all of my family has (and still does) reacted in a positive way towards my art. I'm honestly surprised when I see that most people say otherwise about their experiences

It's always been generally positive...the only real deviation being that the parents would have preferred I had went into a more traditional branch of art. I think they always assumed I'd out grow "comics".

My parents were and still are very supportive of my creative work, especially my dad. He even helped me get some commissioners. xD

My mother never directly told me not to write, but she dropped enough comments that I felt that what I was doing was wrong, and as I got older it was reaffirmed with such comments as "Writing isn't a real jobr." or "books are just a hobby." "Are you doing that writing thing again?" "You write such weird things. I never understand it."

It's the reason why I gave up writing for so long. Today, she seems supportive, if only that she hasn't openly bashed it but I don't expect much beyond that. My father has always been supportive of everything that I do but growing up in the a single home with my mom had a pretty big impact on me as a kid and growing up.

The majority of my family was always the type to just oooo and ahhhh over my art all throughout my childhood, just praising me for how good my drawings were and saying things like "wow none of our immediate family can do anything with art, where did this talent come from??"

The one exception being my mom. I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again xD Like the rest of my family she's always been supportive of my art, but she's the one person who would actually take the time to look at my drawings objectively and give criticisms here and there. These were especially helpful in middle school when I was first starting to take art "seriously", but was still pretty bad at a lot of things xD She'd point out all of the weird anatomy mistakes and encourage me to fix them in the future. One that stands out in my memory is I used to draw everyone with like... rounded square shoulders, and she'd always be like "why are all these people football players?" looool. Also like... I used to draw everyone wayyyyy too thin, like all malnourished, and she'd point things like that out too xD random stuff like that no one else ever bothered to point out. Those types of comments helped me lead my personal studies in specific directions, and over time I started correcting a lot of the basic mistakes.

Nowadays as an adult, she still likes to nitpick my drawings somewhat, but a lot of the things are like... stylistic choices that I may or may not change xD one recent comment on one page of my comic was "why is his mouth so square?" when I had a char making this expression it's like... if that's the worst thing you can point out, I'm clearly doing better >;D

I come from a relatively artistic family on both sides, so my creativity has always been encouraged. I really appreciate that my mom in particular was both encouraging of my work, while also teaching me how to get better. Now that I'm older I have the wonderful experience of being able to both go to my mom for advice, and have her come to me for advice and input. I love helping her on creative projects, and its always an ego boost when she listens to my opinion because she is very talented.

So yeah, supportive parents and supportive older sister.

The main thing is that I used to share my writing with my mom, but as I got older I stopped doing that. She is not at all happy I won't let her read my comic. XD

Edit: Thought it worth adding that I really lucked out as far as supportive teachers too, from kindergarten all the way to actual art teachers. And not because I was exceptional or anything, they were just good teachers that cared about what made me happy. It's not just about your talent, but about the people who influence your life caring about you as a developing person.

My parents are the religious type and uhhh, I don't think I'd be able to show much without them trying to give me a whole lecture about what I'm doing or about how it reflects on my spirituality. As a little kid, they encouraged me to be creative and yeah. I did just that, I had an active imagination playing with toys and I was always wanting to make up stories and stuff. I picked up music as a teen and started making music. I've shared songs I've made and story ideas before, and those were met with very indifferent views and at worst, this talk of "I don't want you making this kind of thing anymore."

Considering how I've always been the creative type and how I was essentially a high school dropout at the time, this kinda stuff destroyed me. I never felt like I was ever gonna make them proud or even close to happy, and these creations were my one chance to make 'em believe in me.. like.. I just felt like I'd always be a failure in life. I thought the best thing I could do was just give up on what I wanna pursue, get a regular job, and waste my life away feeling like that forever, and if it gets that bad, just kill myself if I can't take it anymore. I still strongly feel like that to this day, tbh

It's not until I started showing my friends instead that they were like, "dude, keep doing this, I wanna see what kinda stuff you can make" And yeah, they definitely gave me that push to just keep making things despite feeling like my parents would never want to understand what I'm trying to do. It wasn't until I was older that I realized that they just wanted to protect me from straying from religion and having high expectations and all that.. but I'd be lying if I said that I agreed with how they went about it. It never felt like they cared about my safety so much as they didn't want me to be to be me at all.

