Artistic Identity and Practice

A student once asked me how to know if a mark is truly theirs or just borrowed from another artist. We all ask this at some point. Nobody starts with a clean slate; we are shaped by everything we see. The worry is not borrowing ideas, but never learning to move past them.

Telling someone to "just be yourself" does not help in front of a blank canvas. Let us look plainly at how personal style actually takes shape in the studio.

The Question Nobody Answers Honestly

Every mark has a history. The way you hold a pencil, mix colour, or soften an edge comes from what you have seen. Real originality does not mean inventing brand-new marks. So what are we actually after?

The aim is honest combination. Your voice is simply how you filter what you take in through your own temperament and interests. Two painters can look at the same subject and use the same palette, yet make completely different work because they care about different details. Style is not invented; it grows quietly out of patient looking.

Originality comes from seeing clearly, not trying to be clever. When you force yourself to look unique, you get gimmicks. Focus on what is in front of you and say what you mean. Your voice will follow naturally.

Two Painters Who Looked Instead of Invented

Look at Paul Cézanne. He did not rethink perspective just to be bold. He simply painted what he saw when he looked at Mont Sainte-Victoire. His shifted planes and broken edges were not tricks, but his honest effort to get his vision onto canvas.

Gwen John worked the other way round. She painted quiet rooms, a single chair, or a sitter by a window. Her calm tones and compositions came from sticking with the same simple questions day after day. Style was just what stayed behind after years of steady work.

Neither painter ignored the past. They took in what came before them, checked it against their own eyes, and kept only what felt true.

The Authorship Triangle

Three Core Elements

To keep things practical, break your work down into three simple parts: intention (what you want to say), perception (how you see), and execution (how you make the mark).

• Intention: What you want to say or explore.
• Perception: What you actually observe in front of you.
• Execution: How your hand makes marks on the surface.

• Intention — what you actually want to say or explore with a piece of work.
• Perception — how you actually see the subject in front of you, stripped of what you assume you should see.
• Execution — the physical marks your hand makes, the choices of line, tone, and edge that land on the surface.

Work flows well when these three pieces align. You know what you want to share, you look closely at the subject, and your hand responds without fuss.

Trouble starts when they split apart. For instance, you might see soft light on an object, but paint hard lines purely out of habit. The drawing might look tidy, but it misses what you saw.

Another trap is forcing a mood ahead of time, like trying to make a study feel dramatic. That usually leads to stiff marks rather than honest work.

Sometimes it is just a gap in craft, where your hand cannot yet match what your eye sees. That is not a missing voice; it is just regular practice at work.

Knowing which part is off balance gives you something clear and useful to tackle during your next studio session.

Two Studios, Two Routes to the Same Discovery

Two Different Paths

A quick comparison makes this clearer.

Julian began by copying the surface look of painters he liked—subdued colours and loose brush marks. The work looked fine on top but felt thin because he was copying effects without understanding them. His own voice showed up only after he returned to direct, simple observation.

Clare, on the other hand, drew everyday objects in her flat: a kettle, a cup, a coat on a chair. She never chased a style. Over time, clear habits formed on their own, giving her work a genuine sense of space and delicate edges.

Authentic style is the natural byproduct of steady inquiry, not a costume you put on. It shows up on its own when you spend time looking closely at things that interest you.

Looking at other artists helps you learn techniques. The only trap is adopting someone else's habits instead of trusting your own eyes.

Having a Sketchbook

One of the most obvious choices is to work with documents, exploring both media and subject matter, and just drawing as an exploratory vehicle, but also using collage, sketches, and all sorts of processes to document ideas, experiences, moods, patterns, colors, etc.  

So that's the whole principle of having a sketchbook. 

It helps improve your motor skills if you want to draw regularly and document observations, be it in your backyard, in a cafe, or just working somewhere where you've given time to yourself to reflect and deep‑dive.

It has its own strengths compared to thinking, typing, or working on a computer because it is more embodied in the experience. Working through image and form can encapsulate many core experiences that don't necessarily translate to text. So it is a viable medium, even though it has not been fully given its merits in our society due to our overemphasis on language as the main carrier of expression and communication. 

Auditing Your Own Sketchbook

Sketchbooks can be anything from scraps of paper that you find around to use up. It could be a napkin in a café. It could be your own self‑curated collection of beautiful pieces of paper that you've cobbled together in some form of customized book format. Anything ranging from small A5 or even more petite to A3 size or larger. You can use them both for the sake of texture as well as various media, so it's really up to you. They can encompass anything from scrapbook‑type attitudes to mood boards or vision boards. The whole range of possibilities is out there.

Expanding the range of a sketchbook. 

The idea is that, in principle, for art classes and for painting and drawing, your main thing is to scribble down ideas and jot them down, with the capacity to have visual footnotes and perhaps written notes attached to them. Then explore different media and combine the things you've gathered. The overall goal—if there is such a goal—would be to gather your thoughts and, over time, depending on the focus of the sketchbook, create a documentation and recollection of your visual thoughts. It could be an account of your gaining experience with sketching, allowing you to see improvements over time. So there are various ways to do it, and there is no limit to the number of sketchbooks.

A Practice That Works For You

Many artists keep regular sketchbooks on the go for different reasons, and they accumulate over the years. They become a personal monologue to themselves; often they don't even show them to others, making a sketchbook a privileged glimpse into someone's sketchbook, collage book, or personal notebook. In terms of what you consider, it's up to you how you do this. But as an important contribution to your exploration and a means to capture ideas and thinking over time, a sketchbook is really important.

