Artists, can I ask you something?

[AkaneHayashi]

I started drawing digitally on November 2015, and I was already drawing traditionally for about four years then. I started with an Intuos Pen small and nowadays I use iPad Air 3 more often (drawing on screen feels so much better!). I've been on hiatuses for a few times in these past years because of school/work, but now that I finally graduated I want to come back to drawing and practicing more.

My first digital drawing was this one, from November 2015:

And here's one of my latest artworks, from July 2020:

[rajillustration]

I started playing around with digital when I got a really cheap tablet for christmas (it was 5 inches ps, that was the size of the tablet) and I made art that looked like this:

And that's how I drew digitally in high school. Not middle school, high school. (lately what's expected out of kids these days kind of blows my mind)

Then I went to college, got serious about art, and did traditional illustration for the most part. I really didn't think I'd ever go fully digital like I do now, I still really love traditional, but I'm really glad I had that foundation because it did help a lot--traditional helps you do things digital, and visa versa--digital does help with your traditional game. Anyway, I got photoshop, and made some messes. This was my first illustration in photoshop and it was for a class assignment and it took over 10 hours.

I got a big fat C on this assignment, it was such a hassle. A complete disaster and I was like "I should've just done acrylic because at least I know I can do that." But, my teacher was like "no, you were the only one who went out their comfort zone and you should never stop doing that and never stop learning new things" and I was so zazzed that I continued digitally after college and now I paint like this.

This is probs not the last thing I painted, but I have quarantine brain so I don't remember what the last thing I painted was which wasn't a doodle.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

My journey with digital art was a long and weird one.
First. Way back in 2009 I made this abomination in MS Paint XD literally copy paste a picture of my face on this Godzilla poster

Then in late 2010 my wife bought me a wacom bamboo tablet for Christmas and I made a few pictures. I was so frustrated and embarrassed at how they looked, I put the tablet in a box for FIVE YEARS. I'd been drawing my whole life. These digital ones should have looked magical instantly right? (Unrealistic expectations...check.)

Then in 2015 I decided...you know what. Lemme try that digital again. And I started slow. Just tracing my traditional art. Then I started selling my own t-shirt designs. I got involved with the local heavy metal scene, and I made this for a local metal festival.

After that, I did t-shirt designs for a few more years, and the worked up the courage to start on my comic. Which by then in 2017, was already in the development process for about 15 years. I decided to start it in Pixel-Art. My comic came out in mid 2018 after I made 16 pages for it.

Which brings us to now. I've been busting my ass for the last two years. And you can probably track it all by looking back in the "Post the last thing you drew thread"
But here's my latest full color picture. I've made a lot of progress in the last 10 years, but it's not enough. I have a long road ahead of me.

[Alexandritea]

My art journey has been a long and weird one. I completely disregarded art fundamentals for far too long, which in turn lead to me being discouraged. Eventually I picked up on some knowledge in anatomy, form study and color theory to name a few. My story was also in shambles and the characters are no longer who they used to be way back in (somewhere around) 2009-2010.

I'm so ashamed of this piece I could hardly make myself post it, I don't think I've even opened the file for this reason for several years .

(and a piece I never even finished)

and here are some of the pieces of the more refined characters and story which I am not as ashamed of .

[Dysis]

That's awesome! Massive improvement @Alexandritea !

[Alexandritea]

Aaw thank you, you're too kind !

[pilot-obvious]

I started creating digital art in MS Paint in late 2007. Here's one of my first drawings in MS Paint! (Sorry for the poor quality, I took a screen grab from Instagram!)

My friend introduced me to the fanime community (Were any of you in that community???) on YouTube in early 2008 and that got me into animating, which eventually led me to the creation of my series Future Agents. Here's a sample from early 2008 that's super cringey! (sorry!)

Drawing became a huge hobby/pastime of mine and I would draw ALL THE TIME. Every day after sports practice is middle/high school, I would go home and sit at my laptop. My parents probably didn't like that I sat in front of a screen in my room whenever I was at home, but they also were glad that I found something I enjoyed doing. I actually thought about turning animation into a career but was turned off by the low pay and long work hours.

I went to school for digital art but mostly focused on photography, video, and graphic design. Illustration became more of a hobby for me! For awhile in college, I actually stopped drawing altogether because I didn't really have any time. But now that I'm a couple years into my career, my life has kind of settled and I now have way more time to draw! Future Agents stuck with me throughout all these years, albeit the storyline is completely different. But my background in photography/video work has really become a major influence in my work.

Here's some of my more recent work.

[CursedBeasts]

Okay this is gonna get long so I'm gonna post it in a spoiler. In short, my digital art started with MS paint and improved along with the tools I had for it.

long post

I don't have a lot of old digital drawings, but I remember drawing anthro versions of cats from a video game I played on MS Paint back in like 2006-2007-2008, and also drawing edgy art of sort of furry but not really characters (I couldn't draw humans back then so..., and also drawing Eragon and LOTR fanart. I think I actually got pretty good with MS paint and mouse.

here's a very depressed Durza from the Eragon movie, circa like 2007-2008 or so.

then I got an old wacom tablet in 2009 or so and would draw with the program that came with it. I also sort of got into World of Warcraft and would draw a ton of fanart for it, and also it inspired me to try to learn art basics and anatomy and such, and with practice, I got better. The old tablet didn't have pressure sensitivity or maybe it just didn't work because windows vista sucked all kinds.

Thie above drawimg was done on the old Wacom in Corel Painter that came with it.

I also got a more advanced tablet at that point; and access to Photoshop. I stubbornly tried to do digital painting, even though it wasn't my thing, mostly because I wasn't super internet savvy and if I were I could probably set up PS for a more lineart based style.

z

I think my art really got better when I realized that I could draw on my iPad with Procreate (back then I didn't have a stylus but I got pretty decent art with just my finger). I also got into Star Wars: the Old Republic, and I think the more complicated designs of the characters there helped me improve in a way. Here's some more art.

the first design of my current comic protagonist (2013)

between 2013 and 2017 I kinda learned a bunch of anatomy and just generally improved. I got a newer ipad in 2017 and have been using it since. I also had this massive art skill jump in mid 2017 for whatever reason. Probably spite at someone who dunked on my art.

one of the old ipad drawings from 2017.

and here's a drawing from the new one also in 2017.

After that I don't think I had much changed to my digital art.