It sucks to hear dissent from the people you love most, and it can definitely be damaging to some extent. Like you find something you feel like you're good at, something that empowers you.. and they'd prefer you avoid that instead. It can feel like a real disconnect and almost a lack of consideration on their part.. but if you love what you're doing, you just gotta keep going. Parents like that just happen to not be in the audience that wants to see what you'll make. This doesn't make them horrible people, it just means they have different interests. If it happens, try not to take it so personally. (Not like I'm the best example of what I said, but still)

There will always be someone out there willing to enjoy the things you've made~

When I was really young, I started drawing because my sister was doing it and it looked fun. Eventually I started getting better, drawing more and more. The minute I started showing a little tiny spec of talent, the expectations of the people around me grew. Everyone knew I was an artist, but a lot of them had never seen my art. So they'd ask me to do things I wasn't capable of, like drawing photorealstic portraits, caricatures, oil paintings... They didn't realize that I was just a kid drawing dumb anime comics in spiral notebooks for fun.

As I got older, and my skills and interests branched out and became more varied, art was the sole trait for which I was recognized by most people. If you have an art project at school, you want that kid on your team. It was technically a compliment, but being known for one thing only gets tiring pretty fast. Especially because I knew I wasn't actually as talented as everyone said I was.

I wouldn't say I had an entirely negative experience with art as a child, but I learned to keep it to myself for the most part. I just wanted to have fun without expectations or turning art into study. I made art in my own time and with my friends, and for a long time I didn't focus on improving or making anything "impressive." I skated by on the fact that everyone already thought I was talented. It wasn't until college that I started studying art seriously. I do wish I'd started sooner, but oh well.

My mom didn't care for anything creative I produced as a child and as I got older it switched from indifference to negativity. My mom is one of those people that thinks your dreams are fucking stupid and you should just figure out the best paying job you can do and go to college for it.

I essentially think the same way now.

Weeeell. It is very mixed. When I was a child (under 10), my dad would be very supportive of me drawing.He encouraged me and praised me. I made my first "portrait", when I was very young (drawing my guinea pig with pencils). It looked really decent for my age. I remember the situation very well. I was laying on the floor, drawing my guinea pig, feeling super proud... My dad would praise me again and then... proceeded to add more fluff to the fur, drawing over my picture. Gosh, I was around 9 and still felt super awkward about someone correcting my drawing xD

My grandma was also super supportive, hanging up my pictures and all that. Some of my old drawings are still hanging on her wall (including my guinea pig ^^). When I would get more serious as a teen she also asked me to draw specific portraits.

Around age ten a lot of shit went down in my family, including the divorce of my parents. I stopped drawing for a while as I had enough other things on my mind. When I got back into it and started drawing portraits my family didn't care any more. I was living with my mom who was not supportive at all. She wouldn't actively discourage me, but it seemed like she didn't care at all, which really hurt. I don't think it was intentional, our life was very rough at the time and there were other things on her mind. But I still felt the impact. Luckily I had to much fun drawing and to man other people that encouraged me to stop and now I'm here =)

Growing with strict moral guardian parents, your creativity is most of the time watched and limited.

If I draw some negative topic such as gore (as any normal edgy teen did), demons, a girl with "slutty" clothes, swear words, scene of smoking/drinking, and anything perceived negative; I'd get a long lecture, my drawing or writing ripped, not allowed to do it again, and the impression I'm a fucking weirdo with messed up mind. Did I mention they always force me to show it when they see me drawing/writing?

That is why I always do both drawing and writing away from them or at night when they sleep. Whether it's a "safe" work I feel unsafe because of them. This habit still picks up unconsciously till now, even when Iy alone I always watch the door for "imaginary" them barging in and ask what am I drawing.
Even now I more likely to draw digitally on my phone because it's more private.

My family was, is, and always has been overwhelmingly supportive of my creative pursuits, whether it was kindergarten or college. The encouragement not only aided me in sticking with creative projects but instilled a discipline that bled over into other aspects of life

So hats off to you, my parents (who won't read this but they do read the comic)

As for my siblings....meh, you guys are alright

When i was a child my family was extremely supportive and encouraging. My brothers and cousins became my first fans. They enjoyed the comics and games i made. I had to read to them because i had a terrible calligraphy, but i think that helped us bond over my art.

They are still extremely supportive and are proud that i am sharing a comic online.

When i was a child, my father didn't like that i was drawing so much, and he would repeat over and over that only manual / productive work pays money and every artist just end up in the streets begging for money. My mother didn't think much about me drawing, neither of them would look at what i draw, they pretty much never cared about it.

