When I try to think back I must have been drawing ever since I was little. I can't remember an exact age but I was very young for sure. However back then art was only a minor hobby, I never invested too much time in it.
When I turned 18 I started with university and having to work besides it to pay for rent and food didn't leave me a lot of time for drawing or painting anymore. I basically took a hiatus of almost four full years. In this period I might have drawn four or five works without even slightly being satisfied with any of them. Obviously that didn't increase my motivation.
Then in November 2010 I stumbled across a flyer of a local store back home in Austria which advertised a small Medion Graphic Tablet/Mouse Pad for only 20€. It immediately sparked my interest since I've had always wanted to try out digital art.
Equipped with this tablet I dove into the world of digital drawing and it immediately captured me. I used the tablet so intensively that the pen tip was completely used up after only two weeks. (The cheap material and the rough tablet surface probably didn't help either. ^^)
I felt a little sad that I couldn't use the tablet anymore so even though money was tight at that time I went to a huge electronics store to see if it was possible to order a new pen or pen tips. They told me that for those certain brands they couldn't order them but at that point I almost wasn't interested anymore anyway since my eyes fell on the tablet I currently own. Had I been at the store alone I probably would have left without it since I felt it was a little too expensive for me back then but my wonderful fiancé "forced" me to buy it since he knew what art meant for me by then.
It had basically become my fuel for life. Without exaggeration life had been (and still is) quite a bitch to me and my art became exactly the distraction I needed. Taking out my tablet meant pushing a magical trigger that opened the gate to another world. A world where my mind could go blank and my worries were wiped away for several hours straight every day.
I think without those carefree hours and the simultaneous joining of deviantart I might have gone insane. For real.
Over the last year I have become more and more involved with deviantart and its community and at the same time my art evolved from something that kept me alive to something that made me feel like I was doing something useful. I still feel it's the only hobby that can in no way be branded a waste of time by anyone. And if anyone tried to tell me it is then you can guess what I'd tell them to go do.
I honestly think though that none of these developments would have taken place without deviantart. Being part of this site not only granted me an incredible amount of inspiration and helped me improve my skills to an extent I never thought was possible, it also made me meet so many wonderful people who - with or without being aware of it - enriched my life in countless ways.
Deviantart has literally become my second home.
I've been a part of a lot of different communities ever since I was old enough to explore the internet on my own but none of them kept me interested for too long a time. DA however...just feels right.
And all these wonderful experiences I have made over the last year... I hope to be able to give back to the community in equal value.
Now tell me, my dear watchers and other deviants, what does art and/or deviantart mean to you?
Does it play an equally important role in your life as it does in mine?
`ChewedKandi has certainly gone out of her way to keep the vector community on the right path. Always making sure that her talents are infinitely scalable, Sharon has put her bezier curves to excellent use, and firmly anchored herself as an inspirational leader. We're absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for June 2013 to `ChewedKandi. Congratulations, Sharon! Read More
Sta.sh
Draw my Naruto OC Manku Urakami. It's can be all thet u want, fan art, face screenshots, couple art or else.
each ) on this giveaway.
It's easy to participate 
This journal.
Yea... and if you don't read the rules, you won't get anything out of this.
Advertise; you don't have to but is looked up upon
1st winner - 300 
3 x a 1 Month Premium-Membership
and it really does help to inspire me with new ideas 
.
Thanks 
First: I love that you're reading Order of the Phoenix. Right now, I am too!
But to get back to the purpose of your journal, dA has been a huge influence in my life since I started my old account about 7 years ago. I first started drawing when I was a young young young child. My grandma (the one who called me Sour Grapes) taught me about lines and general perspective. One of the first things she taught me was the little birds flying in the distance trick, that kinda look like } but turned on its side. ^^
Anyway, fast forward to Jr. High, and I start drawing and doodling on everything I can find. I had still been drawing during this time, just mostly in notebooks/sketchpads/canvas/etc. But that wasn't containing my inspiration and imagination; it needed to be unleashed from its paper prison. So I drew on my shoes, on my jeans, on my binders, on my walls of my bedroom (my parents were not too happy by that, but I heard my dad tell my mom - when he thought I was out of earshot - that he was upset but really impressed by the drawings. I had drawn a scene of Jurassic Park with a jeep, a T-Rex, some plants, the visitor's center, etc.)
For some reason, I lost all motivation to draw after this time period. We moved around this time, which in hindsight was probably the reason. I went without drawing for the rest of my high school days and for the next several years, though I did start doing sprite edits and very basic pixel art as well as HTML design.
