slanted edges

Anonymous asked: How did you choose to draw in the style that you do?

Oh dear.  Okay.  Um.  I’m not entirely sure (it’s my brain, after all, which is a very illogical thing), but the way things happened: I was really unhappy and kind of depressed earlier this year and whenever I get in that kind of funk, my art is always the first thing compromised.  I didn’t really know what I was doing with my life or what my goals were anymore, and whenever I drew something it felt like I was just going through the motions; I hadn’t purposefully worked on developing my own style in what felt like years.

But in the Fall I went along with going back to school and one of my classes was(/is) Modern Art History.  Eventually we passed into Art Nouveau, touching briefly on Aubrey Beardsley — and it was like something clicked.  (Which is a bit odd because I’ve been looking at Beardsley’s stuff for years.)  I immediately went online and found an anthology of his works and when it came in the mail I began lifting some of his techniques or using them as inspiration, feeling them out to see what I felt comfortable with.

And that’s how I got here now.  I found someone who gave me hope and inspiration again and ruthlessly ransacked his style to find my own.  And the fact that he died young, at age 25, but still produced so much was a great motivator to get my ass in gear and stop wasting my life away doing nothing.