I was asked by someone if I could absorb the Bruce Timm style into my artwork and make it my own. I said, I didn’t think that would be a problem, being that I’ve swiped Timm a few times and really enjoyed it, and found it quite natural. Of course, I was presuming this was so because of the simplicity of the Timm style, a style firmly rooted in a long animation career.

So what I did was I studied the style for a while, took a few jabs at drawing in it freehand, explored some aspects of it I hadn’t yet tackled, and in the process I came to a startling discovery.

I already draw that way.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m no where near the artist Timm is, and certainly don’t have the tenure or quality of art composition. But that said, all artists of any skill level channel another artist who has had a great influence on their artistic lives. Thing is, all this time, I’d been fighting it. I came into comics around the Death of Superman and the launch of Image Comics in the early nineties. So my first and greatest influences where Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Scott Clark, Travis Caret, and all those cats. Very dynamic, very realistic artists.

All this time, I’ve been trying to channel these guys, incorporate their art principles into mine, and for some reason, it hasn’t really been working. Well, I finally figured out why working on this project. Apparently, I’ve been subconciously channeling Bruce Timm for years. Each time I tried to move away from that, add a greater sense of realism, and leave the clean animated style behind, I ended up leaning more and more towards it.

What’s funny, is I was reading Modern Master: Bruce Timm and how Jack Kirby was probably the greatest influence on Timm’s artistic style. So much so, that even where he was attempting to deviate from that style for a given project, he would invariably channel Kirby without even really trying. I feel I’ve come to a similar turning point.

So in an attempt to experiment further with this style and to make some older art projects more appealing, I’ll be revising some old art, attempting to redraw some older pics in this new style. Some of it is stuff you may be very familiar with if you’ve followed some ongoing projects I have running on City of Gamers. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here’s a sneak preview:

Liked it? Take a second to support Digital Jedi on Patreon!