How long have you been drawing? Share your progress from the last 10 years!

AmysGames 2026-01-03 17:48:11 UTC #21

I've been drawing since I've been old enough to hold a crayon, haha. Here's a composition I made a couple years back of me drawing the same character for 15 years:

kyupol 2026-01-03 18:14:03 UTC #22

2016...

2026...

Not much improvement lol

I stopped caring about leveling up in art around 2011 or so...

jwabeasley 2026-01-03 20:25:18 UTC #23

There's definitely some limitations with physical media, but those are fuel for creativity and problem-solving! I'm always impressed at what other artists are able to achieve with the same materials.

ShidoDraws 2026-01-04 09:32:16 UTC #24

I do believe that you have been improving in those three years. The 2023 drawing has a lot of yellow dots that, I assume, are fireflies, but you seemed to have kept that as almost a signature-like texture on your drawings. And keeping them tame seems to let the subject stand out. It's also a sign that you are aware of what you're doing with the brushes you're using.

15 years of drawing the same character?! I couldn't even if I try. Lol I did try to draw the same character at least once a year a long time ago, but I couldn't find the motivation to keep drawing them since at some point felt like a chore to just drawing them for the sake of drawing them.

That's okay! Not everything needs to improve in a linear motion. I mean, even artists who started with realism love drawing 2d anime/cartoon characters because it's less stressful to just work on something simple. I'd say if you're happy where you are then there's not much to improve. xD

Yeah, I am too. I guess desperate times calls for desperate measures. Lol I like to use my materials to its fullest, because whenever I buy new art materials, I always end up leaning back to the older materials. I suspect it may be because I'd have to relearn how to use the new thing that I just got. Like, I've recently bought oil paints and have been putting it off for a while now just cause I don't feel motivated enough to paint something. And also, I don't know what I wanted to paint. Lol

AmysGames 2026-01-04 22:59:44 UTC #25

Well in this case, it's because I've been writing comics about the same OCs for that long

vapidink 2026-01-05 00:39:05 UTC #26

Kinda surprised I managed to find some stuff from 10 years ago, lol. I didn't have any drawing tablet at the time, so this was all done with a trackpad.

2015

2016

And this is some traditional art from the same year that I colored digitally

2017
This was the year I got a phone with a stylus and Medibang

2018

2020

2021
This is around when I got my first drawing tablet and CSP

2022

2023

2024

2025
Finally got a display tablet this year!

theyrebothakilogram 2026-01-05 03:20:02 UTC #27

I have drawings from pre 2018, but none of them have a date on them so I kinda really have no clue when they're from.
2018.........................................2019.......................................2020

2021........................................................2022..............................2023

2024.......................................................................................................2025

2026

ShidoDraws 2026-01-05 07:07:06 UTC #28

I used to draw on a trackpad too! xD That was the good old days. However, I more drew on MS paint and used the curve line tool to draw. Sadly, the computer didn't belong to me, so the drawings didn't make it.

Your early drawings look really cute! And the newer drawings more looked cool!

Haha! Some drawings are difficult to track the date of. xD Lately I've tried my best to put a date on my traditional drawings.

And it seems you've improved a lot in those 10 years! Of course, transitioning to a different medium does feel like you're relearning how to walk again. Lol The 2026 drawing is fantastic! Good work!

miuthecat 2026-01-06 15:51:15 UTC #29

Need to find a 10 year span first

vapidink 2026-01-07 04:16:20 UTC #30

I definitely don't miss those times, lol! I used GIMP back then. It's a pretty good program to start out with and it was great for cover making. Most of my old drawings are saved somewhere, I just have mostly new stuff on my current laptop.

The cute ones are mostly freebies! I do love cute characters though, it just depends on what I'm writing what kind of drawings I end up making. But I still rarely color stuff because I'm lazy, lol!

MattiesMoments 2026-01-07 17:44:07 UTC #31

I've always drawn, but I don't have a lot of pictures of old art. I have maybe 2 or 3 images from high school and that's about it.
But here's some examples
Still working on digital... it's hard to go traditional to digital, or at least that's how I feel. I don't do a lot with charcoal anymore, not since I left college. Since I teach art on outschool, I do a lot with pencil, colored pencil, crayons, and simple markers these days.

Inspector_Spinda 2026-01-10 02:48:58 UTC #32

2017-2018: These are both arts for my then webcomic "Plastic Teeth" (still up btw). I did a lot of illustrations and concept art during this time, but didn't start the comic until 2019.

2019: From 2016 until about 2020, I did a lot of warrior cats art. A lot of designs, animations and a brief comic. I'm not too interested in the fandom anymore.

2020: I was doing chapter 2 of Plastic Teeth at this point and this is an illustration I did in parallel with the comic.

2021: Probably one of the last warrior cats art I did. I was super duper proud of it even though I didn't know how to render water at all and the water puddle in the illustration looks like melted clay.

2022: From 2021 onward, I've been devoted to the Cyberchase fandom. Shown is my Pride art for one year. Up until this point I drew on a huion tablet using firealpaca. My lines were generally thicker than not as confident as today.

2023: This is the year I got Procreate and an iPad for drawing. I think this is when I developed a lot of line confidence because I spent a lot more time drawing during my lunch break at work and during the commute.

2024-2026: 99% of the art I did these years are just Cyberchase fanart or artfight stuff which I've done every year since 2019. In 2025, I started to do a lot of gesture drawing which I think helped me improve hugely. Today, I posted my first comic since Plastic teeth ended in 2021.

