A Forgotten Exercise That Helped Me Understand My Artistic Voice
After interviewing Kelogsloops and diving into the topic of artistic voice and style, I found myself reflecting on something he said—how his high school art studio classes encouraged him to dig deeply into what he loved about specific artworks. That kind of focused reflection, he said, helped him keep going on his art journey.
His words brought me back to something I had almost forgotten: a study I did in 2021, while living in Singapore. It had been tucked away in one of my old sketchbooks—a quiet, self-guided exploration of the exact same idea.
The exercise is from this website ), and works as a map toward finding your signature art style.
And it hit me—I had done this years ago. I had actually walked myself through a thoughtful, multi-step exploration of what I love in art and why. I had looked for threads of connection, aesthetic resonance, emotional language. And I had completely forgotten about it.
Until now.
🎨 The Exercise: 4 Steps to Your Own Signature Art Style
Here’s how the exercise was laid out:
Step 1: Choose 3 artists or art styles that emotionally resonate with you
Pick artists from completely different “isms” or stylistic approaches—the more different, the better—as long as you truly love their work.
Here were my picks back then:
Frida Kahlo
Christian Hook
Agnes Cecile
Step 2: Choose one artwork from each artist that best represents what you love
The kind of image you’d hang in your house. Then, for each one, analyze:
What grabs your attention first?
Why does that grab you?
How was that element used in the artwork?
And then write at least one paragraph about each.
💬 Example 1: Bathtub Fantasy (Frida Kahlo)
This piece struck me with its narrative surrealism—a collection of dark, symbolic memories that orbit around the bathtub. It’s layered, emotional, and full of small stories within the painting. I loved the use of muted dark colors, the non sequitur elements, and the juxtaposition of surreal imagery with mundane objects.
There’s something vulnerable about the way she paints memory.
💬 Example 2: Honey Jar (Christian Hook)
A strange, flamboyant, digital-surrealist image that features Cumming emerging from a honey jar. It uses glitches, unexpected color shifts, and bold purples and yellows to create tension.
What I loved was how it hovered between digital polish and painterly emotion, and how something absurd still felt sincere. It wasn’t about perfection—it was about mood.
💬 Example 3: Autumn Chant (Agnes Cecile)
A delicate, almost floating composition of a woman surrounded by birds and dripping paint. The orange tones made me feel warmth and melancholy.
I felt connected to this piece emotionally, through its fragility, emotive brushwork, and the subtle interplay between presence and disappearance.
Step 3: Analyze the Elements That Repeat Across the 3 Pieces
I made a list of what the three works had in common—not in terms of style, but in terms of feeling and structure.
For me, that looked like:
🧩 Common Threads:
Juxtaposition of real and surreal
Use of muted dark colors with bright elements as emotional tangents
Elements of surprise or dream logic
A feeling of fragility, quiet drama, and internal storytelling
A desire to capture a perfect feeling, rather than a perfect likeness
Step 4: Combine those elements into your own visual language
This final step is about naming what you love—and then owning it. Using what you've noticed, you begin to paint intentionally: not to imitate, but to echo.
You start to say: “I want to use muted dark tones with a splash of brightness—because that’s where the emotion lies for me.”
And that, for me, is where this exercise ends—but also begins again.
🌱 Why This Still Matters in 2025
When Kelogsloops said during our interview that he was taught to “reflect on what you love about an artist’s work—and your own,” something shifted in me.
That one line brought me back to this forgotten notebook, to the clarity that was once so present and simple. It reminded me that my style isn’t something I have to force or find from scratch—I’ve been building it, noticing it, loving parts of it for years.
So I’m sharing this here in case you need that reminder too.
🧭 If You Want to Try It
Pick 3 artists you love (from totally different genres or styles).
Choose one artwork from each that you’d hang in your space.
Ask: What, Why, and How?
Pull out the common emotional or visual threads—and claim them.
That’s your signature.
Even if it evolves. Even if it disappears for a while and comes back in a new form.
It’s still yours.
