OK, I first did this idea at another forum, and it worked pretty well.

Basically, the objective of this is to get everyone to know each other a little better, and understand different styles and interests. You can give any info you want so long as it's related to you and your art. Inspiration, fave medium, background (classes, self taught, or other relevant education - uni/TAFE etc.) fave style/artist, future aspirations and so on.

So, here's me

Name: Daniel
Age: 21
I started drawing when I was really young. I'm a leftie!
I watched as much anime as I could when I was young. Astroboy, G-Force (Battle of the Planets I think it was also called), Speed Racer, Voltron and any other that was on. I'm currently in 2nd year at a 3 year uni course for media arts. Before that, I graduated from a 2 year course, getting my diploma of graphic arts. From that I learnt heaps about photoshop and illustrator, so I was able to develop my art a lot there, but it was more about design. So, I do design (stationery, web, all sorts of stuff), illustration, and now I'm learning photography and animation, which I'm loving. I'd love to have a job either here in Aus or in Japan working in a design or animation studio. I know for a fact that they need more people spell check their design over there
I'd like to teach or tutor english as a side job too over there.

Well, that's me.
Who's next?

Not that anyone would really care about me but oh well here it is:

Name: Jeremy
Age: 22
My family moved to California during the fall of 1999. I was originally from the Philippines.
I too started drawing at an early age, maybe involuntarily at first as my mom and my teachers were the ones who would throw me into several earlier contests. I won my first contest when I was in kindergaten, believe it or not. Then later won another sort of a statewide drawing contest, beating hundreds of students in poster-making. It was a very big deal back there and then. I also won several more drawing-related contests, and It'll just sound boring if I add all of them.

Unlike Daniel, I never took any art-related course beyond that of grade-school level, and never had any sort of "formal" training in the area. I consider drawing only as a hobby for me. And the reason why I said I was very busy nowadays and can't find time to draw anymore, is due to the fact that I'm currently a quarter away from my BS Bio. I'm currently a pre-med student, and as such I rarely find a really good time to sit down and start drawing.
I previously worked as a tutor at the first college I attended.
One more thing I wanna share is that I have the most unique way of holding a pen or a pencil, which is I use all fingers, meaning all the tips of my fingers touch the sides of the pen while I'm holding it. (Not that it's a big deal, just a random stuff).

hmm, well ok...hopefully Kuk doesn't stop here..

Name- Kandis
Age- ...16

well...lesse....my mom found out my art talent when I was 3...I love'd to watch my uncle draw, he did the DBZ type things and very good scenery. uh...when I moved to NJ, I was entered in many contests through school by my teachers...

I now live in Va, a very good art college is here, yet I'm still thinking about going back home to jersey for an animation class.

I love losts of anime, been watching it since I was little, I get the 'don't you thinnk your getting a little old?' question from my dad, but no one can coax me out of it, I really hope to learn my shading technique more since I finally have a photoshop program so it's a start...I take a computer art II class, in 10th grade now, but it doesn't help much, just certain things.

((most of the work you see here on KAF...really sux? X_x but my paper work is very impressive, even my tints and shades are almost just right. so computer work is something I'm working toward...))

Good Points: Both Fanart and Original

Bad: well, I have a small problem with hands and body positions, mostly hide the figures under lots of clothing....

:3! Waoie Daniel! What classes did you have to take before you got into Graphic Design? I'd really appreciate any information you can provide me with in the Computer Arts, feel free to PM me if you have any! !

Yay for Philippino powah Jeremy! >:U!! That's awesome you won so much awards ;0;!

Super cool that your uncle draws and is into anime Kandis! Having a relative that has the same interest as you brings you to somewhat of an advantage ne? :3! I bet you had hours of fun talking maybe?


X3 Oki my turn~

Name: Stacey
Age: 17

Like most people, i started drawing when i was young. I grew up watching shows like Super Mario, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Swat Kats etc. I didn't first get into anime, which inspired my style today, until Sailor Moon aired. I started watching Dragon Ball, Samurai Pizza Cats and Pokemon soon afterwards. From there, i became a fanatic and started drawing fanart. It wasn't until 6th grade i officially started drawing original characters.

