Looking at old stuff

[LadyN]

When looking at stuff you made while as a beginner, is there something you wish you could’ve told your younger self? Either that or something you commend your younger self for doing?

For me, I’m glad I didn’t settle with my first book’s lore. Because I decided not to keep most of it, it helped with changing all the stories around it and the world it is in.

[VibrantFox]

i think i'd want to encourage them more than anything. while i was still finding my footing when it came to finding an art style i think there was something cool that i'd been doing with colors back then that i really havent managed to recreate since so to encourage that little art scientist experimenting with colors and stuff would be a big one

that and reminding past me to keep better back ups because the two major data losses i experienced nearly had me ready to quit and sure i've managed to get back on the horse but the drive and motivation i had then feels like its died down nowadays and i regret having lost that momentum

[TheLemmaLlama]

I am pretty happy with what my past self has done and where it's lead me. So I'll say nothing, so as to not trigger the butterfly effect and risk screwing everything up

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Why would I tell that young fool anything? It's his job to mess everything up so I can fix it now in my present life. Instead of looking backwards I'll just learn new things to make up for past me's failures.

[Lensing]

I still like my very old drawings from the time when I didn´t care how it came out.
I didn´t know what a sketch is and always started with the final outlines, I started at the nose usually.
Another kid said to me "Hey you are guy who always draws too short legs", it was true but I didn´t care.

Then came a period where I tried to learn how to draw and they sketches from that time don´t look good,
I couldn´t attach legs and arms to the body, this took me forever. Everything fell apart and didn´t look good.
I looked at a 24hourscomic today, I drew that when I was 41 and it looks like a 9 year old drew it, it´s
embarassing!

Now I´m happy with my drawings again.

Advice to my younger self: just keep on drawing every day you will get better.
Learn some theory like perspective and drawing shapes in perspective, it will help you.
Do quick gesture drawings every day.
Don´t worry but be patient

[igneriss]

I'd told her to stop drawing in squared notebooks and use clear paper instead.
... which wouldn't help, as some people told me that and I ignored it cx
Other than that, I'd just encourage my old self to keep drawing. I mean, I was drawing all the time anyway, but I guess some kind words wouldn't hurt.

[AmandaJ-art]

Just to keep it up and not to get discouraged. I did draw and come up with many different stories, but a lot of em I stopped drawing.

But I'm proud of my younger self for getting me this far. I know my younger self feels the same lol. When I was 15 I wrote to 20 year old me - ''I hope you're doing well''. Got to read that sweet letter today :,)

[powerplantanimations]

I won't tell my past self anything because he'd probably get a big head that I finally learned how to write lmao and spend his days procrastinating. God I hate my younger self. I'd throat punch him if it didn't mean creating a parodox, but then again this whole scenario is one big paradox so I guess I'll go the extra mile and go ape using my newly acquired boxing skills. TAKE THAT TEENAGE ME YOU SIMP.

[ishmerra]

Past me was very, very proud of her drawings, so while I wouldn't tell her anything, I'd probably just ask how she managed to be so unaffected by the fact that there were 10 year olds that were (and are still) better than she was

The confidence I had in my weird body proportions is enviable honestly

[TedGravesArt]

I'd tell my younger self not to be such a perfectionist. It slowed me down, and reduced the volume of work I produced, while ultimately hurting my art's quality. Allowing myself to get messy has done wonders for my art!

[TheDoublekey]

Oh trust me, I'd love to go back in time and tell myself many things, haha. First thing would have to be: "Make sure this is the correct print size, DON'T BE LAZY!". If only had I checked the proper print size, I wouldn't have had to remake the first three chapters from scratch now.

I would also tell myself to use screentones/halftones properly, since I messed up everything from the first chapter to the beginning of the fourth. And last, but not least, I would suggest myself not to follow the original script too strictly. One of my mistakes as a beginner was that of adapting the script word by word and scene by scene, which led the first few chapters (chapter one especially) to be an infodump. People don't like infodumps, they like to be shown things and I learnt that the hard way.
The other reason as to why I shouldn't have followed the script too faithfully is that I wasn't that great of a writer back then and I ended up rushing the beginning of the story because I wanted to jump straight to the action.

So yeah, these are the things I would tell myself if I could go back. At the same time, though, I'm actually kind of happy things turned out to be this way, because I witnessed my own growth and it was an amazing journey. Improving at something step-by-step is part of what makes that something so satisfying.

[BlueDragon]

I think I'd thank my past for self for steeling against criticism, and not letting anyone take the joy of creating art away from me, no matter what my skill level.

To just keep on truckin' on.

I also thank my past self for keeping an open mind, and not ignoring the advice of others. For not assuming I knew everything, and that I could learn from others, even if what they said my not apply to my goals. To this day, it takes time for advice to click, but I try to not completely ignore it, until the slow cogs finally move and send those messages where they need to go to get me to figure what what was meant XD

I want to thank my past self for writing a little note in fading graphite, on lined paper, folding it up, and pouring candle wax on it, and unceremoniously shoving a pewter dragon head into the wax...only to open the following year so that I can think back today—two years from turning 40—and reflect on that message I'd written back in 5th grade:

"Don't forget you wanted to be an artist. Don't forget you wanted to do art. Keep drawing. I will be disappointed if you don't."

*disappointed was spelled wrong. I clearly remember that. I am awful at spelling.

sidenote

(I'm paraphrasing, because in one my moves I lost this piece of paper. But I remember it.)

[system]

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