At what age did you really get it together, creatively?

[punkarsenic]

I've been thinking a lot about the long journey it actually takes until things click for a creator and they start making the work they're known for. Being an overachieving teenager, it's really hard to wrap my head around the idea of it being okay to not yet be on a roll, to still be messing up. I imagine there's a lot of other people that don't realise the reality of when things come together for artists, and maybe having a dialogue about that will help people have more realistic expectations for themselves.

So, more seasoned creators, how old were you when you think you really found your groove? Have you even found your groove yet? How many screwups did it take to get here?

[joannekwan]

I think I got there around 23 or when I graduated college. Because by then I had taken all my fundamentals and at that point actually had a grasp of various interdisciplinary concepts. I was also settling into my styles finally. My path to where I am now didn't contain many screw ups, more experimentation than anything.

[hjfsdh2222]

Easy answer 15.

Once I figured out gesture and form(which was just a huge conceptual gap that I didn’t really think about). My art started almost instantly looking better; like in 3 months my art advanced dramatically. Plus I did Inktober and a ton of practice drawing during that time period.

I’m not a seasoned artist yet. But I’m welcoming slow growth considering I was so lucky to have that big jump so early XD

[NanettesClouds]

I think for me it was around 17-18, which wasn't that long ago, I turn 21 later this year. I took a gap year (and a half...) after I graduated highschool and I spent that time really diving into my art stuff, I was focused mostly on building towards being a freelance illustrator, I especially wanted to do illustration for board games/card games (I still do kinda). So I really had to focus on doing realistic-ish paintings. (this is one of my favorites that I did, I also did a lot of portraits on Reddit Gets Drawn, I got a best-of award once I think) If you look through my tumblr's archive I think that late-2015 was when I really started "getting good, it's also where I discovered my current "style".

The bulk of my growth making comics though mostly happened last year, which is when I started posting my comics and really started focusing on comics instead of freelance illustration. I also realized that I really hate doing freelance illustration. Not the illustration part, but the finding clients part.

I think right now I'm in a pretty good place, there are things I wanna get better at of course, but I'm very comfortable with where my art is now.

(edit: also during that gap year I taught a weekly art class at a local community center/makerspace. I really learned a lot from teaching the basics of art to different people each week, and also how to better represent myself as an artist from doing that. Not saying that you should do this too, but it was definitely a part of my artistic journey. I think teaching is a really great way to strengthen your understanding of the fundamentals, and also define what you find most important in art. For me I would usually focus on teaching people 1) starting simple and then adding details 2) basic shapes/basic forms of drawing. 3) iterative drawing.)

[BobbyjoeX]

i started drawing seriously at 12

[punkarsenic]

ah okay, im being misunderstood w my use of the word artistically

i dont mean when did you find your groove with your drawing and more like, when did you find your groove as a creator? like for terry pratchett, its after a few bumpy books in the discworld series - or for a filmmaker, its after their first few flops.

[Strontium]

Twelth grade. I wanted to be a writer since the fifth grade, but my writing and storytelling was... muddled, to say the least. I had great ideas but I didn't know how to communicate them. I tried. I tried making long-form comics because that's what my passion was, and my mom recalls reading them and being struck with sadness that I was bad at something I really wanted to do.

All throughout high school I sent in short stories to be published in our school's literary magazine. Every year they were rejected. I got some poetry published in 11th grade, but I also had this happen to me: hearing my friends laugh at how weird the short story I submitted was... right in front of me.... because everything was submitted anonymously. I felt like crying.

Luckily in that grade I had an English teacher who was a creatives writer. He told me to add footnotes to my stories, and somehow, that made them better! I even won a local short story contest at my library! Then that summer I took a writing class downtown for two weeks, and it was great having a class to show my pieces to.

Then, finally in the 12th grade, a short story I wrote was published in the literary magazine!! Since then I haven't had problems miscommunicating my ideas. They may be very weird, but now I know how to write them!

[BobbyjoeX]

ok.. well.. Royal is really my bumpy ride, i know its not great right now but the more i work i know i'll make something grand.... that was cheezy but thats my optimistic opinion

[Jenny-Toons]

I'd say 14, 15, years old. Even if I had the imagination at an early age, I didn't have the organized thinking I started to have around this time.

