How to find YOUR art style!

Now, EVERYBODY has seen those videos. "FIND UR ART STYLE"

Now. I am going to hold your hand when I tell you this.
That's bullshit.

Yes. That's right. All of that? That mountain you see???? Absolute bullshit.

Shocking, surely, yes. But it is true! Because art and the style you gain when doing it is like handwriting. You CAN mimic someone else's handwriting, but it will not be natural without a LOT of practice. You learn to write, and draw, and so on. So, here's every 15+ minute video condensed within just a few bullet points.

1) References. A LOT of them. This is NOT just photos, by the way. This includes consuming any and all new, or old media. Like books, movies, music, theater, and so on. Your art tank needs fuel and new ideas rarely come out of thin air. You ALSO need MENTAL SPACE for these things, aka, quiet. Take a walk without any noise, or just have 15 minutes of quiet. It's REALLY good for you!

2) The details. Now, it's easy to get lost in the sauce, yk? The little details - And here's the secret? It is VERY hard to tell what does, and does NOT matter. Here's a good idea though - If your making a new oc? And your drawing them, and they look GREAT? Good! Now draw them 5 times. Are ALL those pretty pretty details STILL so fun and cool then?NO??? Yeah, I didn't think so.

3) Colors! Colors are GREAT. If your bad at it, study color theory, and you need to do this in tandem but LIMIT YOUR COLOR PALETTE!! A character does NOT need more than 5-7 colors on their person within most cases (skin color is a great 'anchor' for your whole color palette!). Seriously. Look at most any character design, and sample the colors off of them. There's not a ton! At least, not most of the time. And if you do want a bunch of colors, I would recommend that you mess around with how a design blocks the colors onto a design. Superhero designs are a cool way to observe this and look at a bunch of ways colors are distributed across a full body design!

4) Silhouettes. Now, it can be hard to know when your character is actually designed super well. You got the colors, they're on the body nicely, you didn't put too many tiny annoying details on them and it's great!
But something still looks,,, off. Well, if your drawing on paper, sketch the character standing there like a dork, and then color their whole thing in solid black. If your doing this in an art program, do a basic line art/sketch, or take the layers of a drawing, put them into a folder, flatten it, and fill it in with black.
What you want to do from there? Well, you can now clearly see the whole design without any detail or distractions. Edit the solid black mass via digital magic, or black and white markers or a white gel pen, adding and subtracting from your mass until it looks better.
Then you try and match the other art with the improved mass!

5) Tangents. Now, this is JUST a line art tip. It does not matter if your lines are thick, or thin. They need to be CLEAR. Lets say your drawing some baggy jeans that are tucked into some boots. Cool! Here the most simple example I can give via text. A tangent is when a lot of lines meet at a corner. such as a *. If it happens on your baggy jeans and boot, it can make things less visually clear. If you have questions, just ask me!

6) The basics. Now, if you need help, you can draw boxes, practice perspective, anatomy, color theory, and let me tell you something. It IS ok to trace pictures! You should not POST things you trac, but there are millions, maybe BILLIONS of art bases and such MEANT to be traced! So trace them, then, you reference BOTH of the images (traced and not) while drawing it again. Then try to draw it again, only from the original photo.
Again, if you want more tips or pointers, PLEASE feel free to just comment or message me. Because I do have free resources I can hand over.

7) The MOST important! WARM UPS.
When you want to make a cool, big drawing - make a bunch of smaller ones first. These are called thumbnails! And they are SUPER helpful! SO PLEASE MAKE THEM!!!
Doing a few little squares of hatching or other things can help a lot too, because it wakes your hand up and makes it more steady. Doodles are so helpful in making bigger pieces of art! All the art you make is important for improvement because consistency is the best way to get better.

Here's a few small tips I also think you should follow:
Do not draw just animals or just people. The gap can, and will widen quickly.
If you don't want to draw rooms or places, draw the rooms or places of your characters!
If your struggling, just pause, and come back later. If you still want to draw, draw something else or something more simple.
It does not matter what brushes, markers, or program you use. Because you will be an artist regardless of it all.
You might have to experiment and go outside of your comfort zone. Actually, you WILL have to do so, because like building muscle, art get better when you push yourself.

Thanks for reading!!