Now onto my story...
This one will be obvious:
I discovered this site on my quest to find more Harry Potter fan art like Alkanet's and...MY MIND WAS BLOWN. The fledgling years of deviantArt were not the Dark Ages, people. Talented artists from all over the world opened my limited and naive mind and flung it mercilessly from one masterpiece to another.
So without a question I knew I had to join and be near this hub of creativity and talent. And so I began with little doodles of chibis colored with markers. Then hesitantly began to use Photoshop to digitally color those doodles. Doodles turned into drawings and drawings turned into artwork I could start to be proud of.
Though it was tough...
I tried to balance my hobby with my class work but long periods of silence were frequent and my progress was very slow. While I had friends who liked to draw, they were falling away from it with their busy schedules much like I was. The deviantArt friends I had at the beginning were drifting away and I felt lost with my drawing improvement stagnating and loss of feedback. So I finally decided to clear it all and pack it up.
But in 2008 I finally took an art class at my high school and it brought the spark and ambition I had when I had first discovered deviantArt back! I tried harder to upload and receive feedback to get back into the community and build up my portfolio for college.
5 more years, one Daily Deviation, a bachelor's degree and research trip later I'm still drawing and sharing my work here. I'm here to share but also feed off the creative energy here. There have been discouraging moments where I felt low about my work and the pressure of keeping up a time consuming hobby along with my other duties but it's been worth it.
There have been a ton of people I have shared thoughtful, funny, encouraging conversations with. There are things I can talk about with other deviants I can't share and enjoy with in person!
It's been fun as well as a learning experience. I feel like I've improved and am moving towards where I want to be with my drawings.
Here's a few of my pieces from over the years! [Sorry for the lack of work from 2003-2007!]
Here's to many more years of art with deviantART!
Anante