this is pretty much crossposted from my Deviantart, but its got a question in there, somewhere in between all the whining, that I've been considering, seriously
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OH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHOOOOOOO~! So, you finally understand, Onee-san? The best way to develop your own style is to try EVERY OTHER STYLE THERE IS. Granted, this theory hasn't quite worked for me in full, but that's mostly because I never knew how to draw boys to begin with. I mastered (and by mastered, I of course only mean gained the ability to draw fanart on a whim without needed references to the artist's style) the styles of Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Digimon, Slayers, Naruto, Square Enix's character designer, Bleach (getting there, anyway- that kind of straight-edge oriented Shounen style is pretty hard for me), xxxHolic, Last Exile, FMA, One Piece (okay, not completely, but that's because that guys's style is AMAZINGLY difficult to emulate. It looks so simple in theory, but then in practice...) and have taken cues of certain aspects from the styles of Death Note, Air Gear, Samurai Champloo, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Okage, Host Club, various generations of CLAMP works (as their style changes with every manga they produce), Spiral, Saiyuki, Peace Maker, Trigun, Samurai X, Tenchi Universe, Getbackers, Shaman King, Gravitation, a large amount of various fanartists and doujin-ka, and probably a large amount of others I can't recall off the top of my head.
Do you see a pattern? Like, "This looks more like a list of anime you like than things you learned to draw from"? That's because of I theory I like to call 'eat your enemy'. This is basically to take a bad experience and learn from it- by eating your enemy, you take part of it with you, yeah? Learn from everything you can, allways. See a style you like, copy a few frames/panels/etc. Make it so you can do this style on your own, outside of context. Then, move on. Learn from everything. No matter what, there are allways aspects of how someone draws that you can take with you. Don't try to make that style your own, just be able to copy it- and if there's something about that style you like, take it with you. It's exactly the same as learning how to draw- because that's essentially what your doing.
I'm telling you this because I've noticed that in all of the fanart you do, it allways ends up in your own drawing style. Which means that you've never had the chance to test this theory, yeah? Exactly. So you've never eaten your enemy- rarely have I ever seen you copy a little bit of someone else's work to learn from them.
I recommend trying out the Air Gear manga, and the Death Note manga. These two have styles that are extremely detail-oriented, and often don't even look like manga as much as slightly stylized realism. Similarly, look at the official art for a few video games- FFX is a good place to start, and KH has a lot of characters, which is good for this kind of thing. In fact, Kingdom Hearts is a good thing to look at because they had to take all sorts of different styles and make them blend together without looking weird next to each other. Other good places to look at the differences in style that exist are One Piece, some of CLAMP's latest works- particularly Legal Drug, possibly Utena and Shaman King, though I can't say precicely how much they would help, and whatever I was thinking of before I lost my train of thought. Oh- it was Okage. Also, look at Marvel. The Civil War storyline that's going on is probably a good place to start.
But, that's just my advice. Mostly I've got to say it's best to stop worrying about it- I've done plenty of Harry Potter Fanart for Jenna-chan, and I didn't think about how they would come out. Then again, most of them were inside jokes in which the actual quality of the picture is insignificant, but whatever. I should really re-try my four founders picture, I bet I could do it better now so you can actually tell who's who...
In any case, with this in mind, I want you to draw for me... a Death Note fanart. Of Raito and L. And Watari. With the premise of "Would you stop calling me Professor Moriarty, you freak?" Because 'Watari-san' sort of rhymes with 'Watson'. Also... Usopp in drag. I don't know how or why- that's why it's a challenge.
OH!! ANd look at the webcomic I ran across, Under Lock-and-key. I loved their style. http://www.underlock-and-key.com , okay? You'll love it, I swear.
wow, you wrote me an ESSAY. I already knew what you were talking about by absorbing aspects you like from other people's styles into your own, thats how my style ended up the way it is- which I believe you complained about in my Deviantart before. The problem is that I've mainly been using anime and video games, but I'm getting bored of that style. I want to try in draw in a western style for a while, and maybe mix the two into something unique. LOL what is it with you and boys in drag? I'll try, but I don't know how it'll turn out!
Do you see a pattern? Like, "This looks more like a list of anime you like than things you learned to draw from"? That's because of I theory I like to call 'eat your enemy'. This is basically to take a bad experience and learn from it- by eating your enemy, you take part of it with you, yeah? Learn from everything you can, allways. See a style you like, copy a few frames/panels/etc. Make it so you can do this style on your own, outside of context. Then, move on. Learn from everything. No matter what, there are allways aspects of how someone draws that you can take with you. Don't try to make that style your own, just be able to copy it- and if there's something about that style you like, take it with you. It's exactly the same as learning how to draw- because that's essentially what your doing.
I'm telling you this because I've noticed that in all of the fanart you do, it allways ends up in your own drawing style. Which means that you've never had the chance to test this theory, yeah? Exactly. So you've never eaten your enemy- rarely have I ever seen you copy a little bit of someone else's work to learn from them.
I recommend trying out the Air Gear manga, and the Death Note manga. These two have styles that are extremely detail-oriented, and often don't even look like manga as much as slightly stylized realism. Similarly, look at the official art for a few video games- FFX is a good place to start, and KH has a lot of characters, which is good for this kind of thing. In fact, Kingdom Hearts is a good thing to look at because they had to take all sorts of different styles and make them blend together without looking weird next to each other.
Other good places to look at the differences in style that exist are One Piece, some of CLAMP's latest works- particularly Legal Drug, possibly Utena and Shaman King, though I can't say precicely how much they would help, and whatever I was thinking of before I lost my train of thought. Oh- it was Okage. Also, look at Marvel. The Civil War storyline that's going on is probably a good place to start.
But, that's just my advice. Mostly I've got to say it's best to stop worrying about it- I've done plenty of Harry Potter Fanart for Jenna-chan, and I didn't think about how they would come out. Then again, most of them were inside jokes in which the actual quality of the picture is insignificant, but whatever. I should really re-try my four founders picture, I bet I could do it better now so you can actually tell who's who...
In any case, with this in mind, I want you to draw for me... a Death Note fanart. Of Raito and L. And Watari. With the premise of "Would you stop calling me Professor Moriarty, you freak?" Because 'Watari-san' sort of rhymes with 'Watson'.
Also... Usopp in drag. I don't know how or why- that's why it's a challenge.
OH!! ANd look at the webcomic I ran across, Under Lock-and-key. I loved their style. http://www.underlock-and-key.com , okay? You'll love it, I swear.
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I already knew what you were talking about by absorbing aspects you like from other people's styles into your own, thats how my style ended up the way it is- which I believe you complained about in my Deviantart before. The problem is that I've mainly been using anime and video games, but I'm getting bored of that style. I want to try in draw in a western style for a while, and maybe mix the two into something unique.
LOL what is it with you and boys in drag? I'll try, but I don't know how it'll turn out!
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