How to Fix the Problem of Style

Whenever you hear artists talking about "breaking into the biz," the topic of style will undoubtably come up.  We guarantee that at least one person will ask the question "Do I need a style?" or "How do I find my style?"

We can answer that very simply right off the bat:  "Yes, if you want a job," and "Lots of art.  Lots and lots of art."

The first part is pretty reasonable: art directors/gallery curators/talent scouts/literary agents/etc. need you to have a style.  You might wince at this truth, but believe us, it's true.  As a hiring manager, the art director is going to look for someone that is safe, reliable, and they believe they can trust.  For an art director hiring you as a freelance artist, they are literally gambling their career on you.  If you mess up a book cover that delays production, besides you getting fired, the art director's job could be on the line as well.  So it's safe to say that yes, you do need a style as the person hiring you is looking for something reliable, and a style is your reliable method of expressing yourself.

The second part can be depressing or comforting all at the same time.  It can be a major bummer, as there is unfortunately no shortcut to finding a style besides making tons and tons of art.  It's comforting in the way that it is something that will come, and you can only speed up by working really really hard.

Simple as that.

So we've all agreed that you do need a style.  Well, what if you have multiple styles?  What if you like to work in metal sculpture, but you also do spoken word?  Or what if you love to paint detailed landscapes in watercolor but also love huge abstract oils?  What if you're a modern dancer and a short story writer?  How can your fellow artists ask that you choose between your true loves?

Or how about the fact that you like changing your style up from month to month.  Maybe you like photorealism, then you like loose brush pen work.  Maybe switching from well-composed photos in black and white to wild experimentations with exposure and light.  How can you ever hope to just stick to one single thing?

Well, if you know us at all, you'll know that we're big on experimentation, and not big on binary thinking.  The secret to fixing the issue of choosing a style and sticking with it is knowing that you don't have to.  

Yes, you heard us right, you don't have to stick to a certain style.  Please keep reading before you run off and send your art director your new experiment in style, however.  

So while you don't have to stick with a single style all your life, or even all month, it is important that you develop a body of work that has a consistent style.  You want to show curators or art directors or whomever might be asking for your work that you can consistently (key word here) produce the same style of work.  

What you can do, however, is create side projects.  If you find multiple, very different styles that you're constantly switching between, we recommend making an entirely different artist persona.  While Monkey (ie Rick Kitagawa) is known for dark, creepy, scary paintings, his other artist persona creates wildly light-hearted, funny paintings.  By separating the two styles into two distinct artists, Monkey has allowed himself the freedom to constantly work in both styles, but also maintains the commercial appeal of having a consistent style that people can count on him for.  

If you don't want to go as far as to create a whole new alias, you can always just create little sub-portfolios.  You show the art director for the game company your game asset portfolio, and you show your giant abstract pieces to your interior decorator collectors, and you show your giant paintings of purple elephants to your group of collectors who are into that sort of thing.  The main thing is that you don't want the video game art director to think that you're only going to give them purple elephants - you want that person to think you're going to give them awesome game assets.  

So, while it is the harsh reality that if you want to make money, you will need a consistent style at some point, think of it like a project identity, less of like a ball and chain that will hamper your creativity.  

Why Innate Talent is Overrated

When you think of "talent," what do you think of? Perhaps some sports great, like Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali, or perhaps some sort of big thinker, like Einstein or Da Vinci. What about someone more contemporary - a technological innovator like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg? Maybe some of your heroes in your field, people who do things that you wish you could do, or could do things you do faster or better. But when it comes down to it, we often think of talent as some inherent factor that these fortunate people were born with. It is comforting to think of talent as something that is some ethereal, almost magical thing that is mysterious and wonderful and is something that we are either born with or without.

Bull poo-poo, we say. "But Monkey + Seal," you might ask, "what about that one gal who did XYZ and she is just so amazingly talented at XYZ and we have very similar backgrounds, and she's just so much better than I am." What you're really trying to ask is "why are they successful and I'm not?"

We try to think of talent as inherent, or something we're born with, because that way it explains the deciding factor, that one single thing that sets the successful apart from us. It is comforting to think of talent this way because if we don't, then suddenly our own flaws are exposed and we are now short of one less excuse of why we aren't where they are.

It is not easy to fess up and take ownership of the fact that there are people who are much more successful (whatever that means to you). But it happens. While admitting that talent is not some inherent ability you have to admit that maybe they worked harder/smarter/longer than you, and that's the painful part. But the great part about that is this: if talent is not some inherent ability that means that YOU are just as talented as they are.

If talent is something else, something not ingrained in us at birth, that means that everyone can get access to that something else and we can all be successful. So what you're probably wondering by now is that if talent is not some inherent trait, then what is it?

Enter Dr. Anders Ericsson. A professor at Florida State University, in the 90's, Dr. Ericsson studies students at the Berlin Academy of Music. He found that all the elite students had practiced, on average, for around 10,000 hours. The good students had practiced for about 8,000 hours, and the average students had practices for around 4000 hours. Thus, the 10,000 hour rule was born.

In nearly every discipline, people who are really outstanding have put in that 10,000 hours. So what does that mean for you? For one, if you want to start something, you might as well get cracking now. Secondly, if you're already on your way, all you need to do is keep doing what you want to do. If you want to be an amazing painter, you gotta keep painting. If you want to be a writer, keep on writing.