Some time around 2003, I met a friend who I eventually dated. He introduced me to deviantART when he found out I used to draw. He encouraged me to submit my art and to meet people with similar interests as mine. I honed my anime drawing skills during that time (although, sadly, I've become rusty again and am not of the same caliber). When he and I separated, I lost my passion for drawing again, and had no muse to inspire me. My old deviantART account was left aside, slowly gathering digital cobwebs...
Fast forward again, to 2011. I met my current boyfriend, who noticed the prints of my artwork from my previous dA account. Asking if I had made them, he then asked why I stopped. Having no real answer, I simply started drawing again, for him this time, and inspired by him. I drew some anime girls in a pin-up fashion (he's rockabilly, so he enjoyed those particularly), some kittens, some little designs, but nothing major. Mostly doodles.
Recently, my sister became engaged and asked if I could help her with coordinating the wedding. The topic came around to possibly having her invitations custom made, and I drew up a quick sketch of a couple skulls inside hearts, one with a bow and the other with a top hat. I pulled it into Paint Shop Pro, gave it some digital finishing touches, and showed JP (my boyfriend). He asked why I didn't do graphic design for a living (I work at Best Buy currently) and told me the picture was "bad ass." Somehow, hearing that compliment mixed with the art reminded me of dA, and so I started up my current account, steering away from the digital drawings and focusing more on pixel art.
And that is my up-to-date deviantART story. My apologies for the length. ^^ dA just means a lot to me, and has been a pillar for my artistic development.
And yush I'm about to catch up with you xD I finished The Goblet of Fire about two day ago and am well into the Order of the Phoenix now. ^^
(I really wanna finish the whole series again before not too long so I can re-read The Hobbit before it will be in cinemas in December and I also really need to continue with Wheel of Time. ^^)
but anyway xD
It seems like you had a lot of ups and downs with your art too until up to date. ^^
I've actually had another DA account too which I must have created around 2003 or 2004 maybe but I hardly ever used it and right before I created my current account I deleted the old one.
Does your old account still exist or did you delete it as well?
So would graphic design be a possible career choice for you?
I myself have been thinking about if for a while too but I always turn away from it again because I feel I shouldn't turn a hobby that means so much to me into my job. Simply because I'm afraid that the fact that making money through it and the pressure of needing it for a living would take the fun out of it. I think I prefer it to be a hobby that can make me relax and unwind.
And also, from what I know you need to study quite a lot if you actually wanna do this kind of stuff professionally and I have a horribly short attention span.
(which is also why I'm not 100% sure if I wanna go back to university at the end of the year or rather do some kind of other (and shorter) training or schooling.)
Doing small commissions here and there on DA is a nice way to earn some pocket money though and since I don't depend on it I can always close them whenever I don't feel like it. ^^
wow, sry I kinda got totally lost now xDD
I was also wondering now though...will you ever upload any drawings/paintings or will you really exclusively do pixels on your new account?
That's too bad you deleted you old account. I still have mine, so I could reference my past styles if needed. Three of my free icons I have on this account came from my old one. It's here:
I would love to do graphic design as a career, but unfortunately in my area it isn't a valid choice (there are far too few opportunities), and moving isn't an option. I also feel the way you do, where I love it now but if I have to do it I may start to hate it. :/ I'm in the same boat with attention spans, too. Lol! Plus, I'm completely self-taught, so I don't think learning other people's techniques would be an option for me.
I am planning on uploading some more digital drawings. I have a bunch sketched out (I draw on paper, then import it into Paint Shop Pro to color it), but I just have gotten so hooked on pixel art lately that I've left it to the side. >.< I'm forcing myself to pick them up and at least do the line art. I figure if I do the lines, maybe the coloring will just flow out. ^^
Then I'll be looking forward to your drawings. ^^
And well if you don't feel like doing the colouring, there are always people on here who like to colour other people's line arts. ^^
And now, when I'm doing something else, like when I'm at work, I only countdown hours before I get home to come here on dA or draw more Zelda and Mario fanarts
Yep, you're one year older than me.
I kinda mostly grew up with snes and N64 though and as much as I was a gaming nerd right from the beginning I never really got into drawing fan art that much as a kid. Only with around 14 year when I discovered manga art I drew some of my fave gaming characters here and there but nothing too serious. Only DA actually really got me into drawing Zelda. Before that I might have drawn two very lame Zelda artworks. xD
I still remember when I drew my very first Link chibi for on DA and I was so proud of it and thought, damn I can actually draw Zelda stuff, I gotta do that more often xDDD
[link] <<< it was that work, my very first Zelda picture on here and one of the first works in general on DA ^^
anyway, sorry for all the rambling xD
I just always had general anatomy problems. ^^