Should I simply copy popular styles and go with the trends in order to be a success?

Question

I’ve always been considered to be talented by my family and peers but I just don’t understand how to get started as a professional artist. Should I simply copy popular styles and go with the trends in order to be a success?

Answer 1

After spending my entire life studying Fine Arts, Drawing, and Illustration; I have learned a lot about Contemporary Art in relation to style and skill. I wholeheartedly agree that you should take fundamental classical, neoclassical drawing courses to learn how to draw realistically. I believe that learning how to draw, see and create 2D works in realistic ways gives you a solid foundation. Artists who develop 'style' are often creating in response to or rejection of certain traditional classical drawing styles.

In addition to this, a comprehensive study of art history, as well as modern, post-modern, and contemporary Artists, Drawers, Illustrators, Painters, and more is really needed for you to posit yourself and your work in your time and field of art. The more you study in art history and contemporary art, the more you will see what has been created already. Artists study art history not to copy, but to know and figure out what has yet to be accomplished in some unique way.

Success as an artist is seldom equated to just your amount of training, or education though. There are many factors such as how you market and promote your work, or the visual art audiences you promote your work to that affect how your work succeeds or fails.

Copying the styles of others is never an authentic approach to living or being an artist. If you have the passion, interest, heart, and need to be an artist, the monetary success of your work based on trends will NOT be what fuels you. Artists seek to find ways to express something they truly care about and believe in, to communicate ideas, and explore art as a vehicle for purposeful communication. The more you study art of the past and present, the more you will see that each artist is creating with style (form) in relation to the purpose, intent and meaning of the works they make.

Simultaneously, you should think about what art materials, subject matter and processes you find fun, provocative, interesting, curious or that you are willing to do for prolonged amounts of time on your own. You should be able and willing to enjoy the process of creating, and be connected to the styles and subject matter that mean something to you.

Answer 2

There are many talented people both in and out of the professional art space who find that they’re lost because they believe falsely that they cannot find a style of art that they can be successful with. Style, though relevant at any given moment in history, is a misleading factor in the young artist’s life. Many believe that the focus on trendiness and style is the thing that will make you stand out from the crowd. In reality it’s your mastery and understanding of classical drawing principles that will make you stand out. If you are willing to spend the time now to learn, and continue learning classic, structural drawing through your days, your work will shine and you will be sought out.