What's your origin story?

[AnnaLandin]

I wanna say "bitten by a radioactive artist", but that would be a filthy lie, so.

I've always been drawing. Always. When other kids played with blocks and action-figures, I was lying on the floor drawing horses and dragons, getting crayon-smears all over my hands.

I literally cannot remember a time when I wasn't drawing.

I kept right on doing it, too. I never stopped. From the day I was old enough to hold a crayon without automatically chewing on it right up until today, I've drawn. All throughout elementary and middle school, my teachers kept telling my parents "well, she does well in school and gets good grades, but she's drawing in class all the time". I had teachers call me "nonchalant" because I kept drawing in their classes - even after I'd requested they give me more stuff to do, and them telling me that there was nothing else to do. I sat quietly in my corner and drew in every single class, and stil aced 95% of my tests.

My highschool focused on art, and finally I was sitting in classrooms where drawing in class was encouraged - I even did my first webcomic as a school project. I went to college for Comics and Visual Storytelling.

It might have something to do with the way my parents read picture books and Franco-Belgian comics to us as bedtime stories as children, but art and storytelling are kind of hardwired into my brain at this point. If there is a piece of paper within reach, you can bet I'm going to cover it in drawings.

[evegwood]

I was always an avid writer and up until a few years ago my goal was to become a published author. Making comics never even crossed my mind as something I'd like to do.

I've always been hugely competitive and when I was in middle school, one of my best friends was a really good artist. I honestly only started to draw so I could try to one-up her (same reason I picked up guitar), and when I moved away I just kept it up as an idle hobby. I took Higher Art as part of my high school diploma, but drawing cartoons was discouraged so drawing was still on the backburner.

It wasn't until I started uni that I started to taking drawing more seriously, even though I wasn't at art school. I was starting to read more and more webcomics and I finally realised that I could combine my stories and my drawings (Inhibit was originally going to be a novel!). Now I can't imagine a future where I'm not working on comics!

[Quinn_Li]

Way back when I was in fifth grade I use to trace over colouring books and stuff for fun! But then I had a classmate who could draw so well and everything was in her imagination, and that really inspired me. So I stopped tracing and started making my own characters and felt so much more accomplished than before, I also felt competitive and wanted to get as good as she was. And that's how I came to draw! She fortunately has followed her dreams and graduated last year and is now doing animations for a game company, I in the other hand am just a hobbist when it comes to drawing XD I'm trying to finish nursing!

[angelfire]

I'm kinda in the same boat as @evegwood in regards that the story I'm working on was a novel. Chapter 1 is published on figment too.

But the way I started out was by coloring. I always loved to color in the kiddie coloring books for as long as I can remember. My mom would buy them for us because we were always going places and she wanted to keep us busy. Paints, oils, crayons, color pencils, whatever she got, I used. I actually hated crayons ^^ the effect they gave just bothered me (cost me a friendship at one point :P) Color pencils was my thing as well as paints. And I HATED it when someone would mix the paint colors or color in things the wrong color. Like giving a human girl purple skin. Just. I could not deal with it. I remember dictating my siblings where to use a color and how. My weekend mornings were spent watching Bob Ross paint, of course.

Anyway, my coloring is A+, my drawing skills...eh, not so much. My drawings started from a girl with triangle hair and a triangle body standing outside with a green cloud topped tree and the science defying sun in the corner of the paper. That was my drawings for a significant amount of time. It was around...I think 6th grade when I started to try evolving my drawings. I still didn't draw much then. I really started focusing on improving in high school when a friend of mine introduced me to proper anime (I say proper cuz my first anime was Bakugan).

Even then I didn't think of comicing. I was doing prints. I got into webcomics from the same artist friend of mine back in Junior year of High school (2014/2015). They referred me to Paranatural and Paralax. That's when everything changed for me. Both had links to other comics to read and I discovered Hiveworks, through Hiveworks I discovered comichosting sites, and that led me to Tapastic in the summer of 2015.

