"the lore to my art style..." @massive_salmon

@massive_salmon (2025) Ghost in the Sun is now out on WEBTOON... [Instagram]. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDxF1-hSJLw/?img_index=1 (Accessed: 22 June 2025).

Dear Diary,

I prefer going by my nickname Jou, I’m 19 this year and I’m from Singapore!

An early comic by young Jou (tiny salmon) @massive_salmon, 2025. Image sent via Instagram direct message to @x_mellowartz_x, 18 June.

To start off, I've been drawing for my whole life honestly. My first encounter with drawing was when I was around 3. My mom taught me how to draw basic stick men figures and from there, I started drawing other characters that I loved like Angry Birds. I also wrote a lot of comics about my own characters on paper for fun.

Eventually when I was 11-12, I met friends at school that were also into drawing, and we were all watching TheOdd1sOut, Jaiden Animations and playing Pokémon, which led us to being introduced to digital art and social media!

From there I guess I found a lot more artists I admired and I started taking art more seriously. I then wanted to get better in drawing which shaped my interests in digital art! I officially got into digital art when I was 13 and got my first tiny Wacom tablet in which I guess I just kept going from there!

Lately, the thing that sparks my creativity is my WebComic! I've always wanted to write / draw my own characters and get better at story / worldbuilding, so I'm kind of challenging myself to get better at it by making my comic “Ghost in the Sun”. I guess my will to complete the project and my love for telling stories just pushes me to keep going. 

On top of that, I'm super super inspired by the anime One Piece. The characters and their story just motivates me to keep creating!

In terms of social media, honestly, I'm not a big fan of showing up online… I just keep this Insta account as a portfolio / platform to promote my comic, and a way for my readers to find me. I know people use my art for inspiration, so I just come online once a week to keep the account active and to show that I’m alive lol.

My art style went through so many phases and I used to be really insecure about it. When I was 13, my friends were pressuring each other to find their art style, so I tried to force myself to draw in ways I saw other artists draw. 

Here are some of my early styles:

@massive_salmon, 2025. Image sent via Instagram direct message to @x_mellowartz_x, 18 June.

I used to run another art account that I deleted out of stress too. I would constantly jump through art styles and try to mimic artists like Carles Dalmau, Hummingfluff, Spidertams, Nemupan etc. I was constantly jumping across a WIDE range of styles, and I felt that my followers would think I was stealing art if my styles were so different, so I somehow psyched myself into going off of social media for 4 years. (That account had around 200 followers I think, it was around 2019.)

Anyways, eventually in 2022 when I was in my last year of secondary school, I had to do coursework which is a year long art project that counts in our O level score. 

I was teaching myself to colour like Hummingfluff at the time and I showed those pieces to my teacher who encouraged me to do illustration for my coursework. 

@massive_salmon (2025) (4/4) Little Big Voyage - Final and favourite piece of the series!... [Instagram]. Available at:https://www.instagram.com/massive_salmon/ (Accessed: 22 June 2025).

From there, I settled on using the styles of Hummingfluff and Carles Dalmau, which influenced my illustration and colouring style a lot to get that “pop art” and “watercolour” look.

Since then, my style has just grown in the watercolour pop art direction. Currently, I’m really into the styles of “Veil” by Kotteri, and Guillaume Singelin, so that's the lore to my art style now! (Wow, looking back, it has been a long journey…)

Lastly, an advice I'd give to my followers… hm… I'd say don't pressure yourself to find an art style like I did because forcing yourself to find an art style or draw a certain way will mess up your mind.

Also, if you wanna learn a certain artist's style I suggest pinpointing the aspects of their work that you like, and then trying to recreate it. If they have speedpaint videos, that would be even better because you can pause and copy their exact movements (which is what I did). Eventually, you’ll get the hang of it and you can add your own flare to your art :D.

Until then!

Jou

Featured image: @massive_salmon (2025) Happy new year!!! Here’s the art room from episode 1 of Ghost in the Sun!... [Instagram]. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEQAOEzh_HL/?img_index=1 (Accessed: 22 June 2025).