ShidoDraws 2026-01-10 12:48:19 UTC #33

Oh, I grew up watching Cyberchase! Your fan arts are really cute and cool! I'm not really into the show anymore, but I do have fond memories of it. My favorite character was Digit, I really like his name because it reminded me of the word "digit" which helped me learn math when I was in elementary. And my least favorite character was motherboard, she's kind of scary looking. Lol But I didn't hate her, she's a chill character I would say.

Sometimes the simple things can make a big difference in life. xD

Inspector_Spinda 2026-01-10 16:20:07 UTC #34

Hells yeah! I wouldn't say I'm interested in the show itself anymore. Well the new episodes plainly suck, but I haven't seen the old episodes either in years. But the lore of the show goes really keep so I think it has a lot of potential as a base for storytelling.

Shanny8 2026-01-10 20:37:02 UTC #35

Of course I've been drawing for WAAAY longer than 10 years, but I'm only gonna post when I first started doing digital art- which was about 10 years ago.

This is my first attempt at digital art in 2015 when I got my Wacom tablet and first tried out Clip Studio...my line work was crappy, but there were some things in there that encouraged me to keep going. I ended up accidentally inking on the pencils layer(over time I remembered to NOT do that)

A couple of months later I kept pushing myself to digital art & created this piece(a character that belongs to an art peer of mine); I was proud but still soaking up a LOT of info...I later learned that doing shading in black was a no-no and that's one of the reasons why some of my art was looking really "muddy"

This was another piece I did from a "draw this character in your style" and I enjoyed it coz the main scheme in my design was just utilizing shades of purple PLUS the heavy black lines made a lot of the other colors pop(even the shading is purple)...this piece was 2018

Spent a good portion of 2019 struggling to work on my webcomic coz my body was showing a lot of the pain & issues that led to my hiatus in 2020- but during that time I felt like I was getting better control of digital work and my style was starting to improve...

By the end of 2019 I had to put my webcomic on hold coz consistently working at that pace was wrecking my back, my left forearm, and my wrists...in 2020 I started making standalone art pieces(what I'm still doing); eventually the pain came back and by the end of 2020 I HAD to take a break from art altogether- I was burnt out & depressed(coz I lost my dad to Covid); nothing seemed to matter anymore...I turned to video games(ACNH) to be able to start feeling something again.

But here is a piece from 2020:

Then after 2 years I got back to working on my art- I went to an out-of-town convention and I started working on remastering the 4th issue of my "print only" comic, but I didnt have enough time...I started working on a standalone piece of an OC of mine and the work was coming along smoothly; I finished the piece, but didnt finish remastering the comic- I would get that done in 2023.

This is from 2022:

In 2023 I got back to working on the print only comic because I had gotten a table at MomoCon(one of the biggest anime conventions in the city); I also got a fire lit under my ass after seeing Spider-Verse 2...I had been designing elements/pieces on my Spidersona character since the first Spider Verse movie, but since I was either always busy with other art or in hiatus trying to heal my body I never did put it all together...I finally did the thing.

In 2024 I got bit with the creative bug- by that time I had moved to a new place, started setting my art station up the way I wanted...I got an itch to do a couple of Jem oriented mashups; I did a LOT of art in 2024, but this one was my most labor intensive- I almost felt burned out after finishing this one.

I was planning to make 2025 an even bigger year BUT the house we were renting- the owner wanted to sell; we had to move by the end of may & we were TIRED of renting...so we decided to BUY A HOUSE. Once the dust settled and we got our home, almost 4 months had gone by with me not doing any art...I got a new desk(my old desk went to shit during moving our furniture to storage), got my art stuffs set up(it took a little longer coz I added MORE stuff to the art station setup), and got back to working on art...I would say this is my fave piece of 2025- I put a little bit more energy into this piece than any other piece last year...

My desk/setup:

I'm currently working on my final art from 2025, so 2026 is TBD; I am planning to dive back into the Jem universe and do a Stingers piece...

quintellit 2026-01-10 21:00:31 UTC #36

Here's some of the pannels I have worked from the last 5-6 years for my fan series:

2020:

2021:

2022:

2023:

2024:

2025:

ShidoDraws 2026-01-11 11:52:45 UTC #37

It's not a new concept, but an interesting concept, nonetheless. I like the talking pokemons, they seem to have more personality than the usual pokemon characters. xD

It's good to hear that you're learning to love your own work again. That's really encouraging to hear especially after you went through such difficult times. And your art looks really good!

RIP old desk! Haha! At least you got a really cool set up in the end. Assuming you didn't use neon lights before. xD It's tacky but necessary for esthetic. I've thought about buying some mood lighting for my desktop space too. It's a little spacious since I like to keep it tidy, but it's a sacrifice I'll have to consider cause I'm afraid the mood lightings might be in the way if I ever do paperwork stuff on my desk. xD

Shanny8 2026-01-11 20:01:58 UTC #38

I had LED hexagon lights and the art palette neon light in the first incarnation at the rental house, but added the LED rods under the shelves and the LED mouse pads(I also have one under the drawing tablet...it just feels really cool and gives me energy to sit there and work on art. The old desk was propped up by furniture risers(it originally sat too low, which made me have to crouch over like a shrimp and wrecked my back); the new desk is a power rising desk that I can raise and lower with the press of a button- I currently have it set at a height that is comfy to me.

I have a video showcasing its current incarnation, but I still have to put up the neon art palette...

I'm planning on adding more wall art- commissions by other artists...

MattiesMoments 2026-01-12 00:20:00 UTC #39

That is very true! I love surprising my students with simple techniques in these mediums. They get so surprised and excited that they have the same materials to practice with.

Painting and charcoal are just so messy and I don't have a space to freely use those right now.