How to find your art style: 7 simple steps to discover your artistic voice

Looking at art that interests you can help point in a direction that becomes a personal style

Have you ever looked at another artist’s work and thought, “Wow, they have such a unique style — I wish I had that”?

It’s an oddly persistent question. And if you’ve created art for any length of time whether as an amateur or professional, it’s one that hums along in the background while you’re drawing, painting, scrolling, comparing.

Everyone else seems to have a style that you can instantly recognise — which only serves to leave you thinking, "When will mine turn up?"

The truth is, it’s already there. Style isn’t something you invent; it’s something you notice. It takes time, work, and a bit of distance. Here’s how to draw it out.

1. Start by looking

Gather a handful of artworks that genuinely move you. Don’t worry about categories or credentials; choose pieces that make you stop.

Ask yourself what it is that gets under your skin. Is it the looseness of the brushwork? The colours? The quiet, the chaos?

Create a folder or a board, and over time you’ll begin to see patterns — hints of your own taste reflected back. This isn’t copying. It’s tuning your eye to what matters to you.

2. Change your tools, change your mind

The materials you use can pull different parts of you to the surface.

If you’ve only ever worked digitally, try ink. If you’re devoted to oils, have a go with charcoal.

Each medium demands a different pace and temperament; that shift in rhythm often reveals something you didn’t know you were capable of.

And if it goes wrong — good. That’s usually where the most useful discoveries lie.

3. Notice what you keep coming back to

Artists have habits. You may not realise them until you step back and look.

What do you draw when no one’s watching? Faces, rooftops, hands, fragments of landscape? What do you return to again and again, even when you mean to do something else?

Your preferences are clues, not limits. They mark the territory where your style is already taking shape.

4. Simplify what you say and how you say it

Style often appears when you stop trying to show everything you can do.

Think of it as editing: what can you leave out and still feel honest? Perhaps you keep the line but lose the shading, or focus on colour and let form fall away.

The more you pare back, the more your natural rhythm shows through.

Keep a small notebook or a folder of “yes, this feels right” moments. They all add up.

5. Make a small, consistent series

One piece never tells the full story. Ten might.

Set yourself a challenge — a short series, built around a theme, a palette, or a feeling. Working within boundaries will show you what you instinctively repeat: the way you balance space, the marks you favour, the mood that lingers.

Those repetitions aren’t lack of invention; they’re the beginnings of identity.

6. Ask for feedback, then filter it

Show your work to people you trust — not for praise, but for perspective.

Ask what feels most you about it. Listen, but don’t rush to change anything.

If the comment resonates, great. If it doesn’t, leave it. Style isn’t a democracy; it’s a conversation between you and the work itself.

7. Let it change

Your art will evolve. It should.

Look at older work without judgment. Notice what you’d do differently now — not to disown it, but to see how far you’ve come. The artists we admire most never stayed still; they kept their curiosity alive.

You’re allowed to shift direction. That’s not inconsistency — it’s growth.

To sum up

Finding your style isn’t a race or a revelation — it’s a slow alignment between what you love, what you notice, and what your hand naturally does.

Keep making. Keep looking. Let the work demonstrate to you who you are.

One day, without meaning to, you’ll see a piece and think — that looks like mine.

And you’ll be right.