[FrustratedARTist]

I would just like to know when all of you started drawing, and serious drawing like when you knew you were going career.

Now, this isn't a pissing contest to see who started sooner, but just a general get to know ya question (I hate when it turns into a competition).


--Frustrated

------------------
"I thought my last quote was gay so I thought I'd make a new one" -John

[Lunatique]

OOh. Cool question.

Yeah, I hate the pissing contest mentality too, so no peeing in this forum for me.

How I started: the point I got VERY serious and decided I wanted to go career in art was when I was about 14(I'm 28 now). I've always drawn before that, and always excelled in it, but I actually wanted to be a fighter pilot like my dad was. The ONE turning point was when a friend of mine showed me MACROSS: Do You Remember Love(a japanese animation from 1984). I was completely blown away by the art, the story, the animation, the music, the designs, the directing, the voice acting..etc. From then on, I turned into an anime fanatic, and started drawing/writing non-stop. Eventually, it evolved into my career in comic books, and now games.

Prior to that one turning point, I was really into the illustrations I'd see in D&D and Fighting Fantasy books. I also grew up with Japanese animation and manga, so I've always been exposed to cool artwork. I think discovering Michael Whelan and Boris Vallejo around that time contributed as well.



------------------
www.arcanum.net/~lunachild

[FrustratedARTist]

Well thanks for replying, now I will state how I got into it...

Well, put quite simply I would have to say this site did it. I was browsing Phong.com looking for new Photoshop tutorials when I hit a couple links, then another couple then a few more and by a miracle I landed here I checked out Sijun's tutorial, tryed it out, and now I can't say I hit it off right away, but came pretty damn close . And come to realize I forgot about my drawing skills, whooped out my dusty sketch book and applied for art 3 college course in highschool, and me and digital art hit it off. I'm 16 and am planning to attend San Fran art institute, or a art school in Missouri where I will hopefully major in digital design, or something along that nature, and head off into the freelance game artist business..

phew! someone else's turn...

------------------
"I thought my last quote sucked so I thought I'd make a new one" -John

[Bishop_Six]

Well, I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. I am now 14. I decided I wanted to be a game artist a year or so ago when my brother and I made our plans to be game developers. I've been absorbing all types of art information over the last several months. I bought some anatomy books, read through some general art books, talked to some professional artists, and am doing everything I can to improve.

That's the story of me.

[Jerry]

Half a year ago when I WAS still 14 I started to enjoy drawing and digital art more... but I'm not sure if I want to do it for a life time or keep it a hobbie... because I'm also talented in programming and drafting so I wouldn't say....

------------------
-KARN- Forever. Die? Never
KARN's Page

[Krazykate]

I am a very new artist. I grew up in a family with older parents and the Depression Era mentality-work for 25 yrs., get the watch & retire. Art or Writing was not a "job".

I suddenly bought a sktchbook-at the age of 37 years old--I still don't know why. Then I was watching my husband try to learn 3D Studio (before it was MAX), and said wow-I want to try that.

Things got really wild after that-met an Artist, got some personal lessons from her, got a raise at my job, and found a school near by for Computer Animation. Needless to say, I left the job spent the money & went in debt and now just finished my degree in December. Whew--Now it's on to submitting and waiting, and gettin rejections (authors think they get them all)

Ever since that day-I don't know how all of this started--but D*%#$$-it, if they don't hire me--I'll start my own company.

Krazykate 8)

[spooge demon]

I did some painting in High School 16-18 YO, not very successful. I got bad grades in art, but I still liked it. I did nothing until after a few semesters at art center while enrolled in product design. ACCD was my Dad�s idea, thinking it would join my earlier interest in art and a fascination for mechanical things. I started painting again in third semester, hmmm, that would have been 22 Y.O. I switched to illustration at 24 Y.O. and have been working like mad since.

I sorely feel those lost six years I did not touch a pencil. Life is really short and there is an endless amount to learn.

[SporQ]

been drawing as long as i can remember. i think it was around 1990 that i really got into it though. i became a comic book freak and i knew i wanted to draw pro at that point.

i've also been inspired by fantasy/sci-fi illustrators. Whelan was a big influence for me too Lunatique

SporQ

[Justin Kramer]

Good topic. It's neat to hear others' stories.

I drew cartoons and stuff like mad early on, and attended a Waldorf School, which was big on creativity. At around 8th grade, though, I put art on the back burner and learned computers (programming etc). In high school, my worst grades were from art class. When the web came around a few years later, I learned to do web design, and that sparked my interest in art again.

