How long until you were decent?

[heterodont]

I've been drawing for as long as I could remember, but I've always been forward about my art? There really wasnt even a point where I was like "yeah my arts good to show the world" I mean for heavens sake I used to upload art like this (yes this is my own old art)

I've never really been ''harassed'' because my art was objectively Bad back then which may be why I wasn't shy to show my awful art, nowadays I'm iffy sharing my art despite the fact it's good. It's more of the matter of when I thought my art was good enough to have commissions, but even then I was offering junk like this for money.

ignorance is bliss

but to stay on topic, majority of my improvement happened within 2012 - 2014

[kazukitakamura126]

I have drawn ever since I could hold a pencil. However, looking back I feel wasn't at a decent level until 2011. The anatomy was getting better and I was started to develop a style.

[Dranif]

While I can say I've improved, there are many areas in comic making that I struggle at still.
Its decent enough to show, but still forever a W.I.P.

[winglesscomic]

"until you were decent"

I'll let you know when the time comes when I can actually draw a hand.

[TristanJensen]

I kind of did the same thing for my series...

It was pretty rough for the first few months (mostly due to a lack of a program that wasn't on a trial basis*) But I think here is where it finally settled down (as far as style goes) to something consistent.

*and that I had zero clue what I was doing....

[shazzbaa]

I mean, I can look back at art from 3 or 4 years ago and think "wow, yikes, I can't even look at this," but honestly I think that will be true forever.

But the first time I can remember drawing something and feeling really happy with it, like it looked the way I really wanted to, was in middle school, probably around 8th grade (it was a cougar furry). That means I was drawing for about 12-13 years before I hit a moment of feeling like my art was coming out the way I wanted.

(I think that was before I really had a venue to post online, though, so sharing my art with "the world" in that way sort of came later. xD )

[dracoplato]

I've probably been "decent" since high school XD Now good, that's an endless struggle to reach.

[Mharz]

I was curious on this topic because of the title (LOL).

Anyway, It was late 2014 when I was able to build enough confidence to show my drawing to the world. I know my style is not at it's peak yet and I have tons of stuffs to learn but I'm pretty confident now on what I can do and will be able to do in the future. Plus there are people who appreciate my art so that makes me happy.

[jacintawibowo]

It's hard to measure the exact moment of "when you were decent". I think for me, it's more of accepting imperfection in my work rather than realizing "I was good enough". I think it's right for you to start a comic when you weren't good at drawing yet- it's good to start early and get comfortable with showing your work early =)

[eschaefges]

how long until i was decent? you'd have to ask my neighbors...

now that i've gotten that out of the way, i would say "i was finally somewhat satisfied with my artistic skills about a year AFTER i finished drawing my first graphic novel. which i am still coloring. So it took about 90% of my life.

[AnnaLandin]

I can't really put an exact date on it - I've been drawing since I was old enough to hold a pen.

I was objectively fairly decent by the time I was in high school, but when I compare the stuff I drew then to the stuff I draw now, there's a world of difference.

Of course, even after drawing for 25+ years, I STILL spend most of my time convinced I have no idea what I'm doing and that I should probably give up and get a job as a garbage truck driver. But then I remember I don't have a driver's license, and pick the pen back up.

[Vikiro_Hop]

It mostly came down to seeing other webcomics that started off with art that wasn't that amazing, so I thought it would be cool to just start and improve as I go along. It has worked to some degree.

[scythe]

Yep, I'm the same. Everyone always knew what to get me when I was a kid. Just buy him a how to draw book. I couldn't get enough of them, so I've literally been at this since I was a toddler, and I never really stopped.

And even then, I've never sat down to a drawing or piece of art without thinking, "okay, how the hell am I going to draw this part, or that part..."

But that's what makes drawing and making art exciting, it's knowing that no matter how good you get, you can always get better.

[BraveHeartTatsumaki]

Like many I've drawn my whole life, but just THIS year I started to draw more decent than before... at least the anatomy is good, AT LEAST, I don't know why just this year I started drawing better but until past year my drawings were all the same.

[efdvorsky]

I drew before I could write, scribbles in class, random comics here and there, but I didn't really think 'wait I think I should practice and turn it into a thing' until I was about...20 or so when I realized my degree choices weren't for me. I wish I had taken it more seriously at a younger age, but with constant practice, hard work, and accepting suggestions, I think I've done some good leaps in improving.

Like a lot of people have said though, I look back at the things I drew just last year and cringe, and I think next year I'll cringe as well at what I'm drawing now. Hahaha...

I consider myself pretty decent just from a few months ago, tbh.

[allenthomas]

I think I'd be better able to answer that question when I get to that point. I am still in the process of getting my drawing skills back to where they were prior to me writing the script for my comic. I can say that I am at least improving.

[greyshire]

Haha I'm usually pretty happy with how something looks at the time I draw/post it, but ask me a year later and I may be far less comfortable showing it to the world! That said I'm still pretty happy with the early work I did on my comic a couple years ago, and even if it wasn't perfect I'm glad I posted it (even if some of my early character concept sketches were pretty... questionable)

[daryake9]

I'm not even sure I'm decent now, lmao. If I compare my art now to the stuff I did 2 years ago (or even one year ago, yikes), I'm like yeaah I'm so decent now, but then I see other artists' stuff and feel like I still have soooo much to learn :/
I guess my main problem is, that I know I could do better, but I'm way to impatient to actually take a lot of time for a painting. The few times I did take my time, I ended up with really good art, but I can't be arsed to do smth like that too often, so I'll just paint someting quick and then I'm mildly dissappointed.
But I started my comic as an artskills practise, so I guess I don't have to be too decent now

[KreativeConfusion]

it's more of a confidence factor rather then a skill factor for me. When I was younger I had no problem showing my comic since I was proud but I didn't have a scanner so I couldn't post it online. I did show it to all my friends though.

When I got more comfortable drawing and writing I started to see all the flaws and began working hard of developing things more. So I wanna say like 2 years ago is when I felt comfortable with my art.

[suddenlyapples]

'decent' is probably one of the best things i've heard to describe my feelings about my own art.

life is hard when you are an old birb who isn't really up to snuff with their art compared to the younger folk online. i still struggle with that "wow i suck" moments where i would look at amazing art from folks much younger than me and feel like i missed 10 years of skills with my own stuff (i sort of did as i stopped drawing for a couple of years because of school and whatnot). it's definitely still a work in progress to get over this mental hurdle where i compare my works versus others' and not against my own work, but i'm getting there c:

as others have mentioned it's mostly confidence and acceptance of your own art that makes it 'decent'. i've been forcing myself to post whatever i doodled on twitter/tumblr for my own archiving and see how far i've gone, then doing those summary of the art year (and either celebrating or cringing at the result). i don't think i ever look back at my own art and cringe in disgust, mostly a paternal "aww, buddy, you tried to do that didn't you? i see what you were going for, but we should've done it this way instead!" and we have nothing else but to keep going and see where it takes us c:

and whoops this got long, forgive me. so here's to all of us, may we continue yelling at ourselves and improve even more.