So, this is kinda art discussion, kinda comic discussion, kinda debate, and kinda network projects...

I read somewhere, probably one of my drawing books, that when an artist repeatedly draws in their own style, it's really just an excuse to not learn how to draw properly. I'm not sure that I beleive this. On one hand I think that, yes, drawing in the same style over and over again is a way to ignore commonly made mistakes rather than fixing them. But on the other hand developing one's own style can easily be a way to learn how to better emphasize and de-emphasize characteristics to establish mood, tone and emotion. What do you guys think?

I actually spend alot of time thinking about artistic styles. The Comic Remix is based on allowing your style to flourish in an otherwise foreign setting. A couple weeks ago, I asked some artists to try their hand at drawing their characters in Modern Day Witchdoctor style. But then last night I was drawing a new splash page for Children at Play for the first time in like nine months, and I couldn't remember how to draw my own characters, I had to look back at some of my older comics as a reference. I think that that was the first time I realized that my style was actually a "style" and not just the sum of my mistakes.

I spent the rest of the night trying to draw in the style of some of the other DrunkDuck artists. And I recommend some of the other DD artists try this as well. It's a great way to widen your artistic scope, and maybe notice some of the mistakes with your own art that you might've overlooked in the past as "part of your stlye." Anyway, heres what I came up with




Me This is the simple version of my character. Sometimes I fray his hair a little, and give him a more defined jawline, but generally this is it.
MDW Modern Day Witchdoctor style...I thought I should start with my own style and work my way out.
Fern Who else would I start with?
Allan Most of these would look alot worse if I inked them, but I think this one would look better.
Rebound This one was tough because, to save my life, I couldn't find a profile picture to use as a reference. So I had to infer from his 3 point perspective what one of his characters would look like in profile, which is hard when it's your own drawings, let alone someone elses. I think I did a passable job though, theres a few noticable mistakes, but if I took a few more stabs at it I could nail it.
Green Tangerine I shoulda squared off the eyes a little, or at least made them thinner...This one just looks surprised...and like 15 years old.
Miruku I think this one is the furthest off... but sometimes it's hard to tell. Miruku does some phenomenal coloring that really adds a dimenstion to the characters that I just cant do with a pencil.
Tantz Aerine I think this one came out good but not really accurate to Wolf.
Darth Mongoose I'm most proud of this one, because I think it comes closest to Kate's style of all of them and still looks good, plus it's hella diffucult to draw.
Sage The coloring in Blip is so much a part of the style that I'm never going to nail it without coloring it.
ToonmanAZ This one came out alot better than I expected it to
suzi suzi's style is the reason I did this two nights in a row
hpkomik Alright for a first try, but i'd need some time to get it anywhere near as exppressive as hp's
eviltwinpixie This was hard for the same reasons Rebound was hard, no real profile pictures to use as reference
kota This one, on the other hand, was real easy for me. Kota is extremly stylistic, and uses alot of sharp angles, which is right up my alley.
algeya Pilli, uses alot of round curves, which is not so much up my alley. Pilli was one of the first DD comics I fell in love with.
dgriff13 dgriff does a really soild newspaper-strip style. My version is a far cry from perfect
slackmatic This one was another tough one. Slackmatic's comic seems very loose and freehand, which is hard to copy. I tried to mimick KC Green and I just couldn't for that same reason.

I think you really nailed Fern and I's styles here. I think Miruku's looks the most realistic, but I also like Sage's.

I try to work with different styles as well--just not in the same comic, heh.

I've always admired Green Tangerine's style : )

Great job, Nate. I'm jealous of your artistic talent.

Nicely done, King! I really like how you've nailed the jawline and hair on the one where you're drawing in my style. It definitely looks like I drew that, hahahaha!
I may have to have a go at this myself...

Good job! It does look like one of my doodles- you got it really close! I pay a lot of attention to the skull shape- so I think (I am not sure though) that it doesn't look 100% Wolf because I really like the way the back of the skull curves inward and makes a sharp angle to form the nape. I also draw the adam's apple pretty prominently when it comes to male profiles ;) heh heh heh!

But you did capture everything else! This could have shown up in Wolf ;) You have a lot of versatility and talent! Very well done.

