Hello. Is this the place with the art people?

[OneSketchMan]

Hey everyone. I'm a 23yr-old ...software engineer ...sigh... currently residing on the west coast of the United States. After being bored and depressed out of my mind by the 'top 10' cube farm for the past 2 years, I'm thoroughly disillusioned with the software industry as a place where I can better myself. Shoulda seen that coming, huh?

I want to recapture the creative spirit that has gone out of my life and finally acquire the skills to capture my visual thinking on paper (or a screen). I'm about as good at art now as I was in middle school, which is just shameful. To be fair, I was pretty freakin' good for a middle-schooler; I'm benchmarking against what I could have been had I seriously dedicated time to art in the intervening decade, and the amount of wasted potential infuriates me deeply.
To reclaim at least some of that potential, I am embarking on a focused endeavor to get as good at illustration as humanly possible, starting from zero. 

I am currently two weeks into DrawABox, with the short-term goal of shoring up my fundamentals enough to be able to take the intro CGMA classes this coming May (assuming I can get in).

A person I deeply respect recommended this forum as a place to keep me accountable, so here I am. Looking forward to improving with everyone here!

[BrushNoir]

Hello and welcome to the place with the art people hehe

[Amit Dutta]

Welcome man! I was a developer for a while as well and worked corporate for more than a decade. I know the feeling. Don't worry about the time "lost", it wasn't lost at all, it was just what you did while you figured shit out.

This tends to make people feel better, I started seriousl thinking about doing some form of illustration at 33, and now I am 38, and I just went fulltime freelance (it's a struggle still believe me). Time as Einstein discovered at it's fundamental is all a matter of perspective. This can be said for our perception of it as well. You have so much potential futures awaiting you it makes no sense worrying about those too much either.

You have this moment, so focus it as hard as you can on what matters, and what is right for you, and you will achieve great things. It brought you to the daggers so that's gotta be good :) We can try keep you accountable, but the fact is the only person who really can do that, is yourself. So you've made the first steps, and that's awesome!

Start up a sketchbook, get posting, and catch ya around!!

[John]

Welcome! I checked out your sketchbook. Your stuff looks tight! Looking forward to seeing your stuff! And good luck getting into CGMA!

[Piotr Jasielski]

Good self-development plan, hard work and perseverance and you'll make it. Just keep it mind it takes some time (at least 2 years for most dedicated people). I started a year or two later than you so don't wory about that. I think Craig Mullins started at 23 and he is a god of concept art industry now.

Good luck!

[OneSketchMan]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, guys!

[pandamonic]

I'm proud of you for starting this, and I look forward to seeing your progress!