Adapting my style whilst still being true to myself
An experimental jaunt through more figurative illustration.
If you’ve followed me along on Instagram for the last god know’s how many years you’ll know that I like to experiment and change up my brushes, analogue and digital. I flipped between a lot of styles over the years but always go back to my bold, cartoony inky line work.
Part of the reason I change my style and try new things is because I like to play. It’s simply apart of my creative character. Another reason I have experimented is because I want to be more versatile to potential collaborators in commissions. I do occasionally get work that isn’t my usual style, but nine times out of ten people come to me for it, regardless of how much I present and push something else. Am I bothered though? No, because I really enjoy my style and the playfulness and joy it can bring to someone’s project.
I guess, regardless of what style people want, I like to experiment and show versatility, so not to pigeon hole myself. It’s my theory that this will open up more commission prospects. This hasn’t 100% worked in my experience, as maybe I was going too far away from what I’m known for.
Play time!
Today has been a play day. I have retained my inky style using my analogue brush pen but I have been experimenting with more figurative illustrated forms. Figurative illustration, for those who don’t know, is illustration that references the real world and focuses primarily on proper human form or tangible objects.
In the below experiments I have sourced some photographic material from Pinterest and recreated it my way but being more conscious of real world form. I’m have also found some more conceptual photographs to recreate. A big pull with my work, beyond the form and aesthetic, is that there always a visual metaphor or concept. This is something I wanted to keep in place as well as the ink. At least I didn’t always find exactly what I was looking for, so I combined some images together or changed them slightly to inject I bit of my own humour.
Something I never really do is pencil work. Except for professional commissions. I always do roughs there. For personal work however, I tend to just go straight to the ink brush pen. But as this is a more “formal” study, I felt it was important to get the form right first.
Experiment One
Here you’ll see I have added a few things to give the finished illustration a bit more character. To be honest though, I’m not overly keen on the outcome. I feel like overall, it’s lacking a little something, something, despite the birds and smiley face. Where I think the problem lies is with me tracing my original sketch too closely and I’m missing the playfulness that makes it feel more like my work. Below I experimented again, using my sketch as a rough parameter rather than a definitive guide.
Experiment Two
Here you’ll see I have kept my marks a lot more loose and haven’t been 100% wedded to the original sketch. In doing this, I have allowed myself to be more playful and finally I feel this version is much more me. It pleases me more anyway.
Going forward…
You may not see the differences between the experiments and might think they’re only slight. For me though the differences are anything but subtle. I wanted always to remain true to my style. Beyond the inky and cartoon nature, there is a looseness to my line work. The second experiment honours that more. Still, I feel, going forward there’s still a lot more experimentation to be done before it becomes something truly mine. It’s no 100% there!
As with any style experimentation, it takes time for it to become second nature. Like handwriting, it’s all about practice. I shall visit this again in another article and in the meantime, I’ll carry on experimenting in my own time.
Thanks for reading. Pete :)