Cut and paste from a reply on the GfxArtist forums. Someone was asking 'what sort of style should I decide on?' and listed a bunch of various ones.
Style is like love. If you go out hunting for it, you'll never find it. Unlike love, if you keep drawing, a style will eventually find you. Or, more precisely, you will eventually accrete one.
If you want to be distinctive and unique, you have to find inspirations that are different from what's being beaten into your head by whatever passes for popular in your corner of society. If you happen upon artwork that's fascinatingly different from what you see every day then grab as much of it as you can and try to analyze it; break it down and figure out just what elements appeal to you, then try to mesh them with the other things you like to do. Maybe it will end up as a primary part of the way you draw, maybe it'll be a tool you pull out for certain looks, maybe you like it in others but just don't like it when combined with your other methods. If you find an interview with one of your influences where they list their influences, check them out - maybe what appeals to you in the one you know is a watered-down version of something one of their influences was brilliant at.
Borrow, steal, imitate, experiment, integrate. Don't think you have to have to be tied to any one particular look, either. If I do a piece in crisp Illustrator abstraction, and a piece in wild gouache smearing, they'll look dramatically different on the surface, but the flavor of composition, posing, and proportions will be the same. Unless I consciously try something different. (Go to my gallery and compare/contrast 'Metaphor' with 'Exposure' to see what I mean, though 'Metaphor' is actually digital paint. Different finishing, but the same hand.)
Style is also useless if the fundamentals are lacking. As you master basics of drawing, you accumulate your own distinctive set of shortcuts; this is part of what people call 'style' - and what novices are most likely to appropriate when trying to mimic someone else's style.
Style is like love. If you go out hunting for it, you'll never find it. Unlike love, if you keep drawing, a style will eventually find you. Or, more precisely, you will eventually accrete one.
If you want to be distinctive and unique, you have to find inspirations that are different from what's being beaten into your head by whatever passes for popular in your corner of society. If you happen upon artwork that's fascinatingly different from what you see every day then grab as much of it as you can and try to analyze it; break it down and figure out just what elements appeal to you, then try to mesh them with the other things you like to do. Maybe it will end up as a primary part of the way you draw, maybe it'll be a tool you pull out for certain looks, maybe you like it in others but just don't like it when combined with your other methods. If you find an interview with one of your influences where they list their influences, check them out - maybe what appeals to you in the one you know is a watered-down version of something one of their influences was brilliant at.
Borrow, steal, imitate, experiment, integrate. Don't think you have to have to be tied to any one particular look, either. If I do a piece in crisp Illustrator abstraction, and a piece in wild gouache smearing, they'll look dramatically different on the surface, but the flavor of composition, posing, and proportions will be the same. Unless I consciously try something different. (Go to my gallery and compare/contrast 'Metaphor' with 'Exposure' to see what I mean, though 'Metaphor' is actually digital paint. Different finishing, but the same hand.)
Style is also useless if the fundamentals are lacking. As you master basics of drawing, you accumulate your own distinctive set of shortcuts; this is part of what people call 'style' - and what novices are most likely to appropriate when trying to mimic someone else's style.