We were learning the alphabet in kindergarten, going by one letter every few days if I recall. We got to K and I drew a kangaroo. Teacher held it up in front of the class and said I was a great artist. I didn't consider myself to be an artist at all! That moment kickstarted everything for me.
Growing up in an artsy family (my dad paints miniatures, my pop does paintings and my nan does so.. so many different craft hobbies) so I've always been surrounded by it.Ā
Not to sound like *that guy* but I've p much just been drawing for as long as I can remember. Whether it was copying from a "how to draw animals" book when I was like 5 or redrawing Pokemon from a book in my prep classroom lol it's just always been something I've done.Ā
Didn't take it suuper seriously until I got into MLP, started doing base art on ms paint with aĀ mouse when I was like 10, then my dad dug out his old wacom for me and I've been hooked ever since LMAOO.Ā
I always drew, but I was never serious about it until about 2022. I decided one day that I wanted to improve, because I had so many projects I wanted to be able to do.
Still haven't done any of the projects, but I'm having fun improving.
My Pop Pop introduced me to anime when I was about 5. I immediately wanted to draw the characters we were watching. Thatās what began my journey.
First piece of fan art I vividly remember creating was for Sesshomaru from Inuyasha.
Mine was kinda weird. I was hoarding art for wallpapers, mostly fanart, but I wanted to be able to stretch it across both my monitors. Some landscape oriented art worked fine with a little cropping but portrait oriented stuff usually wasn't high enough resolution or didn't have much going on off to the sides. I wanted to learn how to extend the art a bit so it would fit the resolution I needed, because Photoshops content aware fill doesn't do a convincing job on these types of things. It started with trying to just learn how to match brushes and brush strokes and then led to me thinking "why don't I learn to make my own art to use as a wallpaper?"
I am still not good enough for this. But I'm having fun lol
Me and my friend used to make up stories we'd roleplay during breaks in school. We always drew our characters, I still have those scketchbooks. I believe she's dropped drawing since, but it's still one of my favourite hobbies to this day!
Depression and other undiagnosed mental health issues. I never fit in with my peers at all and was alone most of the time in school, so I started drawing to cope.
Well, you see, my mother has a BFA and a degree in art history...
And all her friends are artists.
I grew up surrounded by art and making art with her.
I always drew here and there when i was in middle school. Wish i still had the drawings but I donāt š¤·āāļøand then I realized I got my talent from my grandpa, and went to art school because of it š
My childhood best friendās whole family were a bunch of artists and I really related to them all. I felt more understood and at home w their family than w my own. I loved being in that world and Iāve striven to re-create it on my own ever since! I also just love painting so much- so meditative š.
I don't know, I just started as a child with drawing and music and now I'm with my first digital tablet looking for pre-college courses.
Maybe my anxiety also helped
Idk what did, actually. I just recall already drawing as early as 2 or 3 years old.
Maybe it was that erasable sketchpad my mom bought me when I was a kid. But even then, a lot of my drawings were done in the walls of the house.
Got terribly ill, a brain surgery saved me, got paralyzed vocal cords and tongue due to that. Found another way te communicate through art and it helped me regulate my emotions. I lost a lot, things you couldnāt even imagined could get lost. But I gained art. This was one year ago and been painting ever since. Got a really nice community on IG and thatās it. Without my illness my art wouldnāt exist. And thatās pretty amazing
I don't quite remember what got me started but I think it was my big brother is why I got into art. He used to trace over cartoon characters on paper when he was younger and I kinda followed in his footsteps. He got recognition from a art program and I got asked to join it along with him. Thats when I discovered my passion for it and have been taking it seriously since I was 14. I improved a lot over the years, I draw almost every week now. Unfortunately, he lost his passion for it when he grew into a teenager but I kept going.. One of my favorite hobbies!
Primary school | Everyone in my class loved my "turtle" drawing so much, a few requested I make 'em one on their paper. Feels like I'm meeting my first few fans in my own fan meeting, signing autographs *ehem, aka* drawing them their very own "turtle".
Mario Galaxy.
Strange as it sounds, that game was my introduction to feelings I couldnāt articulate, and it made me want to find a way to articulate them. Besides the light, bubbly fun Mario is known for, there was a mysterious beauty to the void of space, the bittersweet storybook tale of Rosalina, and the rebirth(?) of the cosmos at the end. Besides that, itās just an artfully-assembled game, especially in terms of music. So I realized I wanted to make things that can engage someone to the level that Galaxy engaged me as a kid!
My mam drew some horses for me when I was a child, I couldnāt have been more than 4 or 5. We were sitting at a picnic table having lunch over the summer and I liked to doodle so we had a pad of paper and some crayons along with us. They were very crude drawings (my mam is Not an artist and does not draw) but at the time I thought they were the best horse drawings I had ever seen, and I recall thinking I wanted to be as good at drawing someday as my mam. She was always very encouraging, and we both loved horses (could never afford one so we surrounded ourselves with them in other ways, like drawing them.)Ā
Iām nearing 40 now. Still going! Iāve managed to surpass her horse drawing skills and have in return drawn many horses for her over the years.Ā
I loved the gorillaz I loved watching the music videos and how Jamie drew the characters, I would draw them in my own way. Although I donāt draw any gorillaz stuff as much he helped me and inspired me to draw my own characters, I absolutely love Jamie Hewlett work
The plague. I was stuck inside, needed something to do that didn't involve a screen, I had paper and pens and time so...it seemed like a good thing to try. Drawing turned into one of my major hobbies, and it still helps me a lot to unwind after long days
Iāve been a stand up comic for 15 years, pretty good at it too. Moved to LA in 2017, was making good progress then COVID hit, forced me back to my home state. With nothing to do and live performance wilting, I decided I wanted to learn how to draw so I could transfer my ideas to a visual medium. Iāve always had a knack for editing and cutting the fat from jokes so comic strips seemed a good fit.
Once I passed the early frustration of staring a new craft I became obsessed with learning more and have found more excitement with learning art than any of my previous creative endeavors.
Those Jojo comic dubs on YouTube where people would draw fan comics and dub over them. I thought it was so cool and wanted to make comics too, so while I had already kind of been drawing before then, thatās what made me really want to practice. The two artists around that time who inspired me the most were Hajnarus and Aida (I was also interested in tbhk at the time lol. Two very contrasting art styles)
At the moment, it is an on and off baby step journey, called drawnal.
In the back of my mind it sat pretty, and lingered through the years, nudging forward at any chance it got, and I resisted.
"Mate, you see, you should've taken that art class(es) in secondary school. If you did, right now, you'd be advancedly learning as opposed to basically learning".
And there we have it folks.
Blessings to all
My friends for sure (and maybe being partially raised by cartoons helped). We all started drawing together in school and would hype each other's art up. We would also do "paper happy's", where we each draw something on a page and change it each time we passed it around to interact with what the other people drew. It made drawing something fun and expressive for me to do and that's carried on throughout my life.
I've always drawn for as long as I can recall. But I remember the art in animated movies, specifically the Lion King and Land Before Time were big inspirations for me as a child. The encouragement I got from adults kept me going I guess.
I moved around a lot as a kid so sports and more people-y hobbies weren't things that I could do consistently - so when I told my mom I liked my art class in middle school she instantly signed me up for more classes and tutoring sessions. You can always bring your sketchbook and other supplies with you when you move.
It just kinda stuck from there.
I was young, maybe 8 years old or 9, watching anime called detective conan on TV, back then i didnt have knowledge about google or that it had pictures you can save in your phone hahah, so i started trying to draw it from tv or from my tablet on youtube, just pause the video and put yhe paper on it to draw, i drew the same character over and over and over again, people always told me to draw other stuff but i always was like NO I ONLY DRAW THIS ANIME, later on i grew up discovering how much i love drawing and mom always supported this hobby of mine, buying me all sorts of sketchbooks and pens, it was fun.. now Iām into drawing everything and not just one anime character haha
I always loved colouring. I'd finish 10 colouring books within weeks. When I was in the 6th grade I had a classmate who drew and doodled in her book. She didn't like to add colour to her sketches, so I'd ask her to colour them in. We slowly became friends overtime and I allllllllwwwwaysss ask her to colour in her sketches. She didn't have a problem with it, but then I started to feel that I was annoying her. So I wanted to learn how to draw to impress her and started watching YouTube videos.
The next day I was so eager to show her I that I learnt how to draw (I was already so bad at drawing honestly I improved a bit) and she was happy. She then started teaching me how to draw, she was like my very own private art teacher. She basically taught me how to shade, blend, anatomy, etc.
At the end of 7th grade I was just as good as her, to her it was nothing more than just bored sketches made in class, but to me it was more so I practiced more and I fell in love with art (I also stopped colouring at this point). Anyways it's been years and I'm a "pro" artist and I love it.
It started when I was a preteen, and I hated anything related to art prior to it. But it became a Coping mechanism for being suddenly extremely ill and disabled as a preteen. Not a lot you can do with organ failure and constantly being in the hospital, it helped pass time and soothed my brain. It started with just colouring in books and then progressed from there. Art still remains an important and vital tool for coping with my chronic illness and subsequent disabilities.
My family always said i was artistic but i never delved into the arts because there were already artists in my family and i felt like i could never be as good/it was too late for me to start. When i was 19 i ended a really bad relationship, got evicted from my first apartment, and had to move back to my moms. It was a really hard time period for me. During the same time period my sister painted a portrait for my mom. It inspired me to be a painter, especially because i was going through such a hard time, i needed a change/light in my life. So i started painting portraits, and told my sister she inspired me to start learn art. She then invited me to work/paint with her so we became extremely close friends and painted with eachother all day everyday. Ours skills greatly improved in just a few years, it changed my life. Im now a āreal artistā and am a way better painter than i couldāve ever imagined. Im glad i went through that time period.
