A Comparison

The photo for this one is at the bottom as its sort of big. I tossed it together in photoshop just now to make a bit of a comparison and changes type chart.

I recently stumbled upon a huge pile of drawings I did between what I think are the years 1997-2001. When I opened up the folders I quickly wished I hadn't. I am my own worst critic when it comes to my drawings and this was like a blow to the face with a brick. I sat there looking at this pile of scribbles and thought to myself "My gods, at one point in time in my life I thought these were actually good. What was I smoking?". To that last question I answered myself with "Nothing obviously, or your parents would of kicked your ass"...

Another thing that came to mind was that I was one of THOSE people. Those Weeaboo* people who make fan characters and squeal over attractive cartoon males. One of those people who would try very hard to learn to copy one anime style in hopes to draw some amazing fan art that will some how get back to the eyes of the original creator and they would call and go "Young lady! You are of great worth and talent! Please come to Japan and create beautiful cartoons with me!"

Granted, Thanks to these.... Drawings... I was able to take at home art classes to help me improve. I was also given lessons at the Everson Museum of Art (which I'm sure weren't cheap, but hey, I got them free). I even toyed with the idea of going to a real art school for college, learning 2-D animation, and creating a cartoon that would take the world by storm. 

I've been drawing now for something like 15yrs. That's like almost half my life. Though I don't draw nearly as much as I used to. I remember days when I spent hours upon hours pumping out one drawing after another. But now I'm lucky if I manage to squeak out a single drawing a month. I have to say though, I now know the meaning of "Quality, not Quantity". Even if I only draw one thing a month, its multitudes better than all of that crap I was piling up at 15yrs old. 

And even if my style has changed for the better, I still have to thank Sailor Moon for getting me going....

You can click the image like always to make it bigger. Just watch out for your eyes, that first drawing might cause blindness or insanity.

Also-- *Weeaboo as defined by Urban Dictionary: Someone who is obsessed with Japan/Japanese Culture/Anime, etc. and attempts to act as if they were Japanese, even though they're far from it. They use Japanese words but usually end up pronouncing them wrong and sounding like total assholes.