I have to agree Darth Mongoose's and Rebound's versions are your best! Two thumbs up!!

Fun!
I dunno, I think you got mine down pretty well. The only major differences are the mouth (you could have been looking at older pages for reference, though, I don't know), and the ear, which I usually put underneath the eye line. Hee! I like that you got the nostril line in there...I'm so obsessive about that for some reason.

I'd have to agree the Darth Mongoose's came out really well. That one and Allan's I recognized immediately. :)

re: allan

I'd love to see 'em dude! You should get a deviant art account or something for your other projects!

re: fern

No talent to be jealous of, just lots of work. Look how much you've improved since early Teenage Wasteland. You just gotta push yourself into drawing things you don't think you can draw.

re: Darth

Thats super nice of you, I'm really proud of that one!

re: Wolf

Thats really really creepy ;)

re: Miruku

I appreciate the positive feedback, I know how anal you can get about your beautiful beautiful art. Lower the ear, got it!

MAN I wish I could draw profile shots that well. Alas, I am stuck with the sole ability to draw 3/4 portraits (or head on). The profile escapes me.

Good shit man. It's always good to see people branch out and truly analyze a style like that. Keep it up.

Snake,

Great job on my style. I didn't think I really had a certain style until I had seen your drawing and now I see it. I might have to add you as a guest character!

Frank

kingofsnake
suzi's style is the reason I did this two nights in a row

What?!

Very nice, though. I think it might've been better if you also adopted the typical orientation that artists use, both for reference--you even mention how you had trouble finding a profile view of Rebound and eviltwinpixie's--and to mesh with the style even better. I never ever draw profiles either, but I guess it's not that hard to infer, eh? :p

re: Toonman

That would be most excellent! XD

re: suzi

The challenge with your stuff was to get the line-work accurate, especially the hair and the mouth. You don't use alot of details so infering a profile perspective IS alot easier, but it's getting the proper line curvature thats tough. I'm sure to you it's totally natural, but everyone's natural line curve is a little different, so for me to adapt to your curve was particularily hard. Honestly I don't think I came close to nailing it.

This is an excellent excersize, nice job kingofsnake! You did a hell of job duplicating my style... the eyes, the mouth.. I could pick it out from the crowd ;0)

It's a tricky thing, having a "style". Speaking as someone who went to a highly-rated art school, the Illustration professors especially hounded you to find a style, some element or trait that would make your piece a "DAWN GRIFFIN" piece (or whoever you are, you get the point). It's the way illustrators get their work out there and become a house-hold name- anyone could take one look at the piece and know who did it. Same thing goes for comic artists.

It's good and bad, for the aforementioned reasons. Another thing I'll never forget my prof grinding into my head was the quote, "Don't ever get comfortable. Once you do, it's over." Meaning, never think it's good enough, no need for improvement. Always keep an eye out there for what's popular and what's new.. and allow your style to evolve. Practicing in other mediums and trying new things is always helpful- it may improve your own style. I should take my own advice... I tend to get tunnel vision and slack on trying new things and evolving as an artist. My prof probably noticed this and thus the reason he pounded that quote into my head.

This makes me think of a new community project. "Swap Day", where everyone who signs up draws their OWN comic in another person's style.. kind of the reverse of Comic Remix. Would be a good excersize for us all.

You pretty much nailed how I do noses (as of current), good job. Emulating other people's styles is a great way to learn.

dgriff13
This makes me think of a new community project. "Swap Day", where everyone who signs up draws their OWN comic in another person's style.. kind of the reverse of Comic Remix. Would be a good excersize for us all.

I considered it, but I don't know how well it'd work out, for a bunch of reasons.

A)One of the siren songs of Comic Remix is that you get a peice of guest art, which you wouldn't get with "Swap Day"

B)You also get to show support to the DD community, which I genuinely feel most of us WANT to do, we just need an excuse. You could do fan-art for Clench and Cheese any day, you know Carrol would appreciate it just as much, but then you get into "who do I do fan art for and who don't I" and "I have my own projects I need to work on" CR is really a good excuse to do some fan art where most of that is taken out of the equation.

