style or substance?

I'm an indecisive kinda guy... or maybe i'm not? maybe i know exactly what i want? and what i want is to not decide right away , so gimme a ruddy minute here! i feel like i know exactly what i like, but when i point my powerful cone of consideration at myself, i'm drowned in dawdle, i've been sitting on the fence so long i've gained squatters rights. what i'm talking about is personality, visual personality and my out right terror at having to settle on one, people will tell illustrators they have a distinct style and it sounds like they've one a medal! the truth is they been asked to do the same thing for so long its become a winning formula, a set of rules that work. and art directors and designers depend on illustrators having this predictable formula set in stone so they can almost predict the outcome. they know when they hire 'dr doodle gigglepants' that they will get a squiggly fun retro interpretation of their brief (apologies to anyone who is actually trading as 'dr doodle gigglepants', i am in no way demeaning your monicker, it just sounds like a suitably madey uppy name). i guess what i'm saying is just like up and coming bands who explode all of a sudden, when its comes to there difficult second album you really wish they had more time to develop there sound, but instead what you get is a carbon copy of there first album with out any of the raw creativity and fun. i think it takes a lot of courage for illustrators or ANY creative people to destroy there image on a regular basis, reveling as there fans cry and protest, because its "just not as good as there old stuff". yes get a style, but don't pick one, borrow and steal inspiration from everything, and let yours mature slowly and organically until it fires out of you one day without warning.

all the best,

your pal,

mr steve mccarthy