How important is your own art style?
This has always been an internal creative struggle for me. Not necessarily in a bad way either. When you break into the game industry or any creative industry with the production pillar it’s a thing to celebrate. You get to MAKE art for a living! You get to use your creativity to solve problems, right-sided brain awesomeness.
There are a few caveats to this though. Making art doesn’t always equal making art in your personal style. Sometimes it might, but often times it’s not. When you are in the production art pipeline, you’ll often be called upon to create a style that is for the game or product’s art direction. Sometimes this is a style you admire. Often times it can be the complete opposite of a style you’d ever think you’d be creating within.
*Images from Riot Games, Mediatonic Games, and The Coalition
One great thing you can benefit from when learning new styles is taking the techniques to help define your own personal visual preferences. That’s the discovery zone people sometimes overlook, I know I have.
I’d recommend taking every opportunity as a growth opportunity. You’ll discover the little nuances and techniques that you would never even consider in your personal art creation. Whether you are creating art in the clean aesthetic of a Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, or the gritty perspective manipulation of an Eric Canete… there is always something to learn.
*Left is work by Sean Galloway, Right is work by Eric Canete
As you accumulate this precious knowledge, you can start crafting your own natural art evolution.
Art style is important, of course. With that said, never miss out on the opportunity for growth and evolution. Your style and aesthetic preferences today will likely be different a couple of years from now as you evolve.
To be on the cutting edge of growing your skills check out our courses here.
To talk shop and see where your art evolution might be, book a discovery call with us.
Roger & The Chimirus Team
