Art Styles: My Internal Struggle

If you follow me on almost any social media outlet you are probably already pretty aware of my struggle with finding "my style". This specifically relates to how I draw "toon" style artwork. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I'll always be learning and growing, but some of it is genuinely just me being a finicky bitch with confusing tastes.

I guess I'm still learning enough about myself every day that my style is just not going to be super consistent right now. Or maybe I am consistent. Honestly, I'm not likely the best judge of if my work looks consistent or not. Artists are known for being their own worst critics. Not just when it comes to art either. We're literally, more often than not, pretty mean to ourselves in general. Between overworking ourselves, making time for self-care, and remembering to have a social life, we are basically terrible to ourselves.

I mean, OTHER people can probably tell when I've created something. It would be nice to think that even if they hadn't seen ME post it that if someone saw my work out in the ether, they might still know it was me. I feel like I have seen or heard other artists struggling with this sort of internal dilemma as well. Which, at the very least, makes me feel a little less alone about it.

I guess I should just enjoy the creative journey, right? Stop being so whiny about it, suck it up, and just do the damn thing. Or is that just me being mean to myself in a different way?

Having a creative identity crisis really sucks. In fact, I'm likely to end up writing more than just the one post about this topic. It effects me deeply and often. I can only imagine that there are other artists and creatives out there that suffer with the same sort of internal struggles. Who knows, maybe reading about someone else having trouble with it will help them get over the hump and on to the other side of it all. That would, at the very least, make me feel pretty damn good about writing this.

If you've made it this far into this particular post. Then I commend you for your efforts and endurance. I know a tend to ramble a bit and I don't always go back and edit these things before I post them. So, thank you for putting up with that.

I thought I'd go ahead and share some more recent stuff from my sketchbook that helps visualize my battle with "finding my style" at this point. Call it a reward for reading this far, if you will.

See what I mean?

Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know if you also have the same trouble. Or if you don't. You can also just give me feedback on the art. It's whatever. Thanks for reading.