You need to broaden your understanding of the potential scope and importance of the notion of a sketchbook and apply it to what suits you personally. There are no hard‑and‑fast rules. Over time you might see the benefit if you start in some way or other. It could be a way to literally chronologize and map out your ideas. 

1. Creative Exploration and Experimentation

• A sketchbook supports exploration and discovery in your chosen medium.
• Use it to investigate materials, subjects and personal ideas.
• Draw, collage, sketch and collect images.
• Experiment with textures, media and formats.
• Combine collected materials and explore new approaches.

2. Recording Ideas, Experiences and Inspiration

• Record experiences, moods, patterns and colours.
• Use it as a scrapbook, mood board, vision board or visual diary.
• Add written notes alongside visual ideas.
• Many artists keep them private as personal records of ideas and observations.
• Over time, a sketchbook becomes a record of your visual thinking.

3. Reflection and Personal Expression

• Draw in your garden, a café or any quiet place for reflection.
• Sketchbooks offer something different from typing or working digitally.
• Images and forms can express experiences that words cannot.

4. Developing Skills and Creative Confidence

• Regular drawing can improve motor skills and observation.
• It can also show your development and growing confidence.
• A sketchbook is a valuable way to capture thoughts, experiments and creative growth.

5. Freedom in Materials and Format

• Your sketchbook can be made from scraps, napkins or carefully chosen paper.
• Choose any size, from small A5 books to larger A3 formats.

 Creating a Sketchbook Practice That Suits You

• Keep as many sketchbooks as you need, each with a different purpose
• Make a practice that suits you.

A sketchbook is a valuable way to capture thoughts, experiments and creative growth. Keep as many sketchbooks as you need, each with a different purpose if needed. A structure  will unfold of how to use them over time.

Make it a practice that suits you.

Checking Your Sketchbooks

Here is a simple check you can run through your recent sketchbooks to spot emerging habits.

Examine your sketchbook pages for three clear elements:

• Recurring motifs: Subjects, objects, or arrangements you draw repeatedly without premeditation.
• Involuntary marks: Preferred line weights, rhythms, and handling that appear across different media.
• Default shortcuts: Convenient formulas used when observation becomes demanding.

• Repeated subjects: What items, spaces, or light conditions keep catching your eye?
• Involuntary marks: How does your hand naturally move when you are not overthinking?
• Borrowed tricks: Where are you repeating someone else's stylised formulas?

• Subjects you draw repeatedly when no one is watching.
• Marks or habits your hand falls back on automatically.
• Passages where you were copying another artist's style rather than observing directly.

• Recurring motifs — subjects you return to without being asked, even when you had no plan to draw them. These are clues to genuine curiosity rather than assignment.
• Involuntary mark tendencies — habits of hatching, contour, or tonal shorthand that appear across unrelated subjects, regardless of what you were "trying" to do. This is your hand's honest vocabulary, distinct from whatever style you consciously aspire to.
• Unhelpful habits — marks that appear because they are comfortable or well-rehearsed, not because they answer to anything you actually observed. These usually show up as a kind of visual filler: the same tree-shape, the same generic hand gesture, deployed regardless of the actual subject in front of you.

Spotting these patterns shows you what genuinely holds your attention and where you might be leaning on easy habits.

Review each study against five concise questions:

1. Did this mark come from immediate observation or an established habit?
2. Am I adjusting values to describe light or to manufacture drama?
3. Does the composition address the subject or mirror someone else's format?
4. Where does technical control falter, and where does attention wander?
5. Would this piece still be made if no audience ever saw it?

• Did I draw what was actually in front of me, or what I thought it should look like?
• Did I use these marks because the subject asked for them, or out of simple reflex?
• Am I working for my own curiosity, or for an audience?

• Did I draw what I actually saw, or what I thought it should look like?
• Did I borrow a technique just to look finished?
• Which marks feel natural and direct?

1. What was I actually looking at when I made this mark, and does the mark reflect what I saw, or what I assumed I should see?
2. Would I have made this same mark if nobody was ever going to look at this page?
3. Is there a moment here where I reached for a borrowed solution instead of solving the problem myself?
4. Which part of this drawing feels most instinctive, least laboured — and why did that part come easily?
5. If I removed every mark I can trace directly to an admired painter, what would remain?

Be honest with yourself. A clear, modest check of your current work helps far more than pretending you have it all solved.

What This Chapter Doesn't Promise

This audit will not hand you an instant voice, but it will show you where you are working honestly. That clarity is the best foundation for real progress.

Looking Ahead

Before progressing, resolve two essential points:

1. Which recent marks reflect your actual observation rather than borrowed mannerisms?
2. What recurring subject in your studio consistently demands your sustained attention?

• Which subjects do I keep returning to when no one is watching?
• What habits can I drop to see my subject more clearly?

• Which artists am I currently leaning on too heavily?
• What everyday subjects do I find myself genuinely wanting to paint?

• Which visual choices in your recent work feel entirely natural, and which feel like an imitation of someone else?
• What subjects do you return to when no one is watching, and what does that tell you about where your real attention lives?

Keep your answers in mind. Next, we will look at how to learn from the artists you admire without losing your own direction.