Illustration Style: At one point in my career, this subject made me so stressed it stopped me completely and made me actually fall out of love with the entire process and take a complete break from all things creative! Slightly dramatic? maybe...completely needed YES! So I packed up my paints for a while and worked part-time in a completely none creative job whilst I figured it all out again.
Backtrack just a few years ago and I found myself out of love with illustration and a little bit lost. There were a few reasons why I decided to take a break and some were on a personal level for me but one was I just think I lost the joy to create. Prior to this moment, I'd been busy working hard as a freelancer in fashion, creating lots of prints in a huge variety of styles and it was and still is something I LOVE and feel good at but I began to feel a bit like I wanted to find my own style, something significantly 'Angela' but felt at a loss as to how.
I had my full-on Kanye moment and wanted the dam spotlight for once (and let me tell you I rarely have these moments so I knew something was a miss)
So I officially took the break. Not for long mind, maybe four months but it helped me. Firstly just by having some time off from creativity but also because it made me find my way back to illustration, I mean of course it would- it's my joy, passion, and lively hood!
Another thing that helped me was taking a break from social media- to not be bombarded by other people's styles of work whilst I felt lost with my own was good for my soul and I logged out of Pinterest as I felt overwhelmed there too.
I came back to the creative process after a break feeling refreshed and ready to be creative again - I was excited! What was this feeling??!!
So that's where this gets a bit more helpful I hope- if you are reading this and thinking .."OK Faaanntastic love, thanks for the life story but how do I find my style??"
So this is what I did- I learnt new things and ways to inspire myself.
I went and booked myself up on online educational courses, a business course and a children's book Illustration course. I wanted to keep learning and I have realised that actually, it’s key for me as a person to keep evolving and learning, we are never too old to learn a new skill or subject after all.
I also opened up a fresh sketchbook, something I hadn't done in years and took it with me to coffee shops, dog walks, holidays and sketched what I saw or conversations I heard. I bought myself new and interesting art materials to try - paints, brushes, pens, inks, papers and textures (Colemans took a battering). I thought about things I personally love like fashion and interior design, music and food, laughing with friends and talking about life and love with the people in my life. It all inspired me so much more than I had initially thought to tap into.
I visited the elusive place we once knew and loved called the Library. I got out ACTUAL books and looked at the way animals, people, buildings, plants and flowers looked through the eyes of authors, stories and illustrators now and gone and then grew from these reference points. I continued to stay off of social media and gained my references from actual life it was MAD I tell ya. I moaned to my mum and Kieran about finding my style and opened up to some other creative folk that I found on a forum for illustrators who had lost their shit and minds (only joking, most of these people had it together) anyway something must have eventually clicked from the talking and the sketching because I was actually drawing again without questioning it all, a rarity in my mind let me tell you.
I found my confidence again to start Instagram and present my (ten) followers with my first pet portrait! I was delighted and it lead to orders (which felt amazing) and was a well-needed boost. So what I'm trying to say is a break really was the catalyst in helping me find my illustrative style as it wasn’t long before I began to tackle my first book and portraits became a regular thing!
Style is of course an organic thing and it is constantly evolving and I'm ok with that because I'm finally out of my head with it and on the page instead :) deep man.
x
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