Hi all! Been checking these forums on and off for a while now and thought it was probably about time to stop hiding and just join already. I'm 30 years old, USA (near DC), and just started freelancing in illustration last year. I've been practicing art, and digital art since I was old enough to figure out a computer but never really immersed in it fully until just recently. Now I've realized how much more learning I have to go, and really need some critique on how to get better. I've been drawing just about every day, and it's a start, but it's still not quite cutting it, in terms of where I'd like to/need to be. :/ I'm hoping that being here will help change that!

Also trying to turn art into a fully fledged career because of being a bit ill (though recovering still) and housebound, on account of having way too many autoimmune/allergy health conditions. (autoimmune peeps, if there are any here, get at me, and we can discuss health stuff~~). Being able to work full time from home would be pretty ideal, needless to say.

Anyway my art blog is here, I have a few comics here, and my behance portfolio is here. Let's art! :)

Hello Crimson Daggers,

I wanted to start out by saying that I love the name of this forum. My name is actually Farhan and my life goal is to become a visual development artist for Nintendo! I am actually applying to DigiPen Insititute of Technology for fall this year. I am not exactly familiar with the forums and how the sketchbook works, but I will learn and start working on uploading my drawings. I am heavily interested in finding friends that are strongly motivated artists! I love getting my work critiqued so that I can grow and become a better artist! I've already seen some seriously amazing talent on this forum and I can't wait to become a part of this community.

Hello everybody!

My name is Dario I am 25 years old and I come from Croatia. Right now I live and work in Belgium. I joined this community in order to motivate myself and to improve my drawing skills. Also, I am here because i want to get to know you guys and contribute to the community.

I started doing digital art when I was 14 years old. As I am passionate about cars I first started with virtual car tuning. After that I moved more to the graphic design industry where I worked for some time professionally and now from time to time as a freelancer. I do mostly branding, web and UX/UI design. Few years ago I bought a graphic tablet and started to do character illustrations.

I want to learn and get better at drawing and hopefully I will be able to achieve that with the help of this great community.
I have really big problems with motivating myself to start drawing and that’s basically one of the biggest burdens that’s slows me down. I want to change that and invest more time in drawing. I want to focus on character design.

I will soon make a sketchbook here but in the meantime you guys can check some of my work here:

http://blackslr722.deviantart.com/

Looking forward to get to know you guys and become a part of the community :)

Hello everybody!
My name is Eli and I am from Bulgaria. I am happy to be here with all of you. For the last five years I studied in medical university. Its my last year in university, so I think I will have more free time to develop my artistic skills. My colleagues and my parents think that it's to late to switch careers, but I disagree I am only 22 and I feel I have a whole life ahead of me.

I have just started studying from the book "Rapid viz", but I don't feel its the right book for me.
I want to specialize in drawing fantasy characters and scenes. So I was wondering if you can recommend me something to start with books, tutorials, study groups etc.
I was also wondering which is the best way to start learning? Using a tablet or with a pen and paper? I'm happy to be here, and look forward to meet new people who share the same goals like me.

Congrats for this great place! :))

Hi friends! How are you all? I am Saira from Pakistan and doing Job in London.

I've been lurking here for several months, but decided to make an account before Spectrum Live '15. I met a couple of you there. It was really inspiring and I want to be more involved in the community. Hopefully I can contribute, and we all can help each other grow!

Let's Kick Ass!

My background -
I went to school for industrial design, and dabbled in metalsmithing and fine woodworking. During college, I survived leukemia twice and had a stem cell transplant.
I've been to the Illustration Academy a couple of times and attended TAD for a year before it folded.
I've loved games and cartoons since before I could read. I've been drawing since I was little as well. My other artistic passion is street dance, and I'm in a dance crew called the Rhythm Kingz with some members well known internationally (not me though).

https://instagram.com/dkdelicious

Hey everyone, I'm Preston and I'm here to meet some cool artists and share some of my work.

You can check out my DeviantArt page here: http://preston2694.deviantart.com

Hey guys! I finally decided to join the forums, tho I've been lurking for a long time. Learning from a community, who really helps and gives honest advice, is an actual path to become a professional artist, and that is really motivating!

I'm from Azores, Portugal, but live in Toronto, Canada. Came here because of a girl, shit didnt work out but stayed anyway! Its an awesome city for artists, there's always something going on. Canada is also great for artists since we've got a couple of big game company headquarters here, and that was a major fact for me deciding (finally) to make art as a career.

Grew up being the artsy kid but somewhere in highschool, I stopped drawing all together. Magic the Gathering artists were my biggest inspiration (Brom's angels, John Avon's land art, Donato Giancola's sheer beauty and feeling, among so many others). Now people like Dave Rapoza, Miles Johnston, Noah Bradley, Jeremy Lipking, Jeremy Mann (among others :p) are who I look for inspiration/motivation.

Did two years for architecture but quit, since, among other reasons, my program had no creativity in it. Also, I just fucking love concept art too much, and everything related to it, that I really feel its what I'm supposed to do.

So thats my bio! I'll be working to put stuff here soon :)

Cheers!

Hey guys! :D
Just created an account to meet other artists and get inspired :)
Here's my deviantart: http://untoldpromises.deviantart.com/

Although I think DArt is kinda dead right now haha.

Hey guys, just joined up. My name is Zach, I currently reside in Chicago and I'm stoked about being part of a community like this. I always feel like its an uphill battle to stay confident and motivated about your own work, and I've never had the opportunity to be accountable for staying disciplined and continually pushing the quality of my work amongst a group of peers like this before. So I just want to give a preemptive thanks to y'all out there for making this possible.

I just recently decided to go full-on aggro art and have been busy the past month or two dusting off the brushes, peeling away the bad habits and nail down some good ones. I plan on (at least) sketching everyday and posting whatever it might be here, and at my new tumblr, zatchkunapp.tumblr.com

Any finished work I have will most likely end up at my website, spoonartdesign.com.

To make it official, here is a sketch from this morning studying reflective surfaces.