until you are out of school for awhile. I gets real tough when you aren't in that kind of creative environment. If you are doing direct copies of the Rat Fink you are in trouble, but you are not doing that, you are copying the style not the image (at least I hope).

In the history of art you, no doubt, have to notice that the people who didn't copy the dominent styles of their respective era and were the ones who pushed the envelope were also broke as hell. Which brings us to the last point.

You will have to make yourself marketable to make a living. In order to do that you have to take cues from other artists that have "made it". There's no way around it.

Basically I am just saying keep doing what you're doing and try not to feel so guilty about it. The artist you are being influenced by was influenced by someone else too....

Besides, I like everything I have ever seen from you so I wouldn't be too worried about it. I am sure the HAMB would have called you out if you were too much of a copy-cat. I asume you are safe.

 

by the way...something i neglected to mention.
i never went to art school, but i minored in art in college. it is very hard to gain an individual style while doing cookiecutter assignments in a classroom setting. the instructors actually seem to frown upon any sort of "stylized work". polish up on your fundamentals, when you're top notch with those, it will help with YOUR artwork later on. just have fun with it....

 

I think being a good artist is about stealing. Yup. Not stealing stealing, but about exploring the type of art you love and a bit of other types you might not be familar with, and taking bit by bit what you like about that artists work and applying it to your own work. I do a lot of like monsters and goofy shit... and I've got my own style from taking what i liked from other artists and blending it together to make something that became uniquely mine. That's kinda how I see it, or works for me.

 

I may not be the most well informed person to comment on this. I pinstripe and have developed many and varied styles which can be easy with pinstriping because it can be vary simplistic when compared to other forms of art. But I do realise now that pinstriping is as much art as any thing done by the masters. There was a time when I wasn't sure if this was the case.
Now back to the question of style and the development of one's own style. As you have said you have been learning the styles of others and this is the most important part in the development of what you like and what will eventually become your own unique style. I believe there is nothing wrong with one's style being very much the same as someone elses, just because it is similar doesn't mean it is the same because you will include many of your own'little things' in your own work.
This was the case with my own early striping. But as I became more experienced and exposed to other influences I found my self wanting to push the boundaries and try other things in my striping works, trying stuff that is not usually seen in striping and from this I have developed a unique style in many of my works. However I am still able to revert back to striping in a style similar to others, because in the pinstriping 'world' many people desire works done in the style of other stripers, usually stripers from the past or from other countries.
You have to remember that the great artists didn't start out great, there skills and styles developed. I do believe also there are many artists in the world who could be considered great but will never be recognised as that. But hey that is art!
Sorry for the long winded reply, I could talk for hours on this subject and could listen to others thoughts on it for hours as well.

 

A great Australian Artist Brett Whitely said basically draw and paint and create as much art as you can of everything around you, absorb all you can....borrow from what you can, one day your will find that element of the work and say "that's me", only then have you truely found your style...

 

I found early on that copying artists that I admired was ESSENTIAL to me developing my own style...but my influences were so wide ranging, that it now looks as if I have several different styles...I just hop around from one to the other when I want to do something different...but there is going to be a certain amount of "crossover".

My drawing influences were (are) Trosley and Kerri from the old CARtoons mags, and I spent LOTS of time in my early years drawing Speed Buggy on everything! As a result, alot of my "Hack-toons" look like something out of CARtoons magazine with Speed Buggy cues thrown in. (My cars tend to have a CARtoons feel, but Speed Buggy's tires had nearly 90 degree edges, unlike the 45 degree 'edge' that most car artists favor...so my Hack-toons have Speed Buggy tires on them, and 'eyes' for headlights more often than not!

But, few people pick up on that unless I point it out!

Just like musicians...the best and most versatile of them play different styles and draw influences from all of them. Playing cover tunes teaches you alot...and no matter how hard you TRY to mimic another artists style, your work will have it's own subtle nuances that set it apart.

(When I was messing around with guitars, my influences were Eddie Van Halen, Jerry Reed, Ted Nugent and Earl Slick...making for quite the 'melting pot' coming outta my fingers! Funny, though...every original tune I wrote sounded just like Ted Nugent's stuff...but my favorite album to jam along with was L7's "Bricks Are Heavy" from the early 90s...totally NOT Ted-like in style...go figure!)

Just keep working from your influences...your own style will grow out of that naturally.

