Draw This In Your Style (#DTIYS)

Learnings from my new (old) hobbyInstagram screenshot from heygiudi’s #heygiudidtiysI like to draw

Before I started writing on Medium, it had been a while since I’d sat down to sketch. As much as we might love hobbies, sometimes it’s hard to make time for them.

Sometime after I started writing here, I thought it might be fun to illustrate the header images for the posts. Something to make them stand out a little. I found time for it again and remembered how much I loved it. I started on paper, and then a friend convinced me to invest in a tablet and start doing the illustrations digitally. (Thank you, friend!) Drawing on the tablet feels like playing. It has so many brushstrokes and textures! It allows you to duplicate, flip, and rotate. It’s literally playing with lines and colors (without getting overly messy in the process). My first illustrations weren’t very good (a lot worse than my paper ones) but I didn’t care, because I was playing.

Slowly, they started getting better. I started sharing them with my Medium posts. I started (still am) defining my style. (Yes, I’m aware of how many times I said start. It’s a great word, full of energy and coincidentally ‘art’).

Back to my winding thread of thought… I began to share my drawings on Medium, but soon they were flowing into other creative projects, and then became a project all on their own. Now, I create illustrations just for the joy of it. And since I’ve learned that sharing creative projects, and actually putting them out there, is key for growth, I started posting them on Instagram.

On this new Instagram — different from my personal one, which I was late for and never really connected with — I discovered a whole new world. Specifically, what got me writing this post was the discovery of the DTIYS hashtag.

What is DTIYS?

#DTIYS or Draw This In Your Style is how artists on Instagram celebrate hitting certain milestones and use that reach to offer support to other artists. When they hit 10K followers, they’ll do a [artistname]10k #dtiys challenge or prompt. Most of the instructions are the same and look something like this:

Instagram screenshots of valerchikko’s #valerchikko8K and jennypaintswithpixels #jenny11k challenges

Other artists then create their version of the challenge piece and publish it with the specified tag. So when you search that tag, you can see all the entries:

Instagram screenshot of rochewoodworthillustration’s #roche95K

And if you follow those tags you can regularly see how other artists are going about it. I LOVE THIS. Style is not just about colors or mediums or whether your drawings are more realistic or more cartoonish. The artist picks it up, reinterprets it, and essentially says: “This is how I see it.” And how great is it to see something through all those different lenses? Lens colored by mood, feelings, and skillsets.

Instagram screenshot of jennypaintswithpixels’ #jenny11KI did my first DTYS challenges a few days ago, and this is what I learnedIn your style… It helped me realize that while I am playing and figuring it out, I do kind of have a style to play with. I still enjoy trying new styles and imitating some of the details I like, but if you look at the images I’ve shared so far you can tell that they’ve been done by the same person. I like warm colors, I like messy hair, and pencil lines that make it look like it’s not 100% finished. When drawing portraits I pay a lot of attention to the poses I pick, I think they can be as expressive as the faces. I don’t think I paid attention to any of this before.Details! I always use photos as references when drawing, that way I have guidelines for things like proportions and lights, and shadows. When using photos though, it’s up to me to define details, patterns, etc. When looking at illustrations, the other artist has already made an interpretation, there’s already a selection of brushes and textures and highlights. This has helped me discover a lot of new strokes and details to play with.Interactions: Likes, shares, and comments make my day. It’s the same thing I love about writing on Medium: getting to connect with other people. Participating in these challenges has given me some more exposure and, while it didn’t convert into a gazillion followers, it did lead to receiving some positive feedback and discovering new artists I’m super excited to follow now.(Still) learning: Some prompts are more challenging than others, and while seeing really put-together pieces can feel a bit daunting, it’s also fun to see there’s more room to grow. Also, many artists post work-in-progress videos next to their artwork so you can see the high-level process and take notes.Have fun with it: All the prompts say: “have fun,” and I’ve taken it to heart. It’s like a game we play. Ready, set, go, draw and then look at what everyone else has done. I don’t think I’d done this since maybe drawing a house in kindergarten. Many of the artists who create the challenge then share a selection of their favorites which is great for other illustrators looking to gain more visibility. Sometimes they even pick a winner. But I think the main goal is to practice, enjoy it, and interact with the community of artists who participate.Instagram screenshot of art_from_liz’s #lizDTIYS20K

I used to fill notebooks with sketches, and every once in a while, if there was one I loved, I’d maybe turn it into a canvas. Now my tiny square canvases fill up a feed that connects me with artists all over the world. I still go old-school occasionally; I have coloring books, notebooks, and a couple of work-in-progress canvases, but I love this new channel and how much more playful it feels.

Come say hi 👋

I hope you enjoyed the post, and if you want to see some more of my illus you can find them at @medusasmusingss

Art by Agnes (author)[image error]

Draw This In Your Style (#DTIYS) was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.