Style

Happy June peoples.  I'm finally getting back to y blog because I've had something on my mind for a long time now.

It's really been bugging me how much people misuse the word "style".  I'm someone who likes to draw, and I hope to do that for a living, and it's always cool to meet someone else who likes to draw as well.  But I can't count how many times I look at other people's work and it's mainly copied anime, and in a few occasions Jhoenn Vasquez, and yet they describe it as "their style", thinking they're adding a unique perspective.

Well I'm here to say...YOU'RE NOT.


The word "style" is used nowadays to mask a sever lack of talent and originality.  Just because you draw something doesn't instantly make that your style.  To truly create a style is not easy.  You have to know all the fundamental skills of drawing and be able to blend them with your own visual perspective, creating something that stans out from everything else.  John K. has a very butch and exaggerated way of drawing with a strong 1950s-60s sensibility to it.  Genndy Tartakovsky uses simple shape construction an unique color blends to give his wok a very cinematic feel.  Bill Plympton, Bruce Timm (By the way, sorry to use so many animation examples but that's the field I'm more familiar with), you would never confuse their drawings with others because they've forged their own styles.  Whenever someone shows me their artwork, I'm always put off on how it just looks the same.  I don't see their mentality, their creativity, their vision, all I get from their stuff is..."I like Bleach and Dragon Ball, I'm just gonna do that".  Which is fine, I'm not saying that's wrong, if that's what you're good at, do it, just don't start passing it off as your style.  That's you're PREFERRED styl, but not yours.

I also hate how style is thrown around to defend shit.  As much as I love Adult Swim, 95%of their original programming is pure crap in terms of quality, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies aren't examples of style, they're examples of lazy people with Photoshop and a 20 dollar budget.  I look at comic books and I rarely take note of the artist because a lot of it tends to look the same.  To all artists out there, if you haven't learned the basic skills, stop what you're doing and go learn them.  It's sad that you rarely see true originality anymore, something that makes you take note of that artist, and from the stuff I've seen from fellow students, that doesn't look like it's gonna change.  Do I myself have a style, no.  I'm still trying to master the technical aspects and at the same time trying to establish my own outlook on life, rather than just borrowing someone elses.  It's extremely difficult, but the end result is rewarding.

If all you can do is draw anime, that's fine, hopefully you'll find a career drawing manga or something like that, but please, please,stop calling it your "style", otherwise I'll face punch you.


Not the End