Refining my drawing style in 2025

 

In December and January this past Winter, I drew pet portraits for my family. The drawings came to life in Procreate (ipad) as I layered colors and line work on top of photos given to me by relatives.

The drawings had my sense of color, my interpretation of line, light and shadow. But they were tight, I was scared to use my loose punk art style on these presents. I wanted them to like the drawings, for them to look like they were done by a competent adult artist.

My style in truth is loose as hell and sometimes sloppy. I love to color outside of the lines and have white outlines between colors and ink. I love minimalism and a la prima paintings. The energy of the moment, wabi sabi.

So when I realized I felt this way, that I had played so conservatively with my drawings that it wasn't even "my style", I decided to find my style. I knew it when it happened but I couldn't call it up on demand. I wanted to be able to make a career out of my true hand work. My loose lines.

I began to draw our cats from observation, while they slept or from photographs. I drew as often as I could. Sometimes the drawings were very awkward, but I still loved to laugh at the quirkiness of the line work. I wanted to capture the cartooniness too.

Above, we see Sadie snoozing. This was done in ball point pen while she slept nearby. I love this drawing, but it's not the style I was going for. Still good to practice this way though, to be able to do the more calligraphic interpretations. And it's always ok to have more than one style, it's only natural!

After half a year of drawing on paper, I decided to give digital drawing another shot. I had a few more aunts I had yet to make drawings for, so I sat down with my ipad again and tried to play with color more bravely than before.

I love this drawing. My favorite way to depict black is with blue or purple. I learned that using colors other than black to depict black or shadow actually makes for a stronger composition. And I love to experiment with this, but I do have a strong pull toward black lines as well.  

Maybe this love of black line work is from reading the Sunday funny papers, but maybe from punk art in xeroxed black and white zines or wood cuts in affordable inks. It is also definitely derived from my admiration of Japanese and Chinese calligraphy. For a few years I used dip brushes in my ink, large brushes on large paper while sitting on the floor, and different sizes on smaller paper while sitting at my desk.

More recently, I found my trusty Pentel Pocket Ink Brush Pen. Oh how wonderful it is to get over the learning hump and be able to explore more nuanced lines with this pen. It is a joy to return to the sense of exploration and captured moments as when I used the dip brushes, years ago. And in a much more portable version I can keep in my hip pouch, at the ready.

For my grandmother's birthday a couple weeks ago, I painted decorative autumn leaves and flowers - and a couple drawings from her cat photos. The two previous photos are her cats Miriam and Abraham. The bottom one was an interesting return to only using my water color pans, as I wanted to try a softer look for her favorite cat.

It is always interesting to me how my style varies depending on what tools I use. Certainly there are artists who can maintain the same look across media, and with practice I could too, but it is curious to me how this works. It makes me happy when I feel stuck on a plateau, to return to palettes or brushes and pens I used in the past, and see how the little happy accidents give me fresh ideas.

Finally, I have been making many small drawings in my always-with-me sketchbook. The drawing above is my favorite so far. I applied the watercolor wash prior to drawing, and I'm not sure how I feel about that still. But the line work and composition in this picture is my favorite of all the many attempts I have made this year.

Their personalities are on point, and thanks to my partner's excellent photography (and the cats finally getting along) I got to include the plant dynamic and the cat tree.  The scene is a departure from most of the drawings I have made "in my style" this year, as the majority of my pictures have not included a scene for context.

This is my next foray into finding my style. While I love a fiercely minimalist single line drawing of a cat with no surroundings, I also love to be able to tell a story with more details.  I am an aspiring cartoonist afterall!

It took conscious bravery to step away from my safe art towards my more experimental expressions. There was ease, but it has not been easy per se. I had to remind myself many times that it was worth doing the hard job of being myself in my art. Of accepting myself and my taste as valid. I don't have much of a social media presence, and thus don't get much external validation online, but I feel in my bones that I will find my people when I let myself truly be me.

I hope this story of finding my style has been inspiring for your own journey. With consistent practice in small chunks of time, it is possible to make headway toward your own internal vision. I am so much happier with my art than I was a year ago, and I look forward to seeing what could come in the year ahead.

Fair winds,

Bird.