This article was written & contributed by CrowbiusCryptid. I invited them after seeing their art style studies and progress in the NSFW Artists Guild server. I hope seeing it inspires you just as much as it inspired me!

Style may be one of the great struggles when drawing. After all, it is a representation of ourselves. Each artistic decision shows your preferences, choices, biases. In a way, style is like self-discovery.

The good news is that finding your style isn’t a lonely road. If anything, studying your artist inspirations can lead to finding your style faster.

But first things first!

What is Style?

Search for videos on style, and you’re bound to get a dozen different explanations.

But most of the videos come to the same conclusion: Style is the various aspects of your art; all the decisions you take when creating your drawings. For example: lineart, shapes, genre, color, etc. I’ll add one of my own: what your purpose is.

Style is the various aspects of your art; all the decisions you take when creating your drawings. Click To Tweet

As artists, we don’t create in a vacuum. We’re inspired by everything around us, whether consciously or not. I’ll show you how I started applying techniques and aesthetics from my favorite artists, to find my own style.

Early Beginnings

Even though it does not look fully anime-like, the basics are there: Detailed pointy hair, anime/Japanese-like face expressions, classic body canon proportion (around 5-6 heads), the head structure is also very anime-like, with a pointy jaw. At this point, you can also see that I’m adding cartoony and western-like features, which can be seen in the clothes, feet and hands, and sometimes mouth. Also, the lineart was more western-like, with its changing thickness.

Beats Notes
It helps to break down your artistic choices like this, so you can decide what to change as you go for a certain style. For example, I wouldn’t use anime-style proportions in my SFW art, which features realistic sci-fi/fantasy characters.

I decided to do NSFW, concentrating on monster girls (which I’ve been a fan of for forever). To make it even more entertaining, I focused on goblin girls (I love short stacks, what can I say). 

It’s an understatement to say a lot changed: body proportions, color, and body features became doubly important.

Beats Notes
This is a great example of finding your niche just by following what you love. Similar to how I exclusively draw OCs because I enjoy conversing with the owners! For more examples, check out this article on 12 artists w/ their niches.

The Path to Finding Art Style

With a new purpose to guide my art decisions, it was time to try different things.

At first, I used human photo references and gave them goblin features. However, it looked odd keeping the anime-eyes and human body, so I started experimenting with proportions.

I also started borrowing from comics, using dialog and SFX to add more expression.

Finding Inspirations: Walking the Path Others Have

I continued to focus on my anatomy, the body showing a nice chubbiness I wanted in my drawings. 

This is where I started to apply one of my first inspirations in NSFW: Fir3bornArt. 

The chubbiness is absolutely delicious. I knew I needed it in my art. However, I didn’t just want to copy them.

Instead, I studied how how muscles and fat interact to create chubbiness. Then I observed how Fir3born applied that knowledge. The result:

At the same time, I was heavily inspired by MalCo‘s western cartoon art. My eye style started to change, and my head structure and lineart became more cartoony.

At this point I’m trying lots of things: 

• Textured lineart: I tried the pencil tool that MalCo seemed to be using, but my results weren’t as expected, so I decided to use a gritty comic brush.
• Colors: The skin was no longer flat, I add a subtle gradient of a reddish light color in specific parts of the body.
• Features: I liked MalCo’s eyelashes, so I started adding 3 eyelashes to my art.

I was excited with my progress, but I had two issues:

• I wanted my style to be fast to draw, but all the details were slowing me down.
• I felt that my work needed more visual “attractiveness”. I wanted to feel from my work what I felt for the work of Fir3bornArt and MalCo.

So I start experimenting. I stuck to one sketch, so I could compare easily.

This is how my usual art style looks:

Then I tried lining with uniform thickness:

A pencil texture:

I even tried a new coloring style:

But nothing felt right. So I took a step back, watched some art videos, and came across another one of my favorite artists: Lumaga.

So, Lumaga is an SFW artist, and creator of the webtoon named Four Leaf (which is great, highly recommended). 

I asked myself: “Why do I like her art so much?” Her art is simple, pleasing to the eyes with smooth shapes, vibrant colors, and only the barest details in shadows and light.

I then looked back at my work:

And decided to take a path I have not taken before: working with shapes. Follow Lumaga’s example, reduce detail, remove all the pointy shapes and go for softer rounder shapes, and let’s see what turns out.

• The hair now is less detailed, rounded.
• The eyelashes lose the pointiness.
• The body is kept almost the same, but being careful not to add too much detail.

Applying the same principles to color:

There we go! Not only does it look very nice, but I didn’t have to change what I already knew for color and lineart; even more, those characteristics were also highlighted by the shapes I used, because simpler shapes allow for simpler shadows and lights.

Here’s a collection of recent works since then.

Is This My Final Form?

So now that I have found a style I like, is this the end of the search for art style?

Of course not. The more art you consume, the more your likes and dislikes will change and manifest in your work. I recommend deciding on what to change depending on your purpose.

What do you want to achieve with your art? I want mine to be cute and sexy, yet being simple and fast to create. 

Why? I also want to create little comic strips, so I need to be fast, and deliver content without being buried in work. I continue simplifying my art, seeing how I can exploit what I have:

Remember at the beginning, where I shared my first few drawings? Yes, I was drawing for fun, but I had no real goal to direct my skills or learning. Once I defined my purpose and started walking towards it, that’s when results started showing.

Good luck with your journey and finding your path!

Beats Notes
In summary,
– Finding style means finding your inspirations and experimenting with your art. Absorb as much as you can, and focus on your unique interpretation, and your style will emerge!
– Style includes your tastes and preferences. Drawing what you like may seem too ‘easy’, but it’ll attract an audience who likes you for you. Can you imagine yourself drawing your current style for the years to come, or are you forcing yourself unhealthily?
– Consider your goals and purpose. Why do you make art? How can your style help you accomplish that?

Find CrowbiusCryptid on Twitter at @Crowbius. If you’d like to contribute your knowledge and help other NSFW artists, check out our contribute page!