Although i want to have an anime/realistic style, i can't seem to stick to one. It does reflect on how indecisive i am in real life, but i'll have to stick to one soon I'm guessing. I also haven't had any "formal" art classes, until my high school junior year, this year. I know i lack greatly in coloring and also in 'dynamic poses'. But i do want to try out every type of art median there is.

For the future, i want to major in art but my parents tell me to minor in it. I'm not sure yet what specific major I'm aiming, but it'll most likely be working with computers.

Wow...

Name: Saya
Age: 17

I started drawing when I was about five years old. I got kinda better practicing a lot over the weekends.
I watched many animes such as Sailor Moon and Fruits Basket. I used to draw characters from animes I really liked the most. Then when I went to fifth grade, I started to draw my own characters. Soon, I bought some manga books to read and tried to learn to draw from them. But most of all, my friend, Angel (who is on kaf.) taught me how to draw the pose of the character, their hands, and eyes.

Then I began to draw my own mangas. Maybe when I turn about 20, I can start my own anime.

hey this seems cool.


name - Mike
Age- 25

well, i live in Brooklyn NY. all my life. i've been drawing...all my life =). i was into marvel and DC comics...kinda still am, but not as much since their stories are so convoluted now. it'll have to take a GOOOOD effin story and art for me to read it again.

the first anime(s) i ever watched was laputa:castle in the sky, nausicca:valley of the wind, totoro. man i can't even remember how old i was when i watched them. put it this way, my tutor made a copy of all 3 movies on VHS and gave it to me. so i was pretty young. my fav amongst them is laputa. I LOVE IT. the characters, the music, animation, story...everything.

the 2nd anime series i was introduced to by a good friend of mine is Dragon Ball Z...and again, i was in awe. everything about it got me hooked...well, minus the filler episodes...but that's the charm with anime and manga. i've been drawing before i was exposed to anime and manga...then eventually my art became heavily influenced by anime and manga. haven't looked back since.
i mostly drew DBZ =D.

i never really took any classes on drawing, it was mostly self taught. my friend that introduced me to DBZ took art classes and once in a while would give me some pointers on art. so fast forward to many years later, whenever i see something i like...like an angle, style, pose...i would try to incorporate them into my art and style, which I'm still trying to find.

i don't think i'll have a career in art....I'm more interested in becoming a film maker. drawing was always something i did when I'm bored, inspired, or just felt like drawing.

Hah... we are same age here...

Name - Thomas
Age - 25

Never Go to art school before... started drawing before I'm able to write.... The first thing I like to draw is Doreamon, which I don't need to draw complicated hand by just drawing two ball like palm...

My tutor is everyone around me that give constructive critiq and comment.

Have enter several manga competition in my country... awarded with Malaysian Chinese Youth Manga Creation first price (for non proffesional artist). Second price in Malaysia Manga Character Design. And consolation price in all other event...

Planing to learn 3D modeling in future... maybe this will be my first art school to attend...

Name: Raheem
Age: 14
Started Drawing: 11 and I've gotten really good in three yrs, maybe because I'm older and obsessed
Um...Nothing really. I don't watch much anime or manga cuz either the drawing or story sux. My inspiration I guess was DBZ, but I've watched some other stuff.
I am self-taught because that's the best. I grew up in a black area so that's had a lot of influence, but I still don't do anything close to Gangsta stuff except that I like to give my characters a sense of fashion and a sense of life because the first black area I lived in was a poor place. Thuggs were people who stood up for other people. Also, since I'm not black or white, and everyone hates us (Muslims) now, that's had an influence on my writing and art for my personal manga....I like all types of art though. I guess just about everything influences me. My favorite thing to draw though...eyez.

good: best pencilling in the world!!!!!! (not really) My writing is better though, so I'm looking for the best artist ever.
Bad: can't ink and that's why I need to find an artist

Wow such interesting history 0.o unlike me.
XP

Name:Nia Nia (nickname)
Age: 14

In the beginning, I was never serious with drawing but I still have to go to art class in elementary school. Not much, just little art crafts with cheese doodles. I also entered contests and if even though I wasn't serious, I always ended up like the top 5. But I didn't really care, unless it was money ; Started to seriously draw after seeing some really nice anime drawings from a friend of my sister. It was gorgerous! 0_0 Sadly, I lost hope in ever making beautiful pictures like hers and gave up. At age 11, I began to draw again after seeing cardcaptors on T.V. Went to the interent and I got addicted to anime. I kept on drawing on everything, especially on my schoolnotes. ^^; And today I still draw on my schoolnotes. I tend to like to pass notes to my friends in class with funny doodles =)

Good:Wings, shading? (that's what my friends said), cute girls, chibi, and fish eye lens view.