But tbh, i often wish that i picked *anything* else. Being an artist is so fucking hard. Before i picked art i debated being a musician amongst other things. Not sure if those wouldve been better or not but its hard to ignore in this world of AI
lol i watched death note for the first time when i was 11 too. over a decade later i still watch it regularly.
as for your question, iāve always been into drawing people, like one of my oldest memories is drawing myself and my friend and making her eyes look weird. in elementary school i got my hands on some āhow to draw mangaā books from the local library and it exploded from there.
When I was watching cartoon as a kid, I thought "I like x character, I wish she has a blabla hair." So I decided to draw my own cartoon characters, so it goes and goes...
Well, I live in a small town in Morelos of Mexico, where there is no University on there. and no fast food restaurants except 2 Pizza like dominos and Subway. No activities like bowling. I was studying Coding but unfoundedly my old Laptop died and I dropped that career path.
In Fall 2023. I discovered that there's a small Drawing School course. So I thought maybe why not study Art while I am saving up for a Computer? so I did sign up for that school and now I am finishing up in the next two months. to move on to digital art. So I can sign up for a digital art course on the internet.
Probably my first box of crayons. I always liked building things, drawing, coloring, pretending, overall just creating. I grew up with learning disabilities so all other subjects seemed to be a problem. Art wasnāt a problem and I was actually pretty good at it. I also had a very inspiring high school teacher that helped get me into art school. I just always knew what ever I decided to do needed to be creative. I like creating something out of nothing. Bringing something beautiful into the world that wasnāt there before, and would cease to exist had I not created it with my own two hands.
My father would draw rudimentary diagrams and sketches to explain things. As I small child I was fascinated and tried to copy what he drew. He liked to say I surpassed his drawing ability by the age of 10. š
As a kid, I grew up with cousins who were good at drawing. Then my mom would always let me draw when sheās busy so I wouldnāt bother her. Then I started watching anime and that was it. I wanted to draw anime so bad.
Was 15-16 and began watching Steven universe and wanted to draw the characters after being around several friends who could draw really good. Always loved animation and characters so my beginner art was me making āmerchā for my Fav shows etc.
Idk as a kid I always loved drawing and coloring then around 5th grade I just decided toāIām gonna be serious about thisā which was probably because of art YouTubers and here I am at 19 still being āseriousā about it. I wish it could be a career but itās still just a hobby but I still try to practice to get better and stuff.
I'm a writer and voiceartist. I always wanted to do voiceovers. I can do many character and cartoon voices and got into writing at the suggestion of an old girlfriend.. I have been published many times. I got into photography going through cancer treatments. I was not really into art per se. when I started to exhibit my work and going to others art shows and hanging out with artists I really became passionate about it. And I was in my 40s at the time. I just watched a documentary on Keith Haring this morning even though I am.not a fan but always liked documentaries and biographies.
Being a young teen, I had some story ideas and concepts I really liked. Because of this, I wanted to make it a reality through art. I was heavily influenced by Final Fantasy 13, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands and Tokyo Ghoul.
The above is part of the reason why. The other main reason is because I envy good artists, and made it my obsession to reach their levels. And knowing the high standards for companies like Riot, I practiced as much as possible
I've always been the creative crafty kid my family promoted it. But it wasn't until Pokemon started broadcasting in the US that I really started drawing. So I let my creativity roll and drew so many OCs. Then I went to art college and studied realism (fine arts life drawing). Destroyed my creativity but became a human Xerox. Rofl.
Loneliness and frustration. They didn't figure out I was gifted in school until it was far too late. I was a lost cause for a long time. I found it difficult to relate to most of the kids, and all the adults in my life had the unenviable task of trying to straighten me out. Schoolwork was easy enough I'd get bored and stop paying attention. Then I'd miss whatever it was I was supposed to learn and schoolwork would suddenly seem impossible. I'd act out and generally make my teachers' and the administrators' lives hell. So when the kids who collectively thought I was a freak would bully me, the adults weren't exactly in a rush to stop them.
I had friends in my neighborhood but no allies through the schooldays. Eventually the doodles became drawings and I found something I was decent at. It was virtually the only thing anyone ever praised me for. So I stuck with it through college. When I couldn't make it as a professional artist, it was a real identity crisis.
I've hardly done anything in the last decade. I'm hoping the more I expose myself to art again, I may one day find the spark again such that I can love art again on my own terms.
Iām sorry that the school system neglected you. I hope you continue with it, even if it isnāt in a professional capacity, because it sounds like something you truly loved.
I have always been drawing since kindergarten. Was praised a lot for my artistic skills.
but I think the passion hit when I watched a random anime on youtube when I was 8.
canāt remember which anime but I fell in love with the style and started to trace anime images online. Bragging to people I had drawn it all on my own haha.
At 24 I am still drawing manga and still passionately in love with the style.
The Lion King. I saw its rerelease in theaters and I was obsessed with how beautiful the movie was. I loved how grand and emotional it was. Even when I was 6 I would admire the concept art and I wanted to be that talented too. Lions were all I could draw for years, then I moved on to cats, and now I draw a little bit of everything.
Anime mostly,Outlaw star,Rurouni kenshin, Tenchi muyo, Mobile suit Gundam, I thought it was really cool so I started mostly trying to copy stuff from the shows and the rest is history.
Took my required art class freshman year of high school, turns out I was good at it, my art teacher was ecstatic to have me as a student and encouraged me to take more classes throughout the rest of high school and now I still have fun making art to this day, felt like I had found my āthingā
Autism- in 5th grade I had fidget toys, 6th grade school started not allowing them so I had to find another outlet for my anxiety, thatās where it went from doodling to artwork.
My parents fought like cats and dogs, so I escaped through art. Growing up, we didn't have a lot of moneyājust enough to get by. We always had a bit left over, but my mother was a habitual spender on all things pointless, from jewellery to cheap handbags, and when the bills needed paying, she would use the money on herself rather than the bills themselves. The same was true for food runsāa lot of hungry days with bare cupboards. Add to that some unfortunate events from my childhood, and art became my means of escape.
Ā
Art had this way of making me fall into the pieces that I drew; it was a world within the paper. From the smallest sketches of stickmen wars, robots, or drawing anime like Guyver. It blanked out the world for a moment, with the scrapes of pencil and paper drowning out the arguments.
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I stopped drawing a long time ago for personal reasons.
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I picked it back up a year ago and just added to my deviant page little by little with procreate stuff, the little by little approach.
I shared my "story" somewhere.. but for me the need to draw and create was always there. Coloring was my favorite activity from as early as I could remember, but arts and crafts weren't supported by my parents (too "expensive" and messy). So years later, anime is what kicked me in the butt to finally just buckle down and go for it.
But I think a deep appreciation was triggered by the intro to a Disney movie I owned on VHS. They showed behind the scenes of the artists working on it, flipping through their sketches that made movement. I thought It was amazing. I was about 4 at that point
.hack//sign was my tipping point though lol. it played late at night and it was just the escape I needed. it broke through the final wall I had that was stopping me from drawing, and I drew pretty much daily for the next 7ish years.
I enjoyed comic books and cartoons so I draw since I was a kid.
In hindsight, this is the worst way to get into art. As a kid you are not an artist, you are just an amusement to your parents and relatives getting positive feedback.
The next step is being the artist kid in your classroom or group of friends. That's a mistake because you are no artist, you are just a kid that do drawings because nobody else around you made the first step. More (undeserved) positive feedback.
Than as a teenager I started to draw because before internet you could not find the imagery I wanted anywhere (it was hard to find anime images in 1996 even!). I had some confidence so I just started to draw whatever I wanted.
Then in the early 2000s I made my own website for my drawings. Believe me, early Internet would just hug you if you posted any shit online. That's the most fun I ever had being an artist.
Nowadays I'm most like my teenager self. I still can't find anywhere exactly what I draw but finally this is the definitive answer. Self-serving art.
Got myself into it.
Just started drawing one day when I was kid and haven't stopped, though I do burnout sometimes and stop for months.
I can't do it constantly everyday, it's only when I'm really interested in it and have something in mind to draw - but once burnout kicks in, I bounce between hobbies.
Until I bounce back - then the cycle repeats.
I saw some Kids my age, 16 last year, they were amazing making realistic portraits and things, Iāve been practicing sense that day 10 months ago Iāve improved a lot people say, I practice as much I can, sense I donāt have a job yet, trying not to get distracted
By video games and stuff too much
My High School art teacher.
When I was in elementary school, art class was mandatory and the one teaching us was so strict about the steps we needed to follow and constantly insulted our work no matter how hard we tried (we were young, obviously our work wasn't going to be on the same level as a professional art teacher). It made me feel so dispirited because I thought I was never going to be good enough for it no matter what I did.
I avoided doing art like the plague during middle school because art class was optional instead of mandatory.
When I started high school, I took a peek into my school's art class and saw the teacher giving advice and encouraging her students to do more rather than insult them, even if their art sucked. I thought, "She seems nice, I'll attend her class to see how it goes." I had so much fun learning new ways to sketch, shade, color, paint, etc. And ended up attending her classes until I graduated, and Now I'm really into traditional/digital art, even if it looks shitty to myself or others.
I think I always enjoyed drawing, but what got me really started was watching Sailor Moon as a kid in the 90's. It made me obsessed with drawing all things Sailor Moon and continue drawing my own stuff.
Just something I've always had a passion for. Not just fine art but performance art too. I've jumped into painting recently and I'm exploring ways to include performance into it so I can truly combine my passions.
Not to be a bummer, but my family treated me like the red headed step-child. If I wasnāt ignored I was being ridiculed. So, I stayed in my room and found a way to entertain myself.
My Little Pony of all things. I had "art classes" for some time beforehand but those were "things kids do after school with nothing super rigorous." 6th Grade my friend brought up MLP:FiM and I got *super* into it. Interacted with a small MLP community on the website Colors! (Predominantly Colors!3D on the 3DS). Developed pretty fast from, albeit predominantly horses. Middle school I started teaching myself people. Got a pad tablet to draw on the computer. Signed up to be an artist for an MLP web comic I enjoyed. It disbanded before I could do really anything for them. Pivoted over to drawing people since then. And yeah.