My first comic I ever drew was a story written by my friend. I only drew up one page but that one page was a life changing page. I realized that I could actually write a story and put it together with art. My first real comic is a slice of life comic that updates once a week that I'm using to practice my abilities until I get better. In the meantime I'm working on a story that I've wanted to do for a really long time.
It's only been about 3 years since I've been brought into this majestic and unique world, but I can't see myself not being in it anymore. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

[dragonfly_kites]

I would have to say Calvin and Hobbes inspired me when I was in elementary school they were all I would ever read. I loved Bill Waterson's water colors and the world he created. On pretty much every sheet of paper/ homework I would draw one of his strips (I even made some of my own) but it wasn't until fourth grade when I discovered Sailor Moon did I realize I could create my own characters (her name was Sailor Haily's Comet). I pretty much drew my own comics and characters up until I entered college where I stopped for 4 years, and when I mean stopped for 4 years I mean I didn't even doodle. I'm not really sure why I stopped for so long it could have been the whole taking 18 credits and juggling two jobs at the same time but I'm not sure thats it. Anyway, I'm taking a break from school to figure life out and I've drawn everyday since then.

[joannekwan]

I watched a ton of cartoons as a kid, wanted to draw my own. Simple as that.

[jessicasurline]

My earliest memory about wanting to draw was in preschool. I was only drawing stick people but I really wanted to get good enough to draw girls in pretty dresses. By third grade I was starting to get a grasp of realism. Then in 5th grade I saw anime and other teen cartoons and changed my focus to mimicking that. I always loved to draw but all the art classes were focused around crafts like pottery or painting. I struggled with those. Throughout middle school I tried to get into the drawing classes but never got accepted due to their popularity. Since I couldn't get the drawing education formally I just used my large amounts of alone time to practice. I ended up making a 40 page pencil comic by 8th grade. Then I got nicer art supplies for birthdays and Christmas so I attempted inked comic work. By the end of high school I had another 60 page comic inked. I went off to college to learn how to animate but as luck would have it, 2D animation in America was pretty much dead. So the animating program was getting worse so I switched majors to video game art. During college, the drawing teachers really helped me discover better ways to draw by understanding what I was observing from references and live models. I consider those days to be my drawing peak. I graduated and didn't get the job I wanted so I had to settle for contract office work. I didn't draw for many months. Eventually I realized I needed drawing in my life or else I wasn't complete. So I squeezed in time to make Visceral and I felt human again. Now I have moved in with family and had to put Visceral on hold because my job is to draw Whetstone. Now I've lost my drawing mojo to the hormones of pregnancy so I'm going to have gaps in my drawing again. That's the story of my life right there, I draw lots then have long breaks but I always come back because I love to draw.

[UrMom]

Can't remember a time when I wasn't drawing, my mom even has drawings I did back when I was 3, so it's just something I've been doing forever that I can't imagine living without (like having cats). When I was nearly 12 I attended a youth group, it was pretty cool because we would do thing like over night scavenger hunts, and "eat this mystery thing" challenges and stuff you wouldn't think a religious group would do. But there was a 16 year old Hot Topic chick I used to hang out with there, and one day she gifted me a drawing, which made something click in my head and I went draw crazy; started drawing on anything I could get my hands on.
In the beginning of this new craze most of my stuff was the typical weeb, "trying to copy random Japanese cartoonist, but doesn't understand what a style is" type of thing most kids got going on, in my late teens I got fed up with not loving the human body and the world around me (because to me that was what made an real artist); so I started forcing myself to reference nudes and teaching myself about the world (geography, geology, culture, stuff like that) to get out of my narrow weeb mindset. Now I'm totally desensitized to nearly everything and draw however, really need to get into practicing anatomy and stuff like that again, but I don't even have the time to get pages out so that's a no-go. Lmao!

[R.n.P]

The main factor that made my enter art was my love for animals and wanting to know more about them
At first I watched them on documentaries when I was little and before I knew it i started drawing them and from that point drawing the cartoon characters I saw interested me and before I knew it I also started drawing my own comics and when I started drawing comics was around when I was 5 or 6 i guess.
THE LAST SAMURAI

[dsandoval3]

When i was a kid i had to find a way to keep myself from falling asleep in church so my mom wouldnt "turn up" XD. Every week id draw in church and improve. Now i use my skills to make dope stories and even doper fights 😈.

