3 reasons you still don’t have a creative voice

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Finding your creative voice. Adding your touch. Building a visual brand. Having an art style.

Whatever you want to call it, you know what it means to look at an artist’s work and they just have it. The thing that makes the painting look like their painting. 

If you’ve been struggling to get to that point with your own artwork, there could be a few reasons why. Here’s the top three.

1. Not developing observational skills

Observing the world around you is a skill. It’s a skill that will advance your art style by leaps and bounds because it will help you see your art more clearly. 

The details are important. To see the details in any object, photo, face, or sketch, you have to be present-minded and take your time. 

Observing each petal of a flower, seeing the veins in it and the shape and the precise color and the way the light hits it, and the shadow it casts and how the opening is shaped in the middle, how big the circle of the opening is in comparison to the circle of the petals, etc. takes TIME, patience, admiration and requires you to be sitting presently with that flower.

You can’t observe the details of the flower if you’re staring at it but really thinking about lunch. 

When I see people in artist groups online post a reference photo and their current work and ask for advice, it’s clear to me. It’s not a lack of sketching skills, but a lack of observational skills. They simply can’t see the difference between the two photos. And because they don’t have an eye trained enough to see the glaring differences in face shape, wrinkle position, how far the lips are from the nose compared to the eyes – they can’t finish the drawing. Instead they can tell something is “off” about it but don’t know what. 

Remember those drawing games in coloring books you got as a kid? Remember the game, Spot The Difference? That’s the skill you need to practice if this is your problem.

Reference photo folks, I am talking directly to you.

If you can’t spot the difference between your reference photo and your drawing, you’ll never know which lines to draw next, where to add shading, and so on to get your desired look. 

My pro tip here is to make a list. Either an observational list if you haven’t started drawing your reference photo yet or a spot the difference list if you have. List 50 things minimum. Listing more will help you get to the nitty gritty differences and stretch your mind to see more than it did before. I promise you’ll fill all 50 points on the list. 

It also helps to practice what I call “Fresh Eyes” in this situation.

Fresh eyes is when you’ve been staring at a piece of artwork entirely too long. Take a long break. For me it’s usually a whole day. Sleep on it. If you’re in a hurry maybe take 2 hours. And I mean do NOT peek at this painting, turn the paper over so when you walk by you don’t get a glimpse.

When you come back to it the next morning, you’ll have fresher eyes to see it with. Taking that break makes you a different person than you were the day before – like a third-party onlooker to see your work with.

It’s easier to notice little smudges and ratios and errors after this break. This small practice has helped immensely with my observational skills and consequently, my creative voice development. 

2. Not sticking with your rules

Make your own rules and then follow them. Most people make up new rules for every different painting. 

Let’s say for a dog painting you’ll use… 

• a reference photo and 
• make the lines very thin for the fur and 
• make sure to use bright highlights for the wet nose and eyes, 
• lots of contrast, 
• and bright solid color background

That’s great. Those are good style markers. 

But for the next painting of a cat you decide…

• no reference photo will be used,
• solid textured body, no fur distinction,
• focus on deep shadows,
• little contrast,
• detailed background, more so than the cat in foreground
• add sparkles in the paint for fun

These two paintings are going to look very different because you made very different decisions about the rules for each of them. And when you do this for every painting you create, they ALL end up looking super different.

No overarching rules means no style.

What artists need to do if they want a style is make up rules for their artwork as a whole. Every single painting will follow these same rules. That’s the main thing that brings a group of illustrations and makes them look like they all fit together as a body of work.

These rules are the voice that speaks in your creative voice.

3. Not knowing yourself

To make good art you have to know yourself. To make good art in a consistent style, you have to know, love and accept yourself and be willing to present it repeatedly to the world.

All art is an expression of self. 

You have to know the inner self before you can clearly communicate it outwards. 

These can be simple things such as color preferences, interests, and knowing how you enjoy your creative process best. 

It can also lead you to deep introspection about your values, morals, and identity. 

Both are important for style.

If you don’t know what colors you like or what you find valuable, you won’t know what you want to express on a consistent basis. Get to know yourself.

I recorded a podcast episode that touches on this topic. It’s called “making art for others vs making it for you.” If you’ve never tuned in to The Carolyn Whittico Art Podcast then this is your sign to do it now.

Once you know your inner world clearly, then you can be confident in your decision-making when you decide on which visual rules you want your artwork to follow. Then, and only then, will your art have a focused direction and a powerful voice that sounds like you.

No one can do it like you

No one can do it for you, either. Finding your creative voice is one of those tasks that you can’t outsource. All artists have to draw up their own map and walk down their own roads.

However, there are resources that can help you. I created a free worksheet on finding your own art style that can set you on your path and guide you toward that creative voice. Check it out below.