Self-Taught Could Be The Culprit
When I started painting portraits around 2 years ago, online videos became my best teacher. I followed a few talented artists who generously shared their painting tips and teachings through videos. Almost everything I know, I learned from their videos and other online sources.
I remember when I first started painting portraits, I browsed through various online videos to find my preferred portrait style. To my surprise, I found a plethora of talents on the internet with incredible skills, so I set a few portrait paintings as my goal for the learning process. I was lucky that YouTube proved to be useful for me.
Should I Develop A Consistent Style?
As I continued to learn more about painting, I looked into artists' portfolios to understand their inspirations and painting habits. I found that some popular painters (with high video views) had a fairly consistent painting style. They had established a unique style that made them recognizable and favorable, which helped them build a brand in the long run.
As a marketing specialist, I have been contemplating this for some time. Can I copy the same strategy? I imagined myself adhering to a particular color palette and painting style and tirelessly developing that into every painting to achieve a level of uniqueness that belongs to me. To some extent, people may be able to tell it was my painting by just looking at the color and style.
Unfortunately, my practice did not allow it to happen because I'm still a beginner exploring the portrait painting world. I have to allow myself to absorb as much as possible and be inspired by both amateur and professional artists.
Remain Curious & Keep Exploring
That is why when I flip through all the paintings in my folder, I realize the secret of why my painting style has been changing from time to time. Every time I tried a new painting technique picked up from a particular artist or video, I changed the way I paint.
I wonder if I will ever find my "style" and be content to stay in that style zone, or if I will have to work harder to try another 1000 styles that I find interesting. So I search for answers in different art books, trying to understand the formula for creating and maintaining a certain style.
Then I come to this conclusion about my inquiry (at least for this phase of life) - "style" is just a tool, not the ultimate goal.
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