[dratinigirl]

I just sorta... Started drawing, I guess! From the time I could answer the question 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' my answer was 'an artist'. (well, at one time I wanted to be a writer, and at another I wanted to be a chef... But I was lying to myself because I didn't believe in myself, and so many people told me that I couldn't be an artist.) But things really started to get serious when I was 10 years old. I discovered pokemon, and spent hours tracing and referencing the guidebooks so that I could draw them too! When I finally got a solid internet connection, I started copying anime screenshots and work that other artists had done. The copying started to rub off and reflect in my own work. I learned from it, and felt like I could take ANYTHING in my head and make it real, in a sense. Once I got my 12 year old hands on a deviantart account and MSpaint, there was no stopping me.
However, I nearly did stop. Nobody was looking at my pictures on deviantart or tumblr by the time I turned 18. I was in AP art class, and no matter how hard I tried, I fell short of my classmates. I planned to throw out everything that I had worked for, because surely the people who told me that I wasn't good enough were right. Everything changed when I made a single comic strip with a dumb little joke in it and posted it to tumblr. Within a day it had a thousand notes (a HUGE deal to me at the time!) and I had loads of new followers. So, I kept making comics, and more people came to see them. I made new friends, became more confident, and was growing and producing at top speed. I applied to culinary school the summer after graduation, and when I was asked if I wanted to major in Culinary or Pastry... I thought 'neither'.
It wasn't long after that when I realized that I'd been denying what I've wanted all along, to draw and create! It's been over a year since then, and I've improved, I'm getting more commissions, my most successful work has garnered over 600k hits on youtube, and I've started work on my own comic! Something I NEVER thought I'd do. I'm excited to see where the road takes me from here ^w^

[Aloredd]

I come from a family that's filled with talented artists, and I always wanted to be able to...art?... as well as they do. I took all sorts of art classes throughout middle school and high school (im only 19 so no college yet) and I still try to practice on my own. Sadly, though, I have the eye for it but I struggle making my hands draw what my mind sees. (I can draw it if it's in front of me, but original content is a no go) I've looked up and read/watched many different 'training' methods, but none of them seem to work. I know that 'practice makes perfect', but so far I'm not really seeing the results of my practice (at least, as much as I with I could)....I'm decent at abstract animal themed stuff, but humans, backgrounds, and details i struggle with (all the key components to almost any type of webcomic) .... so, for now, I have to settle with planning and writing stories to turn into webomics later

[Noglastiaa]

It's actually pretty silly. I never really had an affinity for drawing growing up but then in 6th grade my neopet guild needed a new banner and I thought, "Woah, I have a scanner, I should draw something!"
After I finished it I looked it over and really believed that I may be great at it (trust me it was horrible, nut narcissistic 12 year old me refused to believe that). Thus I started to draw. I followed the silly style I had for the neopets drawing for a while before I looked up something on youtube. Slowly I began to hone in my style and I really really fell in love with art.
Then around 9th grade I stopped becauseI felt like it was useless. I wasn't going to try to get a career in it and I was never gonna get better than all those people that were so much better. I drew one or two pictures a year after that when I felt a little inspired, but never really had the spark from before.
I started up again last December because my first college finals were starting and I was crazy stressed out. Drawing became an outlet. It was also the influence of tapastic. Seeing all these great artists really made me want to start again too. Thus after a good 4-5 year gap, I began drawing again. I've lost alot of the skill I had had and have to start over again in many aspects but I've fallen in love with art. Even in my major in Pharmacy, I can't help but make room for art. It feels great to have something I care about and strive to get better at again:)

[noctuidae]

i didn't really have anyone to play with as a young child so i'd try to make up imaginary friends. unconvinced of their existence, i decided to imagine what their lives were like instead. so my desire for storytelling is rooted in childish boredom.

as for actually putting things to paper, i wrote a poem in kindergarten about the silkworms the class was growing. my parents had it framed in my room and my teacher praised me, so i guess i figured it'd be a good idea to keep doing it. i still have the framed poem.

eventually i started illustrating the poems i wrote, and things escalated from there.

[Raven_C]

I'm pretty sure it was my dad (who is an artist himself) that sorta sparked my interest in drawing. As for what kept that spark going, it had to be cartoons and anime for sure. I've always loved a good story and was always creating characters of my own.

