Is your Style Inherent or a Conscious Choice?

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*roguemina Jul 3, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

You know you can't get enough of these 'style' threads

Anyhow, it could go either way so there is no right and wrong answer. Feel free to share your personal experiences/take on the matter.

Why do I ask? Well, seeing my super old doodles from 10 or so years ago, even the drawings I did when I just started digital art in 2010, I notice that the style I draw in right now is pretty apparent. Of course there's a significant change overtime because of me making an effort to study the foundations in the recent years. Still can't help but notice that I am going towards a certain 'style'.

Here's an example (I picked 3 very similar poses lol)
2000(?), 2010 (yeah I had a long hiatus, notice how there's not much of a difference), 2012

With that said, I think my style is inherent more than a conscious choice. What about you?

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Devious Comments

~myname1z4xs Jul 5, 2012

our style are usually shaped by what we cannot do

~Taco-Calamitous Jul 5, 2012

My style is crap, and it's inherent. Well, maybe not. It's probably influenced by all the cartoons/comics I grew up watching/reading. The more cartoony ones, in any case. Also influenced by the fact that I'm impatient, want it done asap. Lazybones. Anyhoo...

~hiyoi Jul 5, 2012

I'm kinda copying other peoples' styles, so mine's definitely conscious choice.

~DelphineApollo Jul 5, 2012 Student Digital Artist

My style is inherent but I wish it wasn't. I'd do anything to be able to copy another style. It in no manner represents -anything- I see or think about reality.

~egypturnash Jul 4, 2012 Professional Digital Artist

A "style" is a combination of:

- stuff you had a knack for and have never really had to think about
- stuff you have the opposite of a knack, have struggled long and hard with, and have either learned to do well, or found clever workarounds for
- shorthands borrowed from artists you love
- abstractions imposed by your chosen tools (seriously; when I work in brush and ink outline instead of lineless shapes in Illustrator, people tell me it looks like another artist entirely)
- your own personal abstractions of reality

Some of these things are voluntary, some are not. There might be a few commonalities in your favorite artists, as well.

=XtremeOverdrive Jul 4, 2012

My comic style was only a choice but I sort of turned it into something else sub-consciously.

~dalekexterminate Jul 4, 2012 General Artist

I would say that my tastes are inherent but my style is conscious- or as conscious as it can be at my current level of experience. The more experience I get, the more conscious my style becomes. But it's always going to cater to my tastes.

~VISIONOFTHEWORLD Jul 4, 2012

The word 'style' is so misused on this website that it becomes infuriating. In this case, it sounds like you are on the right track to identifying style, but there is still a problem.

For example, "Anime" is not a style. "Western" is not style. A subject matter, or a cartoon, or a design, or imitating something on TV is not "a style". If 15 kids draw 15 anime faces, they did not draw "anime style". The word style is what identifies your work from someone else's. It is what makes one anime drawing different than another person's anime drawing- even of the same character.
But in all honesty, the word should be dropped from use. Claiming to have "style" is trying to replace the classical and ages old pursuit of skill and consistency. People who claim they're "doing a style" are trying to ignore the necessity of getting better, of practicing, of being original, and of making a difference. It takes hundreds of drawings/photos/paintings/sculptures/songs to establish a 'style'. Nevertheless, I think people should quit being obsessed with this word and try to get better and keep creating and forget about trying to grasp justifications in forums, etc.
It really makes no difference. Just do what makes you happy and try to get better at it.