Talent

When I was not too young-a child of eight years old, I liked anime. I really liked anime. It was on the 25th channel every Friday night from 9'o'clock to midnight. Nothing new to me, having grown up so far on Dragon Ball, Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon. What was interesting about the new anime I was watching was that it was rated for older 'mature' audiences. Inuyasha, Naruto, and Full Metal Alchemist all appealed to me in a way that I had never experienced (I experienced the same feeling with ponies years later.) and it frightened me because there was always blood, and curse words, sometimes bewbs, all of which were things that I had never been allowed to watch before. The content was nothing special. The plot, the art, and the violence were articulate in their own ways. It was the dubs that made it impossible to share my anime obsession with others. 

What was I to do? Not wanting to only watch these great shows, I incorporated them further into my life by attempting to mimic them on paper. Pencil was my best friend for the longest time. I sketched, over and over again, just the eyes of my favorite characters. It would take minutes of concentration and focus to try and perfect the iris, and the shading under the eyelash, before I moved on to the rest of the face. Once I was comfortable drawing the face there was the body, and clothing. I discovered that folds and seams were not at all fun to draw, they were subtle, and could be mistaken for the boundary of the cloth. I trained myself to outline the edge of the subject (of my sketch) darker than the rest. This made it easier to practice my shading. Everyday I would tweak my style, the lines became more fluid even though they were crafted out of a hundred little scratches.

Those first drawings were terrible, and I probably tore down a few forests for their sake.

I kept working. I drew all class, read books only to draw what I saw in them, I drew on tests, and books, with chalk, and on the road.

All I saw in my work were the characters on the screen. They were great in my opinion, but there was allways something missing. A proportion was lopsided, a line far too dark. While I continued to evolve artistically, I looked back and saw more mistakes in my past. How could I have made an error like that only a week ago? < A sentiment often felt. Flaws flaws FLAWS.

And people were praising me. They say I have talent.