"As a kid, I was incredibly imaginative(maybe worryingly so :V). I used to play out 'Episodes' with my action figures when I was a kid, I remember vividly doing the theme song before I'd play and my head being 'the camera' for close up shots and everything else."

DUDE I DID THIS *ALL* THE TIME

thats really nice.With me...I started because a teacher was my first school (when I was 3) asked me to copy a picture from a book. It started there, but I quickly gave up drawing for maybe 4 eyars? Because nobody encouraged me. But then a guy appeared, a new kid at school, and his artwork was really good. I got jealous and put my head back into the sketchbook drawing again.

I mainly drew as a child then to escape the world, because I was generally always bullied boohoo for me lol.

But now I draw because I want to keep my characters and stories alive through imagery, because I find it enjoyable. Okay time's I get annoyed at it, but yeah.

So my reason that made me carry on as a kid was to escape the world. xD whoops.

--
I am accepting Sketch Commissions here > [link]

ALL YAOI FANS MAMBO!!!! [link]

CLUB
~Primers

HIGH FIVE!

--
99 Reasons To Win [DOT] Com! <My Online Webcomic!

Hey I'm all for escapism! I use games as my method but yeh, funny to think how if things had of been different you'd be a totally different person right now eh?

--
99 Reasons To Win [DOT] Com! <My Online Webcomic!

I HAVE AN EPIC TALE.

When I was very small, I was burned horribly. I spent two of the first three years of my life in bandages, watching Mighty Mouse and other cartoons, notably Rupert and the Frog Song. You ever seen that? MAD trippy stuff- I still love it.
So yeah, I was almost literally weaned on cartoons.
When I was 5 I was given an Oxford Children's dictionary, and like most kids, I loved the pictures. Using said dictionary, I looked up some words and approached my parents. I proudly stated 'MAMMY, DADDY, I WANT TO BE A CARTOON ILLUSTRATOR.'

My parents smiled and said 'work hard at school, do well in all your exams, and we'll talk about it'

I became a super swot, and worked hard- despite not being allowed to take art as a school subject, my parents encouraged me to pursue it as a hobby, actively. School ended, and I was left (as many of us were) with a choice.
Study science, or art?
I picked art, firmly (read: naievely) thought I would be THE BEST ANIMATOR EVER. Yeah, college happened, and thanks to a gruelling work ethic borne by years of studying hard so I could be an artist (WHAT?) I made it through in one piece. (It should be noted, that once I made up my mind, my folks were behind me 100%)

Meanwhile,a young woman by the name of =rocketgal pointed me at this lovely site. I was enthralled, and began to learn photoshop to partake in the fun. College didn't teach us PS, which is so absurdly wrong I can barely fathom it. So, yeah. deviantart is the current reason why I do what I do. Some truly fantastic artists here, making the world a much smaller place in all the best ways.

well, fair dues if you read all of that.

--
GIMME SOME SUGAR, BABY!

Life is at worst a failure worth risking- A. Burns

Awh wow awesome stuff. No idea about your early childhood dude, I don't think I ever saw The Frog Song. Remember Rupert and Mighty Mouse though. That's an epic tale indeed though. Crazy that college didn't teach you PS!

--
99 Reasons To Win [DOT] Com! <My Online Webcomic!

Somewhere along the line, I told myself, "Okay. Comics. This is what we're going to do. No more, no less."
I was inspired by anime and manga, really. Watching Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, basically Japanese superhero shows, I started wanting to make my own stories. I'd pretend any sort of doll or figurine I had was a character, and pretend they were doing some sort of epic battle or just hanging out or something. And, ironically, that's a lot of what my stories are, now; every-day life stories or dramatic action stories. I always took pride in my ideas, when I was younger. I originally aimed to be a writer, and often drew comics of my stories. Grab some paper from the printer, staple it together, and try to fill the whole thing up with comics. I always had extra pages.
Anime made me think, "I want to make my own story." Manga then gave me the thought, "I can draw my stories." Probably just about everything I've read or watched has influenced me in some way. In the end, I have some sort of mishmash style, marked by every artist that ever inspired or amazed me.
Although, after all that Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, I can't draw skirts or muscles. Funny.

--
Comics

GORDON FREEMAN IS NOW THESE HANDS

I'm probably just the same as you, I had that sort off imaginative childhood, its kind off faded away for me slightly. I'm not even sure if I'm still a creative person, though I live for drawing too.

--
"The Earth is a farm. We are someone else's property." ~Charles Fort

My grandfather on my dad's side was/is an artist. He's a quiet, kind of scary guy, but he still encouraged me and my cousin and brother to paint and draw. Not much in comparison to our grandmother, though. She, and sometimes he, would stand behind us and watch us paint and comment on how good it was, and how well thought out our brush strokes were (even though they weren't of course, we were like four), and our grandmother even gave us cheap little sketchbooks. I have no idea where our sketchbooks are anymore, but I remember I filled mine all the way, and that for one picture my grandmother took me and my brother to the park, and at one point I made my little brother go lay on a rock and rest his hands under his chin. And from that pose I drew (quite terribly) a mermaid. When my brother saw it he got mad and laughed and said that he wasn't a mermaid and he wasn't a girl, and my grandmother laughed and tried to explain to him that I was using a reference. I had no idea I was using a reference, I just thought it would help me draw.

