Find Your Art Style Fast Doing 1 Thing - 8 actionable tips

How to find your art style fast by doing only one thing - Pawshire©

Why and when should you find your art style, actually?

the good old “What is an art style” question

A dictionary-style definition would probably sound like this: art style refers to the distinctive manner in which an artist expresses their creative vision, encompassing various elements such as technique, subject matter, colour palette, and overall aesthetic.

You get the idea.

As an illustrator, when I first thought about finding my art style, that to me included having a distinct universe, a memorable colour palette, and that “something” that would make people go “yep, this is Pawshire”.

It was important for me to actually define what art style is, because if I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for, then I’m not going to find it. The same probably applies to you too.

So a better question to ask yourself here is not “what is an art style” but rather “what do you want from your art style”. At least that’s my 2 cents.

What I wanted from finding my art style was “a distinct universe”.

What the duck exactly is that universe about? I had no idea at first. Let’s find that out a bit later in this article. I need to do some more blabla a little more to please Google Search Engine.

That’s the hard reality of wanting to establish your website in the Digital Age.

Why do you want to find your style as an artist anyway?

As duh as it might sound, this is an important question.

Do you want to find your art style because you want to become a professional? Or do you want to find your style because you think it will make your art better? Or you think it will be a key to a commercial success?

Most artists (myself included) want to find their style because it allows them to establish a unique identity, making your work easily recognisable to others, helping them attract a specific audience who appreciates their artistic voice. Leading to a commercial success.

Moreover, honing your style does help you delve deeper into your creativity. “Having” your own art style can serve as a compass to guide you beyond your current artistic comfort zone. Given that you want to, of course.

So, ask yourself this question can be useful: why do you want to find your art style? What would you do with your style once you “found” it?

When should you think about finding your own genre

The journey to finding your artistic style is a personal one. There is definitely no set timeline for when you should “find your art style”. Personally once I approached the task correctly, it took me only a few months.

How do you know when you’re “ready” to find your art style?

I do think that you need to have a certain level of skills first before even thinking about developing your visual universe. As you practice and develop your skills, you'll start to gravitate towards certain themes, subjects, and techniques that resonate with you.

When you’re able to draw a few things that you like, that’s when you can start focusing on finding your art style.

PS. You certainly don’t need an academic level to create art. You only need to feel enough at ease with drawing a number of subjects of your interest.

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how to find your own art style: Draw what you love daily, and that’s it.

My solution to finding my own art style is exactly what you just read in the title.

To draw one thing that you love, every single day (or almost) and that is it.

It doesn’t matter for how long you draw (even 30 seconds are enough) or how well your art turns out. All that matters is that you draw every single day what you love and want to draw.

Does this sound too simple?

It surely does sound too good to be true. But I can confirm it was that simple for me. So before you get angry and give me inappropriate finger signs, read me out.

*Lily Loves Tabby |* Fine Art Print by Pawshire©

Why and how does drawing what you love daily help you find your own style?

Your style is about you. It’s about how you view the world. Your taste, your opinions, your imagination, your personality. YOU.

The difficulty lies in the fact that we don’t always know ourselves that well. When trying to find our style, it’s really only about boiling down so millions of thoughts into a handful of choices.

Yes, we have MILLIONS of QUESTIONS to answer to just make one simple choice and put it on the paper or canvas (whatever you use to create art).

By drawing one thing you love every day, you’re basically deliberately practicing to answer creative questions about your own vision of the world through your own preferences.

Let’s be more specific on why this approach works. First, it’s easy because suddenly, you only have to focus on one specific action: draw one thing, anything, that you love every single day. No matter what, when or how.

Daily practice is what gets you going no matter what. You’re not simply “wishing” you could become an artist. You do it. You can only be an artist if you do art. That is a crucial mindset to have.

But daily practice alone is meaningless. It’s too vague, it has no concrete destination.

By drawing one thing that you loved every single day, you are practicing toward your style.