Before then, I would write stories and make long backgrounds for characters. Most were horror comics drawn on notebook paper. However, when I read back over them in 8th grade, I realized that I wasn't able to clear up plot holes too nicely or introduce characters and their motives without rushing them.

Around 14 - 15, that's when I started to do written script. And that's when I tried to write the plot of my first comic series. Before then, I would do storyboards that really had no words, or the dialogue was rushed because I wrote it after. In 8th-grade, I taught myself how to give more motive to my stories, how to introduce characters, how to tie events together. I also took extensive notes in my writing/literature classes. A lot of what helped me creatively came from those classes.

The result was the completed scripts of 3 comic books.

Now, I still do written scripts of my comics, and it's a life saver.

[375]

I think I started finding my groove around the age of 15-16 when I received a standing ovation for my poem I had written an hour before this poetry event my school was hosting. When it ended my favorite psychology teacher, who was dating my english teacher, came up to me and gave me mad props because he really enjoyed what I had written and to never stop writing like he did. Honestly I was like uh huh sure all ya'll have lost your minds. Im not a good writer.

After that moment, I started to take in consideration of his words and explore more genres than the fantasy stories I wrote for giggles and found out through my english professor that I could write thriller/horror extremely well when she would tell me to stay after class and then deeply express how frightening my creative horror story was. And then I was like okay yeah maybe I should start attempting to do better with my writing??? please??

[dawgofdawgness]

I’m terms of art? Meh. I still have a long way to go. But in terms of writing stories, there’s a good chance that this one will be my best for a while. I’ve written 30+ comics in the past (pencil and paper of course) and only finished a couple. And none of them were very unique. But right now I think I’ve gotten the hand of things more or less - I know my characters like the back of my hand ^_^

But deep down.. I know I peaked in the first grade.

[djwaglmuffin]

I'm 34...the answer is:

Never. I haven't lande don anything I like that i can call my own that other people will like and enjoy. Granted, I have a style all my own that is pretty identifiable but...still...not there yet.

:<

[VandaQ]

That's a really interesting question. I'd guess that if you are unsure when things fell into place, to say so, you still haven't figured it out haha

I am still figuring out stuff, but I'd say things definitely got more coherent and clear when I started writing short stories. I was always more of a one-shot gal, but I kept pushing myself to write novels. That did help me develop a lot of skills, like natural pacing and how to do description well on a constant basis. But I started writing short stories seriously around a year and a half ago and now I can say that anything I write would put to shame years and years of previous writing (and failed projects).

So... I'd say that out of the eight years of writing experience only around one has been a consistent creative experience. I still have failed projects, I still rely heavily on feedback from other people. But, in the same time, I am now confident enough to know I am a decent writer.

(I hope that's what you meant with those questions...)

[shazzbaa]

I don't know really! Like...... based on everyone else's ages I might be missing the point, but to me the idea that I could ever say "Ah, yes, I really feel like I've hit my stride" except in extreme retrospect is tough for me to imagine!

I'm 31, and right now I'm making work I'm really proud of, but like, is this The Thing I'll Be Known For? Have I really Hit My Stride? idk man!!! I'm still developing!! It could become that, or I might not make that work until I'm 50 or something.

My first webcomic, Today Nothing Happened, did find some popularity, and there are a bunch of folks who've been following me since then, but now that I'm doing a new comic, there are folks reading Runewriters who are surprised to learn that I had a comic before this one. It's weird because like, that could easily happen again? Runewriters could take off more and become The Thing I Make.... or I could make a new thing after this one's done and THAT becomes The Thing I Make and everyone is one day surprised to learn I had a whole fantasy comic before that, and everyone looks back at Runewriters as the place I like, experimented with the themes or techniques that I would eventually use later When I Found My Stride.