Now (19, not in school), I try to keep both--technical computer work and art--going at once, although my interest tends to sway from one to the other periodically. I think it's unlikely that I'll do art for a living (IT tends to pay better than art), but who knows.

Regardless of career path, I'll continue learning and practicing art. Hopefully it'll come in handy some day


------------------
portfolio

[Speve-o-matic]

Reading these posts almost makes me feel hopeless. I only started serious drawing at the age of 20. Having chosen it to be a major part of my profession, and then hearing incredible talents like Justin Kramer talk about how unlikely it is he will do art for a living, makes me feel so uneasy.

I only wish that I had developed my artistic skills from an earlier age, but I'm not about to start getting too caught up about it. It would ruin the wonder of the whole process. At least I'm privelaged enough to be doing what I want to do.

- Steve

[Socar MYLES]

Hmm.... Well. My parents strongly discouraged drawing (waste of time, pick something I'm good at, et cetera), so I didn't start drawing seriously until I moved out for university. So, I was almost 17...and I'm 26 now--it's been less than ten years. I didn't decide to be a professional artist until I was 21. Very late, I know, but very much worth it, I think.

------------------
My old man's a dustman
'E wears a dustman's 'at
'E wears gorblimey trousers...
AAAAAAAAND....
'E lives in a council flat!

[Frost]

After being told way too many times that I should consider doing this as a profession, I suppose I started thinking about it at around the age of 18 when I began to illustrate some barbarian characters for a comic book a friend of mine wrote up - some in the comic book milieu thought I could get a job at Marvel or something. That obviously wasn't the road for me to take. I started getting a little more serious about drawing on the computer around that age because I wanted to make my own computer games, spent about 3 years developing my pixeling, animating, and programming to reach that goal which collapsed because I was not good enough to complete anything by myself (resulting in many megabytes of 8-bit pixel work which is still rotting somewhere on my hd and floppies). I applied to id software in 1992 (before Doom 1) and Epic (Jill of the Jungle era), got no positive results. I figured I had somewhat good enough stuff as I got my first computer game job at Ubi Soft in 1998.

I suppose I just sort of fell into it... but I am greatful.

Ed - I was born in 1972, so do the math. =]

[This message has been edited by Frost (edited February 17, 2001).]

[Joachim]

oh, I've always ever since I was a kid, enjoyed drawing. It has gone up and down, but I think ever since I was arond 13-14, I had decided that either I do something with art/drawing or I really don't care what I'll do.

------------------
www.JoachimArt.com

[Budoka]

I've drawn for as long as I can remember - it was only in high school I decided to go at it for a career - when I found I needed to - due to severe maths allergy

------------------
It's better to burn out than fade away�

[Ragnarok]

Well, when I was a child I liked to draw a lot, but I suddenly stop drawing, don't remember when.
So, last year (I'm 17) I was in the college and I usually was bored, so I started drawing on the tables with my pencil. The drawings didn't last too much
This summer I got photoshop and started the typical filter pictures, but one day I came across this site which I had visited in autumn '99, and after revisiting the gallery I decided to look at the forums, because last time I didn't. That was on november and since then I've been improving my skills =)

However, I'm not going to aim my job at an artistic career. I'm talented to do superior telecomunications ingeniery and when I have my money problem solved I will draw as much as I want. Living from art is hard, and I don't think I'm talented enough, so I will keep it as a wonderful hobby

-Ragnarok

[shaithis]

This is relatively funny...

I didn't start drawing until near the end of sixth grade, when I began reading X-Men (Claremont/Silvestri era). By ninth grade, I was pretty sure I wanted to do some form of artistic work for a living. For the next four years, I was convinced I was going to go to art school, and eventually work in the comics field.

So... I made it to Pratt, in New York City. And dropped out after a semester. Loved the city, loved the campus, hated the classes. Disgusted with art, I stopped doing it almost entirely for a few years.

Went to another school, for CIS. Dropped out of that too (colleges and I just don't get along).

Soo... I started looking for tech jobs. Building computers and such. Sent out a bunch of resumes, and mentioned that I knew HTML and Photoshop in them. Got 0 response from people re: the tech side, but one guy was looking for a web designer. Took an entry level job building crappy, local business pages for $6.50 an hour.

Four years later, and I've released hundreds of free textures, done contract texture work for game companies, and I work in web design full time at GameSpy. And now, I'm drawing again, thanks to Sijun.com.

So in other words, I never really decided "This is what I'm going to do!" It just happened.

Life is so weird. =)

Cheers,

-shai