Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm into a semi-realism digital art. I try to be realistic as possible but unless there's photo reference I'm still not good at that. How did I get here? Motivation, inspiration and study. I'll give you a lil break down of each of those "driving forces" in my art. Sorry if it's a bit wall-of-texty, my learning process has been a long one. =( Plus I babble too much. XP

I never used to be interested in art, not until I started writing and creating characters, then I wanted to do my best to draw them. That was my motivation to start drawing. I still love drawing my characters but I've been trying to become more well rounded so I can consider and feel confident about starting commissions.

Eventually, I discovered digital art--past MS Paint, that is, and found a great inspiration that got me interested in doing digital art with a tablet. I somehow stumbled across Yumedust on deviantArt and was instantly in love with her art and style. She's been a major influence in my art. When I saw the last painting in her gallery I asked her if she used a tablet for it, yes, she did and at that point I knew my mouse wasn't going to cut it anymore. Next Christmas I got my tablet.

Lastly, motivation and inspiration alone won't help you. You have to study. Anatomy, color/values, atmosphere, etc. Like you, everything is self taught--in the sense no one personally told me how to do something or gave me tips. I looked at and followed the tutorials artists who inspired me posted and tried out a couple different methods. What else helped me a little was watching livestream videos. I found it more helpful than watching youtube videos of speed paintings because they've usually gotta be sped up to fit in the 9 minute time frame so it's hard to learn rather than watch.

Here's two visual examples of my progress. The first: *Click* is a collection of drawings I did of the same character through the years. I didn't get a tablet until X-mas of '06 and didn't start learning color, value, and technique until '09, but if you're really interested (or just that bored) there's a more in-depth show and tell of my progress here: *Click*

XD I'm not sure that's what you were asking for but I'm still willing to help if you'd like to be more specific on what you're looking for. ^_^

@ Indigo
Wow, she is amazing ^^
and You have really improved too ^^
You painted that waterfall? That looks amazing ^^

I started based on Yu-gi-oh and my sister XD
That started 5 years ago and then I wasnt super serious about art, I was just drawing. Evemtually I decided to get serious within the past few years or so.

Everytime I see amazing, or realistic art I get inspired to do better. Although I tend to feel like Im not getting anywhere in my art. Sometimes I think otherwise when I look at my old art though XD

@Eizoryu
Youve also improved a lot ^^
I will have to remember to look that up.
Sounds difficult, drawing what your brain sees, not what you think you see. Difficult process XD

Thats usually what I do XD

Especially around what i call the 'era of big heads' XP