Hi Chira, I got a question, Im trying to change my art style from anime to semirealistic/realistic since I don't want to draw anime anymore. I want to have an art style where I won't have to feel like anime is the only thing that inspires me. But when I draw realistic, it looks stupid! I'm scared I can't get out of the anime style and will never be able to get used to it or change it. What can I to not go back to drawing anime only cause im used to it?? ): sorry i had a limit to how much i type.
Oh man, there’s a few layers to this…
Well, I think the first step is not looking down on what anime can offer you. There’s plenty of anime-derived styles that lean on semi-realism in design (consider: works by Satoshi Kon, Urasawa Naoki, Inoue Takehiko, and many others). I point this out because if you want to take your style in a more, let’s say, refined and detailed direction, you can look at styles that’ve already successfully done that and study them/find them inspirational. Please remember the only thing that really defines “anime style” is that it’s originating in Japan, otherwise the art styles are as diverse and complex as any other cultural visual aesthetic in the world. I mean, saying something is “western style” is just as silly, Superman comics doesn’t look anything like Powerpuff Girls in style, right?
Second, I would also like you to ask yourself if what you want is to be inspired by things not anime because of style or because of status. Are you trying to change your style to get away from the reputation of admitting you like anime? If so, why? You don’t need to reply to me, this is something for you to think about. Trying to define your style by what you think your influences should be tends to be a very exasperating and inefficient corner many artists trap themselves into.
Third, for actual advice on how to develop your style in a different direction (whatever direction that may be), the best start is to do copy or trace exercises of the illustrations you want to emulate. These are very helpful as exercises to get you to understand and study the artist’s technique of how they came to that result. Additionally, let your stuff look stupid. Whenever you develop something new in your work it is an experiment, and experiments can fail! And that ABSOLUTELY needs to be allowed, the fact you can and will fail in your early attempts, because the experiment is not important for the result it’s about what you learned by doing it. If your attempts look stupid or hack-kneed, try to study why it didn’t work or where it went wrong, and refine your next experiment and see if the results are different. Slowly and surely you’ll see your results develop. This is the process of developing art technique in general.
And, lastly, your art style doesn’t define you, you define your art style. Whether it’s anime, realistic, saturday morning cartoon or whatever… if you drew it, it’s automatically your style. Which means you should draw what actually excites you (WHATEVER that inspiration is), not what you think should inspire you. Generally when you follow what actually gets you excited by art, you’ll organically take your art in the direction you want it to go in.
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