Welcome to Gaia! ::

Most artists have a problem with the lack of confidence. Well, I find that my own bursts of insecurity has little to do with how good I am. Rather, it's about how much fun I'm having with my art. If I've been productive, busy frolicking with my imagination, it doesn't matter how much I suck. If the process of creation has made me happy, the result of the creation will make me proud, too.

But when I haven't been productive, or when it's mostly commissions, etc. that I have been working on (i.e. obligations), then my self esteem will go down the drain.

It makes sense when you think about it. It's pointless trying to measure how close you are to perfection. Happiness, on the other hand, is within my reach. And isn't that why we're artists in the first place? Because drawing makes us happy. Because we want to be happy.

That's what we should be asking ourselves. "Are you happy doing this?" rather than "How good are you compared to millions of other people out there?"

I'm trying to work on an art contest entry. It's looking very promising -- it has the potential to be my best picture so far, once finished.

Scary thing is, it's still not gonna look nearly as good as 20-minute doodles by master artists.

This is a very humbling experience for me. Lately I've been so busy with comics that I've gotten away from standalone illustrations... I'd forgotten how incredibly small I am.

Sometimes, I look at the works of modern day masters and go, "I can see this picture at the NYC metro museum." That could never happen to any of the pictures that I have created so far. But maybe I'll get there some day. If I practice hard enough, maybe one day, I'll produce something worthy of being remembered for generations and generations.

Winners:
The Prettiful Princess Prize (winner: Ur_Pill)
The Prize of Darkness (winner: Razumi Yazura)
*~Cute~* Prize (winner: caroline_cupcake)
The WHOA NAKED Prize (winner: BellaMuerte)
The Sexier Than j00 Prize (winner: The Macho Sora)
The Chimera Prize (winner: MyOwNsWeEtDeMiSe)
The KeiiiiRanOutOfPrizeNames Prize (winner: [Teh Dixie.])


Still in the works:
The LessThanThree Prize, aka the grand prize (winner: tasiallama)

Guessing Prizes: Mashimizu, The Cookie Man, tasiallama, Rayna_Rose, Mnemosyne the Dreamer, Yumekii, The Macho Sora, luv_tis_angel, lizzzzzzzy