I have a fear that even if I keep grinding and do get better,

>>2700013
You're making up retarded shit to be worried about, keep grinding and git gud and you'll deal with what comes when you get there.

>>2700013
How can you end up with a shitty style? Do you know what style is? It's literally your personal aesthetic taste. So if you're calling your own style shit, its just because you know you suck. In which case you need to keep practicing.

>>2700013
Feels bad man.

>>2700013
I have a career making art (illustration, graphic design, motion design, photo retouching, printmaking) whatever I can get as a freelancer.

Drawing from imagination is not really a thing you should worry about. We all use reference material. I don't know why people think you have to do this thing where someday you'll magically start drawing from inside your own head while referencing nothing. I do have some illustrator friends with a cartoonish style that do shit like that, but for the most part, people work from photographs or observation.

Now, reference is wayyy different from copying photos. If someone can see your work and they would be able to recognize the photo you copied, you're not doing it right. I generally comp my own things together - a face from this image, a t-shirt from that image, arms from another image, background from this one, look at how water reflects or shadows cast from another image, etc.

Also, this guy is right
>>2702197

your style is generally composed of things in your own taste. For example, if I grew up listening to simple 3 chord, 70's punk my whole life, when I finally learn how to play a guitar, I'm probably not going to just start playing Death Metal sounding shit. After you get good and your style starts developing and it's just shit, that's really the fault of your own taste.

you gotta find balance

If I grind and draw say 100 heads or hands, I start to feel a little stagnant so then I just draw whatever I feel like, or just doodle my ass off to get the creative stuff flowing

>>2700013
>what if I end up with a shitty style after learning the fundamentals
That isn't how it works. Your style is a visual manifestation of your taste and character. It only gets better when you learn more fundamentals, as long as you just keep doing what appeals to you.

>>2702250
Also I'll add that style actually is a fundamental skill. Or rather design. So even if you start doing things you don't really like, start studying artists with design you really like and learn from that.

>>2700013
getting good takes decades punk.

>>2700013
You don't doodle?