What's your style (Get yer gen-yoo-in Katt piece here!!!)

[xenokattz]

I've been thinking the past few months about artistic style[1]. I remember specifically setting out to have a particular style when I started drawing comic book characters. I wanted to be just like Jim Lee. Those days being the 90's, EVERYONE & their monkey wanted to draw like Jim Lee. Unless they wanted to draw like Rob Liefeld. DO NOT LIE, YOU

Comments

[xianghua]

Gorgeous. I love your stuff!

You draw the way I wish I could. :P I just suck at it. I'm good at sculpted 3-D stuff, and EVERYONE loves my freaking pendant art. It's miniatures, with very clean lines, little/no shading, and flat colors, and it's very simple and folk-artsish, and there's things I really like about it, but there are a lot of days where I wish I could do the complicated stuff!

[xenokattz]

I've said it before & I'll repeat it forever: drawing is all about practice. Almost everyone in my family likes some sort of visual art and while people may point that out as genetic, I think it's mostly because we grew up in an environment that encouraged art. So, really, I've been practicing my drawing since I was 3. ;)

You make those darling dog pendants, right? What do you use?

[lilacsigil]

taking lessons would mean that I didn't know as much as I pretended I did

I think this is the story of many gifted kids!

Your 2009 art is definitely more dynamic than the previous art, and the faces a lot more expressive and individual. There's definitely progress there - possibly it's harder for you to see because you're personally attached to the early drawings but still in the nit-picky stage on the recent stuff? The last two pictures in particular show a difference - and I was surprised to see that you preferred the detail in the earlier picture, because it kind of takes over the foreground, whereas the details on the later picture (especially her hair) serves the picture better.

[xenokattz]

I was surprised to see that you preferred the detail in the earlier picture, because it kind of takes over the foreground, whereas the details on the later picture (especially her hair) serves the picture better.
-- Y'know, I never thought of it that way. This is what I miss about formal, graded art classes: the critique. Part of the reason I want to work with inks is because I know I don't block the black & white very well.

[xenokattz]

Eyes & mouths are the most expressive parts of the body! Why don't we see more of your comics? They look fun.

I agree that candids are great but I find them very hard to take unless I constantly have the camera at my face & my finger on the clicker. Would you be comfortable with showing some pictures?

[januaried]

Oh very interesting and I love seeing your artwork, which is awesome! I believe my own style is pretty recognizable, or it would be if I did enough drawing - I like realism and textured paintiness and a general Craig Mullins feel (or at least that's what I'm reaching for).

I like to think my icons definitely have a recognizable style as well. Bright, sort of on the line between crisp and soft, colorful, and so on.

As for writing, if I ever put any up, you would see a distinct style there as well. I like to do mystic environmental descriptions (that sometimes are purplish prose, I admit it), to push characters farther and farther into desperation and make that echoed in their environments.

[xenokattz]

Oh man, Craig Mullin's stuff is hyperrealistic! I wouldn't even know where to start to learn to paint like that. Do you take classes or are there any reference books you use? Or do you just stare at a picture? ;)

I can totally see the hyperrealism in your icons as well. You make colours pop in such a way that it looks so rich. Chocolate ganache rich (but not the colour). Y'know? Like there's so much pigment in that one square block, it makes your eyes full.

[januaried]

Yeah...my painting is nowhere near his awesomeness, but that's what I aspire to. I've never taken any classes, I have two books that I use very infrequently (Digital Fantasy Painting Workshop and The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Science Fiction Art Techniques), and mostly yeah, I just stare at the pretty. Here's my paintings from a few years ago when I was actually doing this: http://aurnien.deviantart.com/gallery/

Oh awesome! I'm so glad to hear that. :D

[xenokattz]

So you/he uses Photoshop to colour?

Also wanted to point out with the Pooh & Tigger that you coloured: It would have never occurred to me to use the purples & blues like that, as actual cool colours to emphasize the shadows. I learn new things every day!

[trascendenza]

I'd also agree that I see definite progress in your work -- I think it can be hard to see our own progress, though. I mean, I know that for me, I have an idea of where I want to progress to, and when I end up going in some other direction it doesn't feel like the right kind of progress

[xenokattz]

I have an idea of where I want to progress to, and when I end up going in some other direction it doesn't feel like the right kind of progress.
-- THIS. Exactly this.

With the writing, did you set out to write like that? If so, how did you develop the style or were you even conscious of doing so?