Changing Your Drawing Style: The Pros & Cons

hey there everybody it's Mark krly I'm back with another video today we're going to be talking about a topic that is very near and dear to my heart and that is the pros and cons of changing your style people who have followed my career you've seen that I am constantly changing my style perhaps most shockingly in my latest book The Mighty onion uh in which you know the front cover looks much more sort of child oriented than what I've done in the past but the real sharoo is when you get inside and you see this uh style of art that I devised for the main character Elliot Quigley uh who is supposed to be a kid who's not very good at drawing um to uh deploy throughout the book and now no one's ever seen me do drawings quite like this before they are you know you barely recognize them as uh drawings by Mark krly this one maybe a little more has a touch uh of that krly style but the truth is I'm constantly changing Styles even within this one book you know when you when I crumple up a piece of paper it suddenly becomes photo realism there's this character named uh Durk Zan Haagen who comes in late in the book and uh his style is radically different yet again from all the styles that we have seen thus far in uh the book so that that's the topic today the pros and cons of changing your style as an artist I'm going to actually start with the cons maybe I should have said it's the cons and Pros but uh con number one there is some truth to the idea that a jack of all trades is a master of none uh so I thought I'd go ahead and start with that it's a cliche but there uh it's famous for a reason because it is you know reflective of reality if you uh spend your entire life working at one uh trade or one skill you will get better and uh hopefully you will become a master of that one skill if you keep changing again and again you sort of deprive yourself of the opportunity to achieve Mastery um and so yeah there's I don't know how much more I need to say about that I think that's one of the reasons that became a famous saying is maybe to sound a cautionary note to people who try to take on too many different things um that uh that you know be aware of that you are missing out on the opportunity to become genuinely great at any one of them um so let's go ahead and move on to number two in the list of K's uh advice against changing your style every time you change style you become a novice all over again and are likely to make rookie mistakes such as putting two A's at the beginning of the word again sorry about that folks I need a proof reader clearly uh but yeah that's an extension of the first uh piece of advice but I wanted to sort of focus on this idea of uh becoming a rookie uh over and over again that is part and parcel of changing your style and you run the risk of uh sometimes um you know embarking on a style that you are not all that good at and never will be so you're making loads of mistakes uh over the course of the project so that is you know that is definitely a drawback of taking on new Styles and I would say if you do take on a radically new style you better give yourself the time that it takes to become at least um you know moderately proficient in it don't take on a whole new style and then just leap right into final art uh because um unless you're a prodigy genius uh chances are um you're your eyes are not trained enough to see the mistakes uh in that early phase I should say that this drawing that I'm working on is actually um based on an illustration that I did for my book manga art uh years ago and I'm adding color to it so as to uh upload it to my uh Etsy and that should be available for sale maybe even later today after I make this video who knows many thanks to those of you who have supported me by going to my Etsy and getting stuff um it has been uh quite a good success I got to say since I launched back in November I'll put a link uh in the description as always for those of you who want to check out what I have uh for sale over there let's keep going though with the next one of these uh cons against uh changing your style most

