Children's illustration, style issues and new inspirations

When I was a child, since Disney was pretty much the highest quality animation we could get in Turkey back then, I had an obsession, drawing in that style. And throughout my animation and illustration work, that style was stuck with me. Finally, last year, I had a resolution to get rid of it completely, and worked really hard all past year to try different styles and new things. And now that I look at my recent illustrations, i believe i did a pretty good work... but perhaps too good. Now my work is way too eclectic, it's even hard to tell 2 pieces came from the same hand. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or bad thing. In animation, I've always supported the view that the style should not define the film, but vice versa, and like in one of my favorite animators, Gil Alkabetz's work, i think it's actually a good thing to apply different styles and techniques depending on the piece, at least in animation, but I'm not so sure in illustration. It sometimes seems that people like to know what to expect from an artist, and most of the important artists (both classical and contemporary) have some sort of set style, or at least different style periods...
So anyway... where I'm going to with this topic is, after a big rush of greeting cards sets, now I'm giving a little break and starting to work on my children's illustration portfolio again. And maybe it might be a good idea to try to find a set style of my own. If you have any opinions, you're welcome to share!
Oh and this week was pretty good for me for discovering some artists, and in case you haven't heard of them (i'm sure most of you have!) they're great inspiration!

Erté







and

Charley Harper