I too had the creative nourishing childhood, and my grandmother would always have us cook with her, and have us sing in the car, and my brother often hated us singing in the car. But I never had a passion for drawing when I was young. I'd just do it for fun and pass off some horrible drawing as a Mother's Day present or something.

But recently I came to the discovery that my habits, preferences, and creative impulses derive from childhood movies. Disney's the Little Mermaid was one of them, alongside Fox's Anastasia, but I figured out, through a crazily awesome Christmas coincidence in 2008, that even tiny details like the music I like, derive from mostly one source, an old movie, based off of a 1920's newspaper comic, called Little Nemo [link] (I'd give you a better picture but I'm at school and almost everything's blocked on the internet). But that's the main cast. The main character is the little boy in pajamas named Nemo, the princess of Slumberland, and Nemo's best friend Icarus the squirrel (there are three squirrels in the pic, but it's only one character in different poses). Icarus not only started my love of little animal friends in goggles who can basically talk, he also, unknown to me until recently, provided the name for my old fish of two years ago (the Greek mythology helped, too).

That movie single handedly made me who I am today. It made me love the fantasy genre, if you saw the princess's bedroom you'd see why a four year old little girl would love it, Monarchies with bad ass females in power, the princess at a few points punches the clown, the weird music I like, dreams, and of course talking fuzzy little animals.

But it wasn't until my sophomore year in high school I decided I wanted to learn how to draw. This is because I wanted to be able to draw comics of the stories I have created, because I felt it would be way better than writing it all out.

It's funny that you mention using your action figures to play out "episodes". I used my barbie dolls and beanie babies to play out entire movies with my own characters added in (I wasn't as creative as you, and it was the start of Mary Sues in my life ), bloopers included.

Also, my brother and I would constantly do improv, and my brother, mom, and I would often play the mute game. That's where we muted the tv and made the cartoons talk ourselves. I recall two of the best ones came from Pokemon and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

--
United we cosplay, divided we conform.
--
But be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night, 2.5

My grandfather on my dad's side was/is an artist. He's a quiet, kind of scary guy, but he still encouraged me and my cousin and brother to paint and draw. Not much in comparison to our grandmother, though. She, and sometimes he, would stand behind us and watch us paint and comment on how good it was, and how well thought out our brush strokes were (even though they weren't of course, we were like four), and our grandmother even gave us cheap little sketchbooks. I have no idea where our sketchbooks are anymore, but I remember I filled mine all the way, and that for one picture my grandmother took me and my brother to the park, and at one point I made my little brother go lay on a rock and rest his hands under his chin. And from that pose I drew (quite terribly) a mermaid. When my brother saw it he got mad and laughed and said that he wasn't a mermaid and he wasn't a girl, and my grandmother laughed and tried to explain to him that I was using a reference. I had no idea I was using a reference, I just thought it would help me draw.

I too had the creative nourishing childhood, and my grandmother would always have us cook with her, and have us sing in the car, and my brother often hated us singing in the car. But I never had a passion for drawing when I was young. I'd just do it for fun and pass off some horrible drawing as a Mother's Day present or something.

But recently I came to the discovery that my habits, preferences, and creative impulses derive from childhood movies. Disney's the Little Mermaid was one of them, alongside Fox's Anastasia, but I figured out, through a crazily awesome Christmas coincidence in 2008, that even tiny details like the music I like, derive from mostly one source, an old movie, based off of a 1920's newspaper comic, called Little Nemo [link] (I'd give you a better picture but I'm at school and almost everything's blocked on the internet). But that's the main cast. The main character is the little boy in pajamas named Nemo, the princess of Slumberland, and Nemo's best friend Icarus the squirrel (there are three squirrels in the pic, but it's only one character in different poses). Icarus not only started my love of little animal friends in goggles who can basically talk, he also, unknown to me until recently, provided the name for my old fish of two years ago (the Greek mythology helped, too).

That movie single handedly made me who I am today. It made me love the fantasy genre, if you saw the princess's bedroom you'd see why a four year old little girl would love it, Monarchies with bad ass females in power, the princess at a few points punches the clown, the weird music I like, dreams, and of course talking fuzzy little animals.

But it wasn't until my sophomore year in high school I decided I wanted to learn how to draw. This is because I wanted to be able to draw comics of the stories I have created, because I felt it would be way better than writing it all out.

It's funny that you mention using your action figures to play out "episodes". I used my barbie dolls and beanie babies to play out entire movies with my own characters added in (I wasn't as creative as you, and it was the start of Mary Sues in my life ), bloopers included.

Also, my brother and I would constantly do improv, and my brother, mom, and I would often play the mute game. That's where we muted the tv and made the cartoons talk ourselves. I recall two of the best ones came from Pokemon and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

--
United we cosplay, divided we conform.
--
But be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night, 2.5