Finding Your Artistic Voice

Jade Downing

Something that makes art so valuable is the uniqueness of it. Many artists strive to find their own voice or style when creating. A personal creative voice is what makes your work distinct. It is the personal perspective of the artist, their emotions and experiences that craft a style. Art is about expressing one’s self and speaking through the work that one creates. 

Here’s some advice for finding your own artistic voice. 

What Are Your Influences?

The world is full of inspiration. Whether it’s from other artistic creations, cultures, nature or personal experiences, everything has the capability of bringing forth inspiration. It is good to spend time reflecting on what inspires you the most. Sit in the feelings, understand them, and let them aid you in creating. Inspiration is important to creation, but it is about using these influences to transform your work. You’re supposed to use your inspirations to create something that is uniquely yours, not just become your inspiration.

You can help find inspiration by looking online and discovering artists who you admire. As you create, you can implement some ideas from the inspiration you gathered and make something original. 

Experiment

To discover your own artistic voice and what you like, it is important to try a little bit of everything. Experimenting with different mediums can equip you with different techniques and styles that you can add to your work. You can fall even more in love with creating by trying out different things, such as watercolor, markers or even digital drawing. Give yourself permission to explore, fail and succeed. You never know what you would love unless you try it. 

Dedicate a few hours a week to researching and trying a new art form.

Jade Downing

Make it Personal

Every voice is unique, because of differences in the shape and size of someone’s vocal cords, throat, mouth and nasal cavity. Everyone’s voice is like a fingerprint, unique to them. This is the same for art. Your artist's voice or style is like your own vocals or fingerprint. 

You make your art personal by adding pieces of you to it. The work you create is shaped by your story, experiences, memories or emotions. What is distinctly you? What can you add to your art that has meaning to you? How can you stamp your figurative fingerprint all over your work? Use art to explore yourself and uncover emotions that are hard to articulate. There is beauty and vulnerability in the personal, which makes it so relatable and connective.

“Create your own visual style…let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.”

-Orson Welles

Finding your voice as an artist isn’t about hopping on the latest trends or creating the most realistic and conformist art. It is about creating art that is uniquely yours. Embracing the imperfections, trusting the process and celebrating the wins will all lead you down the path of finding yourself through artistic expression. Experiment with different mediums, pour parts of yourself into your work. Do not be afraid to be vulnerable in your work.