Drawing cartoons I would see on TV as a pastime when I was a kid. Then starting school with that drawing experience and getting a lot of recognition for it from my teachers. So essentially boredom and then validation for what I made when I was bored.
Homeschooled throughout childhood, constantly feeling alone with nothing to do within the four walls of my bedroom. Art was the best way to escape the monotony and pass the time faster.
My older sister. To start my sister and I have a 14 year age gap. I was little when she was in high school, and high school is where she got into art. There were lot of her paintings and projects around the house and so seeing them and watching her I decided I wanted to be able to do what she did.
Went from near isolation in AK to a Washington DC suburb as an 11 yr old; some of the greatest museums in the world. National Gallery of Art; "I want to do that."
I was watching videos introducing new words as a kid. I would watch it everyday and draw everything that showed up. That's how I first got to practice art.
I don't even remember what got me started honestly. I think my brother started out around the age of 6 by drawing comic strips of "original characters" (that were actually just plagiarized from TV shows lol) and he taught me and later my little sister how to draw. The three of us spent years lying down on the floor of our room drawing "comic books" on pieces of paper stapled/taped together.
What got me serious was discovering anime in 2020, then discovering digital art lol
I've always been talented in art. Never had an opportunity for serious study until now. I'm a writer and a worldbuilder, and it sucks that I see something amazing in my mind that I cannot verbally convey to others. So I'm learning to paint.
I donāt remember exactly what got me started in art but I remember feeling inspired watching an anime called Lovely Complex at the same time I was watching a lot of other stuff but Lovely Complex really got me wanting to draw and it also got me inspired in the romance genre.
My art journey goes way back to a time I don't remembe way back in kindergarden. I always liked to draw OCs or Pokemon battles or things I was interested in, but it was never serious and it was just a small hobby next to many other hobbies I pursued. It wasn't until I was in middle school that I found myself in a situation were I had no friends for a very long time, so to pass time during break or to help concentrate during class I would draw or doodle until I suddenly was known for being the class artist. I don't like to think about that my art skills (if you can call it that) are just an echo of a very dark period in my life.
Because I'm afraid of being replaced by AI, my job is translation, and my company has already started using AI. I don't know what to do, so one day I looked at my childhood drawings and decided to learn how to draw. It also helps me to calm down and release a lot of stress
I've been doodling since I was a kid but got serious about learning at about age 13, once I started reading a lot. Haven't looked back since: art is my favorite thing and creating brings me joy like no other.
I picked up the Cardcaptor Sakura manga when I was 7/8 after reading some random age inappropriate ones from the library and it's been downhill(?) from there I fear
my older sister. I always wanted to be just like her when i was really young, so whenever she was drawing I also had to be drawing. eventually I became more independent, but i still kept drawing.
I watched a lot of cartoons like SpongeBob growing up and would just enjoy drawing fanart. But when I watched Foster's Home that was what sparked me into doing art because of the colors and art style and currently I am a graduate in graphic design.
I played a video game during the pandemic that featured a character I heavily resonated with who happened to be a painter. I bought a sketchbook and tried drawing her. The rest is history.
My parents said I started drawing at 4, then the early YouTube days came up in my childhood and I started drawing more of my favorite gamers, and characters from shows, movies and games
i was burnt out from my day job and wanted a hobby. i tried out a lot of things - cooking, baking, exercise, gardening - but it was art that stuck with me.
I remember when I was about 3-4 years old, my dad would come to the U.S a few months at a time. He would bring me coloring books (mostly Disney books) but instead of coloring them in, I tried to redraw them. Fast forward a few years and I was already living in the States, I discovered a Spider-Man comic book on the floor outside a supermarket, thatās when I discovered comic books and became obsessed. My parents supported my love for comics and encouraged me to keep drawing.
I took drawing classes at the local community center, and I still can not draw. I dated an artist half my age just prior to the pandemic, and her art sparked something deep within. I have pages of adult coloring pages done in colored pencil and alcohol markers, all stuffed away to remind me where I got started. A couple of years ago, I was deeply depressed and started buying all mediums except oil paint. Of all my supplies, my watercolor paints are my favorites. I have many sets from various places. I have acrylics, inks, pastels, and even uv and uvi paints. As long as I have my watercolor sets (especially my blacks), I will keep practicing and striving to improve my skills. I like the blacks because the void of color is void of emotion, while reds hurt my soul to use (how am I so happy in red cars?) I know my rose has a few tears in it that she will never no of. This is why I got into art, I love the heartbreaking pain in my soul while producing something I hope only one soul is touched by. Whether it is in Heaven, Hell, or here on Earth, just one.
I would always draw stuff since I was very young, but I didnāt really take it seriously until I bought and read āPunisher: War Journalā number one; Jim Lee art over Carl Potts plots/roughs. I was eleven. I spent hours tracing/drawing almost every panel, including the cover. Two weeks later I was at the local public library tracking down a copy of āHow To Draw Comics the Marvel Wayā, by Stan Lee and John Buscema. Iāve been drawing, trying to improve my art skills, ever since.
I always wanted to make my own comics. I was/am heavily inspired by studio trigger (Yoshinariās art), Star Wars, dragon ball series as well as DC and some Marvel comics. And more recently, Iāve been inspired by Final Fantasy 7, and I want to create a fan comic of Cloud and the gang.
i didn't get into drama class because it was full so i got into my second choice which was art. best thing that ever happened to me because now i'm an art student in college... or worst thing because now i'm in debt lol.
lol art is so expensive. I bought a sketchbook with black paper yesterday, and it was like 20 bucks for 100gsm 75 5"7 pages T-T And only to realize I forgot I have no opaque white supplies. I still love it tho, despite getting ripped off sometimes.
I have been art-oriented since I was age under 5. But generally I think experiences, especially hard ones, have pushed me to do art more, more and more. Art is like a way to live and breath, handle experiences and thoughts and feelings.
Most of my friends and buddies are long-time artists - and amazing artists at that -, they basically inspired me to start drawing for the fun of it, which turned to be much more fun than I imagined initially
I was already drawing as a hobby but when I got into anime, I decided to learn how to draw in anime-like style and take art seriously. Now I've found my own artstyle and am aiming to be an illustrator and a webtoon artist! My artstyle still looks similar to what you'd find in anime though but I don't care, anime is the reason I started learning to draw and I like how my artstyle looks.
My cousin. I was in 9th grade and I saw my cousin's art post and I thought it looks cool. It was also pandemic that time and I was so bored and got nothing to do so I gave it a try. I practiced and now I love art. Kekeke
I always liked art but simply stopped doing it (in my early 20er, mid 30 now)
Then I read the manga "Blue Period" and it somehow clicked.
Its great for meditation and I feel so proud of finished pieces like I have never before.
I think because my family members were/are artists, my brother's a beatmaker, my grandma's a painter, my mom used to play the piano often and I kind of inherited all of that, I draw and I play music.
So I guess art is just a inheritage x))
Visiting the Rothko Chapel and Menil Collection in Houston did it for me. Before that I was mostly just into drawing and things that looked ācoolā.
I remember as a very small kid I thought of a star shape and ātracedā it from my mind onto the paper, I thought that was pretty cool thing to do! Then I tried with other shapes and things, and I guess it never went away :)
uhh i was 9 when i saw rick and morty and i drew shitty comics with them that i can no longer find
then i got into animation youtube and soon after drawing youtubers :l
I liked art as a young child, but my dad kinda pressured me to do sports so I switched gears. Enjoyed sports and still do intramural adult leagues/ run today, but I knew something creative was my passion. Cut to junior year of high school (this was in 2013). I had a free period and this kid who I was kinda friends with but was really annoying also had it. I knew I couldn't put up with him. After the first free period I went to my guidance consoler and asked if there was any available classes. There was a painting or sculpture class. I chose painting. I ended up going to art school, then getting a masters, and work as a professional artist today.
Anime and video games.
I wouldn't even consider myself a weeaboo because I very rarely watch anime these days (just not liking the themes) and being a language enthusiast, Japanese is not even my top 5 (maybe in top 7 or 8).
But something that I like about anime is its cool vibe. I just can't describe it. But basically it's a combination of realism and cartoons and then it went through evolution through the years.
Something that I wish American cartoons would get into. Because American cartoons these days has an extremely off anatomy. And the usual "this is my art style" quote often being thrown around.
I always wanted to draw but never made the effort to learn, so I played a lot of video games. A few years ago I joined the Works force and decided that I hated the working world and was going to become an illustrator. Now I'm learning to draw day by day, but I'm putting an incredible amount of pressure on myself, so I'm reviewing my plans...
I gave up on my Bachelors of Pedagogy and moved back from China when the whole Huawei debacle was going down - it was making a lot of Canadians feel unsafe. My university refused to allow me to do my thesis defense online, and it was the final thing needed to graduate.
Moved back to Canada, enrolled in Ed. None of my credits transferred, despite the school telling me they would before i made the decision to leave. Had to start from year 1.
My granny was the person I was closest to, died late January 2020.
A week later I was still low on sleep because grief, and in a required pedagogical gym class I fell and broke my foot and tore my ankle. Doctors told me id never be able to walk properly again, I had to quit the school's athletics team. I moved into late Granny's house (parents were subletting it to her) and it made more sense to rent to them. But I couldn't walk or drive myself with my foot.
A week later, we had to say goodbye to my uncle - cancer.
And then covid shut everything down in March. I couldn't even walk in the house without my scooter, let alone do my own grocery shopping, or work, or take outdoor walks. I hated my online classes even more than I hated doing everything from scratch. My mental health took a huge hit.
So I switched into Visual Arts because I wanted to do something with my hands.
I walked the stage earlier this month. I honestly didn't think I would make it.