 

As with any art form you will be influenced by those around you that you admire. Your style will develop over time, you can't keep it from happening. Relating that to another art form, music. You have to be good at the fundamentals before you can improvise. If you don't know the tune intimately you will get lost when it comes your turn to solo. Just keep on keepin' on, it'll happen.
George

 

Not an artist here, cept once in a while when I roll some neat - to me - piece of original machine work out.
Others may not like it, but I do and that's really all that counts.

Anyhoo, developing your own style as mentioned by several on here will happen in time.

What I thought I'd point out and you may know this since you're studying art -- the great masters copied one another to a great extent.
The copying done when they were students or in the early days of studying on their own.

I've toured the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena a couple of times - well worth the effort - and was surprised to see charcoal or other media copies of famous paintings done by artists who would later become famous in their own right.

It all boils down to the "gotta start somewhere" stuff.

An artist I know jokes that she'll be famous long after she's gone.
Sadly, perhaps true, but she's doing ok nowadays and she has hope for the future.
Hell of an artist too, but then, I'm prejudiced....

 

B/Berry...
I hope you don't mind my response here,but hear me out...
As stated by others earlier in this post, all artists are influenced by other artists...some begin with the same situation you are experiencing...
The trick here is to allow yourself to ENJOY what you are doing and LEARN to appreciate what it is about the artist you are trying to emulate...no one's efforts are 100% gold every time ,especially in the beginning of a career...
Allow yourself to "get better"....find subjects that really get to you...then DIVE IN!
Also,understand that a true artists career is NOT a linear progression....it will fork and splinter as YOU CHOOSE to pursue different subjects and media...
AVOID ART SCHOOL "THINKING"....meaning,USE all the tools and information available to you, but keep an eye out for "enemies": Teachers/Profs who DON'T want to be there,much less teach some punk kid.. instructors who FAILED at a career DOING art and are bitter towards those who do.....
I,personally, got kicked out of EVERY artschool I ever conned my way into! ( Yeah,I know it shows...)

Kicked out of photography classes at the Art Institute of Houston for turning all my homework into shots of PUNK GIRLS (25 years BEFORE "Suicide Girls")!

Kicked out of Junior College for painting girls and monsters by a burly Earth-Shoe wearing Lesbo butch who told me how much she hated me daily....The PRIME example of TOXIC INSTRUCTOR...
I mention this stuff because its' this type of bullshit that will PREVENT you from finding your own STYLE and make the decisions as to what you REALLY want to do with your TALENT....
I knew what I wanted to do early on...school only re-inforced my dislike for rules and politics....which led me to Roth Studios......but that's another story...
One more thing....choose a SUBJECT you enjoy, and "DO" the hell out of it.....cars...girls.....monsters....If still life bores you,that's a SIGNAL: Fuck the vase and flowers,you can learn all the shading,texture,compostion, and anatomy you need from NUDE WOMEN.....
And Coffee....lots of coffee.....
Class dismissed.....see ya after spring break!

 

Art style. Copying is good for learning how to do what someone else has done. It's OK. I'm assuming the copying is done as a learning exercise. The important thing in school is to learn the basic ways of handling materials and tools. Constant work at what ever art you undertake will give you practice. Constant drawing is good. I tell people who want to learn to make jewelery to make your self a chain. You will have to silver or gold solder 80 to 180 joints.Repetion is boring but insructive. Style will come. Stay in school.

 

The H.A.M.B. has answered correctly. Listen to the replies. It's better then the 8 ball. Just clear your mind and get an idea of something that interest you (car culture) and give it your own twist. It will take some time but it will happen. This is a problem with the students today. They have no patience. Everything must be all at once (the mtv generation)( art takes time -along time to master)Don't rush it master it.. I'm an Art Professor at state college in Ky. My under grad. degree is from Columbus College of art and Design (CCAD) and master from The University of Cincinnati. Later BS

 

Oh yeah....find a kool prof. like Brooding Swede,whenever possible....that can go a LONG way toward keeping you focused and looking forward to classes...I did have one REALLY GREAT teacher let me do all my assignments as monster masks and sculptures because he was a monster sculptor himself.....
btw B/Berry....what themes/subjects are your favorites...like,what GRABS you? The HAMB will be your art school....and NO tuition!
Look out for Dean Wormer,though...

 

I'm not an artist on paper at all, but I am sort of reading your post as if you are feeling like you have to invent a new way of doing something or you must not be doing it right.

It is my opinion that EVERYTHING has been done once before, but that's ok. You don't owe it to the world to invent something new. But you do owe it to your self to enjoy what you are doing.

Find the nitch that makes you feel like you are growing and follow that course. You will then find out what "your style" truely is.

