I joined DeviantArt 8 years ago in February 2006, hesitantly posting my traditional art without really knowing if I liked sharing it or not. After a while, I realized how neat and convenient it was to have my drawings collected in a place like this, to not mention how nice it felt to meet people and get feedback as well, and it soon became a habit to upload everything I made, back then including dragons, various fantasy creatures, school things and casual doodles. Eventually I made some FFXI and Malice Mizer-related art as well, as I around that period of time became strongly attached to the two. Here's a few(old) examples, though none older than 2006 because I never scanned from beyond then:
It wasn't until 2010, though, that I started to make use of my DA for real, posting loads of art(mainly Pokémon) and slowly but surely beginning to explore digital drawing(using mouse & Photoshop to edit my traditional sketches) as well.
In 2011 I went on a one-year long trip to Florida, bringing a laptop but no mouse(don't ask me why I didn't just buy one), which led me to re-learn drawing entirely by using the touchpad, uploading my traditional sketches through camera pictures to edit digitally. It went pretty well once I got the hang of it and soon it was no problem. The year in Florida gave me plenty of time and peace to explore various aspects of drawing and I did quite a bunch of various art, featuring both dinosaurs, Pokémon, Left 4 Dead, and eventually Portal fanart.
This followed me when I returned to Norway, at which time I was reintroduced to the graphics tablet that I had owned for a long time but had never gotten the hang of. KABOOM! Once the pen pressure was activated, a new world was opened to me. The feeling of making those smooth, beautiful lines was just... amazing, and I soon begun to sketch things out digitally as well instead of constantly having to scan my traditional works. Also around that time I was introduced to SAI, which I love. After that I've mostly been using my tablet and very much enjoyed it, spawning a lot more Portal, Pokémon and L4D with it, along with other occasional artwork since then, original and fanart alike.
I still don't feel I'm quite "there" yet, but I've definitely improved, and it makes me very happy to look back like this and realize that a lot of progress has been made. It's easy to forget sometimes. Throughout this time, wonderful, invaluable friendships have been made as well, I've met and become attached to people and they've been there for me through both good and bad. Art-wise they have given me a lot of support and advice, and without their motivation I surely wouldn't have been where I am now. I really have no words to describe how much they mean to me and certainly hope I've been as good to them <3 Thank you.
So yes, that's basically my story. Or timeline or whatever you call it. I would use another paragraph to mention all the awesome people I've met through here by name but YOU KNOW WHAT, I WON'T so instead have this utterly selfish summary about me. I hope it didn't waste your time *Flails* Main point is, I have a lot to thank DA for and I'm not leaving anytime soon. That's about it, see you around!