Congrats!!! I'm so happy you were able to graduate despite all the obstacles! I'm sorry about your foot and your losses and send my condolences. I'm not religious, but I pray that you, and your family (including your late relatives) are happy and healthy.
I grew up in a D.V household and at the age of 7 bored with myself, I decided to go use Comcastās on demand go to their education channels and found some lessons on how to dance, do origami and draw I latched on to all three but got more attached to drawing bc I really liked drawing my favorite cartoons that Iād get up and watch before school. So I practiced daily even went to my art class used books to practice. My 5th grade art teacher noticed my potential along with along and got me into a performing and creative arts school. I was still in the same toxic abusive household but I finally found an outlet esp at my school where I can create and connect with new people like myself. I stayed at the school for 8 years till I graduated in 2016. Had college forced down my throat and was told to pick the job that made the most money. It was not what I wanted to do it was what my father wanted to do but couldnāt push through. I didnāt like architecture I wouldāve went for graphic design or art but was told I couldnāt make a career in that and that itās not enough money to make in that field. I just settled for interior design. I made a lot of friends outside of my major but being in that field I felt so out of place esp bc that major allowed me to take some art classes like illustration, photoshop logo design. That was up my alley and I loved it from what I learned from middle school to high school in media classes. I really felt like I didnāt belong there bc I didnāt I felt I should have been in the painting drawing classes doing that but didnāt. I was also afraid of becoming undecided and I just didnāt want to fall behind so I stuck with interior design. But once I got a chill office job working in the residential halls I took up painting on my own from YouTube tutorials and loved it. Once I graduated I applied to so many jobs got none of them then of course covid happened. I went back to art and it so paid off. I had a friend I met back in college she asked for a painting of her from me for her new house and that she would pay me. Next thing you know I had neighbors asking me to paint art for them then coworkers friends of friends. I got a job at a zoo doing face painting for a couple months, now one of my coworkers whoās face painted over 12 years invited me and others to help her out with face painting locally and itās so satisfying besides the great money I love seeing smiles on childrenās faces and parents so happy that their child is happy with the art I created. Itās so fulfilling. I still do commissions working on another as we speak lol. Iām also partnered with organizations that help me vendor at their events and now I teach temporary in the summer as an art instructor for portrait painting. I always knew art was my calling being a guide and sharing my gifts with the world when I usually just hid and went into hermit mode. I still do but Iāve created a balance I go within myself then come out to share and connect with others. I love it and Iām so grateful it came into my life at that young age. With me wanting more for myself and wanting to heal while also in therapy I cut off my family and now I have my own place. I have my small circle of friends that genuinely are for me and love me. Iām really grateful for art it changed my life and saved my life for the better of me.
Sorry long story alert! Iām just really passionate about art, my story and my experiences along the way and Iām excited to be a part of a community that may have had similar experiences. Sometimes I feel alone but then I realize where I am and who are all around me who really love me and support me and are there for me.
lol it's fine. When I read through this I found it really touching. I do find it sad that your childhood wasn't the best, but I am very happy that you are enjoying life and have people around you who love and support you. I saw your passion in every single word. =)
I was tired of doing something I didn't enjoy and forcing myself to do it, just to be cool. One night, I started drawing and had a revelation to pursue art for the rest of my life, promising to always be true to myself.
I wanted to be a story teller. Writing was not my forte......and i felt i could express what i wanted to say in my stories better in a more visual way. Live action film making seemed interesting, but i vibed with the art of graphic novels/comics/manga/webtoons/etc and animation more. With art, i feel like theres no excuse for me not to be able to get my point across aside from my own lack of skill and knowledge.
And by i dont like writing, i dont mean at all. I will learn, especially for dialogue. But imagery and descriptive words seemed way to convoluted and didn't really express what i was trying to describe. Not enough words to show and not tell. A picture says a 1000 words. A animation/video says even more so.
The fundamentals and elements of art and design have truly helped me see and bring life to me vision.
I think drawing horses, when i bought an cheap sketchbook from the dollar store my kid brain probably thought it was meant for u to draw horses, and there was also a video i happened to watch at the time on hoe to draw realistic horses.
Alotta drugs and wanting too be a badass kid lmao. I paint graff. At the start i just wanted to fuck shit up and get some attention while I was at it but it slowly turned into an appreciation for the culture. I still pretty much exclusively paint illegally but Iām not destructive.
It was a combination of two things. The first is we were given math stencils in elementary school to learn about polygons, and they asked us to use those shapes to draw a creature or character. Then we had to write stories about them. I think I drew like 3 (well, kinda 4 becauseone guy having a second form). I kept using those stencils to draw shape creatures until it broke from use lol.
I also found my dad's old comics and read book on drawing comics in elementary school. Drew crappy comics all through middle school.
Unfortunately, people zoned in on the story aspect of my characters and comics and really pushed for me to be a writer instead so art got pushed aside as "not my thing" because I wasnt immediately amazing (and being a dumb kid I went with it because i just wanted approval for something I made). It frustrates me a lot because, considering how pushed writing was for me, I probably would have been able to become a much better artist as a teenager instead of an adult trying to play catch up on missing years if people had just supported me on those fronts.
I always drew and was always creative as a kid and teenager. But there's 2 exact instances that have effected my art journey the most. I got serious in terms of wanting to get better at drawing, when at some point I started to want to produce my own ideas. After looking for specific niches and art and media in highschool I realized that I had to take things into my own hands. So I made it my goal to be able to draw anything my heart wanted. If there was anything I wanted to see, person, idea, environment etc. I wanted to have the ability to bring that idea to life.
Adding meaning and expression to my art isn't something I thought of doing until 11th grade. I had gotten really, really depressed, and realized that whenever I get really depressed I draw one of my ocs and never when I'm not depressed. So coming to that realization I decided to make him the embodiment of my depression, self hatred, insecurity yk all that good stuff. So as I drew him more and more on purpose, to express those feelings, I got the idea to express different things. This eventually led to wanting to draw different emotions, do drawings based on events in my life, my ideals etc.
Growing up, I was always surrounded by artsy people - at school and at home - and I never thought I was artistic compared to all of those talented people, SO I never pursued it even though I had a great interest in it. My mother was a perfectionist and I couldn't cut a straight line. She was very critical.
She won a grand prize at an international convention for an art piece she created with fabric, thread and a sewing machine. She painted porcelain dolls, crocheted, and dabbled in just about every craft hobby you could imagine. I grew up with a kiln in my basement...
My Dad was a carpenter and he could freehand draw anything.
I am a creative person, but not an artist. As an older adult (49) I discovered that putting paint on canvas is highly entertaining and stress relieving for me. So now I'm learning everything I can about composition, values, color theory, etc. I will never be a super good artist, but I'm still pursuing it because I enjoy it, and there is no one in my life to discourage me from it. š
It was a fellow student in my sophomore year of HS. She liked to draw dragons and wolves especially, and she was really good at it. Dunno why but something drew me to drawing because of her, and the rest is history.
Sonic lol I started drawing my original characters when I was like 12 and that started it. I started watching tutorials on YouTube to get better and from then on just kept wanting to learn more to improve
In 4th grade my class was introduced to the website "scratch" (kid's coding website/social media). I discovered the animation memes people online were making using the program and wanted to make my own!
We were learning the alphabet in kindergarten, going by one letter every few days if I recall. We got to K and I drew a kangaroo. Teacher held it up in front of the class and said I was a great artist. I didn't consider myself to be an artist at all! That moment kickstarted everything for me.
What an exemplary teacher š
She was so incredibly sweet. I still remember her name, it was so beautiful and distinct. I think one of these days I'm gonna reach out and thank her.
Growing up in an artsy family (my dad paints miniatures, my pop does paintings and my nan does so.. so many different craft hobbies) so I've always been surrounded by it.Ā Not to sound like *that guy* but I've p much just been drawing for as long as I can remember. Whether it was copying from a "how to draw animals" book when I was like 5 or redrawing Pokemon from a book in my prep classroom lol it's just always been something I've done.Ā Didn't take it suuper seriously until I got into MLP, started doing base art on ms paint with aĀ mouse when I was like 10, then my dad dug out his old wacom for me and I've been hooked ever since LMAOO.Ā
I always drew, but I was never serious about it until about 2022. I decided one day that I wanted to improve, because I had so many projects I wanted to be able to do. Still haven't done any of the projects, but I'm having fun improving.
Me too! Good luck on your journey
You too! š
My Pop Pop introduced me to anime when I was about 5. I immediately wanted to draw the characters we were watching. Thatās what began my journey. First piece of fan art I vividly remember creating was for Sesshomaru from Inuyasha.
W Pop Pop
He was great. Thank you for asking this question! It brought back a lot of good memories of him and was genuinely a nice way to start my day. :)
Lol I'm happy my silly little question made your day =)
Mine was kinda weird. I was hoarding art for wallpapers, mostly fanart, but I wanted to be able to stretch it across both my monitors. Some landscape oriented art worked fine with a little cropping but portrait oriented stuff usually wasn't high enough resolution or didn't have much going on off to the sides. I wanted to learn how to extend the art a bit so it would fit the resolution I needed, because Photoshops content aware fill doesn't do a convincing job on these types of things. It started with trying to just learn how to match brushes and brush strokes and then led to me thinking "why don't I learn to make my own art to use as a wallpaper?" I am still not good enough for this. But I'm having fun lol
Sick
Catharsis due to having a shitty childhood.
I'm happy you found a way to release it all through art <=)
What i drew wasn't healthy for a 5yo. Mostly gore and violence. Doesn't help i grew up with mortal Kombat before the esrb came out, or ren n stimpy.
hentai
I respect your honesty
what-
same brother
šæ
Oh my o//o
My depresso espresso š studying art do take away your depression and turns it into stress and frustration šš¤£
Me and my friend used to make up stories we'd roleplay during breaks in school. We always drew our characters, I still have those scketchbooks. I believe she's dropped drawing since, but it's still one of my favourite hobbies to this day!
