Where to begin...
well it was a dismal day in September when I decided to join the vibrant community of deviantART. This was during the time I was unfamiliar with the ways of the internet as a few weeks before I had logged on for the first time. My father was the one who encouraged me to join, he believed that my original pieces were good enough for the world to see and as DA being the sole place to go for all things art, he told me to start there. He told me that people like traditional arts and that I'd become popular in no time... at the time I believed him. So I joined up and uploaded my first pieces to the site and waited patiently for some much appreciated love.
Nothing came along, no llama, no fave, no comment, even worse no views on any of my deviations, twas a depressing time for me and had blown my confidence away, so I decided to abandon my account. Three months later I came back, not even a pageview, then I realized that by viewing other deviants artwork would encourage them to look at mine. So I browsed like no tomorrow, discovering some really amazing artworks along the way and spending rather a lot of time on writing constructive comments just to receive a blank or an occasional thank you from the artist.
Meanwhile my art wasn't getting much love, so I devised a plan to get some attention, no matter how small. I came up with an idea that saved my account. POKEMON!!! as a lot of folks on here know or may have noticed on their visits, I am a fan of the ever so expanding series called Pokemon. Tis an old love of mine, like many others I grew up training Pokemon and battling folks to get the title, Pokemon master (shame this can't happen in real life) and so I thought why the heck not draw em.
By doing this, it attracted a few deviants to my works, a lot of em came for the Pokemon arts and not my original pieces but hey! some attention is better than none at all~
A couple of weeks later I came across a deviant who at the time was interested in doing Graffiti art. Growing up in one of the worlds major cities, I came to appreciate good street art, true a lot of it is crap, but amongst all the rumble are a few good gems. And believe me his was one of those gems. From his advice I joined a few groups (wasn't even aware of this feature) and KABOOM!!! fave spams galore hehe love at long last, not quite, which brings me onto my next major turning.
folks who watch me have seen me mention this wonderful lady many a time, but for good reason. In my worst and at some points darkest hours she was there to support me. I first came across her when I was browsing through the Daily Deviation section (again didn't realize it was there) and came across an adorable and rather wonderful drawing of rainbow bunnies in a tree. I fell in love straight away, made my day feel warm, so being me I had to comment, like a lot... and to my surprise she responded to my comments and from then we have formed a rather unique relationship that I will cherish for eternity
now that is love at long last and a special love it is hehe~
Which now brings me to another important section of my DA story, Friendship.
See in person I'm a quiet person that isn't into much modern stuff and at times is hard to understand and for this folks tend to ignore me completely. I have no friends my own age in person and spend most of my days being miserable without even noticing. So when I became friends with
I said to myself that "I'm going to be the bestest friend a person could want, I'm going to make this person feel happy and allow them to be themselves" so I thought long and hard on how to repay my friend for wanting to be my friend haha I noticed that at the time she wanted a super llama plush from the store (didn't know that existed) and thus I set on a journey to save up points to buy her one~
Thought of many ideas of ways to make and earn currency and then thought why not make money off my Poke drawings.. so I started a donation pool and a journal advertising my idea. Wasn't very popular at first, because though I had some love it wasn't enough to make monies and obviously people weren't interested. So I decided to make some weekly offers, sell myself low to make something. It worked for a short while then it went under. I just ended up drawing Pokemon for people as a request for free instead of a request for points. Another defeat to my confidence, but it didn't matter because art was being uploaded, people kept spamming me and I did the honest thing and told my friend that my plan failed miserably, to my surprise she didn't care because it's the thought that counts and that is all that matters
Then it happened, it just had to happen... someone had purchased the plush for my friend, I was so happy but disappointed at the same time as I wanted so badly to get it for her, but someone else had beat me to it and they had cash too
Another blow that made me feel like a failure, with all that I tried I just couldn't do one simple thing and buy my friend a £20 plush from the store. I told my mother about it and how bad I felt. She told me to forget about that idea and instead send my friend some of my art instead, but the lady at the post office told us that it would cost a lot to send art though mine isn't famous or original, we still were expected to pay it's insurance hmm so instead I saved money here and there for a long time. Then one day out the blue a huge package arrives at my door and inside a real life plush bunny to call my own... I cried for a long time after that but not with my usual tears of sadness, these were tears of joy. Someone went through a lot of trouble to make me my very own plush bunny and by god it's something to treasure
I didn't know what to say, how to feel, but whatever happened I was a changed person. Now we send each other bits here and there, mine always a small parcel and her's always these huge expensive packages... but whatever the size the content is what matters most and mum always says that to me. In life you don't match a gift, you instead send an equally thoughtful one. So knowing my friend loves bunnies like no other, I set out looking for plush toys of the finest quality of my price range and each Birthday I send a bunny, a hand drawn card and a bar of chocolate to my friend. Makes me feel good when it arrives and once again her life is filled with joy. Now I'm saving for my very own passport and airfare so that one day I can go visit her in Holland for a nice day out with a picnic and a huge tight hug
Back to life on DA, thanks to this site I have had the pleasure of befriending some of the worlds most amazing people. I've written way to much and haven't even started on my feature to list em all, but they know who they are
but know this, you all mean the world over to me and I can never forget you guys ever, thank you so much for your advice, company and friendship
A year ago on this upcoming Saturday, I received a full year membership from a nice young chap, I drew him a Pikachu as my thanks to his generosity but he deactivated his account before I could show it to him
Still I love my panda's that brighten up my so drab page and will miss them when they will no longer appear this weekend haha I didn't know what to do with a membership as I'm not popular enough to make full usage of it's many interesting features but I like polling folks from time to time and featuring folks when I have spare time on my hands, this will no longer be the case but never fear because as where the features are concerned they will still happen just without the panda's magic tis all hehe it was fun whilst it lasted
One minor feature that makes me happy are that of the Llama badge. I noticed on my journey to llama appreciation, that a lot of the folks that receive one are happy and for that I love giving out llama's to everyone I come across, no account seen by me has gone unllamared
just doing me job tis all~ (keep em coming my way friends)
Now onto my feature, I believe I have covered the majority of my DA story, so no more on that for now, save that I hope that I will prosper for years to come in such great company that I have and hope to keep having
Important deviations that set my DA life afloat, firstly:
One of my unappreciated original pieces, took all day, took all night but was worth it in the end. It's important to me because it was drawings like this that got me into drawing in the first place and which at my beginnings encouraged me to improve and advance my artistic level~
This is part of an ongoing series of appreciation to my friend
This deviation is important to me as it was the first major entry to a contest on DA. I didn't win or get runner's up but it's the taking part that counts and I worked rather hard on this piece to let it go to waste~
This is part of my slightly ongoing series of poke drawings. It's important to me because it started my journey of becoming a Poke drawing master of traditional legend. Also because it was my inspiration to begin my point quest for the Super llama plush
But due to artist block, procrastination and general lack of will to draw in general and the annoyance that ones ideas never come out on paper as original and good as one imagined them. I have failed to keep my one deviation a day streak, but never fear as one day I will prevail, stab artist block in the face, kick procrastination up the butt and poke that annoyance in the eye muahaha but due to ongoing difficulties in person I am unable to cope and start that challenge now, but one day friends one day I will break free from my shackles and draw like no man (or in my case) woman has ever drawn before, but for the time being please forgive and bare with me~
Keep them llama's a comin' ,
twilightlinkjh
P.S Happy 14th Birthday DA, keep it going strong
