12 Illustration Styles Every Illustrator Should Know

We know finding your own illustration style can be a bit of a challenge. After all, illustration is an incredibly versatile artistic practice.

That's why we encourage graphic designers to continuously brush up on their illustration skills to stay ahead of the curve. Or to get inspired by different art movements or other famous graphic designers.

From flat designs and vector illustrations to whimsical fantasy art — let's explore 12 different illustration styles you could start playing around with today.

Image Source: Unsplash

What are the different styles of Illustration?

Traditional illustration started with drawing, painting, and carving in a traditional medium. It's an art form that manifested in a wide variety of techniques, such as:

• Block illustration
• Charcoal illustration
• Ink illustration
• Woodcut illustration
• Watercolor illustration
• Advertising Illustration
• Scientific illustration
• Pencil Illustration
• Collage Illustration
• Acrylic Illustration

These techniques of illustration are still used and loved, but as our tools have evolved, so have our modern illustration techniques. Most illustrators have turned to digital tools to create vector illustrations. With these digital tools, artists can create anything with just one device.

A vector graphics software such as Linearity Curve (formerly Vectornator) is perfect for illustration. Our brilliant software gives you the freedom to draw digitally in your own style with great detail and print at scale without losing quality.

Illustrative styles are influenced by various types of art and artistic movements. While there are specific genres of illustration that we'll look at below, it's good to have an idea of how many cultural elements can influence illustration designs.

Movements like Bauhaus, Pop Art, Surrealism, glitch art, and many more also influence graphic designers and illustrators in developing their unique style.

The fantastic thing about digital art is that it gives digital artists the freedom to experiment with absolutely every style in a variety of formats.

Without further ado, let's check out the different styles of illustration.

Vintage and retro

As the name suggests, the vintage and retro illustration style evokes the aesthetic of past eras. It is popular for using hand-drawn elements, grainy textures, and muted colors.

Neil Stevens is an illustrator who has successfully developed his style around vintage illustrations. His portfolio includes work for clients such as The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Washington Post, and cultivating this style has served him admirably.

Source: Neil Stevens Portfolio

Malika Favre is another well-known digital artist whose retro style is described as "Pop Art meets OpArt." In her work, the sex appeal of the '50s and '60s meets contemporary minimalism to create irresistible retro-inspired illustrations.

Source: Malika Favre

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Realism

Realism illustrators are talented artists who can capture realistic depictions through immense detail, a brilliant portrayal of emotion, or perfect accuracy in composition.

However, many realistic vector art pieces retain a little artistic flair and stylization while resembling the real world. If you look at this example from digital illustrator Abdelrahman Taymour below, you’ll see how he uses stylized texture to bring an artistic flair to the portrait while still capturing Walter White with realistic detail.

On the other hand, you might be blown away by Irakli Nadar's hyperreal digital paintings. These amazing illustrations exemplify excruciating attention to detail.

Image Source: ArtStation

Realistic illustration styles are a great way to practice and showcase your skill as an artist, and a surefire way to impress your audience and potential clients.

Fantasy

Fantasy illustration is moody and enchanting, alive with mythology, magic, fables, legends, and science fiction. This style of illustration is inspired by stories and depicts supernatural scenes and characters. It is usually quite detailed, exercising immense skill from these imaginative illustrators. Depth of detail combined with moody atmospheres immerses the viewer in an alternative world.

Fantasy illustration is commonly used in the gaming industry, book illustration, and film industry. These artworks capture alien landscapes, magical worlds, and creatures of every imaginable kind, often in the context of a fictional story.

A lot of fantasy illustrations are dark and action-packed. Take Bayard Wu as an example - a professional illustrator and concept artist working in the gaming industry. His Orc Girls illustration below is a beautiful example of the types of creatures, detail, action, and story prevalent in this art style.

Image Source: ArtStation

On the other hand, this digital artwork by Gosia Kmiec is much lighter yet equally strange. It’s a beautiful example of the types of imaginative creatures you’ll find in fantasy art.

Comic book

A professional illustrator for Marvel Comics, Mark Brooks, highlighted the importance of storytelling:

Traditional comic books have inspired a ton of contemporary illustrators in style, story, and character creation. By considering the layout structure of comic stories, illustrators have to imagine the story panel by panel, which gives way to a particular type of creative thinking that's a good challenge for any designer to try!

Graphic novels are another type of illustration that's similar to the comic book style. Exploring the myriad of fantastic graphic novels out there might be a good idea for any illustrator interested in comic book styles.

One of the most famous graphic novels is The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by multiple artists is a fantasy horror story. Its dark themes are beautifully manifested in equally dark illustrations. Aligning visual representation to the mood and themes of the story is the most critical aspect of illustrating comic books and graphic novels.

Image Source: JOHNNY NOIR FILM

Fashion

Fashion designers use sketching as a tool for communicating their ideas. This style of illustration emerged from the need for quick sketches and to highlight how clothes will look on models.

Fashion designers will develop their ideas over multiple sketches, creating each sketch in mere seconds to keep the idea moving until it's finalized. These types of illustrations are produced quickly and usually defined by rough lines and a generally loose aesthetic.

Fashion design illustration is bursting with attitude, culture, and couture. While it's still mainly used by fashion designers, this type of illustration has inspired many artists who are not fashion designers but simply want to bring the aesthetic into their designs.

Each fashion designer develops their own unique style, as these designs are such an essential part of their overall work as an artist. Browsing through designs from big fashion names such as Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton can be a worthwhile task for illustration inspiration.

Image Source: Frock Flicks

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Line art

Line art has become an increasingly popular modern style of illustration, especially on social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.

