Hello guys!

Name's Rafael Ventura. I'm 30, but I liked drawing since childhood (as I think everybody is), just never stopped drawing. Although I must admit, never took it seriously until I was 23.

Nowadays I work mainly with videogames, with my passion other than painting and drawing: animating. I'm working on some Wayforward games, such as Adventure Time and Regular Show, and the fighting game Skullgirls.

Before that though, I did an art college here in Brazil, but admittedly it did me more harm than good, since games and comics (my main focus) were not seen as art and I was even "invited" to get out of college. Which such endearing philosophy and teachers, I had to try to figure out everything alone on the college's library and close friends who also wanted to learn how to paint, but you can do only this much by yourself.

I haven't had much contact with artists since I had no proper internet until recently, so since I started to look at it as a career (at 23), I've been trying to learn as much as I can and, most importantly, UN-learn what I've got from my college (this being the hardest part, but I think with positive results).

Thankfully, early this year I had the opportunity to go to the Imaginism workshop in Canada and man, what a difference does it make to see true professionals working! I have a much better sense of where I stand now, and how to improve.

I never had the courage to register on forums like this or similar ones because to me it seemed a far cry from where I standed, but I feel more confident now to show how I'm progressing and, hopefully, someday achieve a skill that will make me happy with myself. I do believe critique is the best way to improve, so please do it with my studies and work!

If you want to see my works (both painting and animation), please feel free to visit my site: www.ilustraterra.com

Hello everyone
I am a Danish-Swiss guy living i Copenhagen, Denmark. I am 21 (almost) and I love art (the reason why I'm here ). I've been drawing for fun since i can remember, but it's only been two years since I started to draw seriously. I have a dream to get into intertainement design. To reach that goal I need practice. I am self taught until now, and need to push harder. It can be quite hard to struggle alone and I think it is time to have a community to stick to, though I'm not sure my level is high enough to be here. I really like the concept of finding a partner and I can't wait to begin the journey. My ultimate goal would be to see one day my illustrations on the new Magic the gathering cards or Dungeon and Dragon books. If you want to see what I do you can eventually look by my DA page http://valaraukar6669.deviantart.com/
See you around!

Hello my name's John Bailey. Where to start? I got a BFA in sculpture that never lead me anywhere. I stopped making art for years. I started working in the game industry doing Testing and quality assurance. QA has made me want to be an artist again. I didn't really know where to start again. About a year ago after watching a bunch of Speed paints I stumbled upon Dave's Livestream and got really inspired. I lost my job and got really serious about drawing and painting for a month or two till i found another job. It felt good but its hard to keep it going when your working 60-70 hours a week for someone else. I still have a full time job but I can't use that as an excuse anymore if i'm gonna get anywhere else now's the time, i'm not getting any younger. I'm excited about this community and can't wait for tons more inspiration!

-John Bailey

What's up Crimson Daggers? Now that I'm registered am I also a Crimson Dagger? Or do we start out as a different color, maybe a shade of red that eventually ends up a Crimson? What the hell am I talking about? This is supposed to be an introduction.

My name is Saul Estrada, aka psypher, but my friends call me Psy (pronounced sigh). I've been drawing and stuff for a really long time, but I want to get better. If all goes well I should going back to school at Ai Sacramento and finish up my remaining year to get my B.A. in game art and design. Below is a pic I just finished this morning.

   

Dream job: Working at any video game or film studio in pre-production getting to sketch and paint characters, costumes, props, buildings, environments and pretty much anything that I'm asked to do.

Focus: Right now I'm trying to get better at realistic lighting. I've never done Plein-Air studies and only ever did still life paintings for school. I know that's the key. So yeah. Gonna be doing a ton of that for a while.

well here we are huh?, some how all artist roads are different yet so similar, well what can i say? i have always wanted to learn but school is to expensive, i'm mostly self teaching myself but if i find people who also want to improve that's always a positive my goals are 2 ,to be a concept artist and to make a comic book on the future, I've given myself a realistic goal of 5 to 6 years to reach pro level(not master level) well that's all really i'm not a good talker.....HI lets improve for our dreams ~~ i even got a tablet thingy ,its so hard LOL

Hi everyone! I'm 24y.o. from Russia, still hoping that someday i might make my dream come true and participate in making animation movies. I decided to get started with drawing fundamentals like shape,light,perspective,etc., so i'll be just watching, reading and commenting for some time. See you there ;-)

Yeesh, you'd think after several years being on other forums, introducing myself would get a little less scary.

Anyway, name's Azuli. I'm a hobby artist who, like Stella, recently got her groove back (when it comes to art.) But seeing all my stuff from 2010 and back, I've seen how BAD I really was and wanna get better.

Favorite traditional mediums (that I really need to use more) ink and pencils.

Digital medium: Corel Painter. I should try Photoshop one of these days.

I have a long way to go in terms of doing art, but I know that, with help, I can get better.

Nice meeting you all!

Hello everyone! My name is Mike.

My story.

High school, I was a art god( well at high school level at least :) ) Did murals in the city for the city and hyper realism oil paintings that were dark and surreal. I never really practiced hard growing up, I was just that kid that had the talent to look beyond the object and see the intricacies within. After High school and turning down two full art scholarships, life took hold and I stopped painting all together for many personal reasons.

Now, fast forward 14 years. Making money, stressed out on everything that goes around that. Recently, I was laid off from my job. With a family that will shock your life! Now making 1/4 the money that I did before. I decided to go back to what made me feel good and live life! Art, the feelings you get when you are working on something so hard and digging deep into your imagination can never be expressed in words. So about a month ago I went bought myself wacom intuis tablet and cs5. Started doing some little sketches with a group online I found, But realized I needed to be challenged more.

So here I am. Still trying to find my style. The more I sketch, the more I am starting to dust off those old creative files in the back of my brain. I hope to go to the next level here. At first glance I feel pretty intimidated. And also sad that I didn't live my dream like a lot of you have. But hope to make some friends which isn't easy for me as an introvert and get some good crits on my future work. Maybe... Just maybe, I can get back on the path I should of taken all those years ago.

Sorry for the long story, I just felt the need to express it out loud. Most likely no one will read this anyway :)



TL;DR Hipster here.. Hello.

-illset

I've been floating around the interwebs for a while and finally decided to sign up here. I need some serious spit and polish on my skill sets and branding and career focus. That's it. No big. *cough cough*

I wanna be an art rock star. Or something.

So ... howdy!

Hello! I'm here because I'm looking to rub elbows with other creative people, encouraging and being encouraged in turn. I'm a freshly hatched illustrator, and really what I want is to just observe and converse and continue to learn. C: I like stories, things with too many limbs, and star charts.

I'm looking forward to learning from all of you!