world famous artists do work that is instantly recognizable without a single signature style you don't have a brand and you can't stand out in the marketplace I think that actually may be the number one reason that a lot of people artists choose to have just one style uh you know in addition to it maybe coming naturally to them uh is a strategy there of like how else am I going to um become known as an artist unless I have this signature style that people look at and say oh yeah that's that you know Thing by krly or whatever because I don't really have a signature style I don't think because I keep changing it I certainly am not one of these artists um you know like I always use as an example Matt graining uh from The Simpsons that is absolutely instantly recognizable you know a Simpsons drawing the second you see it and you know Matt grining has done other comic scripts over the years but you can still you can recognize that Matt graining look um and it certainly helps I think for uh succeeding as an illustrator to have that brand you know so yeah not much more to say about that let's move on to the cons number four every time you change style you risk alienating the audience who fell in love with the style you've abandoned okay now this one cuts a little close to the Bone for me I suppose because I'm kind of aware of uh a lot of my YouTube audience really enjoyed Brody's ghost uh for example and they loved that style that I did on Brody's Ghost and the truth is I've never done anything that looks quite like it since then I wouldn't be surprised if some of those people were just like KY dude what happened why don't you ever do the Bro ghost Style again that was the one style of yours that I really liked um and so there is that risk of alienating people losing an audience um and uh that's certainly something to be considered I'm going to talk a lot more about my reasons for changing Styles uh in the sort of second part when we get to the pro uh side of things um but yeah for now we'll just sort of leave it at that what artist wants to uh alienate their supporters you would have to be a little crazy to do that and so maybe I am a little bit crazy as I have surely from the beginning of my career you know I started with Akiko and I left that style behind I did Miki Falls I'm sure I have alienated a fair number of um fans over the years by way of my strength style changing uh behavior um anyway let's move on to the final of the cons number five people who keep changing their style may be seen as nothing more than talented mimics or opportunists who are fickle and don't really stand for anything pretty harsh words hard to believe that I wrote that cuz I it sounds like I'm attacking myself but I think it is true that um that especially that thing that idea of The Talented mimic someone who keeps changing your style or changing their style it sort of makes them come across as someone who doesn't really stand for anything and they just um are putting on a new um style of clothes which they will toss off uh next week and then they'll become somebody else you know and there I think there is that sort of feeling of who are you do you even know you keep changing from one thing to another uh whereas the person who has that one style that they do over and over again there's something authentic about that right it's sort of like this guy uh or gal they know who they are they know what they stand for um and they kind of almost couldn't abandon that style because they are so ruggedly authentic uh to what it is that they believe in so yeah I put that one last because in a way that is maybe the harshest reality of I'm not saying it's true uh but it is a perception for sure uh that people have of these artists who keep uh changing their Styles now before I move on to the next bit which is uh going to be the pros uh and spoil alert I actually came up with one more Pro

so it's not completely fair this sort of Point Counterpoint that I've created against myself here but uh you're going to see um six different uh Pro uh you know factoids or whatever relating to that part of it but before I do that I want to um go into time lapse kick it into time lapse bring back old man time lapse oh it's been too long thanks KY and he's going to help me um add uh more detail to this illustration I thought I might add a little blue uh to the sky in the background and then once I'm done with that I will come back to get into the pros the reasons why you might want to change your stuff all right well we got enough done there it is time to move on to the pros the reasons you might want to change your style number one I put this up top CU I think it's the primary thing for me different projects very often demand different styles applying one style to everything inevitably leads to mismatches between the two that is to say a style that doesn't fit the project that you're doing so this kind of relates to me and the fact that I'm taking on different uh types of projects and style for me is something that is adjusted so as to do justice to that project to that idea uh Brody's ghost was a kind of a dark story it involved a serial killer it involved um a uh you know a lot of sort of Vengeance type uh themes and um certainly I had never done such a serious um story in terms of the plot up until that point and so I created a um sort of a serious looking uh style that would fit that now when it came time to do the drawing lesson uh that was um more sort of Youth oriented there was a lot of humor in it almost like uh comedy uh in certain parts and so yeah I used a more cartoony style for that one and that certainly holds true for um in a pretty extreme way uh the mighty onion where part of the story required me to create a very messy um uh looking drawing style that looked nothing like what I normally uh would do but it's all in service of the story that's just my Approach and that's why I put that right up top let's get to the pros number two trying different styles allows you to figure out which of them works best for you so this kind of combines the two in a way if you try a bunch of different styles one after another that will or could allow you to discover the one style that comes most naturally to you um it can be part of the process of arriving at uh the one style so um that there's certainly an educational aspect for anyone who keeps changing Styles each time you change you're learning new techniques you're learning new tricks of the trade and it could be in service so you know you don't have to pick between these two change Styles until you find the one you love and then that becomes your signature uh brand you know uh in that way so um this is maybe the compromise U position there but certainly a big part of the reason that I like changing Styles is I like constantly learning uh new things and that uh doesn't happen if you keep just hammering away at this one style that involves one medium generally speaking uh and you know if your style is um uses colored pencils you become a master of colored pencils but not of anything else because you've never had the chance to even try uh these other techniques that kind of gets to the heart of it doesn't it let's go to number three here changing Styles can reinvigorate you and help you get out of an artistic rut for sure this is another thing another reason why I keep changing Style not so much that I feel I'm in a rut but I don't ever want to be in danger of slipping into a rut you know my first comic book of the uh Akiko series or Akiko as I like to pronounce it um that went on for like 53 issues all together um and if you compare all those issues you can see me constantly changing Styles uh within even the same uh comic book series because I didn't

