Finding your art style.

It took me many years to begin a journey to develop my art skills. I dabbled in the arts here and there (not the dark arts but maybe arts that were dark). Initially, I wanted to be practical and have a strong purpose for this project – spending time on myself. But since I started, I gradually had mixed feelings about myself as an artist, I tried telling people I’m training to be a botanical artist (after trying on hats of art therapy, art as a hobby, and being an artist in general). I set myself goals and dedicated hours each day and week to practice, spending money on art supplies and courses, explaining to my partner that it was my turn to make something of myself. Well, I guess after raising a family, working and achieving some things in my life, this may have been more of a reflection on my mental health.

Still, I do want something to ‘own’ as I head to retirement and my deathbed. Sorry to be so morbid, but we are all in a state of decline. Decomposing to the point our main organs will…okay. Enough of that!

Will my art reflect this morbid state of being and thinking? That’s where this little post comes in. What is my style? I really have no idea, and any artwork I do is not ‘alike’ or has a ‘style’. Could it be that I haven’t done enough complete work? (I look around my studio and note the unfinished canvases, art journals, and 45% to go in a few Udemy art classes). Or perhaps I have multiple personalities. After all, my taste in music is eclectic. I’ve taken a couple of courses on finding my style, and one helped from one perspective. That’s when I thought that perhaps I should have completed more than the first year of my visual arts degree, and realised that maybe I should have finished that degree. Yet, I often hear of self-taught artists. And, I’ve frequently come across the idea of copying artists you like, and that may lead to developing your style.

So, here I go. If I find an artist or artwork I like and think I can copy successfully, I’ll do that, but for now, I’m going to study art movements and try my hand at the different movements. I’ll study Art Deco, Cubism, Finger Painting, Fauvism etc. You may notice I’m going to avoid the art movement number 2. I’ve decided to follow the timeline in chronological order as much as possible, as there is a natural progression in how the styles are adopted and adapted from previous ones. However, that doesn’t always hold true either.

Art movement No. 1.

The Cave Drawing – yeah, yeah, I’m working on it.

By the way, that AI-generated cave painting shouldn’t be too hard to outdo, especially since some of the animals are missing parts or have too many parts…