To make 10,000 hours a bit more tangible, Monkey did the math, and if you devote 40 hours a week to it (all of these assume you're not taking weeks off and are going at it 52 weeks out of the year), it'll take you about 4 years and 10 months. If you spend 30 hours a week, it'll take you 6 years and 5 months. If you spend 20 hours a week, it'll take you a little over 9 years and 7 months. These numbers are all assuming that you're working constant weeks as well, and doesn't really take into account things like school (we probably worked on art around 55 hours a week for three years), but you get the picture.

The fastest way to your goal is practice. Plain and simple. And if you've already hit that 10,000 mark? Keep on going, since there are always others out there with more hours. And if you're at the very top? Keep on going, since there are always people right behind you working their little butts off to get where you are. Besides, if you're doing what you love, you'll be having too much fun to watch the clock. Go get 'em.

Keeping Things Fresh

In-progress painting, ~5 hours

Before we get on with our usual blog fare, we just wanted to remind you about some of the many events coming up in the next week or so.

This Friday, Feb. 11th, both Monkey + Seal will be in Wonderland SF's group show "Just Because.." along with 16 other talented artists. The opening night reception is from 6-10pm at Wonderland SF in the Mission, 2929 24th Street to be exact.

This weekend at Big Umbrella Studios, we'll be having a super duper trunk show! There will be vegan fare and baked goods, along with other awesome vendors on Sunday, from 12-5pm at 906.5 Divisadero St (x McAllister). You should also stop on by on Saturday to see an entirely different slate of vendors and show your support. Same time, same place, different food options.

Monkey here.

I recently started taking classes at City College of San Francisco (CCSF, for those in the know). As you probably know, I already have a (expensive) degree from Academy of Art University. Why would I go back to school?

Three reasons. The first, which is NOT what this post is about, is so that my student loans might be deferred just a little bit longer.

The second, more interesting reason (but still not what this post is about) is that I wanted to get back into printmaking (other than silkscreen), and by taking printmaking classes I'd have access to some presses.

The third, most important reason is that I wanted to keep things fresh. While at the Academy, because I was pressured to paint in the style of classical realism (ie realistic paintings, rendering form, strong light sources, etc.), I ended up feeling confined and frustrated and that's how I ended up going into my current style of looser, outlined, messy-background paintings that I do now, even going so far as to sometimes including text.

However, after painting in this loose manner for the past year, I started to get a bit bored with my current style. Fortunately I had been changing up subject matter over the past year or so, but I still saw things getting a bit stale. Because I had been fortunate to have a fairly filled schedule of shows, most paintings were paintings done under a deadline, and I didn't have a lot of time to experiment.

By taking painting classes at CCSF, I've given myself the permission (and time) to paint in other styles. Instead of drawing sketches on canvas with pencil (or completely making something out of random brush strokes) like I usually do for my current body of work, I've gone back to my Academy training of painting from reference, doing quick underpaintings with paint, and (albeit stylistically) rending form instead of using line to create the image.

Painting in this way helps me to keep my speed up and is just a great way of practicing my skill set. Regardless of the finished product, I'm practicing more, which is one of the keys to success. After all, practice makes perfect with art, and it's really all about mileage. While it might not be obvious how painting in different styles helps, there are a lot of things that I can practice regardless of the style. How to get my paint to the consistency I want. Brush control. Color mixing. No matter the task, creating with paint on a daily basis is super helpful if you want to improve your craft.

All in all, I think that it is really important to keep things fresh here and there, in order to make sure that you're not getting tired of the same thing. Experimentation and trying new (or older) styles or themes can be really helpful as even if you don't learn something new that directly applies to your current style, you'll be rehearsing the basics, which will just make you stronger.

Whether taking classes at a community college or going to art school (if you haven't yet), by changing stuff up and making time for a change of pace, you'll be able to keep things fresh and, most importantly, keep art fun. After all, when art stops being fun, then it's just a job.

Sharpening the Saw - Mileage

We're not quite certain where the phrase "sharpening the saw" came from, but it is a concept we learned about in an old X-men comic that definitely applies to art. Monkey + Seal finished with our classes at the end of 2009, so for January through March, we weren't doing nearly as much painting/drawing/making art as we were previously. However, with Seal's recent freelance project and Monkey working on his "art every day" over at his blog, we've found that we've gotten quite a bit rusty after so much time organizing and less time painting.

However, now that we're in the swing of things, we find it way easier to create. But just like exercise or any other activity, you have to keep practicing constantly to ever be great. Monkey completed the above digital painting in about ~2 hours, which would have taken him easily 6-10 hours about a year ago. How did he speed up and improve? With increased knowledge (and new tools, ie. brushes) and lots and lots of practice.

Our instructors in our Foundation courses at Academy always told us "You know what the difference between you and me is? Twenty years." Our teachers create art for our demos, then go home and create more art for their professional practice - and they've been doing it for twenty years.

When Monkey first started at the Academy, he hadn't seriously tried to draw anything in about 8 years. He had never used charcoal, and so obviously he was not going to be able to render things photo-realistically - he could barely keep things in perspective! However, three years of four studio classes per semester, look how far he's come!

It's not about inherent skill, or natural-born artistic talent. It's about drive, determination, and practice. And don't think that you have to create a masterpiece every time. As long as you are learning something, and refining a skill, whether that just be a refreshment on anatomy, your line work, or just learning more about what colors work well together and what don't, it's all good.

Draw every day if you want to be a visual artist. If you're a musician, you should rehearse every day. No matter what you're doing, make sure that you're practicing and you'll find yourself steadily improving. Just keep pushing, keep working, and keep on keeping on. It's how we do it here at the Monkey + Seal studio.