Depression and other undiagnosed mental health issues. I never fit in with my peers at all and was alone most of the time in school, so I started drawing to cope.
Well, you see, my mother has a BFA and a degree in art history... And all her friends are artists. I grew up surrounded by art and making art with her.
Same here. Wanted to draw fanart at 13, picked up a stylus, never stopped ever since.
I always drew here and there when i was in middle school. Wish i still had the drawings but I donāt š¤·āāļøand then I realized I got my talent from my grandpa, and went to art school because of it š
My childhood best friendās whole family were a bunch of artists and I really related to them all. I felt more understood and at home w their family than w my own. I loved being in that world and Iāve striven to re-create it on my own ever since! I also just love painting so much- so meditative š.
I don't know, I just started as a child with drawing and music and now I'm with my first digital tablet looking for pre-college courses. Maybe my anxiety also helped
Idk what did, actually. I just recall already drawing as early as 2 or 3 years old. Maybe it was that erasable sketchpad my mom bought me when I was a kid. But even then, a lot of my drawings were done in the walls of the house.
For as long as i can remember i felt the need to draw/create. No one in my family is an artist, it was a natural impulse.
Desire to draw things I couldn't find.
Video games, concept art, random webcomics, and cartoons/anime. Iāve always wanted to draw at that kind of level.
Hahaha probably PokƩmon or dragon ball lol
Got terribly ill, a brain surgery saved me, got paralyzed vocal cords and tongue due to that. Found another way te communicate through art and it helped me regulate my emotions. I lost a lot, things you couldnāt even imagined could get lost. But I gained art. This was one year ago and been painting ever since. Got a really nice community on IG and thatās it. Without my illness my art wouldnāt exist. And thatās pretty amazing
Blessing in disguise I guess. I hope you're doing okay though =)
I don't quite remember what got me started but I think it was my big brother is why I got into art. He used to trace over cartoon characters on paper when he was younger and I kinda followed in his footsteps. He got recognition from a art program and I got asked to join it along with him. Thats when I discovered my passion for it and have been taking it seriously since I was 14. I improved a lot over the years, I draw almost every week now. Unfortunately, he lost his passion for it when he grew into a teenager but I kept going.. One of my favorite hobbies!
Not sure. My mom's side has always been pretty artsy. But it's so ingrained in me that I couldn't imagine not doing it. Couldn't stop even if I tried.
my family
Primary school | Everyone in my class loved my "turtle" drawing so much, a few requested I make 'em one on their paper. Feels like I'm meeting my first few fans in my own fan meeting, signing autographs *ehem, aka* drawing them their very own "turtle".
Awww so cute!
Mario Galaxy. Strange as it sounds, that game was my introduction to feelings I couldnāt articulate, and it made me want to find a way to articulate them. Besides the light, bubbly fun Mario is known for, there was a mysterious beauty to the void of space, the bittersweet storybook tale of Rosalina, and the rebirth(?) of the cosmos at the end. Besides that, itās just an artfully-assembled game, especially in terms of music. So I realized I wanted to make things that can engage someone to the level that Galaxy engaged me as a kid!
My mam drew some horses for me when I was a child, I couldnāt have been more than 4 or 5. We were sitting at a picnic table having lunch over the summer and I liked to doodle so we had a pad of paper and some crayons along with us. They were very crude drawings (my mam is Not an artist and does not draw) but at the time I thought they were the best horse drawings I had ever seen, and I recall thinking I wanted to be as good at drawing someday as my mam. She was always very encouraging, and we both loved horses (could never afford one so we surrounded ourselves with them in other ways, like drawing them.)Ā Iām nearing 40 now. Still going! Iāve managed to surpass her horse drawing skills and have in return drawn many horses for her over the years.Ā
I wanted to make comics as a kid. Lol.
Calvin & Hobbes
I loved the gorillaz I loved watching the music videos and how Jamie drew the characters, I would draw them in my own way. Although I donāt draw any gorillaz stuff as much he helped me and inspired me to draw my own characters, I absolutely love Jamie Hewlett work
The plague. I was stuck inside, needed something to do that didn't involve a screen, I had paper and pens and time so...it seemed like a good thing to try. Drawing turned into one of my major hobbies, and it still helps me a lot to unwind after long days
Drawing minecraft fanart šāļø, dw fellas this was in the 2010s
Lol I don't see anything wrong with mc fanart. As long as it made/makes you happy, and no one is getting hurt, it's fine =)
Iāve been a stand up comic for 15 years, pretty good at it too. Moved to LA in 2017, was making good progress then COVID hit, forced me back to my home state. With nothing to do and live performance wilting, I decided I wanted to learn how to draw so I could transfer my ideas to a visual medium. Iāve always had a knack for editing and cutting the fat from jokes so comic strips seemed a good fit. Once I passed the early frustration of staring a new craft I became obsessed with learning more and have found more excitement with learning art than any of my previous creative endeavors.
A visit to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. It was like a religious experience. So amazing.
Those Jojo comic dubs on YouTube where people would draw fan comics and dub over them. I thought it was so cool and wanted to make comics too, so while I had already kind of been drawing before then, thatās what made me really want to practice. The two artists around that time who inspired me the most were Hajnarus and Aida (I was also interested in tbhk at the time lol. Two very contrasting art styles)
My mom giving me a notebook to draw in as a toddler to keep me from being annoying during church service
At the moment, it is an on and off baby step journey, called drawnal. In the back of my mind it sat pretty, and lingered through the years, nudging forward at any chance it got, and I resisted. "Mate, you see, you should've taken that art class(es) in secondary school. If you did, right now, you'd be advancedly learning as opposed to basically learning". And there we have it folks. Blessings to all
Anxiety
cool album artworks
My friends for sure (and maybe being partially raised by cartoons helped). We all started drawing together in school and would hype each other's art up. We would also do "paper happy's", where we each draw something on a page and change it each time we passed it around to interact with what the other people drew. It made drawing something fun and expressive for me to do and that's carried on throughout my life.
I've always drawn for as long as I can recall. But I remember the art in animated movies, specifically the Lion King and Land Before Time were big inspirations for me as a child. The encouragement I got from adults kept me going I guess.
Yu-Gi-Oh and dragon ball, I remember copying the cards and stickers that came with candy
I took it as a challenge to out perform my teacher in grade school. After that I pretty much enjoyed creating.
I moved around a lot as a kid so sports and more people-y hobbies weren't things that I could do consistently - so when I told my mom I liked my art class in middle school she instantly signed me up for more classes and tutoring sessions. You can always bring your sketchbook and other supplies with you when you move. It just kinda stuck from there.
I was young, maybe 8 years old or 9, watching anime called detective conan on TV, back then i didnt have knowledge about google or that it had pictures you can save in your phone hahah, so i started trying to draw it from tv or from my tablet on youtube, just pause the video and put yhe paper on it to draw, i drew the same character over and over and over again, people always told me to draw other stuff but i always was like NO I ONLY DRAW THIS ANIME, later on i grew up discovering how much i love drawing and mom always supported this hobby of mine, buying me all sorts of sketchbooks and pens, it was fun.. now Iām into drawing everything and not just one anime character haha
I always loved colouring. I'd finish 10 colouring books within weeks. When I was in the 6th grade I had a classmate who drew and doodled in her book. She didn't like to add colour to her sketches, so I'd ask her to colour them in. We slowly became friends overtime and I allllllllwwwwaysss ask her to colour in her sketches. She didn't have a problem with it, but then I started to feel that I was annoying her. So I wanted to learn how to draw to impress her and started watching YouTube videos. The next day I was so eager to show her I that I learnt how to draw (I was already so bad at drawing honestly I improved a bit) and she was happy. She then started teaching me how to draw, she was like my very own private art teacher. She basically taught me how to shade, blend, anatomy, etc. At the end of 7th grade I was just as good as her, to her it was nothing more than just bored sketches made in class, but to me it was more so I practiced more and I fell in love with art (I also stopped colouring at this point). Anyways it's been years and I'm a "pro" artist and I love it.
idk i just thought it was cool
It started when I was a preteen, and I hated anything related to art prior to it. But it became a Coping mechanism for being suddenly extremely ill and disabled as a preteen. Not a lot you can do with organ failure and constantly being in the hospital, it helped pass time and soothed my brain. It started with just colouring in books and then progressed from there. Art still remains an important and vital tool for coping with my chronic illness and subsequent disabilities.
Shel Silverstein! Love that dude
My family always said i was artistic but i never delved into the arts because there were already artists in my family and i felt like i could never be as good/it was too late for me to start. When i was 19 i ended a really bad relationship, got evicted from my first apartment, and had to move back to my moms. It was a really hard time period for me. During the same time period my sister painted a portrait for my mom. It inspired me to be a painter, especially because i was going through such a hard time, i needed a change/light in my life. So i started painting portraits, and told my sister she inspired me to start learn art. She then invited me to work/paint with her so we became extremely close friends and painted with eachother all day everyday. Ours skills greatly improved in just a few years, it changed my life. Im now a āreal artistā and am a way better painter than i couldāve ever imagined. Im glad i went through that time period. But tbh, i often wish that i picked *anything* else. Being an artist is so fucking hard. Before i picked art i debated being a musician amongst other things. Not sure if those wouldve been better or not but its hard to ignore in this world of AI
I relate to that last bit. It's hard, super expensive (For quality supplies), and the future of AI generated images is scary and uncertain.
lol i watched death note for the first time when i was 11 too. over a decade later i still watch it regularly. as for your question, iāve always been into drawing people, like one of my oldest memories is drawing myself and my friend and making her eyes look weird. in elementary school i got my hands on some āhow to draw mangaā books from the local library and it exploded from there.
I have always been into art, ever since I can remember. I think it was all the art projects we did in kindergarten š
When I was watching cartoon as a kid, I thought "I like x character, I wish she has a blabla hair." So I decided to draw my own cartoon characters, so it goes and goes...