Bad: Expressions, old people, and the antanomy of guys =/

Name:Andi
Age:13

At first I drew houses and then tanks and jets like most kids. When I got to the age of 11 I started drawing anime and manga. I never entered any conteset I just drew what I wanted to draw for fun. There isn't much else.
Oh yeah...I'm also completley self taught....

good:thats for you to tell me
bad:thats also for you to tell me

Since I draw alot, and I'm at least fairly good...Here we go >>

Name: Tina
Age: 15

First, I live in Norway, a little country here up in North of Europe. We never really had much anime, so it's a drawing-style quite newly discovered for me. Well... I always loved to draw. All the while from when I was a little kid, drawing square houses with chimneys and swirly smoke and way too large trees with red apples, and the humans way too big for their houses. I always was told I was talented, so I continued drawing. Around the age of ten, most of my drawings were quite serious.. I tried shaping everything right, and always carried with me my sketchpad. Well, I don't think I can draw like that anymore, since most of my drawings switched over to Anime style Furries when I started Secondary School, as I made friends with another 'artist'. I've taken a few classes, but I didn't really learn anything... We just tried different medium's and such. It was boring, and I worked better with my friend anyway. She taught me a few techniques, and after osme time, I developed my own style. My style can vary a bit, of course, but mostly I use simple poses, anime-style of course, and heavy outlining. I just draw with a plain pencil, as I like my drawings to look simpe and nice, and I always use erasers a whole lot to make everything as good as i can.

Good: Clothing, hair, figures, coloring

Bad: Eyes (as in making two of them. I often just hide the second one in some way.) x.x hands >> And feet. Friggin' feet.

Very interesting.. *jumps* MY TURN MY TURN! X3

Name: Sommie
Age: 14

well..I started to draw..when I was 3 I think.. X3 those weird puppets..really big heads and a small body =D ...when I was 6 my aunts in Hong Kong sent me some Sailor Moon..I watched it in Chinese and tried to draw it.. ^^ but I didn't know it was anime =O ..I found out about it..at the age of 11 I think ^^; before I started to draw Anime I drew mostly Animals..then a friend showed up and showed me some anime he drew..and the How To Draw manga books he bought..and encouraged me to draw it too so I tried it a couple of times..and I really enjoyed it..so I continued to draw Anime/manga ..at the age of 13 .. I bought some How To Draw manga books too and I'm drawing for a year now ^^ I'm getting more serious by the time.. =O I thaught myself ..learned how to correct mistakes in my drawings..and mostly..pay attention to comments and critics..it helped me alot too and mostly..practice! =3 uhm.. I CGed a couple of times..and I'm learning how to.. it's quite difficult if you don't know how to use Photoshop properly X3..but I read loads of Tutorials to help me out hmm..that's it I guess ^^

Go to..my Topic.. to see some of my art ^^ thanks =3

Name: Nathan
Age: 21

Well I started drawing when I was about 19, This is my first post here and I haven't posted any works here yet. perhaps in the future?

::Looks around::
Huh? Me? Okay, here's me.