[Mharz]

I've been drawing since I was a young girl. I've been fascinated by animes (Dragonball and the old HunterxHunter in particular) I was so fascinated by them that I even draw Goku on my own desk and chair. I guess that's where it started. Since then, being an animator became a childhood dream. I've always drawn at the back of my notebooks when I was in school so much that most of my notebook are halfway filled with drawings. I even have some of those old notebooks here buried somewhere. When I was allowed to use a computer, I scanned my drawings and color them there. (it was a different software than photoshop, not mspaint either but it got the job done).

Although back then, I'm absolutely really shy in showing my drawings to other people because I didn't think it was good to be shown (talk about karma). My friends know that I draw despite that. I also became a cartoonist at our school newspaper. (Albeit it's only one issue).

When I was in college I joined an animation club but after one semester I quit because silly me prioritized the grades first. Probably one of the biggest regrets of my life. So throughout college, since I didn't study art (because it's expensive), I draw less frequently because of so many school works that had to be done. It was right before graduation that I realized, "Damn, I want to be an artist not an office lady who sits on her desk typing sh*t all day long." Don't get me wrong, I did graduated I just didn't look for a job that is related to my finished course.

So after that I took up a 3month course that is art related. Then I got bummed at home for a couple of months. I contacted many studios but never responded except for one person who offered me to train on their studio for free! I ended up working there for three years and that's how I managed to improve my art. I had to leave though (and totally felt bad for it) because my personal goal is not exactly aligned to them anymore (and I suffered from burnout).

Now, here I am, doing webcomics, freelance work and doing everything that I can to make the world know that I exist and can draw. Sorry it's turning into a novel. I'll stop now.

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TL;DR: I started drawing when I was young and decided to push to be an artist instead of a computer programmer.

[niinasalmelin]

I sucked at everything else so it was damage control.

Kidding aside, I just loved doing it and telling stories. It inspired me when I saw myself slowly getting better and wanted to work even harder.

[jordanthelass]

It was a dark and stormy night . and The Red Baron had just stolen my latest manuscript ..

XD In all seriousness, I always loved drawing, but I didn't know what to do with my love for it. When I discovered how much I love comic strips/long form comics, I decided to try my hand at it.

It didn't take long to realize that I was a better writer in long form stories--so I wrote a novel a while ago. Then I found out I could draw with the aid of an iPad. That's how Whose World was born!

[SpavVy]

I've been drawing ever since I could hold a Crayola marker.
As a kid, I loved dinosaurs, dragons, Poke'mon and animals. I would always try and to draw them and even though I drew a lot as a kid it wasn't exactly my dream to become an artist, I actually wanted to grow up and become a paleontologist.

I drew a lot because I had problems growing up and because I had selective mutism up until the age of eight it made me an easy target for bullying so drawing helped me find an escape. Sometimes I'd draw things that bothered me and I would put them through the shredder.

When I was ten years old Teen Titans aired on Cartoon Network and I fell in love with the show. My best friend and I even made our own fan characters and had them go on all sorts of crazy adventures. We had sleepovers often and we would tell stories too. That's pretty much where my love for storytelling began.

As I got older I started watching more anime, one of my teachers knew I had an interest in it so she bought me a book about Japan (I still have it) and I became a bit of a weeaboo until I was seventeen xD I also have an interest in the paranormal such as demons, angels, and ghosts so I decided to make a "manga" about it. I spent a few years researching and developing the characters for my story. And here I am, finally working on my own comic but sometimes I think I should have stuck to wanting to be a paleontologist because I'd probably have more money xD

[demthorshie]

I first got my start as an artist probably when I was about 3 years of age. I actually started off by coloring on my parent's walls in the house, and when I got busted doing that, I moved to coloring on the wood part under my bed. I was originally inspired by my love for Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and so the majority of my drawings were of mermaids, unsurprisingly.

I think the day I knew I was going to be an artist for a living was when I won in my very first art contest in the 2nd grade. What I initially believed to be an effortless piece of work left most of my classmates and all of the teachers in awe. I felt really good that day and I think that was the first time I had ever considered making art on a serious level.