C) CR is an excuse to stop working on your own comic, and working on something else. Drawing the same comic two to five days a week gets tiresome, it's good to get to work on something different, and honestly, if I'm redrawing my own comic, I'm going to redraw one of my old shitty pages in my more polished style to get it up to snuff for an anthology or something.

D) Alot of really good artists on DD just aren't comfortable drawing outside their own stlye. Look at the comments by fern on acadia on this thread. These guys could do anything I've done if they worked at it, they just would perfer to work in their own style. I don't think it's just a question of challenge or confidence either, some people perfer to keep things simple.

I like the concept of something like "swap day" but it needs a hook, something that makes the caliber artist that it takes to really do something like it interested in doing it. I was hoping that this thread would becomes something like it in the meantime, and that some of the other DD artists would post attempts to draw in other DDer's styles here, but so far it's been all critiques from the person's who's styles I've attempted to duplicate, which I totally appreciate (alot) but it'd be nice to see the idea spread a little

I don't think I'm going to be adding to my initial post any further anyway, and theres still alot of great artists on the duck with alot of cool, unique styles that I haven't touched

It's a matter of time constraints, king. Don't worry, new style sheets will be added soon ;)

kingofsnake

dgriff13
This makes me think of a new community project. "Swap Day", where everyone who signs up draws their OWN comic in another person's style.. kind of the reverse of Comic Remix. Would be a good excersize for us all.

I considered it, but I don't know how well it'd work out, for a bunch of reasons.

A)One of the siren songs of Comic Remix is that you get a peice of guest art, which you wouldn't get with "Swap Day"

B)You also get to show support to the DD community, which I genuinely feel most of us WANT to do, we just need an excuse. You could do fan-art for Clench and Cheese any day, you know Carrol would appreciate it just as much, but then you get into "who do I do fan art for and who don't I" and "I have my own projects I need to work on" CR is really a good excuse to do some fan art where most of that is taken out of the equation.

C) CR is an excuse to stop working on your own comic, and working on something else. Drawing the same comic two to five days a week gets tiresome, it's good to get to work on something different, and honestly, if I'm redrawing my own comic, I'm going to redraw one of my old shitty pages in my more polished style to get it up to snuff for an anthology or something.

D) Alot of really good artists on DD just aren't comfortable drawing outside their own stlye. Look at the comments by fern on acadia on this thread. These guys could do anything I've done if they worked at it, they just would perfer to work in their own style. I don't think it's just a question of challenge or confidence either, some people perfer to keep things simple.

I like the concept of something like "swap day" but it needs a hook, something that makes the caliber artist that it takes to really do something like it interested in doing it. I was hoping that this thread would becomes something like it in the meantime, and that some of the other DD artists would post attempts to draw in other DDer's styles here, but so far it's been all critiques from the person's who's styles I've attempted to duplicate, which I totally appreciate (alot) but it'd be nice to see the idea spread a little

I don't think I'm going to be adding to my initial post any further anyway, and theres still alot of great artists on the duck with alot of cool, unique styles that I haven't touched

Good points... you're probably right. I, personally, would love to see someone draw their comic in my signature style... that'd be pretty neat, and flattering. And it'd be a fun break to draw my comic in someone else's style, too. But that's me. I can see why it's less compelling than someone drawing your characters, with your dialogue.

Still, a good post anyway!

Cool, I think this is the first time I've had my style imitated. Your drawing really reminded me of the way Nathan inks my stuff. I think it's good to experiment with other styles. That's what I did for years and years. Until eventually I was just picking certain qualities from the styles unconciously, and bam I had my own style.

Okay, I'm impressed. I had to stop and try to remember if I drew that picture or something!

That's pretty impressive dude. I'm quite jealous.


I'm not sure if that report (or article or whatever) is right, but whatever (I personally think that if you draw in your own style over and over again, you can fix the common mistakes).

I'm not bumping this just to be a douche. I'm going to add another page soon, and I thought a little notice would be good, maybe I could sweet talk some of the other fine artists on DD into giving this a shot.

This looks like an awesome exercise. :) I try to vary my style as much as I can (everything from straight lifedrawing to emulating my favourite anime or even Disney - early and late Disney) and I've noticed that since I've tried it, I've become better and doing expressions and expressing emotion through bodylanguage, even when I draw in my own style.

I'd love to see another page.