On the creative journey, it's easy to get lost, but don't worry, you'll lift up.

Sometimes you just need a creative pep talk.

Hey, you're listening to the Creative Pep Talk podcast. I'm your host, Andy J. Pizza.

When I was first starting out, all I wanted as an illustrator, as a creator, was a style.

A style that was as full of life as my hero's styles were.

But everything I tried either felt too random or too derivative, nothing felt as authentic and lively and pulsing as the work in the styles of my creative heroes.

How did they come up with these signature styles? How did they develop such an incredible, authentic look?

No one in the industry at the time when I was starting out was really talking about how the sausage was made, so to speak.

How you start to develop something that looks like you.

As I learned and made strides developing my own style, I tried to take note of how is this happening? I tried to be observant of my own creative process and how it all came together.

And that's what this episode is all about. If you've ever wanted to have your own creative style, regardless of what medium you're working in this episode is for you, but before we do that, a quick word from our very lovely sponsors.

I want to say a quick thanks to our print sponsor for this year's calendar. So every year we take the best episode art and we put it into an album of work that is the next year's calendar.

And it's just designed to give you a little pep every single month. We try to place them strategically through the calendar, depending on where they fall in the year and put a little mystical secret sauce in that process.

I've never been more proud of the calendar because our print sponsor, Jack Prince, helped me reach my print dreams with this new uncoated stock that you can even write on with a pencil.

And it just every time I pick it up, I'm like, oh man, oh, it's dreamt. Always hoped that our print work would feel and Jack Prince, that's what they do. They're based here in Ohio where I'm from, which is even better in America.

They do incredible work, posters, stickers, apparel, all kinds of stuff. I've got like little booklets printed from them that were really nice. They do great work. And I highly recommend them, Jack Prince.com. J-A-K-P-R-I-N-T-S.

You can get our calendar at creativepeptalk.etsi.com. Thank you to everybody that's already bought one. I hope it brings you tons of pep. And all of the purchases in that shop help support the show and make it possible to make new episodes.

So I really appreciate it. We all do at the creativepeptalk team. Thank you, Jack Prince, and people buying the calendars.

That's a thanks to Skillshare. There's nothing better than getting better accomplishing growth is extremely satisfying and online classes from Skillshare. Make it possible.

Learn about illustration design, photography, productivity, marketing, and so much more with Skillshare's short classes. You can move the creative journey forward without putting your life on hold.

Later in this episode, by the end of this episode, I'm going to give you an activity that you can do today that will help you make progress in finding styles. It's an easy little short activity.

But I think that the perspective shift and some of the insight there might be a game changer for you. If after that, you want to get a whole bunch of other quick and easy fun activities to help you find your style and develop your creative voice.

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