When i asked for going to an art school my father was opposed to it and despite my health issues, i failed the third year at high school just once and he sent me to the mecanic apprentice school / formation and i spent two years learning and working as a mechanic around the age of 15, but i was still drawing in my free time. Even tho i had back pain issue (spina bifida) he would need me to help him in the garage after work or school until very late sometimes, my father was only seeing life through work and nothing else, mecanic / repairing car was his passion. I would just help him sitting around because i couldn't whitstand a standing up pose for more than two hours.

My parents were fighting a lot after they divorced when i was 4 year old, fights for keeping me and my sister under their guard / home, and a lot of in between familly fight ensued, "tell your father i said this, tell your mother i said that, your mother's cousin said that etc etc" parents were not the most responsible to take care of their childs but had a lot of energy to fight to have the charge of the childrens as if it was a medal of pride. As a mean for escapism from how horrible the familly situation was, and how little care me and my sister really received i kept drawing and creating my characters and universe, at school it was not going very good either, from my elementary school and age of 5 / 6 i was allways at the last place of the classroom, and no other child wanted to get close for i was a little bit strange already, i was very quiet because there were already enough tensions, disputes, and problems at the house.

I remember that i was really bored at school and cursus were so easy i wasn't paying attention and just kept drawing in the margin of my books / lesson pages, and even in my class report journal, sometimes i would do stupid and idiotic strips on the side of my exam sheets and hopefully the professor was just laughing at them, but sometimes, one would not be amused and remove a point for the drawings all around lol.

Even after all these years, my father has 2 cancers these past two years, and this time, he has one in his bones... I can't say my father wasn't right about the fact i would never make a living by drawing, i feel like he has allways been disappointed by the fact i was born with a defect, and he will probably die without being able to prove him i'm worth something, or otherwise.

Well that's how it is.

My parents have been somewhat supportive. They paid for me to go to art classes, paid for me to go to art college... but they've never really given me any praise or the like. I don't think they really think positively or negatively of it.

But I was able to get a job as a graphics artist so I think they are happy with that at least.

I don't think they've ever read any of my comics. I kind of wish they would because I feel like my comics are a part of myself, but it'd also be a bit embarrassing.

For me they were very supportive , they even helped me to take a very cheap drawing class for one year. Even tho i appreciated the support i understood that they didnt see it as a main option for my future, like i know that even if they say words like "your good at drawing", "i like how you draw" or those type of stuff that they dont really think of it as something that can be considered "work". It kinda hurts knowing that but im gratefull that they didnt try to cut it out from my life and they even tried to understand me.

Well you see, My father was from a rather blue collar family that either worked at the local paper mill or one of the Power plants off the coasts and My mother was from a family that never pursued that field, so while they are supportive they were also extremely cynical about comics especially when pursuing a life-long career.

It was positive, but then again almost EVERYONE in my family could draw; I was just the only person who continued to draw in my adult years and kept my interest in it. My jaw dropped when I found out my mom could draw- she drew a woman in a bikini suit that was totally awesome! My mom never discouraged me to stop, but she never exactly encouraged me to chase my dreams- the only reason I got to where I am is because I willed it. I fell short in some areas, but did okay in others...

It was indifferent for most part, but in positive way, like just look at the half of second and then "yeah, that's good" and like that. Then i stopped to show my works to anyone (because why to bother, nobody is interested in it), and still doing it, except Tapas and Deviantart.

Mom said once that i should go to the special drawing lessons after-school (we don't have a standalone drawing school here). But those lessons were led by the teacher who always called me a "debil" for my drawing and other things so i said that i'm not so interested in improving my skills and didn't go there.

my mother to this day encourages my artwork although none of my family consider my self employment as an artist a "real job" one of my brother wont even give me the time of day because I am not a person who considers money my god and refuse to go a slave all day to make other people rich. money comes and goes you will find what you need is my view. art on the other hand is a skill that must be practiced or it will be lost to you.

When I was little, my parents used to praise my drawings, but never anything that I wrote, which is what I most wanted praise for, because I wanted to become a novelist. They also dropped hints about how all great writers in my country have starved, unless they happened to come from very rich families, and they have made it quite clear that writing cannot bring anyone any money and that I'd need a full-time day job. This was disheartening to the point of making me suicidal, until I realized (in my twenties, after several suicide attempts and years of depression) that they were wrong and that there were writers out there who were making a living out of writing. I am very far from being able to support myself out of writing, but at least now that I believe that's humanly possible, I have a goal to be striving for, and I have some hope, and that has helped me out of my depression.

