#a very old sketchbook drawing that I fixed up and drew over etc

[sabeedraws]

"I hope you're happy in the end

I hope you're happy my friend"

(happy witch season btw)

[pandorasbox341]

My art journey...

I wanted to make a post of my art journey so far! I’ve been drawing ‘seriously’ for 10 years now! I’ve never had any formal training in art. I just draw what I want and what makes me happy! 

Since I was a little kid I’ve loved drawing, but I’ve only started drawing seriously back in 2011 (I was 17). I picked up a pen and I didn’t put it down. I drew nonstop. Files and files full of drawings. I still have ring binders FULL of old drawings. I’d just buy a huge pack of printer paper and school art supplies. The cheapest things I could find. I still buy the cheapest art supplies! I loved ballpoint pens and coloured pencils! I didn’t know about references or art tips or anything like that, I just drew what I wanted. I didn’t care whether it was anatomically correct or anything, I wasn’t posting anything online by that time. It was mostly OC and fanarts. My main source of references were comic books. 

^^ Here are some pages from my OLD sketchbooks! These are from 2011-2013. I draw on loose papers and then I stick them in a sketchbook. Some of these were even drawn on linepaper. 

From about 2011 to 2013 I was experimenting with my drawings and just having fun and enjoying drawing.  I tried out every art medium. I loved painting with acrylics (again mostly cheap school supplies, back then we didn’t have fancy art/stationary shops in my town, now we do YAY!!). I tried charcoal once and it was a disaster!

In 2013 I opened my first art account on DeviantArt, that was the first time I started posting my art online. My very first post was a Frank-N-Furter acrylic painting. Here’s some drawings from back then. Some paintings, but mostly pencil drawings. 

When I started to explore DeviantArt and saw how other people drew and how good they were I got very intimidated. I started becoming more ‘serious’ about my art and I wanted to improve more.

I started out with realism. It was very hard and frustrating, but when I saw how realistically other people drew and how good their art was I wanted to do that as well. I was tracing a lot during this time.

In 2014 I became obsessed with My Chemical Romance, it was practically the only thing I drew! I was drawing traditionally and editing my drawings on the computer with a mouse.

In 2016 I became obsessed with Undertale and I drew it nonstop! Undertale helped me improve my art a lot and helped me explore more and try out new things. I was slowly getting used to editing my drawings on the computer, enhancing the colours, adding effects, erasing mistakes etc.

It was during this time that I moved away from the frustrations of realism and went back to my roots - CARTOONS!

In 2018 I fell in love with Invader Zim. Invader Zim was a huge influence in helping me become more comfortable with my own style and the way I draw.

In 2019, on my 25th birthday, I got my first drawing tablet, a wacom intous that I still use. It took a long time for me to get used to it and it felt like I had to learn how to draw all over again. It was really hard for me to get used to a tablet. I started out only using it to edit my drawings. It was way easier using a tablet than a mouse to fix my drawings! I slowly (and I mean SLOWLY) got more used to a tablet.

For a long time, I was very self-critical about my art style. Fandoms helped me realise that I don’t have to do realism or draw perfectly for my art to be ‘good’. These days I’m way more comfortable drawing and not caring whether my art is ‘good’ or not. But social media still has a way of making me feel inferior when I see others art. Usually, I try to ignore it, because there’s really nothing you can do about it. I’ve come a really long way with my art. It’s no picnic, I’ve cried and ripped papers to shreds out of frustration! But I’ve never stopped drawing. It’s really a matter of keep going and not stopping. It makes me happy to draw and I love doing it. But I’m also happy where I’ve got so far!