 

IMHO, a good example of an artist finding his vision would be Eric Clapton, listen to his early work and you'll hear licks from Freddie King, Albert King, Charlie Christian and to a smaller extent, Albert Collins. You can still hear the influnece of those old masters, but now Clapton has a style that you can recognize as his. And you can hear it in a lot of Blooze/Rockers playing in the bars nowadays. They're lifting licks from Clapton without ever hearing the originators. One day all of your influences will congeal into your own stew and you will still have those chops but they'll be your own singular style. So, keep on keepin' on…

 

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my problem is developing my own style...I tend to copy style more than become influenced by....

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There is ALOT to be learned by copying EXACTLY the work of GOOD artists.
It forces you to solve the same problems as the original.
And when your "copy" isn't quite right,figure out why,and realize how signifigant the subtlies are.
Art is part Creative,part Technical.But you need to have control of technique to really be creative.
You need to learn,and fully understand,all the "rules" before you can do a good job of breaking them.

Try every medium,every method.More than once.
Gesture drawing,still life,nude models,Oils,Acrylics,pancil,Charcoal,Plaster,clay,wire.
As stupid as it sounds,learn how to see and how to capture what you see.
A wise old teacher of mine used to say:"An opportunity to learn should never be wasted".
There was some famous painter,who spent a whole year painting the same subject over and over,
so he could learn about light and shadows.

When you get an assignment at school,figure out what is important.
What are you supposed to learn from this exercise.
The skills and experience will be more important than the assignment.Ideas come from everywhere.
I think the majority of good artists can work well in a variety of styles and mediums.
What you learn in one medium will help with other creative works.

Go to galleries and Museums.
Study good art.What makes it good?
And you won't have to look too far to find bad art.Why is it bad?
Doesn't matter what you want to do,you can learn something from art in different mediums and styles.

If you ask 10 different artists the same question,you will get 12 different answers.
The best way for me to do something,might not be the best way for you.
But you would benefit from the experience of trying it.

And most importantly,associate with good artists.
Show them your work,and listen to their comments.
Try whatever they suggest at least once.
And post some stuff here Friday.

 

Thanks guys I know exactly what you are saying and I realize developing style is a liftime endeavour. I just wanted to know if I was right in my thinking that if I copy my favorite styles they will at one time or another merge into a "master" style, or my own style.

In Illustration class, every project I've done has been in a different or somewhat different style all in an effort to see what I feel most comforitable with and have the most fun with....for some reason I'm in a SHAG mindset right now that I can't shake....

As far as subjects I like to work with goes...sure, I love monsters, women with little clothing and cars. But hell, lets face it as an illustrator I'm not going to have the opportunity to work with those subjects every time I get hired. So, in developing my style I need to find something that is more universal and can be used in various situations. But yet have another style to have fun with and enjoy for myself and whoever wants to join me. I hate art that has a "deep" meaning, therefore I usually lean toward comedy or sarcasam (which also can't always be done. for ex. if I was doing an Illustration for a medical magazine about cancer). I love getting kicked in the face with the reason for the piece, enjoying it and then moving on.

A lot of you sound like you think I'm giving up...There couldn't be anything FURTHER from the truth...just in a rut. I'm one of those people that try to do everything I do at least a little differently from the norm. Trends are a product of the devil and for some reason when I mimick an artists style I feel like I'm jumping on some kind of bandwagon. As far as art goes I want to do what I want and how I want, however, I've got a expensive hobby (cars of course) that I have to support which means I want money too....because money is, sadly, what makes the world go round....

Thanks again boys, I just needed a little confidence booster and someone to tell me I'm not doing anything wrong....now excuse me I'm going to work on my "style"...

 

Unkl Ian, as far as trying different mediums, I do that every week...from Illustration, where I have been using mostly acrylic, to figure drawing, where I use charcoal and soft graphite doing gesture drawings and longer measured drawings off of nude models.....I've used oils in my own studies as well as colored pencil, pen and ink, collage, the list goes on....

Also, I live directly behind, I mean about 30 feet behind a museum, I go over there quite often, looking at everything from surreal works to 17th century masterworks...therefore, I have so many styles and influences floating in my head someday a briliant thing is going to come out on a work that I do and that will hopefully be my style.

Oh and a neat fact about my Illustration teacher, If anyone has heard of Electric Frankenstein, she is friends with the drummer! Pretty crazy considering on the first day of class we had to bring in some of our favorite illustrations and I brought in a EF album......

