Many students have experienced similar problems of "design style of works collection" when creating works collection. On the one hand, they are worried that their style is too detached and does not conform to the aesthetic habits of colleges or admissions officers; But on the other hand, they are worried that the works lack personal recognition and cannot attract the attention of the admissions officer. So today we will take the # Sailor Month Redrawing Challenge # as an example, jump out of the animation circle, and analyze to students how to reflect their personal style in the creation of works collection, and how to find a balance between the works with personal recognition and being loved by the admissions officer.

How does the design style of the collection reflect?

How to form a collection of personal style works?

Seeing this title, there must be a student who wants to hum in his heart, "Are we kindergarten children in natural light? I don't even know how to form a personal style!". But to be honest, the personal style, the grinding goblin, may be much more complicated than you think.

We all know that the definition of personal style is generally different in different fields, but for art students, it often refers to the visual aesthetic characteristics formed by personal works. For example, a specific line processing method, a specific color scheme, or a specific composition.

Collected works of natural light student Liao

But if you look at interviews with mature artists and designers, nine out of ten explanations of personal style are wayward answers like "I like it" and "just met". Not only is it meaningless for students who are still studying, but sometimes they may even mislead everyone to create works and projects, thinking that casual and unconstrained is the "artist's nature".

Source: Screenshot of Twitter homepage

Wake up! Is it true that someone will set Wang Jianlin's speech of "earning him a hundred million yuan first" as a small goal in the starting stage of life? Artists say "I like" only for high-level players, who can say "I like" at will only after they have experienced various styles of continuous exploration, trial and test in the early stage.

For those students who are still studying, if they want to develop their personal style, the first thing they must not skip is to see more and try more. Seeing more means seeing more the works of other peers in your professional field. Trying more means following the rigid requirements of teachers and trying different creative themes in the learning stage.

Here, different creative themes and the cultivation of a unified personal style are not in conflict. Just like the painting of Sailor Month, mature animation artists can still make people see the painting of Sailor Month as their own work at a glance when clothing, perspective, composition and color matching are all restricted and unified.

How to have personal style recognition?

In fact, at this stage, most of the students should have a preliminary understanding of their chosen art field, and even have begun to take the shape of their own style. However, there is still a considerable distance between "it can be seen that it was painted by one person" and "it can be seen that it was painted by TA". The personal style that can be remembered and impressed involves the advanced topic of style recognition.

Natural light student Ziyi's work collection

Let's first analyze why we can see at a glance which style of the painting that the painter redraws the Moon Hare wants to salute? The answer is recognition. Because the repainted painters have grasped the most recognizable point of their own works or works they want to pay tribute to, and skillfully combined it with the characteristics of the Moon Hare.

Source: Screenshot of Twitter homepage

This may be a bit abstract, but it is like saying that "Beautiful Girl Warrior" is associated with sweet girl comic style, "Crayon Shin chan" is associated with parallelogram "pig waist face", "Popeye" is associated with bulging cheeks, and "One Punch Superman" is associated with braised eggs. The reason why these cartoons are successful is that, The reason why many people who have not seen the original animation can clearly remember and distinguish the characters in it is the recognition.

Returning to the creation of students' works, many times Study abroad for art majors The control of personal style may not be as concrete as the role creation of film and television characters. For example, for the majors of visual design department and architectural space department, the definition of visual style may not be limited to painting style.

So to broaden the concept, the ultimate view of painting style is the designer's ability to understand and express things, while the personal style with identification will eventually return to the unique perspective and presentation of the creator.

If students want to make their works have personal recognition, the first thing they need is to cultivate a unique perspective that can jump out of inertial thinking and look at and think about things.

Personal style and portfolio requirements

In fact, # Marine Month Redrawing Challenge # can be said to be a textbook level example of how to skillfully integrate personal style and rigid requirements.

In this challenge of redrawing the Sailor Month, the best or most impressive work must be the "hard core version of the moon hare" painted by Lu Gu Gengping, the painting supervisor of the animation JOJO's Wonderful Adventures.

Source: The Wonderful Adventures of JOJO Animation Painting Supervisor Lugu Gengping Twitter asikoh009

Clearly, no matter the color matching, the character setting or the posture are all the same, but the Moon Hare of JOJO version really looks very... JOJO。 There was an "old lady is not easy to offend" between the eyebrows. And "It looks like JOJO" is exactly the success of JOJO's Wonderful Adventures.

Not only has it created a non-traditional Japanese cartoon style with rough lines and brutal color matching, but even the way to deal with shadows and highlights is very "unconventional". However, this painting style is very suitable for such a hot blooded youth romance as JOJO, and it is deeply popular.

Take a closer look at the "JOJO version of the Moon Hare". Although the basic character settings of the original painting of the beautiful girl warrior have been retained, the expression of the Moon Hare has been greatly changed, and the style of the eyes has also changed from the original girl cartoon star eyes to a more realistic painting.

Another big facial change is JOJO's signature "toxic" thick lips. Combined with JOJO's hard core shadow processing method, it is not surprising that the Moon Hare suddenly turns from a sweet girl to a hot blooded teenager.

Although we have analyzed so many JOJO versions of Moon Hare, we believe that smart students should have thought about and inspired the commonness and individuality of the collection when they saw it here. The so-called professional hard conditions, college proposition requirements, and admissions officer's aesthetic preferences are just like the recognition of the moon hare that must be retained in redrawing the moon hare, as well as the composition and color matching of the original painting.

Source: Chinese Animation Director Du Pengpeng Dupp_Esq

But the real personal style Collection creation They will not be imprisoned by these shackles. Even under the collision between the rigid requirements and the personal style of the creator, there will be a lot of unexpected surprise effects. Maybe we will find many fields that we have not touched before, or that we don't like, may not be as bad as it seems.

In fact, for students who want to go on the road of art study abroad, the definition of personal style is more like the icing on the cake in the creation of works. It is of course the best to be able to have and do a good job, not only to attract the attention of the admissions officer, but also to show their own characteristics. But if there is no clear personal style orientation for a while, in fact, there is no need to be too upset and tangled.

Because mature personal style is often proportional to a large number of creative experience. As we mentioned earlier, the personal style of master artists and designers is also found in a certain number of explorations and attempts. For students who are still students, if they have a "certain" personal style too early, it may actually be a constraint on the future development direction.

In short, style must exist, and recognition is also indispensable, but they should not be formal formulas or stay in a single direction or several directions. Even the cartoon artists in the activity of redrawing Sailor Month are surprised by "what you paint looks like", rather than "everything you paint is the same".

More articles about the design style of related works are recommended:

The style orientation of art works collection, Chinese style vs. international style, which is more popular?

This article belongs to the original article of Natural Light International Art Education Team. Without permission, it cannot be reproduced commercially in any form. If it is found, it must be investigated for legal responsibility.