Art

I am not an artist with an educational background. I've either been self-taught, or learn things from fellow artists.

I've been doodling for as long as I can form memories. In my early teens I was also one of those guys who tried to make poor replications of official art - but you've never seen that. It wasn't until I started socializing online that I started to share my art, and by then I was making original things - not good things, but original things.

From 2005 to about 2010, I used a variety of things but mainly drew on paper then scanned it onto the computer. There was an occasional use of an image editor (GIMP became a mainstay in the late 2000s) to color and sometimes ink. I also had access to Macromedia Flash which I used to make what I considered to be my cleanest art, using the line tool over the image. I had a tablet but never used it since I couldn't get the hang of it.

About in 2008-2009, I was inspired by the works of the late and great Derrick J Wyatt (who was working on Transformers Animated at the time) and decided to base my own art style off of what I liked about his work, which was merely a starting point for what would eventually become my own style.

In 2010, I started to get to know other artists and learned things that would help me make a more personal and consistent art style. I used GIMP for more inking using a pixelated lineart style, and eventually started playing around with shading through some encouragement from friends. By 2011, there was a day when I ran out of paper (a common problem at this time), so I would use my dusty old tablet to draw in Flash. I got the hang of it eventually, then started EXCLUSIVELY drawing in Flash, becoming a digital artist.

In 2012, my tablet was beginning to show its age. I had not taken good care of it before, but it was also quite outdated anyway. For Christmas I was able to get a Wacom Bamboo tablet. Along with this, I had access to Paint Tool Sai, which I didn't use simply because of how hard it was to draw with my old tablet - this new one proved to be a game changer. The pressure sensitivity allowed me to slow my pace and be more precise, tightening up my style.

Since then, I've been drawing in Paint Tool Sai, and apart from upgrading to the Version 2, I haven't changed from it. But my style does go through phases, whether it's the way my lineart looks, how my sketches look, or the shading approach. Just about every year now, there's at least one aspect of my art that I try to hone in on and say "I'm going to change that part".

It's healthy to keep wanting to improve - not to be better than anyone else, but just to be better in my own eyes. I've always just played to the beat of my own drum, and if that makes others happy then that's just a bonus. A lot of what I do is a self-indulgent hobby that I recognize is just a hobby.

At most, when it comes to original content, like a story… I just want my voice to be heard. I want to put what I like out there in the open, and just be recognized for my efforts. But even then, the main priority should always be to make myself happy.

I'm not a perfect person. I have personality flaws, and I've made my share of mistakes. But I strive to be happy with my art and not become a self-loathing artist type. I want be the type who can love themselves and love what they create.

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