want to start to get bored of my own work you know and it did involve these same characters again and so uh to me it became very important with each new story that I embarked on that used these same characters to slightly tweak the style and take on new challenges to keep myself excited um you know there's this famous David Bowie quote about you know going out into the unfamiliar deep end of the pool and getting to that point where your feet just can't quite touch the bottom of the pool anymore that's where you want to be that's what Bowie said that you know and he's famously you know referred to as a chameleon and thought of as a person who um changes Styles at the drop of a hat um rest in peace I should say uh for David Bowie um but I think he's maybe the best case scenario of someone who was uh beloved and not regarded as a kind of um souless opportunist who just kept jumping on one style uh after another so let's move on now to number four changing Styles allows you to reach new audiences possibly a much larger audience than you've ever reached before again this should be then not then oh get me a copy editor for these videos my apologies uh anyway that is a big part of why I keep changing Styles I must admit I haven't had a huge hit with any of these various projects and part of me thinks well if I you know do this again in the same style it doesn't seem very promising that I'm going to have a big hit because I've already tried it and it wasn't a big hit uh not that I'm obsessed with having a big hit but you know just I owe it to my family to try uh to have big success and so I uh I keep changing Styles thinking maybe this will be the one style that really connects this will be the project that really takes off and sells you know and uh that you know I have to admit that's it's a big part of the dream for a freelancer is achieving that big win you know that sort of grand slam project uh and that indeed uh is always in the cards for me hoping praying for what of these things to really uh be a huge success and for me that involves not repeating myself always trying something new here we go we're down to the last two of the pros number five being capable of working in lots of styles means you are more employable you can take on a wider variety of projects now this is where we almost become a little contradictory because I was saying that the world famous artists have this signature Style uh but it has to be said if you're capable uh of doing lots of styles that means you can say yes to lots of different projects uh people who only work in one style inevitably are going to have to say I'm sorry I just I don't do that style um and then they shut themselves out of that category of work so I think as you go down the ladder in a way of um artists and creative people you may find you know people like me who say I can't afford to only work in one style I need to work in as many styles as I can so as to take on as many jobs as I can uh and so that becomes a sort of a you know just a reality of the marketplace almost right I've done illustrations or drawings that are portraits of somebody's children right highly realistic um in which the goal is to produce a likeness of that child and it has nothing to do with cartoony uh or you know um some might stay almost draining myself of style so as to deliver this likeness uh that someone would look at and say oh that looks just like my son or daughter or whatever anyway that I would have had to say no to that job if um if I were not capable of doing that type of a style and now we come to the last one which I hope uh will send this video off in kind uh fashion and that is the pros number six if working in just one style doesn't come naturally to you forcing yourself to do so will make your work repetitive and unfulfilling um I think that's the key thing uh for all of this is you got to do what comes naturally to you if you're the kind of artist who you know it's

natural for you to work in one style your whole life and perfect that and become the master of that one style then that's where you should be that's what you should be doing if I forced myself to work in one style even if it brought me great success I would be miserable because it's that doesn't come naturally to me I want to keep learning new things trying new things going out on that tight rope and that's comes naturally to me that's the kind of artist I am and I said suppose that's the sort of compromise at the end of all of this is for me to say do what comes naturally to you how else are you going to be happy as an artist uh if you're focusing on like strategy and working in a you know in a way day after day that doesn't keep you happy as an artist uh even if it brings you some measure of uh success you're not going to be happy because you forced yourself to work against your own instincts and that my friends brings us to the end of the video bear with me I'm just going to grab my copy of the mighty onion to say thank you to anyone who has supported me in my latest stylistic uh change here uh by getting this book I've put a link in the description uh many thanks to those of you who support me by ordering that book or indeed any of my other books but I do think it is time for me to lay down this pencil whoa It's escaping I'll just leave it there I want to thank you all for watching this video I really hope you enjoyed it and I'll be back with another one real soon