Chasing a Style and Indroduction

VeronicaMui

Hi everyone! I’ve been listening to the Three Point Perspective Podcast for a few weeks now (obsessed!) and this is my first post on the forum. I don’t know if Introductions are a thing here, but they have been in other forums I’ve taken part in so I thought I’d start off by saying hello.

My name is Veronica Mui, I’m coming from a traditional art background, no college art education though. I got married young and have three kids 10 and under. I ventured into illustration about a year and a half ago and am figuring my way around, working towards a consistent style, building a portfolio, learning about the business and how to create a book. My first love before art as a child was writing, so it’s been wonderful to start writing again and express myself that way, but I still have a lot to learn.

I’m excited to meet new friends here, especially now when restrictions in America are keeping people from gathering like usually (I miss my art people!!)

I’m obsessed with Jessie Wilcox Smith, Alphonse Mucha, Komako Sakai, Taro Gomi, Ludwig Bemelmens to name a few inspirations.

I’ve been an oil painter for years and really hit a rut when I when to my first illustration class and was encouraged to try watercolor...whew, that was a mess I fussed with it for a year before I realized I just didn’t enjoy it. So I chased printmaking and found monoprinting which is just fabulous so I’m exploring and pinning down what exactly it is that I love making - what moods, what poses, what lighting, what colors, et.

I would love to see your work and where your inspirations come from, or if you have images that show how you built your style over time, that’s absolutely fascinating to me. I recently found an incredible illustrator who I really admire and scrolled through his instagram feed (which was LARGE) and it was so interesting to watch his progression over the course of three years - you could basically watch his voice become clearer and clearer and see what he decided to follow and what he chose to drop.

Feel free to share your work here showing the progression of your artistic voice, with or without images of your greatest inspirations!

Here are a few of my recent pieces.

Here are some earlier works

And two of my biggest inspirations, Jessie Wilcox Smith (whoops, it was pointed out to me that this is Elizabeth Shippen Green, not Jessie Wilcox smith , how embarrassing, I should pay more attention... thanks, friend!) and Komako Sakai

Elliot

Welcome! I love the style you're developing already. Your vivid directional strokes are really beautiful and look both intentional and wild at the same time. Really cool!

VeronicaMui

@Elliot thanks! It took failing at what I thought I would be good at (watercolor) to try something I thought I was terrible at but that looked like fun. Now I’m just trying to chase the joy and let my skill catch up in time. Looking forward to seeing what you are working on

Julia

Welcome! I really like how you capture the softness of young children. I'd love to be able to catch it too! I am looking forward to seeing more!

Heather Boyd

@Nek0Nek0 Hi.

Style for me is so ever ongoing and I know that is true of everyone to a degree. Sometimes I get caught up in it that I just can't make anything until it's how I see it in my head. While other times I tell myself just make and tell a story and your style will develop as you go. You can see what I have been aiming for on my website. I like and appreciate so many styles that I have a hard time choosing one and making one my own.

I have done print work in the past from conceptual art school so I appreciate and love your textures. I loved wood and lino cut most.

If your interested I am on instagram -should show up at the bottom of this post along with my website.

And last but not least, I love to write also. I started a blog 6 months back, post every 2 months and love encouraging people on here, started to write posts on my instagram and still mulling around some story ideas in my head.

Now to end, Hi and Welcome.
I think I ought to have started with that. oh bother as Pooh bear would say.

jsnzart

Hello, and welcome. I'm really enjoying looking at your paintings. Very nice.

Artists as parents, our children are our life drawing models. Gotta take lots of photos and videos though, cos they grow up sooo fast.

I've been struggling with style for years. Too many styles that I have emulated, too many styles that I enjoy.
Trying to create a new portfolio, or three.

VeronicaMui

@Heather-Boyd I totally get that... I’ve only recently started heading in this direction because I had so many before that I loved (I still do).. what it ended up coming down to was not so much how it ended up looking, but more about finding one that was fun to actually create, that I could reliably reproduce in a reasonable amount of time, and one that came naturally to me so I didn’t feel like I was pulling my hair out the whole time.

I should have mentioned that I have an Instagram also I suppose, you can find me at https://www.instagram.com/veronica.mui/?hl=en

VeronicaMui

@jsnzart thank you absolutely our kids are our models! And I’ve run into that exact thing already because one of my kids grew long legs and arms before I was finished drawing a book I was working on all the more reason to work faster. I’ve found it helpful to think about the feelings that I want my pictures to convey, not saying I’m there at all, but it’s something I hadn’t thought about before that radically changed my choices recently

jsnzart

@Nek0Nek0 That's adorable!
Yep! I have thousands of photos, and many videos. And it's STILL one of my jobs, to go through and sought it out.

Heather Boyd

@Nek0Nek0 I definitly agree to your last two points and still working on the fun one I think. I also like all mediums so that's a tricky one for me also.

NessIllustration

@VeronicaMui Welcome! Wow, you have a fabulous style, there is so much potential for expression and uniqueness with this! I think the key to make this style work professionally will be impeccable presentation. With styles that are very organic and sketchy, a super clean scan with whites that are true white and no specs of dust that aren't supposed to be there is imperative or it can quickly start to look messy. Once you master that, I think your work will look extremely appealing for publishers! I think it's so great that you had this epiphany and figured out what works for you, and I can see your beautiful style working for picture books or editorial both. Possibly other things too. Licensing? You may have to narrow down exactly what it is you wish to do, because there are multiple possible avenues for you Best of luck!

VeronicaMui

@NessIllustration thank you for those tips, that makes a lot of sense!! Any tips on how to get the white balance corrected? I’m struggling with how to do that. I don’t have a scanner so I’ve been photographing them and then trying to color correct on the computer but the white balance is an issue - there always seems to be more gray to one side of the photo and I don’t know how to fix it. Is it possible to do this using a camera and procreate? If not, I am open to suggestions on a scanner. Thanks so much for your thoughtful tips!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@VeronicaMui hi! I love your style! welcome to the forum

NessIllustration

@VeronicaMui It's very hard to get good photos of traditional art without a really professional set-up, with studio lights and such. In my experience even a very cheap scanner will give you better results than photo. I have a Canon Lide 120 which I got for around $100, with a few adjustments in Photoshop (or other software) it looks like a million bucks

Joanne Roberts

Wow. So exciting! Welcome to the community! I am a student of the Golden Age illustrators (and I LOVE Mucha!) so I had to point out you featured an illustration by Elizabeth Shippen Green instead of Jessie Wilcox Smith. If you aren't familiar with Green's work, check out her and another of my favorite women from that era, Violet Oakley. Have fun and nice to "meet" you. Beautiful work!

Jacy13

@VeronicaMui Welcome to the community! I hope that you can enjoy your time here.

I really love the bunny/wolf designs you were working on there. Very cute!

VeronicaMui

@Joanne-Roberts good catch whoops i have heard of her too, but she’s not the name I think of thanks for that