For Those Who Don't Know Their Own Style | How to Find an Illustrator's "Worldview" by Thinking Like a Comedian

"I can't settle on my own style."
"I don't know what I should draw."
"I can't escape the influence of that person."

If you are an aspiring illustrator, you might be harboring these kinds of worries. I myself have struggled with these concerns for a long time. However, while watching a comedy show, I realized something.

Illustrators and comedians are similar.

(Below, many comedian names will appear, but all honorifics have been omitted.)

There are many comedians and illustrators, and everyone has their own unique flavor. Comedians who are funny at manzai, comedians who are funny at skits, comedians who rarely perform but are skilled at handling themselves on variety shows, and comedians who can't say anything clever but have a miraculous ability to attract attention and are funny just by watching their behavior. Even if you group them all together as comedians, their comedic styles vary.

Performance and Motifs

The content of manzai or skits is, for an illustrator, perhaps like a motif. We often see manzai duos who reached the finals of the M-1 Grand Prix struggling on the stage of variety shows. Manzai and variety show talk may look like the same kind of comedy, but they are different games. Conversely, there are comedians who haven't left notable results in competitions but are highly valued on variety shows.

Illustrators also have different motifs they excel at: those who draw stylish figures, those who draw lyrical landscapes, those who draw loose and cute characters, those who draw clumsy-but-charming two-head-tall characters, and those who are good at drawing animals. If someone who draws loose, cute animals were suddenly told to draw a Gunpla package, they probably wouldn't be able to perform at their best.

There are motifs where a person's individuality (character) shines, and motifs where it does not.

Character and Touch

There are people like Downtown and Utchan Nanchan who conquered all genres, from manzai and skits to hosting, but there are also many people like Tetsuro Degawa and Dacho Club who became indispensable talents for variety shows by being loved for a different kind of comedy—reaction comedy—than Downtown or Utchan Nanchan.

When Eiko Kano appeared with his "Ramen, Tsukemen, I'm a handsome guy" bit, no one could have predicted that he would gain popularity through game streaming and his natural, pure reactions.

On the other hand, there are comedians like Bakusho Mondai who continue to work with their manzai and verbal humor as their core, even as television trends and variety show formats change.

Not everyone is aiming for the same direction, nor are they fighting with the same weapons.

This difference in character is, for an illustrator, like a difference in touch. A touch without outlines, a touch with thick black main lines, a colored pencil-style touch, a watercolor touch—the touch that can effectively output a person's individuality and sensibility differs and varies from illustrator to illustrator.

The stages they excel at are also different

When it comes to comedians, people tend to focus only on those who appear on TV, and they are quickly called "one-hit wonders" when they stop appearing on TV, but there are many comedians who do not make television their main battlefield and are firmly capturing the hearts of audiences through live events, theaters, and YouTube.

Tetsu and Tomo perform about 200 events a year all over the country, Yoshio Kojima's YouTube is very popular, and when he goes to perform at shopping malls, huge crowds of children flock to see him.

For illustrators, too, their main battlefields vary—books, advertisements, the web, and so on.

If you lump them all together under the job titles of "comedian" or "illustrator," they all look the same, but everyone is competing with a different flavor and in a different place. ・If you use your inherent individuality, ・with the appropriate method, ・in the optimal place, you can demonstrate maximum performance. A hammer is used in a woodworking shop or construction site to drive nails into wood, and a kitchen knife is used in a kitchen to cut ingredients. If you try to cut ingredients with a hammer, they will just get smashed, and if you try to drive a nail with a kitchen knife, it will be incredibly dangerous. Both comedians and illustrators have weapons that suit them and places where they can thrive.

However, humans are not tools. We have hearts and emotions. Therefore, we are often pulled by feelings of admiration or a desire for approval.

When your comedic style is pulled by admiration

People often have a habit of chasing after the backs of those they admire or have been influenced by, rather than using their own natural personality or finding a place where they can truly shine. And sometimes, they harbor a desire to be evaluated by those around them in the same way as the person they admire. I'm not saying that's bad, and in fact, some people have achieved their dreams that way.

But if you feel a sense of discomfort while chasing an ideal, walking a different path is also an option.

Many comedians at one time admired Downtown. Hironari Yamazaki of Untouchable, commonly known as Zakiyama, also once admired Hitoshi Matsumoto and created a cool, cynical character. From there, he realized he 'could not become Downtown' and established a one-of-a-kind position as a 'gaya' (heckling) comedian.

In the illustrator community, there are not a few people who are chasing the backs of the seniors they admire. You can clearly see the touch of the people they were influenced by in their drawings.

I myself have had several illustrators I admired, and I have chased their art and drawn pictures that looked like theirs. However, I realized something while continuing to draw such pictures. It wasn't very fun. It felt like I was forcing myself, stretching beyond my means. It felt like I was desperately digging up things that weren't inside me. I had that kind of feeling.

I might admire the stylish lines, poses, beautiful portraits, or lyrical lighting seen in fashion magazines and think, 'That's wonderful, I want to draw like that,' but when it comes to actually drawing, that's a different story. Even if I try to draw something that looks like it, there's always a sense that I haven't quite become the real thing.

This may simply be a difference in innate personality, individuality, sensibility, and tastes.

Many comedians have ambitions to appear on variety shows, become famous, and host programs, but there are some who are clearly better suited for heckling, and there are cases where the setting of a TV recording itself does not match the person's own style of comedy.

When character and craft mesh, a worldview is born

It's the same with illustration; it's necessary to pursue the touches and motifs you admire, but if you realize they don't suit you, you might find a better future by facing the motifs (craft) you can make the most of with your own touch (character = individuality) and fighting on a stage where that art can shine. Like Zakiyama, comedians who multiply their character and craft are terrifyingly strong and attractive.

When character and craft mesh, an atmosphere and worldview that only that person can produce are born.

'My art style isn't settled.'
'I don't know what to draw.'
'I can't escape the influence of that person.'

It could be said that people who have these worries mentioned above also have an unsettled worldview. However, when compared to comedians, a worldview is not something you invent from scratch, but rather,

when the motifs you naturally want to draw,
your own unique touch,
and the place where you can shine overlap,

it might be something that emerges as a result.

There is Bakusho Mondai, there is Tetsuro Degawa, there is Eiko Kano, and there is Zakiyama. Everyone is successful, but their ways of making people laugh are completely different. It's the same for illustrators.

Even if you try to become Yu Nagaba,
you cannot become Nagaba.

Even if you try to become Yusuke Nakamura,
you cannot become Nakamura.

With a touch you can draw naturally,
after digging deeper into the motifs you want to draw,
perhaps that is where you will find your own art style.

Thank you very much for reading.

Next time, the topic will be 'How Illustrators Can Find Their Own Worldview | 4 Constraints and 4 Practices'.

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Uraken Borubox is an illustrator who creates visuals tailored to concepts, ranging from books and advertisements to large-scale murals. With the motto 'Turning complex themes into stories that can be understood at a glance,' I propose the optimal illustrations for any medium or space, regardless of the scale of the media.

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