[Sara Gómez Woolley]

Week 2 reading of the semester is from:

Inside the Business of Illustration by Heller and Arisman

You will find Chapter 2 in FILES, located to the upper right of the screen.

Please Read discuss:
What are your take-aways from the chapter. Were there any statements or pieces of information that stuck out or were surprising to you?

We will continue the discussion in class.

[Henry Zeng]

I think an important take away from this chapter is style is an artist’s identity and it is something that is constantly changing. In the discussion between Arisman and Heller the line that stuck with me the most is:

“Style is driven by your view of the world, not by a technical procedure. When your head changes, your style will change…This is a natural , healthy, on-going process.”

I think this line shows that much like everything else, finding your style is an iterative process and the only way to find your style is to keep working on it. Even then I think that there will always be something to tweak because the world around us is constantly changing.

[Emely Rivas]

What I take away from this article is how important it is to find your style in illustration. That’s my goal right now of trying to find my own style, something that I’ll be proud of showing and presenting to my family and friends. The reading mentions how every illustrator goes through the phase of finding their style and that’s something that I’m concerned about nowadays. However, sticking to the same style over the years is conflicting, the reading mentions that “The danger for an illustrator in relying entirely on style as his whole equity is that when it falls from popularity (and it will) the paying work will doubtless dry up too”. This statement is what caught my attention the most is that every illustrator out there including me are looking for their own style, something that can represent them and feel that it’s theirs and nobody else’s, something that you look at and you can recognize whose work is that and this shows that every illustrator should be open to different style of illustration cause the society or audience get bored over the years looking at the same style. Yet, more important is being consistent with the same style in work .

[Savannah Hendrickson]

What I take away from this chapter is that a style showcases where the illustrator is at with their works, and it always changes from time to time. What stuck out to me was the main problem of finding a style, which is that you always tend to find one that belongs to someone else. That’s true for many illustrators, especially those who are starting out. I, for one, am coming across styles that belong to other illustrators and cartoonists. What’s important about a style is making it your own, which is what I’m constantly trying to do with my own style. Heller points out that in order to be honest in your style, you must not affect a style that does not merit the work itself. I feel like that’s important because at the end of the day, the style represents you, the illustrator. The last thing you need as an illustrator is a style that would misrepresent who you are.

[Sara Gómez Woolley]

Great insights guys! Be prepared to share them with your classmates when we speak about the chapter together.

[Julie Bradford]

This was an all too real chapter to read. All we hear all the time is STYLE GOTTA HAVE STYLE so it’s an overbearing subject for me. As mentioned, style can be brought about by many factors, either through time or through influence. And also, that style is subjective to the time; one that is overly popularized will see itself duplicated since that is what is being sought after.

[jason]

There was a part of a title that said “Reflection of a Personality” in page 65. I feel like that to me caught my attention because I interpreted it in a way that an artist style is their own personality. Maybe, my own style is my own personality, I would just need to be able to interpreted my personality into a style form of illustration/art/design.

[Ashli Barker]

What I take away from this chapter is how important it is to have a balance between vision and style. While it is often necessary to form your own style in order to be considered a consistent illustrator, it’s counterproductive to become obsessed with the idea of your style. It’s better to focus on the vision and the content while simultaneously pulling from influences to create something that’s you.

[Rachel Kim]

“Learn to steal from everybody” was the more shocking thing I’ve read in this excerpt. This segment was a part of What is Style? A Checklist It’s amusing to me because I’ve definitely seen illustrators from a variety of websites, taking their favorite part of an illustrator and adding it onto their own. What’s interesting is that, according to the reading, it is not considered stealing, but “absorbing” your favorite characteristics and getting ready to find out what inspired those artists. It’s not telling the reader to copy or trace artwork they admire, but digging deeper into their favorite artist and finding more about why and how they draw that the way that they do.

[Jason Villalva]

My take away from this article is that there’s time to find your style. It’s a journey and it’s a long one. Sometimes there’s others that already has a style that identify with who they are. Others, are still trying to find it. There’s a line from the article that made me think for a bit, which is “Style is a function of who one is an artist”
I guess it means that a style defines an artist and their work. For me, I’m still trying to find my style and trying to define myself. To be known for my work and what I’m known for. But also when time moves on, think about if I need to change my style. Redefine who I am as an artist again in a new generation every time.

[Nicole Harripersad]

From what I’ve read from this recent chapter I learned how vital it is to have a adjust between vision and your art technique. Whereas it is frequently fundamental to create your own unique art style in arrange to be considered a reliable artist, it’s counterproductive to ended up fixated with the idea of your fashion. It’s way better to center on the vision and the substance while simultaneously pulling from impacts to make something that’s you. For me I’m still trying to find my art style. It isnt easy but I’m still learning and practicing every day along with perfecting my inking skills.

[Jennifer Chung]

What I got from this reading was basically how it is important to find your own style and how artist sometimes like to change it up. Especially in the art industry other artist like to take other artist work. You can look and get inspired by other artists but take what’s more important and have it present your own way. Some artist say that tracing is copying but I personally wouldn’t call it tracing, I would call it outlining. For me it is hard to find my own style that is original or not somewhat similar to another artist.

[Yuhang Wang]

I believe Style is a personality for each person. When I first start up my character drawing, I look into someone’s work, observing details, trying to figure out how they do it. As I keep doing that, I push myself to have same work that exactly like them and I didn’t realized. I like how they say style must be sung fit into us. As a beginner, it is important to look for someone, learn from them but more important is to find ourselves. As now every time when I start doing new animation practice for my portfolio, the only thing I do research is the character I want to animate for. I look into their clothing, their face details and I start design my own background, pose, the way I want how deep textures be and combine what I learn before about those knowledge. I believe that’s the word absorb means to me.

[melissamarion]

My biggest take away I got from the article is “When your head changes, your style will change.” There are many times when I look at other illustrator’s artwork, I can see how their style carries over from one piece to another. There are some artwork that have a bit of the same style but a new style because of the change of context. It shows the change of progression that the illustrator is going through or a new change.
I know as someone with no art style I need to eventually create one of my own, but it is a struggle when there are hundred thousands of styles out there. Trying not to borrow or steal another illustrator’s style is a challenge of its own. Trying to be original is a difficult task at hand.