How so? Simplu because you are slowly, compounding-ly (is this a word?) answering all the millions questions about what is important to you and makes you who you are.

What you like is part of who you are. This is self-centred, and perfectly normal. Finding your own art style is self-centred. It must be about yourself, your world view an only that.

here is how i found my own art style

When I lost passion for art (because I had “no style”)

A few years ago I stopped drawing thinking that my art s*cked. I was frustrated. I had no so called style. Tsss.

Before giving in to self-doubt, for as long as I can remember my existence on earth, I have always been drawing.

As a bonus, I also have constantly heard that art won’t pay rent. Who hasn’t?

While that is a whole other topic, this weird intertwining of personal passion and environmental disdain greatly affected my confidence and ambition. So I kept drawing, but without ever believing I could become somebody. With this poverty-inducing passion of mine? Who are you joking? Stop talking, evil twin!

So, when time came to chose what I wanted to do with my life, a graphic design and architecture came to my rescue as the drawing-related alternatives that will make me money. I chose graphic design as it involves creative drawing more than architecture, but not very enthusiastically. Graphic design statistically pays less than architecture after all but I do enjoy the perspective of graphic design more than building things. The risk of killing people from a piece of paper is lesser than a missing foundation, isn’t it?

Long story short, this is how I resigned to live a life of “I need to be a graphic designer so I can at least pay for my food and not completely give up drawing”.

Years went by, I freelanced and designed for my clients, while I drawing less and less for myself.

Adulthood hit. The passion was gone. After all, I was already “drawing”. What could I complain about?

being a good-enough artist? come on!

What remained of the experience was the underlying unhappiness that never really left me. Sure, I still produce designs for my clients. That made me happy, but stress as hell too.

Not only did I no longer have any kind of hobby, but I gave up something that was part of who I was and wanted to be.

Yet I was too scared to confront my passion again. What if I was no longer good?

Anytime I would pick up a pencil and try to draw for myself, my negative inner voice would take over dramatically “What would you draw? You stopped practicing long ago do you think you can draw now? Who do you think you are? Look at those successful illustrators and artists! Look at them, ‘cause that will never be YOU!”.

I could be really mean to myself. That stinks big time.

Things went on like this until I couldn’t take the bullsh*t my inner demon was spitting anymore.

to hell Instagram Art Reels!

Finding your own style in the social media era is tough. Informations are every where. We can learn anything we want anytime we want. At every corner of the internet, you’ll find amazing sources of inspiration.

Yet many of us never felt more depressed and talentless our lives.

All the beautiful artworks on Instagram, Pinterest etc. are only testaments of our own lack of talent. I was tired, confused, lost, overstimulated, incessantly comparing myself to the already successful artists.

My only goal became to draw for myself to be happy. When I was made conscious of my own artistic self-deprecation, I decided to stop consuming (too much) Instagram and Pinterest for inspirations.

When I stopped looking for inspiration on social medias and let it dictate my art journey, focused on only giving a f*ck to what I wanted to draw, that's when inspirations came.

From a sketch to the final painting - Pawshire©

There you go, your very own art style

Practicing daily even for 1 minute made the goal easy to achieve, held me really accountable. It made me become an artist instead of wishing to become one.

When I decided to unapologetically draw what I like, I suddenly started to remember that oh! I loved drawing women in beautiful clothes. And cats. And flowers.

I just dived into that rather healthy loop of drawing women, cats, flowers everyday.

As days went on, the view of a piece of paper no longer scared me.

I felt comfortable drawing women, cats and flowers, then became more adventurous. I had more mental space to try more mediums outside of colour pencils. I tried Posca pens, watercolour, basic ink pens, and gouache. “Oh, I actually looooove gouache” I told myself one day.

Gouache became my favourite medium to use. I started to paint everything with gouache.

One day I looked at all my sketches and thought “wow these are so nice, I’m not so bad!”.

Then more mental space. Why not try to integrate more of other things I like into my art?

So I did.

