What got YOU into drawing?

[Thinktink606432]

I'm still in High school (I have a month left until graduation) so I can still remember the very moment when it all "clicked" and I decided to become an Animator.

I was visiting my Aunt's house for the Summer and she is a huge collector of anything fairytale related. She had books, toys, and of course movies. One of the movies that she had was Thumbelina. I put the movie on thinking nothing of it, but after watching it once I just couldn't stop. I swear, I watched that movie at least 10 more times during that week. And then I stole the movie. Now, I didn't through it in my book-bag and sneak away like some criminal. I simply asked if I could borrow it with no intention of returning it. I felt really bad but I just HAD to have this movie.

Fast forward to the week before the first day of school and it happened. I remember I was watching Iron Man, not really related to anything but something I remember. I simply decided, "I want to learn to draw Princess." I didn't really consider animation until a few weeks later, but I know I wanted to draw. So I drew this horrible drawing, but at the time I thought it was freaking amazing.

That's pretty much how I got started drawing and I've been drawing ever since. Now my question for all of you artist is, how did you get started?

[GdeSouza]

My brother is a comic strip artist (among other artistic abilities).
When asked when he started drawing, he paraphrases some nebulus source back to the asker that the question should be,"When did you stop drawing?" because everyone drew as children and somewhere along the way some were discouraged. The ones that weren't became artists.
I know you mean when we started taking drawing seriously but I think it's an interesting way to look at it.

[Thinktink606432]

My brother is a comic strip artist (among other artistic abilities).
When asked when he started drawing, he paraphrases some nebulus source back to the asker that the question should be,"When did you stop drawing?" because everyone drew as children and somewhere along the way some were discouraged. The ones that weren't became artists.
I know you mean when we started taking drawing seriously but I think it's an interesting way to look at it.

Your brother is right though, maybe I should rename this topic. Every kid I know expresses themselves through art but some of us choose to draw longer then others.

[crazyartistchipmunkguy]

Well, I started as a toddler (Yes I remember it) Three things really ticked me off: I couldn't draw my dog, I was frustrated with trying to draw Chip 'n' Dale (Disney chipmunks) and I wanted to learn how to draw a knight but I couldn't achieve any of them. When I finally threw my pencil down (literally!) and asked my uncle to draw the dog (Copper), he said "Do it yourself". I asked again and he said "I'll show you how". He took my hand and ran me through a few shapes and something clicked after we had achieved a rough caricature of the dog. By the time I had developed some form of reason, I was vigorously studying photos, video game characters, animated characters (Thanks Mr. Bluth for supplying me with Feival Mouskawitz and Mrs. Brisby, as they taught me how to accent hair and fur in my drawings), and various home objects. By age ten I was able to draw a rather cartoony person by looking at them and exaggerating features. In the last six years I have worked on developing my drawings into realistic renderings. Now I can draw almost photographically. In the last two years I have invested my time in animation, relying heavily on the advice of my peers on this forum.

[Thinktink606432]

Well, I started as a toddler (Yes I remember it) Three things really ticked me off: I couldn't draw my dog, I was frustrated with trying to draw Chip 'n' Dale (Disney chipmunks) and I wanted to learn how to draw a knight but I couldn't achieve any of them. When I finally threw my pencil down (literally!) and asked my uncle to draw the dog (Copper), he said "Do it yourself". I asked again and he said "I'll show you how". He took my hand and ran me through a few shapes and something clicked after we had achieved a rough caricature of the dog. By the time I had developed some form of reason, I was vigorously studying photos, video game characters, animated characters (Thanks Mr. Bluth for supplying me with Feival Mouskawitz and Mrs. Brisby, as they taught me how to accent hair and fur in my drawings), and various home objects. By age ten I was able to draw a rather cartoony person by looking at them and exaggerating features. In the last six years I have worked on developing my drawings into realistic renderings. Now I can draw almost photographically. In the last two years I have invested my time in animation, relying heavily on the advice of my peers on this forum.

That an interesting story, considering you remember that far! So, you just recently gotten into animation, even after years of drawing?

[Ben Sword]

I always liked drawing but it wasn't until about 6 or 7 years ago that I actually started to really try and improve my drawing ability.

[Marc_H]

my Mother was an artist/jewellery designer/art teacher as I was growing up, so she got me into drawing and would show me stuff. When I was about 16 I tried hand-drawn animation after dabbling with stop motion and found it was REALLY difficult. I found out the hard way that you have to draw pretty well in order to articulate and pose characters.
so I pulled my socks up a bit, aiming just to get "good enough".
Then when I was 18 I saw Bambi and it hit me; I didn't just want to be an animator, I want to be a good one! and started seriously studying figure and animal drawing.
3 years later and I'm knee deep in books, dvds, sketchbooks and blogs trying learn as much as I can, I love it.

[crazyartistchipmunkguy]

That an interesting story, considering you remember that far! So, you just recently gotten into animation, even after years of drawing?

I've always been interested in it, but just recently started working with it. I love telling stories through art and writing. It really took off when I started drawing animals and cartooning them. Mostly rodents (Can't seem to figure out why I relate to them so well... Or maybe it's because it is because I don't relate to them and it makes my stories bolder due to the fact that I am not putting myself into the characters.) I intend on working in all mediums, but more than anything, I want to put my own twist on the old stuff. I dislike most CGI just because it doesn't feel consistent with the tangible stuff that it gets mixed with. I'm studying animation, and writing a Sword and Sorcery epic taking place in a pre-historic Europe which I have mixed with fictional lands.

[Gligarman]

I always liked doodling when I was a kid but it wasn't until I turned 14 that I started taking it seriously. I caught the Pokemon fever and found myself tracing some of the pictures of them from a magazine. I showed them to a few acquaintances at school and one of them had done a really nice Charizard picture without tracing. Then it became a contest of who could draw better Pokemon pictures without tracing. Then I started doing the same with Dragon Ball and pretty much anything else I liked. I guess the rest is history.

[Rodney]

I think what convinced me at a young age that I was going to be a cartoonist was a combination of comic books and animated films (comic books I read at the Barber Shop and seeing Disney's Robin Hood in the movie theater being early influences). I also recall books were a major influence (record albums... like Jungle Book and Sleeping Beauty... allowed us to hear the stories while looking at the drawings... and using our imaginations to 'inbetween' the imagery. Flipbooks allowed us to read the adventures and get a glimpse of the characters in motion (and we could control to a small extent the timing of the movement of the characters up in the corner of the pages). If I couldn't see a movie (like Star Wars) I drew the characters as I imagined them to be... and changed them as I saw fit into my own characters to tell my own adventures.

I have to say though that everywhere I looked I saw some inspiring imagery that I knew had been drawn. I just didn't have a clue as to how those drawings were created... and that really captured my attention. That was a form of magic that I just had to be involved in. And I could with paper and pencil!