Also, this is not from when I was a child, but at some point (in my twenties, I think), I showed my mother the first chapter of a novel that I was working on (in Romanian). She had a good laugh while reading it, then she told me that she had enjoyed it, and that she wouldn't mind reading more if I want to write more, but that I must absolutely not ever publish it, because it is too controversial from a political point of view (it was a Harry Potter parody, not a political essay!) and she does not want my name, and therefore her name, associated with anything like that. After that, I was unable to write for several months. I'm still unable to write in Romanian (my native language and the only language she understands well), and the only way I managed to get myself to be able to write again was deciding to write under a pen name and to keep it all a secret from her. I'm now able to write under my own name, and that's even though she has been learning English and reading one of my series online (it's Toadmila Wartly that she's reading) but it has taken me a lot of years to get to the point where I'm comfortable with knowing that she might read what I write. And I'm still afraid of her reaction to what I write.

I know this all sounds like a lot of whining, but what I'm trying to say is:

A) not all parents are supportive, and that will have a tremendous impact
B) if your family and/or loved ones are not supportive, you are not alone
C) don't let your family bring you down or discourage you in any way
D) if your parents are supportive, go thank them now! You have no idea how important that is, and how lucky you are.

I'm personally just terrified about showing my parents or anyone on my family anything i do but i don't even have a good reason for that. They know i draw, they know i write and they've seen my not-comic related work, i really don't know why coming to the decision showing it has been so difficult.

They've been pretty uninterested the whole time too so i don't really believe they'd mock it. I'm probably more afraid of getting to reaction rather than a negative reaction.

My family was positive about me drawing well but my mom dislikes very much anime and was telling me that they are ungly , what she saw was dragon ball characters and she thought that i am drawing monsters but she didnt tell me to stop , she just complains sometimes about it.

They never discouraged me from pursuing what I wanted to do, the only drawback is that they didn't know what to teach me for me to be successful in this path so they always recommended that I optimize my career path where I can work somewhere and bring home money.

When they found out that I rather be a creative, then they adjusted their expectations accordingly. They were more patient, they were more lenient, they put faith in me that I wasn't wasting my life away. (Or rather, I'd like to thing that they are or they've given up on me completely. Which isn't too bad. No expectations means I get to surprise them when I make something out of it)

I live with my aunt's family my whole childhood until my teenager year. My memory is always bad, but I don't remember them saying that my drawings is bad or anything. They don't particularly understood things like art and I don't showed them much about my drawings. They're just okay with what I did.

Then I live with my grandma for my middle school years and well, I'm been more secretive about my stuff. It's not like they care.

Then after that I moved back to live with my mom and sisters in a new town... they thought of my drawings and time spending it is a waste, most of the time, thought at the early time they kinda let me buy some sketch Book and stuff though, and very very rarely when they see my better drawings (not my manga s*it), they simply sharing it to facebook and letting me doing portrait for them (an well, that's pretty s*ck any way) and then... uh, I guess that's it. It dies very quickly and then they're barely saying anything about my s*it since they didn't even care about it. :v

They simply don't give a s*it and I also didn't care to give a s*it back.

At least they still let me do my own s*it, and I just improve naturally, though my motivation always drain very quickly.

I think I just don't care to think about it anymore.

(Ah... how many times I repeated my words?)

I wasn't drawing comics, only when I was like 8 years old. My parents were positive about my art, I think. I was going to art classes in elementary school, but didn't like that as we were doing a lot of similar things and those that I didn't enjoy very much. I just had a different style than the teacher, so everyweek, I was pretending I had a headache, therefore can't go On the other hand I still liked the teacher and I did learn a lot of useful basics, I would say.

I loved to draw animals and dragons, later birds and generally liked to practise drawing wings, so I would start drawing all kind of animals with wings just for fun and practise when I was just doodling, which ws in my later teens. I am not sure why, maybe just that I was shy about it, I tended to hide those from my parents. My mum discovered my sketches and looked like she thought we need to have a talk and that she things it is not normal and she has a problem that I draw that many things with wings. She must have thought I am weird because of that. Well, I tended to lock myself in my room when I was drawing and hid everything as well as I could.

My friends and teachers always praised me, though and were very supportive of my artwork, sometimes telling me they are sure I will do that as a job one day or asked if I was planning to. I didn't really dare have such dreams as I imagined it was difficult. And here I am today, working as a full time artist for a company abroad ^^ Couldn't be happier about that.