Name: Kius
Age: 17
Started scribbling in my mum's cook books around the age of 2 or so... Started drawing in my own story books at the age of 4 or so... I feel bad when I look back in those cook books...
I even drew in the address books at the age of 5 or 6...
By the age of 7 I started tracing and copying pictures from Disney books (Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty... Don't know, don't ask.)
In grade 4... I drew a portrait of my mum. She said I made her look old. And I gave her too little hair. I still remember that day I was watching an old Jackie Chan movie...
Started holding a clipboard walking around the school and drawing at the same time... Strange, how did I keep a steady balance..? I walk very quietly and calmly though... That was in Primary School.
By the near end of grade six, I was randomly drawing girls... don't know why I didn't draw super heroes...
In year 7 I was getting a good hang of drawing proper looking people. Though the pencil sharpness ruined it too much. I could give 40 criticism points by looking at it now. In this time, I had an obsession with clothes.... I wanted to be a Fashion Designer but I freaked out and gave up because I couldn't even sew a straight line with the sewing machine in Textiles. T_T
At the end of Year 7 I got hooked on the Final Fantasy series and I wanted to be a Main character designer. I started doing 2D drawings of characters without thinking properly. Designed around 30 people and gave it a name, made names... I also chose place names which were found in Dictionary and were really just Latin names that sounded good or looked good. The english word was really just something ridiculous... Even the game name was made up because it sounded cool.
In year eight, I drew another portrait of my mum. It was much better and the details were more delicate with the nice shadows...
In Year nine, I was getting good... getting. I was makin up weapon names and designed some on the spot then gave them a name. Some still look real cool. I don't even know how I got the idea now. This was also the time that I was getting obsessed with anime.
Year 10 was a great. My characters are very well propotioned and drew guys more than girls seeing that it was my weak point. People felt that my guys looked like girls though. They were elegant and beautiful though. I guess only people like me can tell from guy or girl. Since the start of that year, I began to use Photoshop properly, and the results were pretty nice. But they were usually 2D...
Within the time now, I use a tablet to draw as well as doing proper character designing, with some fascinating characters and styles of different sorts. Very feminine guys... cool, cold looking guys... I do 2D characters that are in extreme detail, drawing frontal drawings of guys with a sense of Castlevanian style. Looking evil and vampire like. Seductive eyes, evil yet beautiful, rough yet delicate detail. Well... that was long. Anyway, I might draw another portrait of my mum later.
Well... I draw with my left, and write with my right. People say its cool because you can draw and write at the same time. I tried. It's hard.
I use mechanic pencils to draw but of course I use the pen that comes with the tablet to draw on the computer.
Well... that was a long intro. It's a long History... Thanks for reading.

Alright, here's me!

Name: Nicole
Age: 17

I started drawing about the age that every creative person starts. Roughly the time I could hold my first Crayola crayon. My style of drawing has changed as I grew up. I first started out doing the scribbles that only the artist knows what they are, then as I grew older I moved into sort of a Disney style... I suppose I grew out of that too, and shifted to a more comic based style. I was inspired by the comics Fathom, The Darkness, Witchblade and Ascension by TopCow.
I first started to watch anime when I hit roughly grade 8, and I loved it. I began to draw in that style and it brought me to where I am. I've still got a ways to go, and haven't started using Photoshop or anything, so it's just between me, my pencil and paper for now. I love to read manga, and I own about 50 or so, I'm losing count. ; I love the style in manga, and hope to do my own when I practise hard enough.
And that about sums it all up, as short as I can make it!

OK, just thought I should revive this...maybe someone could make this a sticky? *hint hint*

We're getting a lot of new artists here, which is always great to see.
So, anyone who hasn't posted a quick bio here yet, you know what to do
cheers!

Wow...

Name: Marissa
Age: 13
(i feel so young compared to most people lol)

Ok well i started drawing people with big eyes when i was liler..My grandma and my mom are artists..My grandpa is in a jazz band. My cuz is in a rock band..Wow i never realised it before but i have a pretty artistic family..*thinks* well anyway I love the inu-Yasha series.. Im a lil obsessed but what can i say i like it..Hmmm.. I live in u.s...Don't know what more i can say...well cya *salutes*

Name: Brian
Age: 14

I don't have a real history with art. I hope to have a future with it, though.

I think I've gotten the basics down--aesthetics, symmetry, line. Color is a big pain for me, though. I choose not to color anything unless it's an assigment in which the critereon demands it.

Hey hey hey!
NAME: Francisco
AGE: 18

I was born in Argentina, and im currently living there ^^, im a guy with two aspirations,
One: Publish a manga, even on a fanzine...
Two: Have money

I have been working in my technique , ya know, shading, Cging n stuff like that, and i cant decide what manga start when i buy my scanner xD.........if my law school studies allow me . I m in a lil artist block rite now, but it ll dissapear ^^U

I is: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Can`t tell sorry.

Age:12

I am an Anime freak who wishes to do comics in japan and make films too.
um.... um.....

Visit my art page.. I stink... Tips would be nice...



http://www.keiichianimeforever.com/boards/...showtopic=23043