1. Draftsmanship.  This category can be named a number of things. Proportions, construction, and drawing, but the idea is the same.  The accuracy of the painting is the goal here and all great painters are very good draftsmen. No need to expand upon this, we all know what accurate proportions look like. A way you can be a good draftsman and still have your own look is in the design of your shapes. For Instance, look at the design in JC Leyendecker's shapes vs William Bouguereau. Leyendecker makes it fairly clear where one shape ends and begins and Bouguereau is soft almost everywhere.  You can control shape design with value and edgework. 

2. Values. Values are simple in theory they are the lights and darks of the painting. Some artists will "push" the values in a direction that caters to their style. Zhaoming Wu is a great example of this. He makes a lot of the shadows in his drawings nearly as black as his charcoal will go. We know he is doing this intentionally and not for exact accuracy because he shares images of the model next to the drawing in his book.  John Singer Sagent does values masterfully in his painting in the same way. His background, hair, and dark clothing are certainly exaggerated.  One of the most common mistakes I see in student's work is that they won't go dark enough where it needs to be dark. This is not a style choice on their part, this is an inaccurate value.  

3. Edges. In short, an edge is a border between two values or colors. A good way to see edges is to look for both extremes. A hard edge is crystal clear to see where the values end and begin. You'll see this a lot in cast shadows and overlap. An extreme soft edge is when two or more values but against each other and you can not see where the border between the two ends and begins, but you know there's a subtle difference. Then you have a lost edge this is the point where you literally can not see where two objects meet, the value is the exact same.  Looks at some of the examples of edges in the artists below. Fechin's "broken" edges give the effect of texture or even a softness sometimes and he will soften a focal point or flesh. 

4. Color.  As long as you have proper control of your proportions, shapes, value, and edges, you can do almost anything in color. A common misconception is that most styles are due to color but that's not true at all... At least with the good painters, snicker snicker. 

What's your style?

Do you pick your art style, or does it pick you? Think of it like how you choose your clothes or the music you listen to. At some point, an influence is involved. No one randomly picks a genre of music; they’re introduced to it by family, friends, the radio, or a movie, and somehow, a song resonates with them. If you play an instrument, your style likely mirrors the music you enjoy, or in the beginning, the works of a famous composer. Your style isn’t just random banging on a piano or drums; that’s nonsense. The same applies to creating a great painting.

So where do our influences come from? For me, it was art school. My teachers had a significant impact on my style, mainly because I mimicked their techniques and the classic painters they introduced me to. If you look at my work, you’ll notice it resembles the style of American illustrators from the early to mid-1900s. Let your style develop slowly and organically; don’t “search” for it at the expense of quality

A perfect example of inheriting a style is to look at student work from an art school. Watts Atelier and Grand Central Atelier are both great schools that produce great work. You will notice a distinct style from each school. When I studied at Watts I was told several times that my drawings looked like I studied at Watts. It was meant as a compliment but that made me use other sources of education as well so I had my own look in a way. 

There was one moment in my painting career that stood out as a decision on what style I would paint. I was at an Oil Painters of America show when I noticed a trend of broken edges in paintings. A deliberate brushstroke going through a form at a 90-degree angle. This was so common I told myself I would do the exact opposite. The next five paintings I entered into the shows had outlines around every figure.  

My wife was able to take a portrait drawing class with me and I truly believe it opened her eyes in terms of style. She is a great drawer but she wasn't happy with a particular drawing. I'm a stinker so I asked "If it's just drawn in her style". Lucky for me she knows that I adore her and the comment came from the heart. 

Of course, you may paint any way you wish if it makes you happy. But if you try to tell me an inaccurate painting is your style, just know, we both know what that means. 

Look at the artist below and keep in mind the four categories we just went over. 

To be continued...