My family has always been really good about being supportive of any endeavor, but I really didn't have the confidence to share much when I was younger. I didn't want them to read it and hate it because I thought I would be crushed. Once I finally matured out of that, they became my best supporters. I usually have a family member edit for me since I know they'll be honest, and I know that can trust their opinions.

The range of experience here is interesting though! I'm glad to see that there's a lot of supportive family members out there. But credit to the people who kept at it no matter what their family said. That takes serious determination.

My mother used to paint with us as a kid. I'd help decorate costumes she'd make for her halloween parties at the RAAF base, she helped me make space dioramas for school and one time we made an "aquarium" where my dad built the frame out of wood and we painted glittery fish that we hung from the lid. I used to show her my stuff all the time and she'd give a critique saying something was wrong. I'd change it and bring it back until I get 100% approval. One time however she said "You're 13 now this is childish, I don't want to see your art anymore." So I stopped drawing around everyone and would come home, lock myself in my room and draw. Then it just went downhill from there because now there's complaints I'm not spending enough time with the family and yadda yadda yadda. (Family had split by this point and her new boyfriend is an asshole to the point where extended family members and co-workers did not like him.)

This actually all culminated to where I was kicked out of home at 16 because I wanted to be an artist as career and as they say it's "not a real job", people like me are just leeches on society. Keep in mind the only career that qualifies as a real job to her was being a secretary for a government position. It had to be /her/ job. Anything else I applied to I was told to get a new job within 2 weeks or I was out, even if it had a legitimate career track. Long story short she went from super supportive to completely against, her new partner got her a new personality and I honestly think he was enforcing a lot of this behind the scenes given one time he even confiscated my art supplies for no reason. I don't talk to them anymore, and I don't think I ever will. For me this went beyond not liking someone's hobby to completely destroying their life over it. It's beyond forgiveness.

I think it comes down to my mother actually wanted to be an artist once upon a time in highschool, but her dreams were crushed by a teacher grading her picture with a lot of perspective focus (room full of people sitting down) an F while he graded a random abstract piece an A. She honed her skill till she was 18 and then stopped because the world told her no, so my guess is that she expected me to do the same. Sometimes I wonder if the pressure against my art was so hardcore because she'd have to face the fact that she gave up when she could've just continued.

I'm currently at an awkward moment in my life; Currently in junior year of high school and happens to be anti-college, my mom, like she has to my brothers, is pressuring me to go to college and or not pursuit art and do something else.
While I understand that when push goes to shove, I wouldn't mind taking on a job not art orientated if it means affording to life, I can balance art and work like I do with school, but my issue is where my mom glorifies my artwork in public yet has done nothing to support or encourage it. She treats it like a token, my dad likewise.

My older brothers, though concerned, are and were always supportive of my artwork and showed genuine interest in it.

The range of support does not limit my abilities to make art, but if I do gain publicity from it, I intend to be honest on the scheme of things since people need to stop treating art like a poor man's profession, it's just a different field that happens to be under rrated.

I'm very lucky in that my parents were (and continue to be) hugely supportive. For that I am always immensely grateful.

My family and friends have only reacted to my creative work when I present it to them. The same thing goes on still today. They would never say anything negative. Even though they say positive things to this day, I view the things as negative. The following is why I view it as negative: If I have to always present my work to them, even though they don't enquire about my latest work, it doesn't matter if they react negatively or positively. They are obviously not interested in my work, since they don't ask me about my work without me presenting it to them first. I've always been intrigued about their talents and will occasionally ask for updates about how they are using their talents. Some of these updates that I ask them about include playing video games, writing, farming, art work, blogging, rapping, and teaching. Even though I view their noninterest in my creative work as negative, I don't hate/dislike them for it. They are entitled to like what they like. I don't share my work with them any more. I talk to them about other things. Now I do use the treatment as motivation to get better.

I consider myself very lucky to have a pair of parents that support me in the way that they do. It's basically, "Do/Believe whatever you want, but I draw the line at demonic rituals in my house. We don't do that shit.".

I was also lucky to have parents who were willing to help. Whenever I told them I was interested in anything, they would go on and on about the many different opportunities and ways that I could harness it and make a living from it. They always told me that it never matters what you do, it's how you do it and why you do it.

My mother, being bit of an artist/writer herself, is very supportive of what I do and doesn't discourage what I create. Despite this, I always feel nervous about actually showing her my work. I know she would never hate or discourage me for anything that I do, but I still can't shake the feeling that I might disappoint her, and that can kind of apply to anything that I do. I don't know why that is, but it exists and I don't like it. ヽ(illﾟдﾟ)ﾉ