Well, I finally decided to be an active member on DA. I hope to meet a lot of people on here. I am trying to keep in touch with my artistic side. I haven't drawn a whole lot since I was 15. Lost interest maybe?
Though, all before I started becoming a young woman, I was interested in drawing and writing. This dates back when I was old enough to write. I wrote my own books... at the age of 6 or 7. Yep, I wrote and illustrated my own books, on loose-leaf notebook paper. Sometimes I use the normal paper, and staple them together into a book. Other times I just used a notebook. Occasionally, I had a spare book report cover from an old school project and used that.
At first it was all about drawing animals. Mostly Disney characters, like The Lion King. I LOVED drawing animals. I could never draw people. I attempted, many times... but never seemed to have a "style".
When The Powerpuff Girls started airing (I was about 10 or 11), I began drawing them. I was very into the cartoon. I only drew Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup because they were always the easiest. I even remember on the Cartoon Network website that they has all of Craig McCrackens details of how to draw them properly! I did study them. Right after that I wanted a challenge, so then I started on the once very popular cartoon on Nickelodeon... Rugrats. Make fun of me all you want... I did start off tracing them, just to get a feel of the style. After a couple months, I started drawing them on my own.. they weren't ever as perfect as the originals, but pretty close. I still didn't feel comfortable basing my own original characters on that kind of drawing technique.
Then, don't laugh... I got HEAVILY interested in Digimon. I started watching the second season. I started drawing Anime at the age of 12-13. I was horrible at it at first, but I practiced A LOT. Soon after, I started getting into creating and drawing my own made up Digimon, then the human characters to go along with it.... then, eventually wrote my own story.
After Digimon 02 ended, I started drawing my own Anime characters, or looked for some inspiration my viewing other and more detailed styles of Anime. I was made fun of because it's a drawing style created by the Japanese, and I'm nowhere near of that Nationality, but I didn't care. I loved how they looked and they actually look more realistic than anything I've seen. That's how I found my style.
When I was 14, I started getting into the Final Fantasy games more than just watching my elder siblings and my dad play when I was younger. I played VII myself and fell in love with the story and characters more and more... I made an attempt to create my own characters and write a story based on VII. For example, the main character was Skye, Cloud and Tifa's daughter (my own creation). I also added Marlene(Barret's daughter, of course), One of Nanaki's cubs(which was an extra at the end of the credits after beating the game), then I made up a few others that I don't remember. I eventually got uninterested and gave up on the idea. Though I wish I still had the drawing, which was a collage of all the characters.
When I moved to Columbus, OH, I was 1 month before turning 15. The summer after that I got REALLY into Pokemon. And this was in 2003. Late bloomer, I know. I ALMOST had Ash drawn identically to the original artists. Also, of course I wrote my own fanfiction, lol... which was meh.
I couldn't watch the show because the 1st season wasn't airing all that often. I had A LOT of older Pokemon cards and used them as references. That's really all I had. We didn't have a computer, unless I went to school and printed out a few drawings.
After that strong phase I started testing out my skills. I would get some pictures of characters from Anime shows, such as Gatomon(Digimon), a couple characters from Sailor Moon and Ahh! My Goddess, and Pokemon. I wouldn't trace them, I would draw a clone picture, bascially copycat drawing to see how firm my lines were coming out. I believe this is how far back my archive goes, unfortunately.. I will eventually add these drawings to my profile.

So, where do I stand today? Well, in the present date of writing this journal, my latest piece is the tattoo on my right arm. It is of a Samurai girl that was an inspiration of a piece of flash I skimmed through of a collection my boyfriend has. She is not finished yet, but I will post progress photos.
I don't draw so much anymore. Maybe its loss of inspiration? Maybe I just don't have the time? I have a 5-month old son and I work 10-hour shifts. I'm just trying to get my life together and I don't have a whole lot of time to myself anymore.
But now, I want to make time. I know I have a special talent like a lot of others out there and I want to use it. I've always received compliments about my work. I don't want my talent to go to waste...
The only thing I draw really, is stuff from the Neopets website. I want to expand my horizons like I once did.


So, here I am, on Deviant Art. Inspire me!!!