I'm a bit late to this bandwagon but I recently found this old drawing again and it makes me smile.

How it started / How it's going

The Cindaquil is the first drawing in a sketchbook that 10 year old me picked up to fill it with Pokémon drawings which I copied from pogs found in crisp bags. I think I got about 5 Pokémon in before I got bored but by then I realized how fun drawing was, and just never stopped.

My first few years of drawing were spent mostly copying things I thought were cool or pretty from observation. Dinosaurs (thanks Jurassic Park), movie posters, animal pictures, art from books. I didn't realize it then but it made me look at everything differently.

Instead of just seeing things as they were I now reflexively studied them even if I wasn't drawing them. In hindsight this was me accidentally growing observational skills that much more rapidly improved my ability to draw. I had no-one to guide or teach me so that was lucky.

Anyway, around 13 I took to the internet. Access was limited and I spent most of it looking for more stuff to draw from. I was AMAZED by this sudden wealth of cool and pretty things. Not to mention all these folks who also thought drawing was cool! I found my people!

At age 15 (2005) I join DeviantART. I was still mostly copying things, wasn't very good, but being surrounded by people roughly my age who also loved to draw and us collectively indulging in this hobby, sharing things we learned and cheering each other on was groundbreaking.

At 17 I had to figure out what I wanted to do for my career (veterinarian? historian? psychologist?). By then I was halfway decent at art but had never really considered it as anything more than a hobby. I started doing some research on people who did art professionally.

The recurring theme was that they were a hell of a lot more skilled than I. I'd always been invested in improving but I realized that if I wanted to do this as my job I would have to start really dedicating myself to it. I still consider this the real starting point of my growth.

I started throwing myself to the wolves, basically. I forced myself to let go of my ego and just invited people to be as critical as they could of my work, myself included. I started collecting educational material & studied. Kept observing successful artists & learned from them.

It was going well but I "had to" get a degree (so everyone kept telling me) so at 19 I applied to the Utrecht School of the Arts, was accepted and started my Game Art course.

It was not good. No hate to the school, my teachers, it was just not at all what I hoped for or needed.

There was very little focus on actually improving our drawing skills which was all I wanted to focus on. But, I had to get that bloody degree, so I tried to make the best of it and kept doing my own studies and building my portfolio on the side.

At age 22 (2012) I participated in an art contest hosted on the forum of a game I played at the time (Heroes of Newerth). I was one of the winners and the company approached me to ask if I was interested in working with them. My first industry gig! I hadn't even graduated yet.

At 24 (2014) I graduated from my education with a BA in Art & Technology. More accurately I was freed from the time & energy sink that was my education and could finally dedicate myself full time to the work I wanted to do. I didn't exactly get a gentle start, though.

Just a few months after graduating, properly starting my career and moving out with my ex, he lost his job and I had to scramble support myself and him with a rent we never intended for one person to pay. I sent out tons of open applications and took on literally any job I could.

Excellent time for my artistic growth and experience, absolutely horrible time for my emotional and mental wellbeing. It took me over a year to recover my relationship with my art after that because boy had I started to hate what I was doing and questioned my career choice often.

The furry community was paramount to that recovery in 2015 (when I started this account). They helped remind me why I love what I do, and still do. I started splitting my efforts into doing game art on the one hand and building an audience for commissions on the other.

That ended up being the perfect balance. My continued improvement started landing me better jobs and afforded me more choice in what I wanted to do. Being able to say "no" to a job offer for the first time was huge. In 2017 I started applying to WotC. They took me on in 2019.

It's been quite a journey so far and I'm looking forward to what else is in store. But for now I'm quite just being stable after what was a pretty turbulent decade.

Figured I'd share because I get asked about my journey sometimes, and now I'll have something to link to :).