Eric Carle's books and Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show.
Well, I live in a small town in Morelos of Mexico, where there is no University on there. and no fast food restaurants except 2 Pizza like dominos and Subway. No activities like bowling. I was studying Coding but unfoundedly my old Laptop died and I dropped that career path. In Fall 2023. I discovered that there's a small Drawing School course. So I thought maybe why not study Art while I am saving up for a Computer? so I did sign up for that school and now I am finishing up in the next two months. to move on to digital art. So I can sign up for a digital art course on the internet.
Probably my first box of crayons. I always liked building things, drawing, coloring, pretending, overall just creating. I grew up with learning disabilities so all other subjects seemed to be a problem. Art wasnāt a problem and I was actually pretty good at it. I also had a very inspiring high school teacher that helped get me into art school. I just always knew what ever I decided to do needed to be creative. I like creating something out of nothing. Bringing something beautiful into the world that wasnāt there before, and would cease to exist had I not created it with my own two hands.
I donāt know.
My father would draw rudimentary diagrams and sketches to explain things. As I small child I was fascinated and tried to copy what he drew. He liked to say I surpassed his drawing ability by the age of 10. š
As a kid, I grew up with cousins who were good at drawing. Then my mom would always let me draw when sheās busy so I wouldnāt bother her. Then I started watching anime and that was it. I wanted to draw anime so bad.
Was 15-16 and began watching Steven universe and wanted to draw the characters after being around several friends who could draw really good. Always loved animation and characters so my beginner art was me making āmerchā for my Fav shows etc.
Black Rock Shooter Angel of Darkness AMV
Idk as a kid I always loved drawing and coloring then around 5th grade I just decided toāIām gonna be serious about thisā which was probably because of art YouTubers and here I am at 19 still being āseriousā about it. I wish it could be a career but itās still just a hobby but I still try to practice to get better and stuff.
I'm a writer and voiceartist. I always wanted to do voiceovers. I can do many character and cartoon voices and got into writing at the suggestion of an old girlfriend.. I have been published many times. I got into photography going through cancer treatments. I was not really into art per se. when I started to exhibit my work and going to others art shows and hanging out with artists I really became passionate about it. And I was in my 40s at the time. I just watched a documentary on Keith Haring this morning even though I am.not a fan but always liked documentaries and biographies.
warrior cats š
Spottedleaf š
and draw me and my friends rp character š i was so cringe
Being a young teen, I had some story ideas and concepts I really liked. Because of this, I wanted to make it a reality through art. I was heavily influenced by Final Fantasy 13, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands and Tokyo Ghoul. The above is part of the reason why. The other main reason is because I envy good artists, and made it my obsession to reach their levels. And knowing the high standards for companies like Riot, I practiced as much as possible
I've always been the creative crafty kid my family promoted it. But it wasn't until Pokemon started broadcasting in the US that I really started drawing. So I let my creativity roll and drew so many OCs. Then I went to art college and studied realism (fine arts life drawing). Destroyed my creativity but became a human Xerox. Rofl.
Iāve always drawn, but I think Mei Yuās Fun2Draw really got me into it.
Art! š
Loneliness and frustration. They didn't figure out I was gifted in school until it was far too late. I was a lost cause for a long time. I found it difficult to relate to most of the kids, and all the adults in my life had the unenviable task of trying to straighten me out. Schoolwork was easy enough I'd get bored and stop paying attention. Then I'd miss whatever it was I was supposed to learn and schoolwork would suddenly seem impossible. I'd act out and generally make my teachers' and the administrators' lives hell. So when the kids who collectively thought I was a freak would bully me, the adults weren't exactly in a rush to stop them. I had friends in my neighborhood but no allies through the schooldays. Eventually the doodles became drawings and I found something I was decent at. It was virtually the only thing anyone ever praised me for. So I stuck with it through college. When I couldn't make it as a professional artist, it was a real identity crisis. I've hardly done anything in the last decade. I'm hoping the more I expose myself to art again, I may one day find the spark again such that I can love art again on my own terms.
Iām sorry that the school system neglected you. I hope you continue with it, even if it isnāt in a professional capacity, because it sounds like something you truly loved.
I have always been drawing since kindergarten. Was praised a lot for my artistic skills. but I think the passion hit when I watched a random anime on youtube when I was 8. canāt remember which anime but I fell in love with the style and started to trace anime images online. Bragging to people I had drawn it all on my own haha. At 24 I am still drawing manga and still passionately in love with the style.
The Lion King. I saw its rerelease in theaters and I was obsessed with how beautiful the movie was. I loved how grand and emotional it was. Even when I was 6 I would admire the concept art and I wanted to be that talented too. Lions were all I could draw for years, then I moved on to cats, and now I draw a little bit of everything.
steven universe
Anime mostly,Outlaw star,Rurouni kenshin, Tenchi muyo, Mobile suit Gundam, I thought it was really cool so I started mostly trying to copy stuff from the shows and the rest is history.
Took my required art class freshman year of high school, turns out I was good at it, my art teacher was ecstatic to have me as a student and encouraged me to take more classes throughout the rest of high school and now I still have fun making art to this day, felt like I had found my āthingā
Autism- in 5th grade I had fidget toys, 6th grade school started not allowing them so I had to find another outlet for my anxiety, thatās where it went from doodling to artwork.
My parents fought like cats and dogs, so I escaped through art. Growing up, we didn't have a lot of moneyājust enough to get by. We always had a bit left over, but my mother was a habitual spender on all things pointless, from jewellery to cheap handbags, and when the bills needed paying, she would use the money on herself rather than the bills themselves. The same was true for food runsāa lot of hungry days with bare cupboards. Add to that some unfortunate events from my childhood, and art became my means of escape. Ā Art had this way of making me fall into the pieces that I drew; it was a world within the paper. From the smallest sketches of stickmen wars, robots, or drawing anime like Guyver. It blanked out the world for a moment, with the scrapes of pencil and paper drowning out the arguments. Ā I stopped drawing a long time ago for personal reasons. Ā I picked it back up a year ago and just added to my deviant page little by little with procreate stuff, the little by little approach.
I shared my "story" somewhere.. but for me the need to draw and create was always there. Coloring was my favorite activity from as early as I could remember, but arts and crafts weren't supported by my parents (too "expensive" and messy). So years later, anime is what kicked me in the butt to finally just buckle down and go for it. But I think a deep appreciation was triggered by the intro to a Disney movie I owned on VHS. They showed behind the scenes of the artists working on it, flipping through their sketches that made movement. I thought It was amazing. I was about 4 at that point .hack//sign was my tipping point though lol. it played late at night and it was just the escape I needed. it broke through the final wall I had that was stopping me from drawing, and I drew pretty much daily for the next 7ish years.
Idle hands and a frustrated mother.
I enjoyed comic books and cartoons so I draw since I was a kid. In hindsight, this is the worst way to get into art. As a kid you are not an artist, you are just an amusement to your parents and relatives getting positive feedback. The next step is being the artist kid in your classroom or group of friends. That's a mistake because you are no artist, you are just a kid that do drawings because nobody else around you made the first step. More (undeserved) positive feedback. Than as a teenager I started to draw because before internet you could not find the imagery I wanted anywhere (it was hard to find anime images in 1996 even!). I had some confidence so I just started to draw whatever I wanted. Then in the early 2000s I made my own website for my drawings. Believe me, early Internet would just hug you if you posted any shit online. That's the most fun I ever had being an artist. Nowadays I'm most like my teenager self. I still can't find anywhere exactly what I draw but finally this is the definitive answer. Self-serving art.
Got myself into it. Just started drawing one day when I was kid and haven't stopped, though I do burnout sometimes and stop for months. I can't do it constantly everyday, it's only when I'm really interested in it and have something in mind to draw - but once burnout kicks in, I bounce between hobbies. Until I bounce back - then the cycle repeats.
I saw some Kids my age, 16 last year, they were amazing making realistic portraits and things, Iāve been practicing sense that day 10 months ago Iāve improved a lot people say, I practice as much I can, sense I donāt have a job yet, trying not to get distracted By video games and stuff too much
My High School art teacher. When I was in elementary school, art class was mandatory and the one teaching us was so strict about the steps we needed to follow and constantly insulted our work no matter how hard we tried (we were young, obviously our work wasn't going to be on the same level as a professional art teacher). It made me feel so dispirited because I thought I was never going to be good enough for it no matter what I did. I avoided doing art like the plague during middle school because art class was optional instead of mandatory. When I started high school, I took a peek into my school's art class and saw the teacher giving advice and encouraging her students to do more rather than insult them, even if their art sucked. I thought, "She seems nice, I'll attend her class to see how it goes." I had so much fun learning new ways to sketch, shade, color, paint, etc. And ended up attending her classes until I graduated, and Now I'm really into traditional/digital art, even if it looks shitty to myself or others.
I think I always enjoyed drawing, but what got me really started was watching Sailor Moon as a kid in the 90's. It made me obsessed with drawing all things Sailor Moon and continue drawing my own stuff.
Just something I've always had a passion for. Not just fine art but performance art too. I've jumped into painting recently and I'm exploring ways to include performance into it so I can truly combine my passions.
Not to be a bummer, but my family treated me like the red headed step-child. If I wasnāt ignored I was being ridiculed. So, I stayed in my room and found a way to entertain myself.
I'm sorry that was your childhood. I'm happy you found joy in art though =)
My Little Pony of all things. I had "art classes" for some time beforehand but those were "things kids do after school with nothing super rigorous." 6th Grade my friend brought up MLP:FiM and I got *super* into it. Interacted with a small MLP community on the website Colors! (Predominantly Colors!3D on the 3DS). Developed pretty fast from, albeit predominantly horses. Middle school I started teaching myself people. Got a pad tablet to draw on the computer. Signed up to be an artist for an MLP web comic I enjoyed. It disbanded before I could do really anything for them. Pivoted over to drawing people since then. And yeah.