You'll probably have encountered the famous Instagram poetry of Rupi Kaur, who illustrates her poems with simple yet beautiful line drawings. Simplicity is incredibly powerful in creating beauty and impact (read more about that here.)

This style of illustration can be incredibly simple, which is its appeal in some instances, but it's also possible to get detailed and intricate with it.

Image Source: Spoon Graphics

Line art is a form of illustration that uses space and simplicity to create images. It's often a good style for communicating an atmosphere of gentleness and works well to depict content. While a lot of line art is simply black and white, some artists weave in color here and there.

Image Source: Freepik

Flat illustration

This graphic design trend blew up in 2020 and is around to stay. Brands are going crazy for flat illustrations in all kinds of visual communication for apps, websites, editorial illustrations, and beyond.

This popular type of illustration consists of flat, 2-dimensional visual details as opposed to detailed, more 3D graphics. Rather than detail, illustrators working in this style usually use interesting perspectives and movement to give the images depth and life.

Image Source: Medium

Caricature

Caricature is a style of cartoon in which specific features of a character are exaggerated to emphasize a message that the illustration is communicating.

Caricature is commonly used by political illustrators, who are often making fun of or criticizing leaders and scenarios. This form of illustration is usually defined by humor.

You'll also probably be familiar with caricature artists who create caricature-style drawings of ordinary people in the street or at fairs and festivals. Caricature illustrators have a talent for portraying personality and humor.

Image Source: Cave Drawing

Children's book illustration

Each children's book illustrator has their own unique style, so the field is broad and can't be narrowed down to one definitive style. Some key features, however, are usually things like vibrant color, a sense of movement, and defined emotion.

You can read the full article on children's book illustration here, where you'll learn about some amazing illustrators.

Image Source: LEE WHITE ILLUSTRATION

These types of illustrations rely on a definitive theme to carry a story. They are often imaginative and make interesting use of patterns and color to keep children engaged in the story.

Cartoon illustration

Often falling under the umbrella of comic-style illustration, cartoons can be similar in that they're aimed at storytelling and are often used in panels along with wording and plot to tell a story.

Cartoon illustration usually has a childlike, whimsical sensibility. Snoopy and Garfield are well-known print cartoons that are definitive of this style.

Image Source: ArcaMax

Animated cartoons created for children and adults have further defined this style. By drawing fictional words and characters, viewers are transported out of their reality and forced to imagine something else. There is a certain freedom in this that allows us to contemplate ideas outside the confines of our immediate reality, which makes cartoon-inspired illustrations perfect for helping viewers imagine ideas or simply good old escapism.

3D illustration

3D illustration uses depth to make the contents of the image look three-dimensional. 3D is becoming increasingly popular, particularly in product development, home design, and VR. 3D is an excellent way to get an idea of exactly how something might look in reality and can bring an ordinary illustration to life.

Image Source: Inspiration Grid

Acknowledgement Psychedelic illustration

While this could be grouped under "retro" as the psychedelic aesthetic was popular in the '60s and '70s, it's such a definitive style we felt it deserves its own acknowledgement.

Psychedelic illustration is defined by extremely vibrant colors, a combination of varied patterns, and surrealist sensibility. These illustration designs are intricate, maximalist, and inspired by the psychedelic trips brought on by mind-altering substances like LSD and "magic" mushrooms, which is why it's often defined as "trippy."

Chris Dyer is a talented illustrator and street artist who uses a psychedelic style to communicate his message and create colorful, striking pieces in public spaces.

Finding your illustration style

The possibilities in digital illustration are endless and will only continue to grow as artists carry on discovering through their work. As we evolve, we develop new styles, which are also constantly changing based on our culture that is always influencing our art.

Finding your illustration style is an exciting journey, but it usually takes some time.

One individual artist might experiment with a few styles and never commit to one. Having a distinct style that you've homed in on, though, can be an advantage in finding work and growing your career as an illustrator, as brands and fans will develop a taste for that particular style and keep coming back.

Know yourself

This might sound a little bit "self-help,” however, the more in tune you are with your authentic self and what makes you unique, the easier it will be to tap into an individual style.

Find what you enjoy

Your style should be something you enjoy! You should be inspired and itching to create your art. Take the time to research and explore so you can find what you enjoy.

Find what you're good at

What you like and what you're good at might be two different things. This is the frustration of the creative process. Don’t try to force yourself into a style just because you think it's cool. Allow yourself to be honest with what you're good at, and then hone your skills so you can become brilliant at it!

Experiment

Finding your illustration style will take experimenting with a variety of styles to get a feel for what you're good at.

Practice

It makes perfect, right? Once you have a better idea of which illustration style resonates most with you, practice it until you perfect it- which might take forever, but you'll improve with each artwork.

Get inspired by others

Find and follow your favorite artists for inspiration. Creativity is a community, and we all bounce off and inspire one another as long as you know how to stay true to your unique style without being too influenced by your peers and colleagues.

Share and get feedback

As we've just said, creativity is a community! Share your illustrations on social media, ask friends and colleagues for feedback, and send us your stuff, too. The Linearity Curve crew loves to see what digital artists are creating.

Using Linearity Curve to create illustrations

Using Linearity Curve, you can create beautiful vector art whether you're an experienced illustrator or a beginner.

The Adobe Creative Cloud may be a design industry standard, but it isn't always the best fit for everyone. If you're currently using Adobe Illustrator or any other Creative Cloud applications, consider trying Linearity Curve as a free alternative with custom tools and templates.

With your creative skills and our innovative features, you'll be able to create amazing illustrations without paying a steep monthly fee for Adobe Illustrator or a similar product.

Be sure to check out the rest of our Blog and Design Tips to learn more and get inspired about the world of illustration and graphic design, and if you’re on the hunt for high-quality vector design software that’s free, give Linearity Curve a try!