A few weeks back, I stumbled across a post in a children’s picture book group for budding illustrators. It said something like this:
Help! I just finished a commission for a fine art piece (I have a fine art background) and now I don’t know what to do. I want to make my picture book, but now I wonder if I should focus on my painting?
To be clear, the question was not so much about wanting to do one thing over the other but one of style and artistic voice. They felt they had to make a choice between a specific style of painting on the one hand, and a more illustrative approach on the other.
They were suffering from the idea they had to pick one thing, stay in their lane and be done with it.
To which I say:
(with all due respect).
Don’t get me wrong. I love it when people develop a signature style, and whose brain and body delight in focusing on just one thing.
I love that for them. I just don’t love that for me. Because I’m someone who loves to do different things in different places at different times. Who frolics with multiple voices and approaches and styles and who is unwilling to let go of any one of them.
What I’m looking for consistency is within the work itself. But if different pieces of work I produce have very different styles, then as long as each project as an entity is cohesive, that’s quite ok with me.
The types of questions I might ask include:
What is the essence or the tone of this project?
What style of voice would best support that?
What aesthetic approach would best bring that vision to life?
For instance: In this newsletter, I’ve developed (or am developing) a particular style that’s more playful and illustrative. It’s arisen out of a desire for something fun and free, but the constraints of “the project” has also shaped it. I realised I didn’t have time for long and detailed drawings. That I would have to find a new way of doing things if I wanted to be able to write and illustrate newsletters like this with the regularity I desired and not have it be my full-time job.
Plus, I love illustrative work with a cartooney edge. So, I set out to make my own (it’s still a work in progress, this style to me is new).
But for my other work, such as a creative non-fiction piece I’m writing about Aotearoa New Zealand’s birds, I practice a more realistic kind of art. I’ve decided that in 2026 I want to improve and understand more about painting, so I can develop my skills in that area and become more accurate in what I produce.
I love both. Both are a part of my creative voice and important to my creative expression, even if they are quite wildly different.
In my writing, I love words of many varied forms. I love to write poetry and flash fiction. I’m currently writing my first book, a non-fiction work. All different styles, all different voices. All still mine.
So if you’re anything like me, with multiple creative loves and passions to attend to, perhaps a better thing to search for instead of a singular voice or style that’s true for you, is finding a voice or style that’s true for the project. For the particular thing you’re working on.
Because it may just be that many things are true for you. And that’s what makes this whole creating business all so interesting.
Happy creating!
xx Jane