My DA Story

Uhmmmm.... so mebbe I WILL do one of these. Because I'm procrastinating going to sleep and shiz.
I have an interview for a job tomorrow eheheh... AT THE LIBRARYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

*cough cough* anyway, back to the topic at hand.

My DA story is actually kinda boring and probably a little weird.
I've known about DA since me and my sister were about... I dunno... 5th grade? Almost 10 years ago now! We both loved writing stories, and were constantly looking for pictures online that portrayed something like the characters we made. I'm not sure when, but sometime during all the Google searching we found DA, this gigantic whirlpool of art and amazingness. Needless to say we both spent many the hour browsing the beautiful eye candy floating around here, and finding inspiration for our own drawing and writings.
At the time, me and her were both drawing avidly. She took the anime approach, while I went the animal route.

During middle school was when I first started coming to DA habitually and looking up specific artists to ninja stalk. Because I'm weird like that.
Among my favorites were Fourth-Star, Alphafilly, Skailla, KayFedewa, Kickster-Ash and Kiki-kit. The whole while I watched them from the shadows of the interwebz, I kept drawing and aspiring to make digital art like that one day.

It wasn't until I'd made my Junior year of high school that I started digital art in MS Paint (all the files of which are gone on my old computer )
I took a basic graphics design course at the local Career Center, and finally started making some digital progress.

Now this is where Slayer (or Abby) comes in. See, she'd been my best friend since the 8th grade, and had been pushing me to keep doing better the entire time I'd known her.
And she had made a DA account for her photography.

So in my excitement about her getting an account, I ran right up to my parents and was like "Yo! Imma make a DA account!"
To which I got the enthusiastic reply, "NO GURL YOU CRAZY"

See, my parents were really paranoid about computer viruses, and where 100% convinced that every virus our computer contracted was from my browsing on DA. So... I was not allowed to make an account.
And I disappeared from the DA scene... for a year

A year later, Slayer reminded me of her old DA account and basically said "I don't use it that much. You could share it with me and post your art!!"
And in my awesome and aged wisdom, I said, "Sure!!"
And I went behind my parents' back and logged onto DA

Good way to start your DA career, posting something you'll never finish
This was still before I had GIMP or Photoshop, so all that beautiful linework there was drawn in MS Paint with a mouse(I still miss that crisp smoothness that I can't obtain with a tablet).

In the beginning, I mostly posted traditional artworks with the occasional MS Paint thing being thrown in. But as I got more internet adventurous, I downloaded GIMP and fiddled with it.

Sometime during all this, I revealed to my parents that I had a DA account and that the computer wasn't exploding and so they started to (slowly) encourage me in my online doodles. I got my tablet that Christmas, and have been drawing with it ever since. The digital artwork has all but halted my traditional works, but I love the color that digital gives me! And the freedom!
Because of the decision to pursue my work on DA, I became more convicted in my dreams of becoming a professional artist. I've stopped listening to the verbal walls other people have built for me, in favor of going to art school instead of the 'practical' and 'realistic' alternatives of accounting and teaching. I can do this. I will do this.

And last year, as you all probably now by now, I finally started art classes at my local university. GOSH IT WAS AMAZING!! It was like discovering DeviantArt all over again! There was a community of people, REAL LIFE PEOPLE, just like me. They all wanted to draw, they all wanted to learn, they all wanted to create something with their own two hands. Some of them wanted to be museum curators, or art teachers, or animators. Some of them didn't even know what they wanted to be yet.

My first art class ever was Drawing 101 with Vance. Man that class was amazing! I never realized how woefully in the dark I was about everything there was to art. How lines can become powerful tools! I have never learned so much in my life!! Vance himself was an amazing teacher. He was just enough patient and angry with me about my shortcomings just enough to keep me moving. He was my first critique, the reason I first cried over an artwork, but also the reason I first became hungry to learn more. But the end of the semester, I had made an A in his class, and was one of his best students in there. When I told him I didn't think I'd make it into the art college, he asked me why I wasn't applying.
I told him I was of course! But I didn't think I'd get in.
He looked like he was going to smack me
"Girl, I think you'll be fine."
This next year is the year that I'll get to finally submit a portfolio. Wish me luck!!

I guess I'll throw in a mini lesson in here for you guys, if you've read my rambling this far.
Never let anyone tell you to put your dreams on hold because it's 'impractical' or because 'you're not good enough to make it'.
I truly regret never taking art classes in high school, where I could've learned and flourished there in a less competitive environment. Everyone in my university art classes balk at me when they find out I have no learned experience, that I let OTHER PEOPLE decide who I should be. But somehow, I'm one of the best traditional artists of my class. Where other people were flunking out or just quitting, I was spending ever blood sweat and tear on continuing. Unlike them, I WASN'T nominated most artistic at my school, because I was too busy doing something more practical. Unlike them, I didn't take advantage of whatever art program my school had, or taking community art classes, or going to art museums to study and learn. I was just a regular girl with a pencil and a notebook, who finally decided to grow a spine. And despite all the frustration, all the anxiety, and all the blank disbelief, I powered through my 'handicap' to become something good, if not something great.
No, I'm not the best artist, and yes, I still have TONS to learn. And maybe some of you guys feel the same way as I do right now. But never let your misgivings drive your life.
My own mother told me that I wasn't good enough to make it. But when she saw what I did in my art classes, she told me she was truly sorry. Because she finally realized she was wrong. And while she still tells me I should be pursuing something more 'normal', she accepts the fact that I actually have a shot at this future I've chosen for myself.
And maybe its your parents who are telling you to just 'keep art a hobby'. Or maybe it's yourself. But whoever it is, guys, ignore them. Ignore the angry, broken down voice that looks at  you and says 'there's no way'. Because there IS a way, you just have to be willing to try for it. Don't be the person 30 years down the road, working at something they're miserable at and looking at some sparky young kid who is right where you were, and has to say "I was going to be an artist but..."
That's the scariest thing they'll ever hear. And you might figure out that it's a little terrifying to know you had to say it.

*cough cough*

Okayyyyyyyyyyyy so enough of the speech giving

I also want to give a shout out to my best buds on here!!
First off is Slayer, the one who actually got my butt on here. You, my friend, are like... the reason I wake up and go "I'm gonna draw something beautiful today".
Next is . You were my first friend on here! And the first person to really open me up to the online community. You and your awsomeness are like... a ray of electronic light in a very bleak internet. Stay cool dawg.
you were the reason for my first ship (that I'm still sailing on wait wut?) and also the source of some of the awesome-est conversation I've ever had! You never cease to amaze me!
, , , , , you guys are all awesome! You've made for some of the most amazing, most hilarious, and most wonderful times I've had on DA. You're inspiring words and continued support always make me smile when I look in my inbox. Like seriously, I can't thank you enough.
and , you two are awesome beyond words. Like seriously, you do so much for me,  you have no idea.
And of course theres my IRL friends on here, and my biggest supporters ever. and you know I love you two.

Hmmm... and I think that's it for my shout-outs.
If I missed anyone, I'm deeply sorry. I'm slowly getting to talking to new people, and slowly making new friends. I can't wait until I have more DA peeps on here to talk to! And I can't wait for another awesome year.
Here's to you guys!!