How Much Would You Pay For This Art Style

How can I develop an art style?

The first thing you have to do is create your own inner library and that only comes from drawing things in reality. You can’t expect to drive a car if there is no gas in the tank. In a similar fashion, you can’t draw anything from your imagination if you don’t have anything to reference.So begin looking at life, and drawing what you observe, and somewhere along the way you will start to mash up these different things together into unusual new ideas. You know like a giraffe with an elephant trunk, or a cow with feathers. Weird ideas like that will eventually start to present themselves.In pursuit of creating that inner reference library, you will also begin to discover your art style. You can’t help but find it because the things that interest you, that you find important. Don’t force it, just examine and replicate what you find interesting and it will become your style. After that the question will become “Does my personal style resonate with others?” The only way to know the answer to that is to get your work out there and see if others comment on it.My style comes from a variety of factors, and I find as the years progress that it becomes more (I hope) eclectic. Growing up, one of the first artists I loved was Charles Schulz, so I began to draw various Peanuts characters. After that I had an interest in alien robots, so I started to draw alien robots.As time went by, I got a subscription to MAD magazine, probably my parent’s way to get me to read. I loved the art of Don Martin and found myself borrowing some of the features of his art. Also my artistic rival in elementary school also did Don Martin and Warner Brothers drawings, and this style resonated with me. I found myself frustrated that his art was so well-done and like the true article and yet mine never quite got to that level. This, however did not dissuade me.I had another friend in elementary school and we filled up college ruled notebooks and made them our “magazines.” We came up with recurring characters and cartoons and we borrowed a lot from MAD, CRACKED, and other magazines, as well as Saturday Night Live, so a lot of my style was borrowed, stolen, and copied from those different sources.Over the years those that have influenced me has expanded. There is Berkeley Breathed of Bloom County fame, Gary Larson of The Far Side. I also love the surrealistic work of Salvador Dali and Escher as well as the work of Bosch. all these things stirred and inspired me.

How much time should I spend sketching and finding my art style?

simple answer is, as much time as it takes. sketching is an art style by itself and can always be refined as you evolve with it your art style will evolve with you and be influenced by many outside factors until your inner self/style is satisfied. I f you want to paint then paint if you want to draw, then draw, do not limit yourself unless school or work expects artistic results in a reasonable amount of time but be reasonable….Just to add to this…They say it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill but if you understand how diminishing returns effects your practice time you can MASSIVELY cut this down. The trick is to get a clear A->Z rather than a lot of advice from around the internet.When I started I was following various guides and YouTube videos but I obviously wasn’t getting the same results as the videos were. I felt like I was wasting a lot of time and never really knew what I should be working on to improve so I would kind of just do… whatever.If you want a real structured course which focuses on quick results try this: http://drawit.spaceWhat you also want to avoid is stuff that teaches you to draw one or two specific things. Too many people fall into the trap of being able to draw a couple of things well and they never move on from that properly. You want to get a proper foundation in… well, drawing itself so you can choose what you want to draw for yourself.

Could this art style be successful for children’s books?

I have A LOT of experience reading children’s picture books! I’m also an aspiring art critic…I love your style, I’d be delighted to get a book with these illustrations for my children.But, here is the tricky part: you need to align yourself with a BRILLIANT writer. The picture book market is very crowded, and there are tons of great illustrators. Ultimately, it’s the story that sells the book.To me, this is the ‘black box’ problem you need to resolve: find a writer to collaborate with, and then an agent who will get your work into the right hands for publishing. I don’t think that there’s a particular age group that your illustrations are appropriate for, I think that is determined by the content and style of the writing. I’m always delighted when a book written for a very young audience has sophisticated art that the adult who is reading the book (over, and over again) can enjoy too!Here’s a couple of what I consider successful children’s book writer/illustrator collaborations: Robert Munsch/ Michael Marchenko, Julia Donaldson/ Axel Scheffler (not sure about spelling?)Good luck!

Artists, how did you develop your personal style?

Obviously the first thing you need to do is draw or paint or whatever it is you do. A LOT. You won’t develop your own style quickly. You’ll just be copying other artists.Second…stick to a particular medium and even a certain set of tools. Brushes, pencils…whatever it is have a set tool set and stick with it for the most part.Also having some consistency in subject matter helps.But probably the most important thing other than actually practicing is to look at as much art as possible. Absorb it. Analyze how it was done. Notice the techniques. Pay particular attention to the things you like about it. From doing that I feel like I built up a certain kind of little library of things that appeal to me about others art in my head. Little kinds of ‘tricks” if you will. And I would refer to them in my head when creating a piece. From doing that consistently over time I came to see that all of these little tricks put together made up MY own style.I think having a certain consistent style is the hallmark of a good artist. Almost anyone can copy a picture or photograph.