Okay so this going to be a text tutorial but since I can't have a large preview, this tutorial will be in the description of this piece. I hope that's okay with you guys .

At first I was going to submit this for shits and giggles. I wanted to post a picture of the progress of Doodle and how much the eye style changed over a period of time. Than I began thinking, and decided to share an idea that I gave Michelle in order to help people with their independent art styles.

This Tutorial is for three types of people: people who have no idea how to start a new style, people who find something wrong with their original style, or people who want to improve quickly. I use this technique during break periods and it helps me improve quiet a bit.

I guess first I'd like to briefly talk about my style along with what I have submitted as a preview. I'm not going to lie to you guys; making your own style extremely hard. It took me a year to get to where I am, and that's apparently not that long. Which means, if you want to start changing styles then it may take longer. It is worth it though, trust me. If you want to draw a comic book or just want to kind of stick out of the crowd, then having your own style is great. Plus you don't feel like you are in a category. The hardest part for me and my style was the eyes. I drew anime for a long time before I drew the style I have now. Anime's eyes aren't very hard to draw. They're pupils are always in one place and eyebrows aren't very important. This is not the case for my style. Emotion was one of my weaknesses when starting off. Whenever someone tells me that I draw emotions well in the newest version of BIS, I am extremely thankful. Even now I have problems with it, but it's not as obvious. You can see the emotion change in the picture I submitted.

Now how to start your style...

First you have to have an idea of what you want to draw. Now, when I say this I don't mean you sit there in your room and think of a style on the spot. Most people can't do that. Instead picture a style you like a lot. Let's say you look at 's stuff and you love it. You like the very cartoonish feel of her work, and would like your characters to look like that. Now I don't mean copy. This idea of yours is just a base for your style. Why? Because it's often very hard for people to see the style the want. They only have a vague idea, so looking at another style helps the mind create a cut out. It's kind of like if I set you in a room and told you to make a original cake with absolutely no recipes or help. You'd be confused, yes? However, if you used a recipe that wasn't yours first, you may be able to make your very own awesome super chocolate cake.

If your still confused, I used Jhonen Vasquez's style as a base when I did Doodle Comix. DC was supposed to be a mini comic for just me and my friends, so I didn't care if it looked like JCV's style or not. It wasn't until I got attached to Doodle that I thought I should change the style. That's when the adventure started.
(Warning: If you use JCV's style as a base you may have problems. People totally love JCV, so once you draw his style a thousand fans will follow you. Now this isn't bad, but it may effect you, and your style. Be careful.)

Alright, so once you have a vague idea of what you want, pick one of your characters. When you do, draw that character. This character, when you first draw it, will look nothing like how you want it to, hopefully. I say hopefully because if it does look like the character that might mean you are too close to your base style. Keep drawing your character until you're used to it. Practice makes perfect.

KEY INGREDIENT:

Everyone has their own style. Their style is not anime, it is not Disney, it is not Tim Burton, or anything else. Your style is yours. It is your personality and what you have drawn in ever since you were a little person. However, 90% of people don't know what their style is. I am going to give you an idea that I told my sister in order to figure it out. This idea helps out people with any sort of problem, but mainly for people who are trying to get used to their style.

In order to see your own style you have to stretch it. Stretching it will be able to make it more obvious of what features your style has. For example my characters have large hands, wide chests and thin arms.

How to stretch your style:

Alright so you have been drawing your character and he is starting to look real nice. However he just isn't right. He kind of looks like wonky Doodle during 2007. So, this is what you do in order to help yourself understand your style.

The idea came forth in my mind when Michelle was complaining about her style a few months ago. She expressed that she couldn't draw her characters right, and if she did ,they didn't express the emotion she wanted. The problem with her was that she was not drawing the character enough. When you don't draw your character enough then your mind won't memorize how to draw him/her. Drawing your character ,no matter how ugly, helps the mind improve. However, Michelle was getting no where. She was drawing him in the style, but he always looked worse which frustrated her.

So this is what I did. I told her to make mini comics of her characters. They were just small one page comic book strips so that she could see the character move about. Here's the catch though, each page had to be a different style. First she would have to start with the style she felt most comfortable with, and then as pages went on the more extreme the styles got. Each style would have to start looking completely different from one another. If you do this idea you can pick what ever want, but it has to be in different genres. If you do anise you can't pick different anime styles. It just doesn't work.

The styles I gave her:

Chibi
Invader Zim
JTHM
My style
Disney
Anime
Western Comics
Her style


When you draw a style for the pages, it has to look exactly like the style. This does a lot for the brain. It forces it to get out of it's comfort zone and draw something it's not used to. For instance if I drew Doodle as a Disney character, I would have to force my mind to come up with an eye style that fits. Then I would have to get the emotion right. With the brain feeling uncomfortable, you are allowing it to improve, and not be on a constant motion. When the mind is in a constant motion, it starts to get too comfortable, and will start to restrict the character.

You guys have seen me doing this but not in comic pages. For instance, I have drawn several fan art such as 's work, 's work, JTHM in a different style, Disney, Anime, etc. I had to stretch my style constantly, but if you do the mini comics, it may shorten the time period that you take drawing.

Like I said practice makes perfect. After a while your mind will automatically start going to your very own style. It just takes a long time to do. If you or any of your friends are having a problem, tell them my idea.

Anyway I hope this helped some people. I know that making my style was frustrating, so I wanted to help other people.

Preview from my comic at

EDIT: OH MY GOD THANKS FOR DD!

EDIT 2: Since a lot of people liked this tutorial and felt that I washelpful, I am considering doing a summer program over the summer. If interested look here: [link]