Free Illustration Mini Workshop: https://www.thedrawingcodex.com/illustrationworkshop This can be a tough question if you are starting out. Many jobs seem to want a highly polished shallow type of work... Stuff that sells! But often artists have more unique ideas and personal styles. Should you put major time into building the personal traits that will end up making your art unique? Or should you put all your energy into building skills that other people want? Ultimately we need a strong art foundation ( check out this video if you aren't sure why https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2IlkzVABPw ) which allows us flexibility so we can do those jobs and create that shiny art. But that same foundation will help us drawing anything... What should we spend our time on? Does having personality or unique depth to your art matter? I think it does for a number of reasons: 1 - Your art style and personal take on drawing/painting/design/etc is what you build as your career progresses. You take it with you. Developing this version of your own self and your own art will help guide your career and give you creative outlet when you need it. 2 - Jobs are normally rooms full of people... and sharing your personal taste in art and life through your work can help people tell who you are... Remember people hire people not art. They have to hang out with you day in day out. Or at least be able to relate to you and know what type of stuff you are into! 3 - The more you clarify and show the stuff you really like, and the art you really want to make, the better position you will be in to get a job closer to that ideal in the future. The more energy you put into developing the things you really like (even if they are strange). The more likely other's are going to pick up on that and want to work with you on a project suited to that stuff later on. This takes time... but over the long haul this is what will lead to more and more job satisfaction. 4 - You don't need to put in that much of your crazy unique self into a project to give it a nice spin. Art directors become really good at telling who in their team is going to suit a brief they need completing. It's often those small differences that can be very valuable to the overall project. Remember the entertainment industry requires a lot of focus on the project. Not always what we the artist wants at every turn. But balancing this and having flexibility will help you find some good middle-ground when working on different jobs! Happy Drawing! Tim Mcburnie Learn Drawing and Illustration from me: www.thedrawingcodex.com Portfolio: www.timmcburnie.com www.artstation.com/tim-mcburnie www.instagram.com/timmcburnie twitter.com/timmcburnie