2006 vs 2016 Art Comparison

[miseryhunting]

I don't have anything from 2006, I was 13 and it was actually when I started drawing. The closest I have is this from 2009, and it was just after i realized that you can use your computer for art 😂😅

And 2016

[shazzbaa]

Hahaha, in 2006 I was in my first year of college! So here's my first real attempt to make a finished, not-just-pencil-scribbles comic page, just after highschool:

and one of my comic pages from this past year:

[nessiefynn]

I was only 8 in 2007, so I don't have any art that old saved to my computer. The oldest I got is from 2009, which is close-ish enough I guess? Lol, I hope that's alright!
2009

2016

[Shiori_Saku]

UGH!! I had to go track down things i'd uploaded to DevArt back in 2006 just to find something since Ive lost a lot of the older data between various moves and a house fire but here are examples from
2006

and 2016

[Mharz]

Ahh Thank you! Coloring was actually one of my biggest frustrations from back then. I gotta my say I think my art didn't improve until 2011 when I decided to take art more seriously. XD

[hades]

i was in highschool during 2006 and I remember being SO PROUD of this drawing...of my gaia online avatar.

compared to my comic cover now

managed to dig this up

and my first ever comic pages compared to what I draw now:

so edge

I think I've improved <3

[aspiderjonny]

I sadly haven't saved much artwork from 2006 (thought to be fair I was, like, 10/11 years old then). But I did make this evolution chart a while ago which has a drawing from 2006:

And there's also a lot of "Old vs New" post I made between art from the high school comic (2011-2013) and the webcomic (2014-onward):

J-Man: #1 Cover
J-Man: Warehouse Fight
J-Man: Saved by Sleepy Bear

Here's wishing everyone a spectacular 2017!

[Luminosophy]

I loooove seeing artists compare old works.

I assembled the artworks I had done of one of my main characters through the years. Some years are missing because I had her story in my head forever since 2004 but doing comics was always a pipe dream at the time, especially since 'being indie' wasn't viable much less a thing then. The top row really make me cringe hard lol.

[azureXtwilight]

2006 art (Old pic in low res):

Current:

[Damatris]

Past me was an idiot and didn't date almost any of the pics. >___>

Close enough to 2006 since it's from October. Aaah, my period of horrible Harry Potter fan art. :''D

I'm pretty sure this is from late 2006. The period of Arina Tanemura eyes.

And now we are here:

Onward to 2017!

[Wishjacked]

I have this calendar from 2008, but I'm really not sure I actually drew things before 2008, and I certainly can't find any evidence to suggest I did, haha.

I traced the horses, but those people are aaaaaall mine.

And I haven't drawn a horse in many years, but here's a random comic page! (I should totally try some patriotic horse illustrations to properly compare/contrast these with)

I feel like that's pretty good for 8 years!!

[mappypaint]

Let's see... I have this unpublished version of my comic back in late 2006:

and one of the later pages from 2016:

the obvious is the change from traditional to digital coloring.

[DavidPerry]

This is a really cool topic. I love seeing how people have progressed over the years, and a lot of people here have come a very, very long way. So I'll share some of mine, too! I've been drawing since I was five, consistently. It's the only thing I've ever really wanted to do.

This one is from roughly 2006, the year I graduated high school. Me and two of my best friends (still best friends) created a series idea together called Space Pirates. This is a doodle of us in an interview about Space Pirates.

And this is my latest piece of artwork--an illustration for my biggest concept, Mallory Bash.

[DavidPerry]

Wow, it's really cool to see how much better your sense of composition and posing is. Good stuff.

[phen]

THE CHARM! There's such nice sentimentality and awesome reflection on older art -- it's the organic personality of an artist growing and evolving over time. In 2006, I'd just started using dA to share my art and it was such a cool thing. I was uber addicted to the interactive element and I'd post like 3 or 4 little drawings a night, hah^^

And for 2016! I'm almost exclusively on twitter now.

I think I've not really grown too much... it's more of a fleshing-out now. Maybe there's a bit more substance to my illustrations, but other than that, it's just technical stuff. The biggest move I had from 2006 was trying to set the figures in a coherent world. I really want to go back and re-capture the stylish quirks in my older work. A lot of cool, weird design work got lost along the way, I have no idea where it went. That's my goal for 2017: Get back to the roots of where I started, try to bring some confidence from the past to the present.

[bsienk90]

2006 Thomas and Rick. LOLZ

2016 Thomas and Rick

---

Confessions starting back tonight!

[Ambat]

Oh boy, there was a meme like this going around on Twitter a little while ago so I'm already prepared!

2006 character drawings -

2016 character drawings -

2006 environment drawing -

2016 environment drawing -

I definitely never thought my art would have grown this much back when I was what, 12? 13? and I definitely wouldn't have thought it would be as cartoony as it is, I was definitely a big anime fan back in the day haha--but I'm very happy with my growth!

[MoonSquid]

Hoohboy it was hard finding a piece from 2006! XD Kind of a blessing though.. I think that year was solely the year of drawing Gaia avatars on MS paint! XD

[KSlinger]

Thanks David! Nice to know the work is paying off.

[JessJackdaw]

Oh man, I can't seem to find anything that old. Here's my first digital comic from 2008 as a consolation prize. XD My first adventure in photoshop.

Compare to most recent page made in 2016.

@MoonSquid Oh gosh! Me too! I think I was just making gaia money from it, but dang if I didn't draw a lot of avatars... Haha. XD Also amazing work by the way!