 

Don't mind me but here is what has been happening to me. As I grow as an artist (word used way too loosely) I find that the more I try to mimic other peoples work the more defined I find my own work. I use others as example and even if I'm trying to copy it I usually find myself pulling a line in a slightly different direction here, and reversing direction there until you can see the influence but it's not a carbon copy. I don't want to sound too stupid here and maybe others here have felt the same thing but when I pick up a brush and pallet it.....when I'm really on...and when I'm really in my own world......the designes flow almost effertlessly. Don't get me wrong it doesn't alway work that way for me, but the harder I try....the harder it gets. This isn't meant to be advice so there is no point only a "know how you feel kat, hang in there"

 

valid points and suggestions through this whole thread... but deffinately dont dwell on personal style, youll just get an ulcer.

IMO, people are looking for the WOW factor... something that tickles the eye and plays with your head.

listen to johnny ace, hes right about them bastard teachers... but youll always get the rotten ones as well as the good. you just gotta take your learned skills and apply them whichever way you want.

 

I work as an illustrator and I teach graphic design at the undergrad level. I'm full of advice.

On the subject of personal style:

YOU ARE TOO YOUNG TO HAVE A PERSONAL STYLE


That's the truth, jack. The more you learn and more flexible you are, the better off you will be. Perhaps as time goes on, you'll favor something, but keep your mind open.

And don't just limit you influences to other artists! That's inbreeding. Suck up and OBSERVE as much as you can.

 

inbreeding....good term, I don't want to end up being the Akhenaton (Egyptian pharoh and father of Tutankhamen that, because of his statues that have been found, is believed to have been a product of inbreeding) of the art community do I.......

Thanks for the boost of determination guys!

 

Hey Brushwell...
When YOU start making as much money as COOP, then you can give art advice....

 

I went through what you are going through when I was attending my three years of college, and like Jonny Ace said I got the bastard teachers. I was getting bad grades because my stuff was unconventional and untraditional. Yeah because puttin an Electrolux vacuum cleaner in blue water is conventional art!

Anyways what you are going through is typical and all I can say is settle down. Do not rush yourself. If you don't have a style now you will appreciate it much more if you take your time. Spend this time filling your head with information. That is why you are goin to school. You want to make the difference in your life and you choose to invest in your future.

Do they have Art Histrory classes at MCAD. I am assuming they do. Focus on these classes. Learn as much as you can about the past. Art is incredible. It is the ultimate communication device. You can only learn to communicate properly and universally once you have educated yourself on how to do it.

The stage you are in right now can be compared to an infant. An infant learns through watching and listening mostly to their parents. As a child ages it picks up more influences from outside sources. This is what you are going through. In time you will learn to be independant. How much more independent depends completely on you and what you learn along the way. It sounds like you have a good start. Just remember you have an incredible talent that a lot of people have not yet developed (and sadly never will). Make the most of your talent. Style is second fiddle to knowledge. Inspiration is everything and the possiblilities are endless!

Sorry for the jumbo. Good luck with your studies!

Justin

 

As far as art goes, SCHOOL SUCKS.

Once I started doing a little research on my favorite artists, I started finding that either they did not EVER go to art school, or they quit or were kicked out.

Art is about KICKING ASS. Its as simple as that. If what you are making does not kick ass....you are failing. If you can make something and stand back and say..."THAT KICKS ASS". Then you are succeeding. Nothing I have made has ever kicked enough ass for me to be satisfied.

Follow the KICK ASS rule. Don't worry about anything else.

Style comes from consistently kicking ass. To be truely "Kick Ass", your art has to be a BYPRODUCT of something else [ read some stuff about Zen and the concept of "no mind" ].

Art for arts sake is stale and lame. That has been a common theme throughout art history. Each "movement" got started by someone saying "this art sucks....I wanna KICK ASS".

Also, get close to someone who is making kick ass art for the right reasons. Teachers are making art to get tenure. Your teachers are content to be part of a shitty system that suffocates creativity and replaces it with BULLSHIT and a lot of it. (though, some of that BULLSHIT kinda KICKS ASS...I must admit) The Kick Ass rule overpowers all situations and cuts through all bullshit. I had several teachers who came close to kicking ass. I HAVE seen several University fed artists who's work did KICK ASS....So not all is lost in the university system.

CONCLUSION: The art world is one big fist fight. Find a way to beat the piss out of everyone slinging bottles and chains and fists.....you'll go far.

Oh yeah, and don't cloud your head with thoughts of "style". Just do what you WANT to do and make it KICK ASS. If it doesn't, be honest about it and fix it..... Thats all there is to it.



Later,
VT.