My Deviantart Story

I know I'm a bit late, but I have been putting this off for a while because I wasn't sure what to say. I don't find myself a really big artist on here. I don't communicate nearly as much as other artists do, and I don't have nearly as many friends on here either. I never really knew how to obtain and keep virtual friends, so normally my entire life on this site is just my uploading my art for kicks. I didn't think anyone would find this interesting, or even comment on it, which was another reason why I didn't know why I should bother with it; however, I realized that this shouldn't be for other people, this entry is for me, myself. A memoir of my time spent on this site, nearly half of my life has been documented on this art gallery. 

My first fandom I was heavily involved in was the Lion King fandom. It was at the fanart archive that I found the most inspirational people I have ever come to follow. To name a few: Tacimur, Paso, daanzi, Astrocat, hibbary, cgratzlaff, shoomlah And omigosh, SO many more. There's so many of you, I honestly closed my eyes and picked you from a list. You are all wonderful and fantastic and my idols. It took me a long time to find myself in this particular art world, and in doing so, I managed to make an ass of myself for a brief moment in time. I managed to be an art thief, my accident.

My interests led me to Neopets.com when I was around 10 or so, that would be the year 2000 I believe. That's when I started to work outside of paint and use a free trial of PSP (that incidentally wouldn't delete off of my computer. Boop!) I ended up doing a lot of gifts or character drawings like: 




Ugh. That last one was apart of something awful. When I was on Neopets.com, I was apart of an "Outlanders" guild, which pretty much RP'd Outlanders based on The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride characters. The guild allowed inclusions of photos, which myself and my members would fill with images of RP characters. Not all of us were able to draw ourselves, and I was still uncomfortable with my art. So, naturally we decided to use other artists lion images and alter them to express best what our characters looked like. Now, in my mind this was harmless because: A.) We were not indicating that these drawings were ours in ANY way and B.) We were not making money or anything by providing these images elsewhere. We simply used them as a rough reference so others could have a clear image of the character they were interacting with. This ended up with me making a fool of myself and being really disliked among the TLK fandom for a brief period. This sucked, hard. Like really hard. 

I was embarrassed, people left the guild, issues arose, and then everything fell apart. So, I dove into art. I forced myself to use this as a learning opportunity where I would learn what it means to respect other artists and their work, and to improve myself so that another awkward situation wouldn't occur again. I dove into experiences and fandoms that were filled with inspiration. I've seen people in my life come and go, due to school, life, and death. I've seen my best friend, my pet Wally, leave this world while I was active on this art site. I've had and lost loves and gained a wonderful one in the process. I've graduated elementary school, high school, got a degree in college, attended graduate school momentarily while i was on this site. I have seen heavy improvements in my work and my confidence in my art as well. 

So, guess I'll leave with a note. No matter where you're from, who you are, or what you do, draw for yourself. This is your talent, your skill, and your love. Don't you let anyone take that from you. 

Love always,
Tajiba
(aka BrieCat, Zentina)

Through the Years: