Transcripts
1. Trailer: Style can seem elusive or special in the art world. It can seem like only a chosen few have it and the rest of us are stuck being boring and lost. That's just silly talk. Everyone, including you, can easily stylize what they draw and find their own unique voice. In fact, you will naturally do so with time and practice but there is a shortcut, and that's why I made this class. I want to demystify drawing in style for you. I want to show you how easy it can be stylize any reference into any style you can imagine. I broke it down for you into three simple steps that you can easily do even if you're a beginner. This class is jam packed with info, tips, and tricks. After watching it, you'd not only should know in which direction step next when it comes to your personal style but you will also have the ability to stylize references into whatever you want it to be. I'll even show you a live example of me using the three simple steps to make a whole scene. What are you waiting for? Let's dive into style.
2. What is Style?: What is style? You might know the word from styles of art, like abstract, impressionist, pop art or surreal. There are many art styles that you can find in our history books. Think of these as categories that your art can go into. This class is mostly focused in contemporary styles, which is just the modern stuff that illustrators do nowadays. But, boundaries are being pushed by talented artists every day. I don't believe in categorizing art. Even when you look at artists that had their art in a certain category of style, you can tell their work apart by something that makes it special. For example, these paintings are by Leonid Afremov. Now that you know this, as soon as you see any of art by him in the real world, you'll easily recognize it as his painting. His work is so unique, it's also impressionist, but you won't mistake it for something by Claude Monet, which is also impressionist. They each have a unique voice or style. This is what we'll be focusing on in the class. As artists, we interpret the world in a one of a kind way. There are an infinite number of possible styles out there, but you just need and have one. This is a Monet style when change or evolve over time, but it will always feel like you. We will talk more about how to find your style leader, but it's essentially finding your true authentic voice that feels just right. It's a way of making art that you can do all day long and not get tired of it. You interpret the world through a specific lens. This is done very well in television. Notice how almost every cartoon out there has its own unique way of being drawn. For example, I did this exercise in my own, you can draw anything class to show you that you can take one photo and draw it in many different styles, but tweaking small things. This is just a normal girl but because I exaggerate the shapes and features, she looks cartoony and strange in each one, and they all have their own unique style. But I can take it one step further and do the same thing with the styles of different cartoons, for example, adventure time, which is extremely simple, rounded lines and then draws a faith with just two dots and a line for all its characters. Notice how without me even telling you what style this is, you find that recognizable. That's right. Powerpuff girls. This one is the Simpsons or how about fairly odd parents? Or even the super recognizable Disney. Also Anime has a completely unique look to it with this huge eyes being as most recognizable feature, but if you draw it in this style, even though you still might think Anime, if you know what sailor moon is, that would be your first thought instead. You can see a bunch of examples of the same subject being drawn and different styles of Google-style challenge. To me, this is the most obvious example with style is, you can apply style to anything you draw, but essentially, it's just a few rules that make anything drawn seem lucky belongs to this one particular style. For example, all Simpsons are yellow and Smurfs are blue. This is just one blue in their worlds, but when you have many, they combine to form a unique style. Let's look at some very inspiring artists with distinct styles for some inspiration. Ellie uses shape and color mixed with cute characters or animals. Most of her work consists of cuties that follow the rules of being rounded and simplified with patterns including many of them. Pattern is a great tool to add to yourself. Can be, not only fun to use but interesting to look at and unique, even if not going to use it a lot, even a tiny bit of pattern can make a difference. She also sometimes makes more realistic art of animals and you can still see her style in it with her color choices and how she uses shape and pattern. Also noticed, she loves to use subtle shading and it gives her work a lot of dimension. I will describe her style as sweet, fun, cute, and related to dreams or dreaming. She also loves to tell stories and her pieces. Notice that even though her portfolio is varied, it all feels like her if you saw her work in a store or like on a notebook or something, you'd actually recognize it as hers. That's how you know, you have a strong style. Skye Ali has a completely different style. She uses paint and colored pencils for added texture and detail. Notice how her colors are more muted and yet they still feel colorful and bright because she uses pops of color in her work. Her art is flat because she doesn't shade and she sometimes you just paper cutouts. Also, her shapes are wonky on purpose and all this contrast well, because she loves to use fun perspectives like from above in a lot of her work, her style is definitely one of a kind, an easily recognizable. She follows herself rules perfectly in each illustration. I will describe her work as childish, but in a fun way because is okay when you draw with crayons. Another artists with a very distinct style is Katie Daisy, she's also one of my favorites and one of my earliest inspirations. She mostly works in acrylic water coloring wash. Her work focuses on nature or flowers and positive quotes. She has a unique way of using bright colors and a special way of painting. In fact, even though her art simplifies the flowers only a little bit, its in the way she paints and that they feel completely unique and fantastical. All of her work has her uplifting voice in it. Tracy Lewis is more realistic than the other artists I showed, but she still has a very obvious style. She uses watercolor and a specific color palette in almost all of her pieces. Notice, how even though it's realistic, she paints in low contrast and the recurring theme is flowers and girls. Another feature that you really pay attention to is the eyes because she makes him so light as you can see, painting the same things in the same color can also be part of your style, but only if you find it not limiting. Also, notice that even though her work is of real things, the way she paints that makes her feel magical or fantasy like. To me they look like fairies. Mat Miller is also an artist that keeps a level of realism to his work, but the way he uses ink adds fantastical elements, breathes new life into his work and contributes to his super unique voice. He doesn't just copy references, but adds a lot of detailed texture and pattern with ink. Not only do all the fantasy elements add magic to them, but the colors due to the surreal doodles he draws on his pieces are a huge part of his style and are in every single work of art, he has a huge imagination, and you can tell he really loves to doodle. Tess Smith-Roberts, on the other hand, has almost no realism in her work, but uses shape, color, and symbology to make powerful and yet simple art. Her work also looks like it's influenced by the '90s and she loves to play with different mediums, but still keeps her style throughout. To me, her work is fun and playful. The last artists I'll show you is Kelsey Buzzel. She has specific way of drying characters, especially their faces and most notably the eyes it's very simple, but she uses the look consistently. Notice how she even uses those eyes and crows, mice and even a month. She also uses pattern and shape in a fun way and colors sparingly in her pieces. Each one is very obviously her. This is similar to how cartoons build a world with certain rules. To me, her work is more creepy and interesting. As you can see, style can go in any direction you desire. It's not limited in any way. You can be more or less realistic, complex, or simple, or somewhere in between, colorful or black and white. There are so many options, don't worry if you have no idea what your style is. My hope is by the end of the class, you'll not only have a better idea of which direction you're going, but also understand how you can stylize anything from a reference. Let's get into the nitty-gritty of stylizing your work.
3. Overview of Stylizing: Let's start with a quick overview and examples of how one goes about stylizing their art. Then we'll go into detail for each simple step. Essentially, the process is similar to what I showed you in my yoke and draw cute animals class. We first observed our subject and the easiest way to do so is to draw it. When sketching out your subject, you notice all the most important features that make it easily recognizable and the basic shapes that make it up. The second step was to exaggerate and simplify but depending on the style to make it more complex instead. But essentially, Step 2 is taking the information we gathered from Step 1 and putting our own twists on it and what we're going to do in this step depends on the style we want. Since in this class I was drawing cute, I played with my subject but because I kept some of the main characteristics that made it unique, its still recognizable even though it's a longer, realistic and in fact, supremely simplified. The third step is to refine which just means to finish in your favorite medium and in a way that is a part of your style. This step can also drastically change the mood of your piece through color and texture or the lack of it and I'll show you guys how big a difference it can make in a future lesson. Here's another example. I cited the shapes that make up the raccoon's body and the features that make it recognizable on the [inaudible] bend it to the strep tail, then I play with the body shapes and exaggerate them. Shape is super fun to play with and you can do whatever you want in your style. For example, maybe some of these read more Fox than raccoons or more cat and raccoon. But by just adding in the stripe tails, bended eyes, the all suddenly feel like raccoons. Your brain is amazing and it can easily label anything it sees as something that it knows even if it's very far from realistic and doing all my kitty's, I use the same exact style which is simplified and cute. But the truth is there are an infinite number of ways to interpret any object or subject and you will have your own unique way. Maybe your style almost to be realistic with fantasy elements added in like Mat Miller's gorgeous work. But this steps are similar to drawing the cuties, it's all about first observing and studying something, and then interpreting it in your own way, whatever way that is. In fact, you can even do it with a basic shape like a circle. I'm keeping the essence of it being round by warping and playing with it. It's as simple as that. Your finished piece can be as wildly far from reality as you want. You can just use reality as inspiration. I'll show you guys more examples as we dive deeper into each step in the next two lessons. One more thing I want you to keep in mind is that these steps are not setting stone. Maybe your cell is complex, you have 10 steps or may be so simple. You just need one or two. This is up to you. Also to get the most benefits from this class, be sure to do the three steps and prompted to. This will help you put what you learn to practice and it's always important to learn by doing because if you don't, you won't digest information and memorize how to do it. You'll forget it as soon as you walk away. If you need to watch the class the second time to do it, that's fine too. Just be sure to do the steps at least once. Now let's dive deeper into Step 1.
4. Step One: Step one is to observe or study your subject. This is as simple as it sounds. We're just looking for the most important details. I personally do step one in my head, but I suggest you put pencil to paper to get into the habit of really seeing. The easiest way to observe is to first notice a simple shapes that make up your subject by sketching them out. I talk more about this in my, you can try anything class and if drawing is hard for you, I encourage you to check it out before continuing. But essentially we're just breaking down what we see into simple shapes and lines. If this is hard for you to see, grab a magazine and draw with a sharpie on top of the pictures. This should be easy not complicated. Everything can be broken down. Anything you see, no matter how complex can be broken down into simple shapes. Once we have the shape done, we can notice all the details and put those down too by refining the shapes and adding them in. This does not have to be realistic, in fact, that would take way too long. This is more about noticing all the details you might have overlooked at first glance. It's just a sketch. For example, here we have a photo of a parrot that I want to stylize. I'm going to first break it down into basic shapes by just observing it. There's no need to be super accurate. I'm just sketching out the shapes and lines that make it up. Since I have a lot of practice, it's easy for me to see them. But if this is harder for you, just keep at it until it becomes second nature. Once I have the basic shapes done, I can go in and add all the details on top of my sketch. It's not that I'm drawing it realistically to the best of my ability. It's actually a very quick. It's more like I'm noticing all the things that make the parrot a parrot. This is the time to think about what are the most important characteristics. For example, its beak is probably the biggest giveaway that it's a parrot, since it's bigger than most birds and has a peculiar shape. It has white skin around its eye, which isn't as important, but I can choose to include that detail if I want. It's also very colorful and I note down the exact colors. You don't have to use the same ones. In fact, you can make it any color you want, but if you stylize into the extreme, you can always use the original colors to make sure it's recognizable. I also make sure to pay attention to the shapes that make it feel like a parrot, especially the curved head shape. The rest of features are common to most birds, they're not as important unless you never draw our birds and pay close attention to them. Like for example, what do bird feet look like and what do their feathers do, what kind of pattern do they make? Once I study and essentially dissect my subject, I can start stylizing and I'll show you how to do so in the next step. But as you can see observation is pretty simple. Now you can take it to a higher level and might need to, especially if you want to be able to draw from your imagination for the creation of a comic character or a character for a children's book or something like that. Drawing from imagination isn't a skill only a few select are born with, it's born out of repetition and intense study of a subject. Years and years of study, many, many hundreds of thousands of hours of study. The more you study that subject, the better you will be a drawing from imagination. But even just one hour can make a huge difference. For example, here I am doing tons of drawings of all practice. With each drawing I did I understood the subject better and better. I noticed more and more detail and I got a feeling for how it moves and how it looks at different angles and its general feeling and face expressions. I only did this for about an hour and now I have a pretty good idea, how now Alpaca looks like. I could draw one without a reference, but it's not accurate or realistic. I don't have all the details memorize or its anatomy. I'm now at the point where I can draw it in any angle or pose but you get the idea. It takes much longer than our study to get to where you can easily drop imagination in any pose you want but by doing even just an hour you will understand your subject a lot more. I highly recommend to do this if you're planning to draw the same subject all the time. For example, I have done studies of birds many times and flowers. You will just understand your subject a lot more and you'll be so much easier to illustrate it and to add your own twist to it. Like this fun piece by Deidre Wicks. I doubt the artists got headphone on a Llama snapped a picture and then painted it. I think what happened is she did many studies of llamas, their ears and face expressions and their fur and then painted it using references, but making it her own with her imagination. In fact, you can see she did this over, and over, and over again with even more fun and silly portraits. The more references you use, the more you can make something your own, but you don't have to. I usually use just one. By doing it in my style and tweaking details you can't tell what the reference is. Like in this example or this one. Copying references can get you in trouble, if you make realistic pieces and copy everything exactly. But if you're being stylize, you'll be fine as long as you make it your own. As for realism, you can still use references, but you will have to either take your own photos, find free stock photos, or buy them. To recap, step one is to study and observe your subject. You do this by doing one or more sketches. This isn't means shaded or make it fancy, but just notice all the characteristics in your subject. Starting with shapes and then adding detail. You're just figuring out what makes what you're looking at recognizable and what are its most important features. Now pick a subject. It can be anything you want from an animal to a fruit, to a plant, to a person, and find a picture you really, really like of it. Then do step one, just sketch it out using basic shapes and then add detail, simple. The sketches don't have to big either, I usually make mine pretty small. Once you feel like you know what you choose, pick it up, and what details are most important for making it recognizable, we can move on to step two.
5. Step Two: Step 2 is to play with the information we have and make it our own. From my style, this means exaggerate and simplify. But depending on your style, it can mean to make more complex, add something, use patterns, or textures, or fantasy elements, and so forth. The possibilities are unlimited and this step is different for everyone. But essentially we're stylizing the information we gathered from step 1. This can be done in an infinite number of ways. For example, I gather tons of info on alpacas and from watching you probably already know what they look like. I made a paintless folder that has the collection of all types of alpaca art. No matter how different the styles are, they all read as alpaca. What characteristics as this cute work of art have, that makes you think alpaca? Well, the most obvious one is it's fluffy and the neck is long. Also the face being surrounded by furs but being both inside gives it away and the shape of the ears. The last thing is the way they drew the nose and mouth. Even though it's very simplified, they capture the essence perfectly. But for example, this piece of art, even though very cute, doesn't automatically read alpaca tummy. It looks more like a cat because of the way they did the mouth, ears, and face. Maybe if the neck was longer and if the face was separated from the far, it might have read more as alpaca, but because it isn't, all I can think of is cat. But maybe this was intentional and the artist wanted to make an alpaca cat, which is a super cute idea. The point is, the things you include or leave out or alter really change how your subject is perceived, its up to you what details you will include. But be sure to make your choices intentionally so that you get the look you want to get a non accidental one. Notice how this all alpaca is realistic, but it still reads as stylize because of the use of color and pattern, and the way it was painted. If you do this work which is more realistic or close to the reference, you might even skip step 2 or just do a super quick sketch noting what you'll be doing. Your solid can be more realistic or flat, cuter, creepy, simple or complex. The options are yours alone, and I'll show you how to find your preferences in a future lesson. For now, just notice how each artists took the information of what a real alpaca looks like, and made it their own by playing with things like line, shape, color, and texture. That's all that stylizing is. Just playing with information. Stylizing is something you've been doing since you were a kid. When you interpret what you see as something other than realistic, you're stylizing. For example, two lines in a cloud shape looks like a tree, and stick figures look like people. These are styles. Our brain is amazing and interpreting what we see into something we remember. Don't be intimidated by the idea of stylizing. You've already done it before, maybe not on purpose, but you still did it. Now, let's see a live example by stylizing our parrot. I started out with a big head and a small body, four cubed proportions. Then we refine the shapes and added detail. Remember it's up to you how much you want to stick to the real photo. You can play with your shapes as much as you want, as long as you keept it recognizable by keeping a few key features. If it's hard for you to judge if something's recognizable anymore because you've been staring at it too long, you can always walk away and then come back to it later or do a few sketches and ask someone else what they think you're drawing. But if you have to ask, usually it's not recognizable enough. But making the beak even bigger it has the parrot field. Also notice how I left out how free he is and in such as added a small detail on top of his head, at the end of his wing and the tail. Notice how different the tail on the wing is from the reference, but it still has the same essence. Because they use similar shapes, I just made it my own and use repetition and pattern. I also added the outline around his eye to make him more recognizable. Now keep in mind your stillness sketching phase when you start stylized. You can do as many takes as you want. I made a new layer and tweak my initial sketch even more. I mostly tweeted his body shape given more character. If you look at the Silhouette Femme cartoons, they have very strong runs because of their bodies shapes being so unique. Shape is extremely powerful. If you want to illustrate in a cartoon style, I encourage you to study as many famous cartoon as you can because they use the principles of design and rules really well. Now when you look at him because of the big beak and the align around his eyes, you already may think parrot, but if you want to make it more obvious, you could use a trademark paired colors. It's up to you how you use them. I don't use them the same way they appear in the reference, but you still automatically think parrot because the colors are associated with the animal and you didn't memorize how they look like on the reference. I just play with information to make my own kitty. Also remember there is more than one way to draw anything in any style. Like here is another way to draw cute. Completely different character but similar style and just as cute. Even within the same style, you have boundless options. If you didn't understand how I did this and would like to draw in this style, I have more examples of mine. You can draw cute animals class, and they have one for people and foods. But it really comes down from just simplifying and exaggerating my observations. The only way to learn how to do that is to try it for yourself. We're just hang out at the boundary of recognizable and stylize by playing with detail and our imaginations. Now let's try this again. But this time I want the character to be playful and magical instead of cute. I start up by sketching the body shape. Notice how I changed and smooth out the lines that make up its body. Then I add detail. Don't be afraid to change things, remove them, or add something else. You can add a wizards hat if you want. This time the beak is smaller and I gave her big eyes. Parrots don't have eyes in the shape, but you can get away with making your eyes as unique as you want. In the fact that a lot of artists use strange eyes to make the personal styles completely one of a kind. I decided she's sitting in the crystal ball this time. Notice how all had to do was change the angle of the foot to make it look believable. It's nothing fancy, just the usage of my imagination and playing with the visual information I already have. I continue tweaking and then do the final sketch on top again. Notice how I try to make her feel mystical by mostly using curve lines. For example the way I did the tail, is fun and it feels like it's flowing like a wizards ropes. That's my take on a magical and playful parrot. Now let's look at how we can use stereotypes to our advantage. By giving this little parrot and eye patch, I automatically label him as parrot. What do parrots always have with them? Parrots. Even though the only other characteristics that I gave him from our parrot is the beak, you automatically think parrot even before the drawing is done. I could make him any color and add even more crazy details and he still look like a parrot. But by giving him a hook, we not only cemented that he's a parrot, but also he didn't feel sinister and more like character. Don't be afraid to add prompts to your characters. My point is to be aware of stereotypes and to use them to your advantage. For example, if I was going to put an eye patch on a Robin and had to be very careful not to make them look like parrot. Now what do you do if your style is more realistic? Easy, the same exact thing. But instead of working from your step 1 sketch, which I still recommend you do to understand your subject better, I would instead work straight from the reference. Step 2 is where you decide what your final illustration will be. Is where you can take your time and play with your illustration. Here I am being more realistic, but the same time I'm taking the shapes and making them my own. Notice how I'm adding style just by using a different eye, adding patterns, and playing with the shapes. I'm tweaking the information to my liking by adding, making more complex, simplifying, or taking out. Since I'm the artist, every little detail is up to me and contributes greatly to my style. As you can see it realistic or not, it's the same process of playing with information. If you're working in digital, this is also a great time to use a liquefied tool to play with proportions and placement of features, or you can scan in your sketch to do so, or sketch out a couple of different thumbnails to pick a favorite one. You can also experiment with color schemes to see which ones you'll land on the final illustration. Whatever you want to do. You can play with all your ideas. If you have a style that's more realistic like this, you step 2 to experiment and plan out your composition. Thumbnail sketching works great for this. I'll show you how I use it in a future lesson. I also hope these examples show you that you can go wildly away from your reference, but still keep the essence of your subject. Remember, it's up to you what you want to make simpler or more complicated, or if you want to add stuff or takeaway stuff. Everything is your choice as an artists and you stylize as soon as each change any little thing. Stylizing is just changing what you see into something else on paper. What you'd like to do the most will greatly contribute to your style. Just experiment and see what sticks. You also don't have to do steps 2 and 3 separately. In fact, I usually do them together when I watercolor loose flowers, and so forth. Like I said before, the steps aren't set in stone. Just remember that you will have your own unique way of doing the steps and you're not limited to my techniques. But for now, stick to the three steps just to get an idea of them. It's your turn to try it out for yourself. Continue with the subject we started in the previous lesson by stylizing it. Maybe makes it easier to write out the attributes that make it recognizable, and pick out which ones you'll use. You can also ask yourself a couple of questions like what mood you are yourself to be? What art do like? Do like happy art, or sad art, or creepy art? You can also think about how far away from realism you want your staff to be. Or do you want to be extremely cartoony or as simple as logos? Or do you just want to make really beautiful and complex art, or super intricate doodles? Whatever you like. The point is, you can do whatever you want for this step. We will get more into how to find your style later, so don't worry about that. For now, just do it any way you want and have fun with it. You can just make a cartoony to make it easier for you, but just play with the information and do this step. Have fun with it. If you're pretty good at drawing people for an extra challenge, try doing the style challenge yourself. Just Google style challenge and you'll see a bunch of them that were done by super talented artists and you can see what themes they use, and copy those and do them yourself. If you want to share what you do, put it in a project gallery. It that's too hard for you, you could challenge yourself by just doing a couple of different styles for your chosen subject. Once you're done sketching, let's finish up with step 3.
6. Step Three: Step 3 is to refine and add detail and color, only if you want to, of course, it's essentially finishing your piece, but if you like it sketchy and messy and that's the style you're going for, that's fine too. The medium you choose to use and how you use it can have a huge effect on the feel of your style. For example, my preferred medium is watercolor and ink, because I outline in ink, it makes it feel more cartoony, and the way that I use watercolor is loose and colorful, which gives it a vibrant, happy and dreamy feeling. Just by switching up the mediums a little bit, I will get a slightly different feel, like even though this is still done in my style, the pencil instead of the ink gives it a fun, rough texture that is contrasted by the smooth watercolors, but how about these pieces that are completely digital, even though you can still see my style in them they have a different feeling from my watercolor pieces because the mediums are different, but you could fake watercolor in digital pieces. I personally love to experiment at lots of different mediums, and I still keep myself throughout by using similar techniques like keeping it loose and colorful. The medium is important, but it's not as important as how you use it, you can use any medium and still keep a consistent style if you just use consistent techniques. My point is whatever your style is, it should be fine to use any medium you want with it and it will still be readable as your style. For example, Heather Martin uses gouache, but her style isn't found in that effect, it's in the way she uses it. You can see consistency of rendering and everything she paints from senior to flowers to skulls, and if she was going to do something digital, it would have the same style. She has a unique way of doing step 2 by simplifying what she sees, but more importantly step 3 but how is she layers, uses color and brushstrokes gives her work a gorgeous and alive feeling. Another artist, at the step 3 uniquely is Taryn Knight, she gives her work a sketchy and fun feeling with pencil and paint for pops of color, but notice how her colors schemes are muted throughout, the texture and pattern she gets by using her pencils and a certain way is a part of her trademark style. Another amazing artists that can keep his style throughout any medium is Bao Pham, he used to only use gouache and watercolor to bring his gorgeous paintings to life, but recently he started experimenting with a rainbow colored pencil and all his work still reads as him, even though the medium is drastically different, he also made gorgeous pieces with just ink for Inkober, and even though they're missing his trademark vibrant colors, they still have that same feeling to them as his other work, the point is, he has a special way of making art that is uniquely him, it's a part of his style, so no matter what medium he uses, you will always recognize his work. I hope this showed you that even though the medium you use has no effect in the feel of your work, it's all about how you use that medium and not what medium it is. Medium is still important, it's important to find what you like to use the most and then master the technical skills of your chosen medium. If you already have a favorite and you know how to use it, that's great, if you don't, that's okay. I would personally learn as many mediums as you can get your hands on and see what you prefer the most, maybe just want to work digital, or with watercolors, or with just pen and ink, or you want to mix all kinds of mediums, use whatever you like, but be sure to master it and experiment as much as you can, you're already on the best learning platform for that, so don't worry about it too much and just learn and practice. Learn all about the different ways to use your chosen medium and all the different techniques you could do and study other people's art to see what they do, for example, there are all pen and ink supplies out there and they can all give different effects. If you paint with ink, it's completely different feeling from using cross hatching or stippling, or you could even do just simple outlines, but even then do you close the line completely or do you just hint at it, and do you use line variation or do you just keep it thin and so forth, there are a lot of options. I have a class on pen and ink illustration if you're interested in learning that, but the point is there are a lot of ways of using your supplies and you can also discover your own awesome ways to do so, for example, artist Limzy uses flowers and leaves mixed with normal water color illustrations for gorgeous pieces. Maybe you'll make art with string, I don't know what medium you'll choose, my point is, you can get super creative in step 3 and maybe discover something nobody else is doing if you just experiment and keep an open mind, but you don't have to do something different, that's up to you, I've tried many mediums, my favorite remains watercolor to this day because I love using it so much. Just find what medium you love to use the most and master it and then incorporate into your style. Here is a fun exercise you might want to try out to show you how important and varied step 3 can be, if you don't want to try, that's fine, just watch what I do. I sketched out the same strawberry shape many times, we can all agree the shape and stems are drawn in the same style, and now let's see how by just coloring in the strawberries using different mediums and techniques, we can get completely different feelings. This first one feels like a kid colored it with pencil and I used ink for loose outline and added cute face, notice how I colored outside the lines. The second one is done with the same colored pencils, but this time I used them to outline it instead, and I did a couple of times to make the line thicker. It's still loose but it has a fun feel. The next four are done with watercolor, notice how, even though I use the same colors, they're all feel a little different because I use different techniques, even slight changes in how you illustrate will make a big difference, this one has a sketchy feel to the outline and I use marker to color it and sketching it too, on purpose of course, notice how this feels completely different from the previous ones, but it's still cute, I don't like how this one turned out as this is so far from my style, but it's good to try different things, and you do have the option of making high-contrast black-and-white art, and notice how even though the same strawberry shape, it stopped being cute and became more, maybe, creepy or dramatic, when doing this exercise, don't be afraid to go back into previous strawberries and add other mediums or layers, think of this as a page of fun without rules, so do whatever you want. Notice how the watercolor wasn't fully dry here yet, so this may seem fine blades with the ink. Now, this next one is done in gouache, and the fun thing about it is you can layer it as may times as you want, so if you're the type to make lots of mistakes or adjustments, a medium like gouache may be perfect for you, you can also do this with acrylic oil or digital painting. This next one is also gouache, but I used it loosely, like I do my watercolors. This one is a pencil outline, but because I made the lines thinner and the dots inside into lines with tiny marker dots, it looks different from our second example. This one is just patterns then with thin sharpies, this could be super fun to do if you like complex or do the art, and it's just one example. This one is done with simple Crayola markers, so it's also cute and doodley, and notice how I didn't color it in perfectly again, and this next one I sketched it out very messily and then painted it with lots of water and little paint for light wash, the Entwistle white, so I got the same effect as a previously showed, but inversely, this is actually better because I won't ruin my micron pens. Notice how I have painted outside the lines on purpose for a more fun feel, and I really like how this one turned out. The next one was in messling quickly in ink using fun line variation in slightly shaky lines. This one was done with gouache as if it's watercolor and added even more water for some texture, and this next one was done with Copic markers, I'm no expert in them, but you can get very smooth gradients and a painted feeling without painting, they're especially great at adding dimension to your work or smooth shading, shading is also something you have to consider for step 3, are you going to include it, or you're going to make your work more flat? This last one was done with watercolor and then I went back and play with the other same way. I'm done and these are the finished pieces, as you can see, a lot of them have my style to them, even though I was trying to be very, because naturally I'm going to do whatever is my favorite way of doing things, and you can definitely tell that ink and watercolor are my favorite mediums, even though I tried to use other ones, I always came back to them, but still notice how they're all different, even though our original sketch was the same, this is a power of step 3, these are my favorites from all of these, and if I ever find them even more, these are my absolute favorites. If you do this exercise, do the same thing, pick which ones you loved the most, get an idea of what medium would be your favorite to use in what way, use as many medium to as you want and do this as many times as you want. If you run out of inspiration look at other people's art, look at your favorite artists art and see what mediums they use how they use them, this will not only give you more ideas of how step 3 can be done, but also it will make you think about what you like the most visually. The important thing to realize is there are a lot of ways to finish your piece, even in the same mediums. We'll talk about this more in a future lesson, but if you really don't know what medium to use, look at your favorite artists and what they use, my absolute favorites use watercolor or gouache and I've given both a try, but watercolors seem to be more fun for me, but honestly, I've already tried every medium under the sun and watercolors is the one that I always come back to, watercolor is my favorite medium to use, but I wouldn't know that unless I tried so many mediums, so try as many as you can, and practices may techniques as you can't to see what works best for you. Now, it's time to finish what you started in the previous two lessons with step 3, don't worry so much about it turning out good, this was just an exercise, so don't be afraid to play with how you finish your piece. If you did the exercise with the strawberries yourself, use your favorite way, if not, just use your favorite medium and play with it. Just finish in whatever medium feels natural to you and whatever way feels natural to you and have fun with it. If your sketch from step 2 is very messy, just get a light box and trace over it with a new piece of paper and then finish your piece. Once you're done, pat yourself on the back, you just stylized something completely, how cool is that? You want to share what you did with me and the other students, upload it to the project gallery. Now, let's put all three steps together with a real-time example of how I use them in my own art.
7. Let's Illustrate a Whole Scene!: Now that you know how to stylize from one reference, let's look at how I'd go about for a complete work of art of a whole scene. I'm not saying you'll be able to do what I show you right away. Take baby steps, of course, but also challenge yourself to not just copy a reference and make it your own. It's just a skill you have to practice. For example, I take this reference of a girl with her teddy and made it my own by making the teddy very big, and the girl like a toy. All I did was play with proportions and placement. It's still the three simple steps at its core. Playing with what you see and making your own, is just a skill that takes practice just like stylizing. In fact, it's a very similar skill and you'll get better with practice. I promise you it's easier than it looks, so just give it a try every time you sit down to draw. The first thing I usually do when making a piece with lots of elements is a thumbnail sketch. I have a quick class on the subject, but it's essentially a tiny drawing that I can plan out my composition in. As you can see, it's super messy and sketching. I'm just planning were I'll put things, and if you have any other specific thing you want to include, It's a good time to note it down. Like I had no idea what the girl's face will look like and what angle it's going to be. It's just a small fairy girl sitting on a big rock with two alleles of the valley flowers around her. Notice how I made the flowers on the right side bigger than the left side, will find that more in the second sketch. You can do as many as you want to explore the idea further. But I was happy with this, and look how simple it is. Now I'm ready to gather my references. Since it will be completely stylized, I can use any image I find, so I use Google images. The first thing I Google is girl sitting so I can find a good pose for the girl. I also recommend you Google poses for any character that you make, whether it be an animal or a fruit. If you plan to humanize it and keep it believable, you have to copy human poses. For example, in my you can drag cute people class, I showed you how to do this easily using a few techniques, and you can use the same technique in any character. It's still just observation and simplification. If you want to trap hoses from your head, you'll have to spend countless hours drawing lots of different poses or gesture drawing, and study human anatomy. But it definitely can be done, it just will take a long time. I liked two photos of poses and save those. Next, I look up the flower I want to use and save a couple of pictures of it too so I can have a good idea of how it looks like at different angles. I also save a picture of a forest with mossy rocks for inspiration, and the last thing was a fairy costume.I find this one really cute, and I'll make an outfit inspired by it, but it won't be a copy of it. I have all of these images saved on my iPad and I'm ready to mash them together by using observation and imagination. I have my iPad in front of me on a simple stand so I can easily see my references and switch between them. Another alternative is just using your phone and putting it right next to you or having a computer monitor in front of you, or you could also print out your pictures. That's up to you. I'm ready to start sketching out my drawing, and I do so by flipping through the images and stylizing each one right on the page. Now it looks like I skipped step one, but that's because I've had many years of practice at setting images, and it got to the point where I can see all the important things in shapes in my head. You will get to this point to if you're not already there. It's just time and practice. Once you get really good at observing, you don't have to do a sketch of your subject before you stylize, but step one will still be done in your head. In step two, I can play with what I want to do. As you can see, I'm going through the references and then going back to the page and sketching out my scene. It seamless, and the references are just a tool. They're there for me to make my art based on them, based on reality. But I simplify them a lot and do them in my simple but cute style so they're not recognizable from the references anymore, but it's still believable because they're based on reality. I can play with the lines and shapes and things like that, but I keep the general anatomy of things like the flowers and the girl to make them believable. Also, the sketch during step 2 doesn't have to be super detailed.This is another thing I got very good at over the years. I can make it extremely messy and just mark down what the shapes are, and when I ink or watercolor, I add the detail in the right spots. I just use a sketching phase to mark out where things are in the proportions that are correct. But maybe it's different for you. Maybe you completely skip sketching or maybe you want to sketch super accurately and have your whole illustration planned out first. Maybe you do a couple of sketches and trace over each one until you refine it further. It's whatever you want it to be. Your art process will be different from mine and everyone else's, just do your own thing and see what works best for you. Keep in mind that this step is about erasing, and redoing things, and just making sure everything is where you want it to be and looks right. You're really playing with the concept in a bigger size than your thumbnail sketch. Once I'm done sketching and feel happy with where things are, I'm ready to ink. In this particular illustration, step two and three are mixed together because I'm already refining, but I'm still at the stylization phase. Like I said before, these steps are written in stone and you will do them in your own unique way. For example, my watercolor flowers class, I was showing you how you can look at a reference and paint it bright on the page in your own style right away. This skipped all three steps and just went straight to stylization. But the three steps are suppose to make it simpler when you're a beginner. So use them first if you're not comfortable with doing that. I'm inking, and the references are still just as important as they were before. I'm looking at the detail of them now instead of the general shapes. But I can also play with some other things and not use references because I've drawn them before and remember how to do it. Or I can get away with doing whatever I want consistent in my style. For example, her hairdo is completely made up from my head, same thing with the bottom of her dress, the rocks and the leaves added at the top. But I rarely draw people, so I definitely need references. Same thing with the flowers. I've drawn them maybe once or twice before I did not memorize how they look, so I still need to use references. But if you draw the same thing over and over and over like a bird, for example, if you just love drawing birds and that's all you draw, you'll get so good at it that you can make up your own species. Notice how the flowers are done very loosely. I didn't worry too much about making them super accurate since this is stylized. In fact, I just studied how they look in the references and then did my own thing. Once you understand the shapes and how they look at different angles and how the flowers connect to the stem, you can very quickly draw it, and it will still look believable even though you didn't copy and just put them wherever you wanted to. Like I said, this whole class is all about observing and then doing your own thing. I also decided to add wings, and I did look up another reference for that. You can always get more references if needed while drawing. Now that I'm done inking, I can go back in with my favorite medium and paint in the scene. Now I'm completely done with step 2, and I'm fully in step 3. If you want to learn how to water color, I have a class you can check out. But like I said before, the median you use doesn't matter as much as how you use it. I did not look at my references at all while painting because my style is super colorful and does not match reality. I can do whatever I want in my coloring phase. Unless you're going for realism, you shouldn't have to look at your references either. But be careful and don't try to put together a bunch of images with different lighting into a scene and then shade them realistically by copying each one. If you're going to do that, you need to learn the basics of adding a light source to your scene and then follow those rules. Your references are only useful in telling you what the subjects looks like in 3D. But you cannot put multiple objects with different lighting into a scene and shade them the same way. It will just look really bad. But if you're copying a landscape, for example, of just one photo, you can copy the lighting completely and it will stay believable, and that's a great way to study light as well. Usually, I don't add any light sources to my scenes, but for this one, I made slight shading as if light was coming from top-left since the flowers look better with the slight shadow. Notice how I didn't shade her skin, the leaves are her wings. I only slightly shaded her dress and the rocks. I'm the artist, so it's up to me if I want to include something, and I don't have to follow all the laws of physics perfectly if it doesn't help my composition, especially since my style is loose. I finished up the piece with colored pencils and white gel pen and look how adorable she turned out. I use many references seamlessly, and used my imagination mix with them. They were a tool that helped me put together the scene that I imagined in my head. References help keep your work believable and realistic even though it can be stylized as you want. Essentially, I took a bunch of information and made my idea come to life with it by playing with it. That's all that stylizing is. I just apply the same exact rules or methods of my style to each thing in the composition to keep it consistent. In this way, if you keep everything you make consistent, you have a defining style. I hope this lesson helps you see how you can make a finished piece of work in your style using references. Now let's learn something you've been waiting for this whole class. Let's go over how to find your style.
8. Finding Your Style: Now that you know how the process of stylizing works, let's get into finding your style. I'm going to give you an amazing idea of how to go about it. I know this worked for me and countless others. But if you have your own way, stay true to that and do your thing. The simple truth is your style will be closely related to kind of the art you enjoy the most, and will probably be a mixture of the styles that inspire you the most. Essentially, it will have similarities to your favorite artist styles. This has the big not-so-secret secret. My advice is to start collecting all the art that inspires you the most, the best place to do that are Pinterest or Instagram, since you can save things into groups, but anything you like will do. You can even keep a folder on your computer by looking for what you like you not only exposing your brain to more inspiration, but also pinpointing why you like that art. This is where step one comes in again. We need to observe and study these works of art to understand what makes them tick. Copying art by drawing it either as quick sketches or detailed ones or even copying it perfectly with the medium two, will be the absolute best learning tool. You won't only learn how to draw better, but we'll also see if you enjoy drawing that way, and we'll deconstruct the work so it'll be easier to understand why and what you like exactly. It will also pick up tons of techniques that more experienced artists use. We'll understand the rules of their style more intimately. It's completely okay to copy other artists art for study purposes as long as you never shared as your own. In fact I recommend not to share it at all. To this uses secret sketchbook or paper that you were going to recycle anyway. I do this to this day to understand the way other artists use line, shape, design, and color. Once a deconstruct a ton of pieces, you will get a better idea of how they were created and what you liked the most about them, you will understand what techniques and rules the style consists of. The important thing is to copy lots of different artists, not just one or two. I'm going to repeat this again because it's very important. Copy a lot of different artists, not just one or two, but maybe 10, 20 or even a 100. This is important because you don't want your style to be heavily influenced by any particular artist. If this happens, you risk having a style that is too close to theirs or a copy of theirs, which is extremely wrong to do morally and creatively. But if you study a lot of different artists without focusing at anyone specific, you will naturally combine what you like the most about each one, and in the process creates something completely unique, because you will naturally add your own twist to it without even trying. All of us have a special way of expressing ourselves, and so do you. There's nothing wrong or weird about this advice, because whether they're aware of it or not, 99 percent of artists out there, I don't know who the one percent is, I'm sure it's a 100. But 99 percent of artists are influenced by their favorite works of art and artists that came before them. Also yourself will continue evolving over time, and you shouldn't hold it back from doing so. The only reason you should keep to one style as if you're already a professional artist, and you're offering a service that requires one style like in commercial illustration or comics. Otherwise, let your style do its own thing. It's alive, let it breathe, let it grow. It's okay and highly encouraged to experiment and try new styles as well. You never know what you like more. You don't have to stick to one thing unless you really want to. I personally like to play with a couple of different styles that are always evolving. I believe in not being limited in your art and not feeling constricted like you have to be just one way. That's a silly concept, you can have as many styles as you want. But if you do want to just have one that is super consistent, that's okay too. It's up to you. The point is give yourself freedom to do whatever you want to do. This is your art after all. To recap, find art you find inspiring from lots of different artists and study it or copy it, but never show it to anyone. This is just for study purposes. You will naturally learn how your favorite artists think and create, and this will go into your subconscious. Over time you will not only become a better artist quicker, but will learn in what ways you like to create the most. Overtime and completely naturally, you will put your own twist on it and you'll be left with your own one of a kind style. But this doesn't happen overnight, it will take time to get to the point of knowing what you want to do. Do as many studies as he can, but at the same time experiment as well. Try new things and put the three steps used by doing them on subjects you find inspiring. Stylize what you see in your own way by trying many different techniques, until you figure out which ones work and which ones you enjoy the most. Experiment and play as much as you can. This will not only help you to find your voice quicker, but we'll make it much more fun to find your style, and who knows your cool techniques you will discover. Let it happen and be patient, but also keep trying every day. You will find it faster if you draw more. Practice and study as much as you can, enjoy the journey. In my opinion, this is the fastest way to find your style, but this isn't the only way. There are countless ways to find it. In fact, if you didn't even try and just made art every single day over years, it would lean on side without conscious effort. That always comes naturally over time, but the method I showed is a way to speed up the process. It's like a shortcut because even if artists aren't aware of it, they're always inspired by their peers or those who came before them. We are unconsciously studying every work of art we come in contact with, by making it a conscious study of this inspiration, you speed up the process of finding your own style. There isn't a magic quick fix for finding it, but you can't speed up the process a lot by studying as much inspiring art as you can get your hands-on. Just do at least 15 minutes a day of studies and you will naturally start implementing the techniques and visual vocabulary that you learn. Again, the most important thing is not to share what you copy and to copy lots of different artists, overtime you will find your style. You might not even notice until someone points it out. But in the meantime, continue practicing and trying to make your own art in your own self, whenever you get the free time to make art. Right now you have this style too, is just the way you like to make art the most. Don't worry about making mistakes or making ugly art. Everyone makes ugly art even your favorite artist that have years of practice. Embrace your mistakes and just keep experimenting and trying new things. You never know what you'll discover. Also keep in mind that even if you feel like you have no style whatsoever, the seed is already planted and one day you'll look back and realize you always had it. Don't force it, and don't be scared that you're the only one that's never going to find it. It's already with you, you just need to develop it further. Be patient and enjoy the ride. It's so much fun learning a new skill, and it's the best feeling in the world, and honestly, the journey is always so much better than a destination. That's my take on finding your style, and I hope it helps you out. Now, it's time to finish up the class.
9. BONUS Fun Exercise: Now let's look at a fun exercise that you can do to help your style evolve faster, learn new techniques, and boost your drawing and observation skills. This is one of the quickest ways to see results. To start, pick a reference photo of something you like to draw or you want to learn to draw. As you can see, I enjoy illustrating bunnies, so that's what I picked. If it helps study it first by breaking it down into simple shapes, and then it's time to stylize it the way they normally would by drawing it to the best of your ability in your style. Now if your style is realistic, that's fine too. If you feel like you don't have one that's okay. Just do your best at drawing it in your style, even if you feel like you don't have one. This step is important because will help you to see the results of this exercise because you'll compare it to your future drawing. I did a quick sketch of the bunny done in my style. You can see that I already have a strong style, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have room to grow or evolve or for new ideas to come in. Now let's put that aside and it's time to find some inspiring art. I used Pinterest to look up cute bunny art in compiled board of bunnies drawn in styles that I find inspiring. You can collect as much art as you want. In fact, the more art you study, the better. Just be sure to vary your artists. Don't just copy one. Unique voice will always shine through, but you have to be careful not to get too inspired by one person because chances are it will look like a copy it won't be your unique true voice. Also it's morally wrong to copying other artists styles completely. You have to find your own. Now look through your inspiring art and pick the pieces that you like the most, and let's study them. I'm doing this in procreate on the iPad and it's super easy to do on any tablet. If you're doing it traditionally, you can lower the opacity of the artwork in image editing software like Photoshop and then just print it out. You can use pencil, pen, marker or whatever you want to study it by just drawing on top of it like I do. Our first work of art is by Lauren Faust, who is also the creator of the animated series My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. She works in animation, so you can tell her character design is very simple and easy to draw at different angles. The first thing I noticed is the simple bean body shape and the fun shape for the head. Also, I love the curve of the ears and how they make a v-shape. I also love the playful way she drew the tail using a dudly line. It gives it a fuzzy feeling. The way she drew the posing feed is so extremely simple and yet versatile as her expressive facial expressions. She's a pro using simple and strong shapes. I also loved the big head to small body ratio. The more you stretch this, the cuter character gets. Also, I noticed that the ears are always at an angle on the head, even if it's almost straight on, which gives it a lot of character, even though it's not realistic. These are the things I noticed when I looked at this. But keep in mind that what catches your eye will be different. I'm essentially studying how she illustrates and seeing what I like most about it. Be sure to keep that in mind when you study art and just do what feels right to you. We're just studying other artists styles and techniques in seeing what jives with our style. Now let's do this again with another piece of art. This one was done by an artist named Neko, but I couldn't find their website or art on the internet. If you find it, be sure to leave a comment in the discussion board for me so I can credit them. We're doing the same thing, which is just studying it. This time it's a lot easier to study the shapes because it's so simple. Once I do, I decide what I really like about this piece is the line work. A fun thing to do that is really beneficial, but has a bad wrap is tracing. This is really good to do because it gets your hand to feel exactly how the artist creates their lines. Doing this is extremely beneficial for your mass memory and it helps you study other artists techniques in more detail. There is so much that can be done with line. A really good example of this is if you compare Van Gogh sketches to Leonardo Da Vinci sketches, you see a huge difference. The way they use line is unique to them as it is to every artist out there. Lines can be very expressive and powerful. By studying how other artists use line, you'll get a better idea of what you like and what you don't. Not only will it increase the speed at which you find your style and your personal handwriting, but it will also get you familiarize with different techniques. You'll be able to combine the ones you like the most and then put your own special twists on it just by being you. What stands out to me in this piece are the smooth lines and how they barely touching some parts. I also really like the ear shape, especially how one line is straight and the other curved. It makes it more interesting to look at. Also the head shape has cheeks included, which is done with simple circles, but adds a lot to the cuteness. The face expression is simple and yet emotive. With barely any shading in lines, you can feel the emotion. I feel like I studied this piece enough. So let's go to the next one. This one is by Eloise Narrigan, and it's just a study slash warm up. But I really love how delicate and alive these bunnies are. The first thing I notice is the head shapes. They come to a point. Also the simple dot for eyes that shows on the bottom part of the face makes it even cuter. The way she used extremely simple and elegant lines to simplify complex poses is very inspiring to me. They flow really well from one body part to the next. They still feel believable and alive and like they're moving. I zoomed in to study the more by tracing them, like I said before, tracing is a great way to learn how other artists use line and can be super beneficial to grow quickly. I just love how delicate these are and by tracing these, I also got a good idea of how bunnies move and their anatomy. Our next work of art is by Heather Sketcheroos. This one is very different from the other ones that I found inspiring, but I still liked it and thought it was super adorable. I want to study more. If you find something that is very far away from your style, but something about it just draws you to it, be sure to study it because there's probably a concept or a tool or an idea or technique that is being used that you can learn from. I like how the body is one shape and where the neck connects the body and it's such a big head. But the first real detail I notice is the huge and super detailed eyes. I usually do simple lines or dots for eyes, so it's very different from myself, but extremely cute. I also like how she made the mouth and nose super tiny and the simple shapes she used for the face, paws and ears. Another noticeable trait is the fuzziness. I marked down his observations and decide I really like how she used line, and how do I study that? By tracing it. Her lines are very different from the other artists that we studied so far. That's because everyone has a very unique way of drawing or special handwriting. You have it too you just haven't fully developed yet. The more artists you study in this way, the more very techniques you'll have to choose from for your own special handwriting, you will naturally develop it by liking a certain way of illustrating more than another. By tracing lots of artists, you give yourself more exposure, things you can do, and it will make it easier to find your favorite style. I probably want to use this kind of line in my work again. But it was still nice to give my hand a nice exercise by trying somebody else's line work. The last inspiring work of art is by Mind Melody. What really stands out to me is how the body and head of the bunny are made of one simple pair shape. I also love how fun the direction the ears and feet are facing. Another repeating theme in my favorite illustrations is my love for the delicate line work in details. This is something I want to capture more in my style. This is what I mostly pay attention to. Like I said before, whatever you like the most will differ from person to person. That's it for the study portion. We studied five different works of art and now it's time to see if I picked up anything new from them. Open up your reference image again and then draw it in your style. But this time try to incorporate what you learn from setting other people's work into it without looking at their work again or at your first original illustration. Do this with a fresh mind. You will automatically remember the things you like the most and forget the things that did inspire you as much. Now, so you'll put your own twists on everything. There really shouldn't be any effort in doing this just try it again, have fun with it. Be sure to try lots of different things and experiment in the sketching phase. The first thing I settled on is the head shapes in that Eloise work. But then I got stuck on the ears and I wasn't sure what to do. I tried out Sketcheroos work but didn't like him and settled on hybrid between Neko's and Lauren's work. I was trying to simplify the body and to keep the lines fluid, but I realized I really didn't like the post. I used what I learned from setting how other people drew bunnies to change the paws altogether to a side position. I could do so simply with just a few curved lines. Notice how simple and delicate I made the paws and feet and the tail is inspired by how Lauren draws tails. Now I'm ready to ink. I tried to keep the line silicate and they don't have to touch all around. I like drawing my stuff close eyes. But if I didn't I could try what I learned by making a big eye like Sketcheroos. But that didn't turn out that great with the rest of the style. A simple dot for the eyes, which is more cute. Another face is more like Neko style and actually had a similar face expression, if anything, it looks a little cranky. If you compare the two finish illustration side-by-side, you can see I picked up a lot of new techniques by setting other artists styles. Does this mean I'll use all of them in my future work? Probably not, but I will use a lot of it and not consciously. It's more like I'll naturally incorporate what I find most inspiring without thinking about it. I'll put my own twist on it. I'll naturally make it my own. Don't try too hard to remember all you learn, just let it go and study more art. But in conjunction with this exercise, take time off to just draw in your own style. By taking time to study other people's art and and also doing your own thing, you'll naturally revolve your style to what you like to draw the most with time and patience. But this is a nifty shortcut that helps you to learn how you really enjoyed drawing and to pick up pro tips and techniques. You will get the same results by copying. It's up to you if you want to trace your copy. It doesn't matter, just never ever take credit for other people's work and don't share it with anybody else. These are just for study purposes. Like I said before, make sure to do this with lots of different artists so you don't become a copy of one. But even if you try to be a copy of one, you can never be just like that artists because we are all very unique. I hope you enjoyed the exercise and I cannot wait to see your results. Be sure to share them with the class by posting in the project gallery. Remember, you have to learn by doing so, even if you don't want to share just do it and have fun with it. There are no wrong ways to do this. This is just an exercise to help increase your skills. Now let's finish up the class.
10. Goodbye: Great job on completing the whole class. I hope you find everything we learned super-helpful on our excited stylize and find your unique voice. Remember, that this is a skill and it does take time and practice. So try again and again, maybe it'll come naturally to you. Either way, just have fun. If you still have questions, leave them in the community section and I'll get back to you. If you did the three steps or exercise in step 3 or your own perfectly finished stylize illustration using many references and aren't too shy to share it, you can make a project in the gallery to inspire other students and I would love to see what you did. As always, this has been a pleasure and I hope you enjoyed the class. If you want to continue learning for me, I have over 20 other class so you can check out. I highly recommend you watch what every artist should know first. But I have classes on everything from the basics of drawing to doodling, to watercolor, to ink illustration, to drawing cutie people or foods or even Christmas cuties, there's all kinds. There's also thousands of amazing classes from other awesome teachers here in Skillshare that I encourage you to watch. Be sure to never stop learning guys. Stay awesome, and I'll see you in the next class.
Yasmina Creates, Artist & Creativity Cheerleader