I don't really know! I feel like I could never really know. The process of being confident in my art and my storytelling has been so gradual that it's hard to pick a single point where the balance tipped

[Penni]

I was a writing fiend in high school but I was discouraged from taking writing (and drawing) "too seriously" from my mother as she didn't see it as a solid means for me to support myself. I stopped writing for many years after that and I just got back into it last year. It took my several months for me to feel good about it again. So I guess to answer the question it would be the current 29 yr old me

[indagold]

Well I always had it in me since I was a child, the only time I lost it was my fandom phase from 12-15 when I abandoned my original art for shitty cringe inducing fancomics.

But besides that I always had interesting stories to tell. I was always about the world and the overall aesthetic of scenes and environments and less the people when I was younger so weird mary sue abominations, love triangles and emo edgelords never appeared much. It was so vague and simplistic I can still take concepts today from 15 years ago and adapt them into stories. In fact I just finished a recent comic based off an idea I had when I was 9

[punkarsenic]

i like this answer. a lot

[storytimebiondi]

I'm 31, and right now I'm making work I'm really proud of, but like, is this The Thing I'll Be Known For? Have I really Hit My Stride? idk man!!! I'm still developing!! It could become that, or I might not make that work until I'm 50 or something.

This is totally how it goes. I'm 32 and I feel like I have a good handle on structure, theme, character, etc. My practice has come to a point where I'm comfortable with my creativity, but that doesn't mean I've hit a stride. Understanding and execution, I've found in my recent writing, are two very different things.

I don't think I've by far hit my stride. I've got a long way to go yet. Even if I have already been published in minor anthologies etc. I feel like I've done some work worth taking note of, but I feel like I can do so much better also.

[HollowEve]

12
Before then, I hated writing. I despised English class. I would do whatever I could to avoid writing. The funny thing is, I've always loved to read. I just hated making the stories myself.
I can't say what changed my view on things, but one day I decided to write a Tokyo Mew Mew fan fiction and I haven't stopped.

[SynCypher]

Hm, this is interesting because creativity is sort of a set of peaks and valleys. Sometimes you'll hit your stride, only to fall flat on your face and have to recreate yourself or make something new, so in that vein its hard to judge where you really 'get it together'. Since art is a life-long journey, it's hard to quantify in this way. That being said, 'known for' is another matter.

I've always been 'known' as the artist. When it comes to personal strides or a groove though, mine had a couple of starts. (And I'm also no Terry Pratchett so, who knows if the feeling is different after a certain level of notoriety) When I was 9 I started my first comic and when I was 13 I finished it. It was over 1000 pages and had seven generations of characters (as I tend to move on from one group to the next with a beginning, middle, and end with each group and following through). When I was 14 I started my first novel and when I was 16 I'd finished the trilogy and a host of short stories. I'd also started my tattoo business (so I could buy a Gamecube, yeah, yeah, get your laughs out now) and I did commission work. So those were my separate grooves where I felt (each time) that I had it all 'together' as it were. (Hah, usually at the beginning of a project when I could secure a false sense of bravado about what I was doing.)

I won't go down the entire laundry list but, my creative path has lead me to run my own shops both online and IRL, participate in adjudicated galleries (every time I've submitted work I've had a piece up in the main gallery, which can be difficult when upwards of 300 pieces are submitted and only 50 are chosen), meet and take a painting class from the head of the DreamWorks art department, write and self-publish a children's book, started another trilogy (working on getting proper publishing done for that one), and ultimately this has continued throughout every job I've had, any schooling I've done (all for other things, as I work primarily as an editor), and through it all as I've gotten older, my bravado has melted and I can tell you 1000% I don't personally feel like I've really had anything 'together' looking back despite hitting several grooves where I felt I'd done good work.

I don't know if I'll ever feel that way. I think if I felt like I had my shit together, I'd be worried that I was doing it wrong hahahah. I've a very long way to go with my digital skills, alas. I've worked with physical tools all my life (paint, ink, clay etc.) so, yet another start was when I was 17 and in college and figuring out digital tools on my own. I'm waaay not the best at it and I'm doing what I can to acquire new skills and as always, I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants. My hope is that some day, I'll have made something that inspires others. Dunno when that'll be, if that'll be, but I like the idea. Maybe someday I'll know how Terry Pratchett felt.