Now, my sketches were not “academically” good or anything. But they had this “free” expressive quality to them that I never had before. What I saw made me happy.

I liberated myself by just painting what I wanted with no guilt.

After a few months into drawing at least one thing that I love every single day, a clear pattern appeared.

My female figures have a certain expression, some elements are always included in the different composition. That’s when I knew I “found” my style.

But but but! That’s not when I went “Found it! Let’s party and stop everything!”.

Nope!

I kept going. The more I did, the more my techniques got better (by that I mean that I am technically able to express my vision on paper). The stories of my art got better and richer as well.

Your art style is a barely a road that will take you to several destinations. Sometimes you’ll stay at one place for only a night, sometimes a month. Shorter, longer. There’s some dead ends. Then, you’ll move on.

8 practical tips to find your own art style

Observe your own life to find what you love sketching
Take inspiration from your surroundings and everyday experiences to identify subjects that resonate with you. Whether it's nature, architecture, people, or objects, pay attention to what catches your eye and sparks your creativity. Incorporate these elements into your sketches to explore different themes and develop your artistic style.
Experiment with different mediums to find the right way to render your art
Try experimenting with a variety of art mediums, such as pencils, paints, pastels, or digital tools, to discover which ones best suit your artistic vision. Each medium offers unique possibilities for expression, so don't be afraid to explore and push the boundaries of your creativity.
Build a story to find ideas for your art
Create narratives or stories around your artwork to add depth and meaning to your creations. Whether it's a personal anecdote, a fictional tale, or a reflection on a social issue, storytelling can inspire new ideas and fuel your artistic exploration. Let’s say you want to draw a cat. What is it doing? What’s the backstory? Where is the mistress? How would she react if she saw her cat in the specific pose you want to draw. For example.
Paint with your favourite colours to find what techniques of the colour theory fits your style
Many people asked me how I find my palette. I have no idea. I really just follow the colours that I looooove (aka love to wear or buy), then I build the palette from that starting point, only applying a few relevant colour principles (mainly dark-light and cool-warm contrast, then I add a burst of unexpected colour somewhere. Because that’s what I like.
So, experiment, identify hues that resonate with your aesthetic sensibilities.
If you’re afraid of using too many colours in your artwork, select your 3 hues you want to use. Then mix lighter, medium, darker tones of each hue to use in your work.
Loosen your hand to draw better
Loosening my hand was key in finding the best way to express myself.
When you follow your hand instead of your head, you will think less, which in this context is a great thing. Your shapes will look more free and expressive.
Practice loosening up your hand and embracing spontaneity in your drawing process. Avoid getting bogged down by perfectionism and instead focus on capturing the essence of your subject with fluid and expressive lines. Let your hand move and see how it turns out.
Recreate work from artists you admire to learn and develop your own drawing techniques
This of course is not about copying, ok? This is about deconstructing artistic techniques. You’ll learn way faster to achieve the visual effect you want this way.
Study the work of artists you admire and try to recreate their pieces as a way of learning and expanding your artistic skills. Pay attention to their techniques, compositions, and use of materials, and incorporate these insights into your own practice.
Adopt the right mindset: Embrace mistakes and imperfections
According to Science, there’s no faster way to learn than to make deliberate mistakes. You understand what’s wrong dramatically faster when you accept to make those mistakes than when you don’t.
Shift your mindset to view mistakes and imperfections as valuable learning opportunities rather than failures. Embracing the process of trial and error will help you grow as an artist and refine your style over time.
Caution when trying to find your art style: Take breaks from external influences
While it's essential to seek inspiration from other artists and sources, be mindful of the influence it may have on your own artistic journey. Take breaks from external influences to allow your unique voice and style to emerge authentically.
By incorporating these practical tips and exercises into your artistic practice, you'll be well on your way to discovering and refining your own distinct art style. Remember to stay curious, open-minded, and dedicated to the creative process, and you'll continue to evolve and grow as an artist.

How I found my art style doing only one thing

Watch my video below where I explain how this approach worked for me.