The Velvet Revolvers

[Jeso]

Hey Jeso!  Your heads have already improved.  Keep at it!

And good idea.

Well, I'm Bookend!  (I'll keep my real name out for now-- I don't know if I'll ever share it.  Names aren't that important anyway. ;D)

I grew up in Canada, but ended up moving halfway across the world for love of wifey.

I've been drawing/painting/writing/creating since highschool.  I was never the kid that excelled in art-- I just thought it was fun, and I believed in the idea of 'talent' until I hit highschool.

Then I had that period of time where I was copying from anime one summer.  Ironically, it wasn't any special anime or anything, I would just look up the anime style I liked by finding archives of anime characters, and I'd print them out and draw them.

And when I came back to highschool in the fall, my art teacher was so impressed at how much I improved in my work that she gave me an award.

So, I had art in the back of my head ever since, but my dad wasn't crazy about that idea. In fact, he saw it as being a pointless pursuit, because, 'There are millions of people who are way better than you.  Going to school for art is a waste of time.'

He suggested I go into Journalism, because I've always been rather good at writing, even before I took up art.  So, I took his suggestion and went into a 3-year journalism course.

It was fun, and I met some interesting people and had some great experiences.  The first semester of the second year, though, I had started going to these life drawing sessions that were being held weekly, and this is what really sparked my passion for drawing.  

I was hooked, and I started looking up things, starting to despair at the idea of being a journalist.  (They scared you quite a lot about journalism in that school-- It's not an easy and secure career path that my dad might've been hoping for.  I probably would have decided to be an editor.)

But, I started having trouble at the second semester of journalism anyway, and it looked like I would have to take an extra year just to get the credentials for one class.  And that costed money, I figured.

So, I decided to drop out and go to art school.  Well, not art school exactly, but Foundations in Art and Design.  A one year course to find out which direction I'd end up taking (But, at that time, I had already found conceptart.  I don't even remember how-- I think someone in the life drawing class gave me the link, so I knew the general direction I wanted to go in.)

Well, my dad was pretty furious.  He said he wouldn't support me financially with this choice, and that I was on my own.  And I said fine.  And I went to art school.

And it was the best fucking year of my life, haha.  I was on the honour roll, and my painting won best in show at the end of the year.

When my dad saw the painting, he was shocked.  The man who'd hung the paintings went to chit-chat with him, and told him about how he had to put the 'best' one in the focal point.

Shaken, and beyond proud, my dad came to me that night and said, "I don't know much about these things, Book... But, you. Can. Paint.  And I'm so proud of you."

So, that's how my journey began.  I decided to self-teach.  And I'm still striving for excellence.  But, I'm proud of myself for earning my dad's approval, which I didn't really think was possible, lol.

Awesome Story Book! Yea you dont need to disclose your real name by any means ^.^   In my case Jeso is like my official artist name so I figured I'd just say that.

Yeap, that anime phase brother... We've all been there. I think I started drawing, like, the very beginning of it, was me at 4 years old, filling my kindergarten notebooks with Dragon ball Z characters.. haha, Teachers would give me shit for it all the time. And that story repeated it self all the way to high school. 
Even these days I still watch anime and study it sometimes, because if there is something anime does REALLY fucking well, is getting feelings a cross through well done character expressions. I like to study anime stills where a character is giving a really over the top facial expression. Its a cool exercise.

Wow Journalism, not the best alternative to art when talking about job security lol.
Nice ending to your story, glad your Dad finally came to accept your love for doing art. My parents were always supportive of whatever I chose to do, but, they still have their doubts, haha and my dad keeps telling me that I'm gonna be rich one day.. well, hopefully, but doing art ain't the best way to achieve that.

Now Book, what about your future goals? where do you wanna get to? What do you want to accomplish?