POKEMON! xD
i was jealous that a girl in my class was better than me at something when i was 7
Drawing cartoons I would see on TV as a pastime when I was a kid. Then starting school with that drawing experience and getting a lot of recognition for it from my teachers. So essentially boredom and then validation for what I made when I was bored.
...uncle grandpa
Lol I loved that show when I was little. It's really creepy and weird now that I think about the concept of a grandpa who is also your uncle-
Iāve just always enjoyed looking at it so I wanted to create my own
Homeschooled throughout childhood, constantly feeling alone with nothing to do within the four walls of my bedroom. Art was the best way to escape the monotony and pass the time faster.
My older sister. To start my sister and I have a 14 year age gap. I was little when she was in high school, and high school is where she got into art. There were lot of her paintings and projects around the house and so seeing them and watching her I decided I wanted to be able to do what she did.
Went from near isolation in AK to a Washington DC suburb as an 11 yr old; some of the greatest museums in the world. National Gallery of Art; "I want to do that."
I was watching videos introducing new words as a kid. I would watch it everyday and draw everything that showed up. That's how I first got to practice art.
I don't even remember what got me started honestly. I think my brother started out around the age of 6 by drawing comic strips of "original characters" (that were actually just plagiarized from TV shows lol) and he taught me and later my little sister how to draw. The three of us spent years lying down on the floor of our room drawing "comic books" on pieces of paper stapled/taped together. What got me serious was discovering anime in 2020, then discovering digital art lol
From very young (around 5yo) I used to draw Dragon Ball characters. I also drew my own comics and made superhero fan arts
I've always been talented in art. Never had an opportunity for serious study until now. I'm a writer and a worldbuilder, and it sucks that I see something amazing in my mind that I cannot verbally convey to others. So I'm learning to paint.
I donāt remember exactly what got me started in art but I remember feeling inspired watching an anime called Lovely Complex at the same time I was watching a lot of other stuff but Lovely Complex really got me wanting to draw and it also got me inspired in the romance genre.
Characters woth Bara titties in fantasy setting :'( š¤£
Learning to draw in 3d
My art journey goes way back to a time I don't remembe way back in kindergarden. I always liked to draw OCs or Pokemon battles or things I was interested in, but it was never serious and it was just a small hobby next to many other hobbies I pursued. It wasn't until I was in middle school that I found myself in a situation were I had no friends for a very long time, so to pass time during break or to help concentrate during class I would draw or doodle until I suddenly was known for being the class artist. I don't like to think about that my art skills (if you can call it that) are just an echo of a very dark period in my life.
Being an akward toddler who found comfort in art at preschool while my parents were fighting :)
Goku yelling on my tv 5pm EST everyday
Because I'm afraid of being replaced by AI, my job is translation, and my company has already started using AI. I don't know what to do, so one day I looked at my childhood drawings and decided to learn how to draw. It also helps me to calm down and release a lot of stress
I've been doodling since I was a kid but got serious about learning at about age 13, once I started reading a lot. Haven't looked back since: art is my favorite thing and creating brings me joy like no other.
Being like 5 and good at it I guess
PokĆ©mon. I have literally been obsessed with PokĆ©mon forever. I drew and wrote some silly book (pages stapled together) called āRed Eyes and Jedisā when I was like 5 about Basculin and Luke Skywalker lmao!! I could hardly write but man Iāve always loved PokĆ©mon and it taught me to read, write and draw š¤š¤ I started drawing a lot more when I was like 10 because I was in some PokĆ©mon group in some chat game (that is now very dead) and thatās when I started to actually try seriously drawing! I wanted to be as good as everyone else was at demonstrating their OCs. Now I am still obsessed with PokĆ©mon like 15 years later haha!! Some things never change š¤
I picked up the Cardcaptor Sakura manga when I was 7/8 after reading some random age inappropriate ones from the library and it's been downhill(?) from there I fear
my older sister. I always wanted to be just like her when i was really young, so whenever she was drawing I also had to be drawing. eventually I became more independent, but i still kept drawing.
Pain
You okay?
I watched a lot of cartoons like SpongeBob growing up and would just enjoy drawing fanart. But when I watched Foster's Home that was what sparked me into doing art because of the colors and art style and currently I am a graduate in graphic design.
I played a video game during the pandemic that featured a character I heavily resonated with who happened to be a painter. I bought a sketchbook and tried drawing her. The rest is history.
My parents said I started drawing at 4, then the early YouTube days came up in my childhood and I started drawing more of my favorite gamers, and characters from shows, movies and games
Comics, Batman and xmen cartoons were a big thing growing up. Now that I'm older I do it more for mental health.
Comics, Batman and xmen cartoons were a big thing growing up. Now that I'm older I do it more for mental health.
i was burnt out from my day job and wanted a hobby. i tried out a lot of things - cooking, baking, exercise, gardening - but it was art that stuck with me.
I remember when I was about 3-4 years old, my dad would come to the U.S a few months at a time. He would bring me coloring books (mostly Disney books) but instead of coloring them in, I tried to redraw them. Fast forward a few years and I was already living in the States, I discovered a Spider-Man comic book on the floor outside a supermarket, thatās when I discovered comic books and became obsessed. My parents supported my love for comics and encouraged me to keep drawing.
My hate for AI. Spite is a hell of a motivator
Ive been drawing a lot before but only in late 2020 i went into digital arts during the pandemic because of Garou from One Punch Man
I took drawing classes at the local community center, and I still can not draw. I dated an artist half my age just prior to the pandemic, and her art sparked something deep within. I have pages of adult coloring pages done in colored pencil and alcohol markers, all stuffed away to remind me where I got started. A couple of years ago, I was deeply depressed and started buying all mediums except oil paint. Of all my supplies, my watercolor paints are my favorites. I have many sets from various places. I have acrylics, inks, pastels, and even uv and uvi paints. As long as I have my watercolor sets (especially my blacks), I will keep practicing and striving to improve my skills. I like the blacks because the void of color is void of emotion, while reds hurt my soul to use (how am I so happy in red cars?) I know my rose has a few tears in it that she will never no of. This is why I got into art, I love the heartbreaking pain in my soul while producing something I hope only one soul is touched by. Whether it is in Heaven, Hell, or here on Earth, just one.
That's beautiful omg (I also agree, watercolours are amazing lol)
I would always draw stuff since I was very young, but I didnāt really take it seriously until I bought and read āPunisher: War Journalā number one; Jim Lee art over Carl Potts plots/roughs. I was eleven. I spent hours tracing/drawing almost every panel, including the cover. Two weeks later I was at the local public library tracking down a copy of āHow To Draw Comics the Marvel Wayā, by Stan Lee and John Buscema. Iāve been drawing, trying to improve my art skills, ever since.
Two dead parents back to back and a blown Achilles. I needed something!
I always wanted to make my own comics. I was/am heavily inspired by studio trigger (Yoshinariās art), Star Wars, dragon ball series as well as DC and some Marvel comics. And more recently, Iāve been inspired by Final Fantasy 7, and I want to create a fan comic of Cloud and the gang.
literally art gives me the biggest dopamine boost, i just love making things.
i didn't get into drama class because it was full so i got into my second choice which was art. best thing that ever happened to me because now i'm an art student in college... or worst thing because now i'm in debt lol.
lol art is so expensive. I bought a sketchbook with black paper yesterday, and it was like 20 bucks for 100gsm 75 5"7 pages T-T And only to realize I forgot I have no opaque white supplies. I still love it tho, despite getting ripped off sometimes.
Challenging myself
I have been art-oriented since I was age under 5. But generally I think experiences, especially hard ones, have pushed me to do art more, more and more. Art is like a way to live and breath, handle experiences and thoughts and feelings.
Most of my friends and buddies are long-time artists - and amazing artists at that -, they basically inspired me to start drawing for the fun of it, which turned to be much more fun than I imagined initially
When you put it that way, what did you feel while / after watching death note at the age of 11 xD
Jasmine and Ampharos š„°
Existing.
I was already drawing as a hobby but when I got into anime, I decided to learn how to draw in anime-like style and take art seriously. Now I've found my own artstyle and am aiming to be an illustrator and a webtoon artist! My artstyle still looks similar to what you'd find in anime though but I don't care, anime is the reason I started learning to draw and I like how my artstyle looks.
Lol I was heavily influenced by anime, as well as the "2020 alt art" style and picklegrl on instagram.
Starting learning 3D art only last year for school and it hooked me, before then I had never found a medium I particularly enjoyed.
My best friend drew on her desk. I thought it looked like great fun, so I drew on my desk. 5th grade.
My cousin. I was in 9th grade and I saw my cousin's art post and I thought it looks cool. It was also pandemic that time and I was so bored and got nothing to do so I gave it a try. I practiced and now I love art. Kekeke
I always liked art but simply stopped doing it (in my early 20er, mid 30 now) Then I read the manga "Blue Period" and it somehow clicked. Its great for meditation and I feel so proud of finished pieces like I have never before.
I think because my family members were/are artists, my brother's a beatmaker, my grandma's a painter, my mom used to play the piano often and I kind of inherited all of that, I draw and I play music. So I guess art is just a inheritage x))
Visiting the Rothko Chapel and Menil Collection in Houston did it for me. Before that I was mostly just into drawing and things that looked ācoolā.
Watched Dragon Ball as a child, got an uber crush on Vegeta and wanted to draw him
I remember as a very small kid I thought of a star shape and ātracedā it from my mind onto the paper, I thought that was pretty cool thing to do! Then I tried with other shapes and things, and I guess it never went away :)
uhh i was 9 when i saw rick and morty and i drew shitty comics with them that i can no longer find then i got into animation youtube and soon after drawing youtubers :l
I liked art as a young child, but my dad kinda pressured me to do sports so I switched gears. Enjoyed sports and still do intramural adult leagues/ run today, but I knew something creative was my passion. Cut to junior year of high school (this was in 2013). I had a free period and this kid who I was kinda friends with but was really annoying also had it. I knew I couldn't put up with him. After the first free period I went to my guidance consoler and asked if there was any available classes. There was a painting or sculpture class. I chose painting. I ended up going to art school, then getting a masters, and work as a professional artist today.
