When I was a young artist, I loved experimenting with different styles, color palettes, and techniques as I learned from my favorite artists. This is the best way to learn and develop your skills in different mediums– creating a large body of work in all different artistic styles that can show the breadth of what you’ve learned!
But, over time, I learned more about great artists throughout history and realized that they each had their own artistic voice that set them apart from the rest. For example, Van Gogh has a distinctive style that makes his art easy to spot.
I learned that if I wanted to be a professional artist, I’d have to hone in on my own art style. This opened up a whole new part of my artistic journey that wasn’t taught to me in art class! My goal was that anyone could look at any piece of art I’d made and know that it was mine.
I began this brand-new creative journey full of exploration and practice to find what resonated the most naturally to me. I leaned into subject matter that was important to me, and focused on personal expression. After a lot of work and growth, I started to find the elements that defined my own artistic style and set it apart from the work of other artists.
I developed a term for it: my Signature Style. Definition: a distinctive and cohesive way of presenting my art that made it uniquely identifiable as mine.
Eventually, I even created a Signature Style guide to help me maintain cohesiveness across my work. It included a consistent color scheme, line weight, brushstrokes, and distinctive details. This process allowed me to develop a style that is both unique and evolving over time.
I absolutely recommend that you add this type of thinking to your creative practice! Whether you’re a graphic designer, painter, surface pattern designer, or any other type of artist, nailing down the hallmarks of your own personal style is essential.
By identifying and combining these key elements, you can create a unified body of work that feels related and cohesive, no matter the subject matter. This helps in building a strong portfolio and allows you to describe your work to others effectively.
Think you’ve found your personal artistic style? Let’s break down some of the various ways you can know for sure that your work stands out from different kinds of art.
1. Your professional works look consistent next to each other.
Try putting all of your favorite pieces next to each other– whether you’re laying canvases on the floor like they’re a gallery wall, pulling up a bunch of tabs of your illustrations, or setting up your ceramics as one dish set. Take a look at all of them together and consider whether they look like they go together.
2. You don’t have to work with any particular medium for your audience to be able to distinguish your art from different artists’.
For example, let’s say you generally post your embroidery on social media but this time you’ve decided to try a landscape painting. If you get comments like “I knew this was yours when you don’t usually paint!” that’s a good sign that you’ve found your own unique style.
3. You can articulate what elements set your art apart from others’.
One of the best ways you can tell that you have a distinct individual style and a unique voice is that you can explain them to others! If you can’t immediately explain each artistic element that makes your work special, or explain why your art is different from similar artists’ work, you might have some room for growth in discovering your Signature Style.
4. You know what you wouldn’t include in your art.
One part of finding yourself is finding out what you aren’t. It’s important to be able to explain what you would never include while creating your work. Let’s say you only use pastel colors in your art. You can look at dark, moody colors and know you aren’t going to put them in your next piece. Or say you only use lower case letters– you can look at someone’s art that has letters in all caps and know that you wouldn’t do that in your own art. It’s just about knowing your artistic personality and what you gravitate towards!
Finding my own style was a long journey, and I felt a little lost along the way. If you’d like some help streamlining the process or building out your understanding of your Signature Style, join the waitlist for my course, Leverage Your Art!
Not only will I help you create art that’s uniquely identifiable as yours, I’ll help you make art your full-time job. Let’s make your dreams a reality together!
LISTEN
Sometimes, you need to take a break from your routines to find that Signature Style. Listen to Episode 7 of the Art + Audience podcast, where I share how I had a creative breakthrough after much needed rest.