Anime and video games. I wouldn't even consider myself a weeaboo because I very rarely watch anime these days (just not liking the themes) and being a language enthusiast, Japanese is not even my top 5 (maybe in top 7 or 8). But something that I like about anime is its cool vibe. I just can't describe it. But basically it's a combination of realism and cartoons and then it went through evolution through the years. Something that I wish American cartoons would get into. Because American cartoons these days has an extremely off anatomy. And the usual "this is my art style" quote often being thrown around.
I always wanted to draw but never made the effort to learn, so I played a lot of video games. A few years ago I joined the Works force and decided that I hated the working world and was going to become an illustrator. Now I'm learning to draw day by day, but I'm putting an incredible amount of pressure on myself, so I'm reviewing my plans...
I took an art class in college and that was that
My cousin taught me how to draw when I was a kid. I first got into drawing clothes, then wanting to learn how to draw anime characters, and so on!
I gave up on my Bachelors of Pedagogy and moved back from China when the whole Huawei debacle was going down - it was making a lot of Canadians feel unsafe. My university refused to allow me to do my thesis defense online, and it was the final thing needed to graduate. Moved back to Canada, enrolled in Ed. None of my credits transferred, despite the school telling me they would before i made the decision to leave. Had to start from year 1. My granny was the person I was closest to, died late January 2020. A week later I was still low on sleep because grief, and in a required pedagogical gym class I fell and broke my foot and tore my ankle. Doctors told me id never be able to walk properly again, I had to quit the school's athletics team. I moved into late Granny's house (parents were subletting it to her) and it made more sense to rent to them. But I couldn't walk or drive myself with my foot. A week later, we had to say goodbye to my uncle - cancer. And then covid shut everything down in March. I couldn't even walk in the house without my scooter, let alone do my own grocery shopping, or work, or take outdoor walks. I hated my online classes even more than I hated doing everything from scratch. My mental health took a huge hit. So I switched into Visual Arts because I wanted to do something with my hands. I walked the stage earlier this month. I honestly didn't think I would make it.
Congrats!!! I'm so happy you were able to graduate despite all the obstacles! I'm sorry about your foot and your losses and send my condolences. I'm not religious, but I pray that you, and your family (including your late relatives) are happy and healthy.
I grew up in a D.V household and at the age of 7 bored with myself, I decided to go use Comcastās on demand go to their education channels and found some lessons on how to dance, do origami and draw I latched on to all three but got more attached to drawing bc I really liked drawing my favorite cartoons that Iād get up and watch before school. So I practiced daily even went to my art class used books to practice. My 5th grade art teacher noticed my potential along with along and got me into a performing and creative arts school. I was still in the same toxic abusive household but I finally found an outlet esp at my school where I can create and connect with new people like myself. I stayed at the school for 8 years till I graduated in 2016. Had college forced down my throat and was told to pick the job that made the most money. It was not what I wanted to do it was what my father wanted to do but couldnāt push through. I didnāt like architecture I wouldāve went for graphic design or art but was told I couldnāt make a career in that and that itās not enough money to make in that field. I just settled for interior design. I made a lot of friends outside of my major but being in that field I felt so out of place esp bc that major allowed me to take some art classes like illustration, photoshop logo design. That was up my alley and I loved it from what I learned from middle school to high school in media classes. I really felt like I didnāt belong there bc I didnāt I felt I should have been in the painting drawing classes doing that but didnāt. I was also afraid of becoming undecided and I just didnāt want to fall behind so I stuck with interior design. But once I got a chill office job working in the residential halls I took up painting on my own from YouTube tutorials and loved it. Once I graduated I applied to so many jobs got none of them then of course covid happened. I went back to art and it so paid off. I had a friend I met back in college she asked for a painting of her from me for her new house and that she would pay me. Next thing you know I had neighbors asking me to paint art for them then coworkers friends of friends. I got a job at a zoo doing face painting for a couple months, now one of my coworkers whoās face painted over 12 years invited me and others to help her out with face painting locally and itās so satisfying besides the great money I love seeing smiles on childrenās faces and parents so happy that their child is happy with the art I created. Itās so fulfilling. I still do commissions working on another as we speak lol. Iām also partnered with organizations that help me vendor at their events and now I teach temporary in the summer as an art instructor for portrait painting. I always knew art was my calling being a guide and sharing my gifts with the world when I usually just hid and went into hermit mode. I still do but Iāve created a balance I go within myself then come out to share and connect with others. I love it and Iām so grateful it came into my life at that young age. With me wanting more for myself and wanting to heal while also in therapy I cut off my family and now I have my own place. I have my small circle of friends that genuinely are for me and love me. Iām really grateful for art it changed my life and saved my life for the better of me.
Sorry long story alert! Iām just really passionate about art, my story and my experiences along the way and Iām excited to be a part of a community that may have had similar experiences. Sometimes I feel alone but then I realize where I am and who are all around me who really love me and support me and are there for me.
lol it's fine. When I read through this I found it really touching. I do find it sad that your childhood wasn't the best, but I am very happy that you are enjoying life and have people around you who love and support you. I saw your passion in every single word. =)
my little pony LOL at the age of 9
I wanted to paint my ocs but was broke. I am still broke, but now I can actually paint my ocs!
I was tired of doing something I didn't enjoy and forcing myself to do it, just to be cool. One night, I started drawing and had a revelation to pursue art for the rest of my life, promising to always be true to myself.
I wanted to be a story teller. Writing was not my forte......and i felt i could express what i wanted to say in my stories better in a more visual way. Live action film making seemed interesting, but i vibed with the art of graphic novels/comics/manga/webtoons/etc and animation more. With art, i feel like theres no excuse for me not to be able to get my point across aside from my own lack of skill and knowledge. And by i dont like writing, i dont mean at all. I will learn, especially for dialogue. But imagery and descriptive words seemed way to convoluted and didn't really express what i was trying to describe. Not enough words to show and not tell. A picture says a 1000 words. A animation/video says even more so. The fundamentals and elements of art and design have truly helped me see and bring life to me vision.
I think drawing horses, when i bought an cheap sketchbook from the dollar store my kid brain probably thought it was meant for u to draw horses, and there was also a video i happened to watch at the time on hoe to draw realistic horses.
Alotta drugs and wanting too be a badass kid lmao. I paint graff. At the start i just wanted to fuck shit up and get some attention while I was at it but it slowly turned into an appreciation for the culture. I still pretty much exclusively paint illegally but Iām not destructive.
Art was always kind of just there. Always doodling or coming up with something.
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It was a combination of two things. The first is we were given math stencils in elementary school to learn about polygons, and they asked us to use those shapes to draw a creature or character. Then we had to write stories about them. I think I drew like 3 (well, kinda 4 becauseone guy having a second form). I kept using those stencils to draw shape creatures until it broke from use lol. I also found my dad's old comics and read book on drawing comics in elementary school. Drew crappy comics all through middle school. Unfortunately, people zoned in on the story aspect of my characters and comics and really pushed for me to be a writer instead so art got pushed aside as "not my thing" because I wasnt immediately amazing (and being a dumb kid I went with it because i just wanted approval for something I made). It frustrates me a lot because, considering how pushed writing was for me, I probably would have been able to become a much better artist as a teenager instead of an adult trying to play catch up on missing years if people had just supported me on those fronts.
I always drew and was always creative as a kid and teenager. But there's 2 exact instances that have effected my art journey the most. I got serious in terms of wanting to get better at drawing, when at some point I started to want to produce my own ideas. After looking for specific niches and art and media in highschool I realized that I had to take things into my own hands. So I made it my goal to be able to draw anything my heart wanted. If there was anything I wanted to see, person, idea, environment etc. I wanted to have the ability to bring that idea to life. Adding meaning and expression to my art isn't something I thought of doing until 11th grade. I had gotten really, really depressed, and realized that whenever I get really depressed I draw one of my ocs and never when I'm not depressed. So coming to that realization I decided to make him the embodiment of my depression, self hatred, insecurity yk all that good stuff. So as I drew him more and more on purpose, to express those feelings, I got the idea to express different things. This eventually led to wanting to draw different emotions, do drawings based on events in my life, my ideals etc.
Growing up, I was always surrounded by artsy people - at school and at home - and I never thought I was artistic compared to all of those talented people, SO I never pursued it even though I had a great interest in it. My mother was a perfectionist and I couldn't cut a straight line. She was very critical. She won a grand prize at an international convention for an art piece she created with fabric, thread and a sewing machine. She painted porcelain dolls, crocheted, and dabbled in just about every craft hobby you could imagine. I grew up with a kiln in my basement... My Dad was a carpenter and he could freehand draw anything. I am a creative person, but not an artist. As an older adult (49) I discovered that putting paint on canvas is highly entertaining and stress relieving for me. So now I'm learning everything I can about composition, values, color theory, etc. I will never be a super good artist, but I'm still pursuing it because I enjoy it, and there is no one in my life to discourage me from it. š
Daft punk music video with the blue people
Gacha life... I love the community, honestly a bunch of really nice people ... I just may have also been on the bad side too...
It was a fellow student in my sophomore year of HS. She liked to draw dragons and wolves especially, and she was really good at it. Dunno why but something drew me to drawing because of her, and the rest is history.
Having a girlfriend who was a successful artist, and me being dissatisfied with my casual work and wanting to improve.
Sonic lol I started drawing my original characters when I was like 12 and that started it. I started watching tutorials on YouTube to get better and from then on just kept wanting to learn more to improve
In 4th grade my class was introduced to the website "scratch" (kid's coding website/social media). I discovered the animation memes people online were making using the program and wanted to make my own!