ide have to say i have been drawing sense i was 5 and the one who really inspired me to keep at it is my grandmaw who was a great artist herself. art is my only hobby i never give up on and it makes me feel at eas and help get my mind off of every thing i hate
what got you all started in art and who inspires u to keep at it?

I happen to have a lot of self-motivation. I'm also very determined, but I'd say just seeing other people's comics/drawings. Any professional pretty much inspires me, but mostly the grungy stuff. It just makes me want to become a better artist.

It was really tough for me when I sucked at art, and I knew it. But I kept going, because I knew deep down, someday, I'd become better.

My whole family supported me. My aunt, my mom, my dad, they are the ones who buy my supplies (:D) and they read and help me along by giving me confidence.

I just liked to draw? I used to doodle little pictures of caterpillars with each body segment being made of a different piece of fruit. Not sure why that was.

Eventually, I checked out a very simplistic book at the school library about drawing cartoonish pig faces and that stuck. Particularly how the eyes were done. I still use a similar appearance!

As to what motivates me now, it's partially a sense of defiance to a faceless world. I know whatever I do doesn't mean anything and people have no reason to care, but I've never had serenity to accept futility. On a more day to day relevance, it's my own sense of darkness. Really, negativity inspires me to create. Maybe for sake of catharsis or that's just where the ideas I consider my best originate from. I'm historically miserable, melancholy, and blackened inside like a unending stormcloud... yet it allows me to focus and feel more like myself than the few moments of mild joy that pass.

good questions

what got me going ? thats tought , cuz i always remember drawing since i can remember stuff , but i would say hard times and substance abuse realy kicked me in the ass to use art as a crutch for propping up my own self worth

hows it make me feel ? uptight and unsatisfied

who inspires me to keep at it ? nobody , xept maybe the reaper ...

the only book that ever mattered to me when i was a kid, my stepfather brought this home for me one day and it was oer. i recently repurchased a new copy cuz my old one was so beat up/




what keeps me going? books like this...



I like art that gets me excited. I get excited when i draw an awesome picture. art is about excitement, for me.

indeed

Indeed

Anger. As a kid I spent most of my school career getting picked on because I made jokes and comments that were a bit too advanced for my age. I was your typical bookworm/ loser who other kids naturally understood was a good punching bag, and a lot of the anger that built up had to find some way to come out. When I finally snapped after it bottling up, it was usually a pretty violent result. I was constantly in fights and got suspended from school during the 8th grade. Then, when I got to 9th grade and went to a an arts high school I started drawing more and suddenly I had an outlet for things. Even if I don't draw violent or angry stuff it helps me have something to do with myself to focus that energy and it helped me feel like I was different from the kids who had to take out their issues on others like my tormentors. Art has been my life ever since.

It's the only thing I ever knew. Both my mum and father are artists. My father more of a writer though. So very young, it was what I was exposed to most. It wasn't until I was 10 that I really got into comics and drawing, after I saw the Ninja Turtles movie and got really into Astro Boy. I was just so compelled to draw comics from then on. Batman has also held a HUGE influence upon my drive to make it in comics. I started learning the art by tracing all my Batman comics that I had until I could draw them perfectly on my own. I studied endless books and a pencil never left my hands. I even got into lots of trouble at school for doodling in class too much. Then Manga came into my life at 18 and it's been love ever since. It's a style I find much easier to do than western style....although I am still striving to get anything published...it's a labor of love that I truly enjoy doing...and cannot help myself from thinking of always. What keeps me going in art and comics, is the image in my head of seeing someone with my own work in their hands...and enjoying it. That is the best gift of all from all the hard work.

I started drawing back before I can remember. My parents told me that I got scared one night and drew a giant sunrise on my wall to scare off the monsters and they knew I'd be an artist back then.

My real inspiration to draw came from Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which I watched back in the 80s. Something about the style and story really struck me and I wanted to draw and tell stories that touched people like him. So while other kids were drawing Disney characters I was drawing anime.

Kat

Indeed

I've been drawing since I was like 4 and ever since it's become a passion to me. Osamu Tezuka is my greatest inspiration and just the amount of success he had and his overall working habits keep me going. He was one who drew crazily into the night hours and all his hard work paid off in the end, specially since he now known as the Father of anime. However, I want to be good in doing western style as well but Stan Lee and Disney are inspirations to me as well in that style of art. I just want to get out there and my inspiration is also my motivation! But art is also about excitement as you guys stated!!

John Jr.

It is so much apart of me to draw and paint that if I did not I would be incomplete.
I have always been inspired by great comic artist like John Buscema, Neal Adams, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Etc. I also look into a great many illustrators like Dean Cornwell, Albert Dorne, J.C. Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell.
Fine artist include Velazquez, Rembrandt, Sargent, The list in either category is long.
I like looking at art, learning from others. It is a wonderful tradition that has followed us from antiquity in every culture.
Whether I am good or bad at it does not matter as much as being honest with my progress.
I try to do better than the last thing I did.
I'm not saying I'm good, I'm saying I'll get better.

if I stop drawing I get depressed, it's that simple. So I can't stop if I want to be happy. As a bonus no matter how hard I try I can't see a future where i'm not drawing comics for a living, so that means either I become a hobo, die, or draw comics.


it's not that hard of a choice.

I've been drawing since before I developed cogent memory. I was filling up coloring books and copying the newspaper funnies as soon as somebody shoved a crayon in my hand.

Motivation has never been an issue for me. I couldn't stop even if I wanted to. There's always a million things I want to turn into a comic book.

To me, drawing comics comes about as naturally as breathing.

I'm probably the wrong person to ask in regards to "what keeps you going."

In all honestly I hadn't really drawn in like 7 years. I drew my first Cowtoon at work when I was really bored. At first I was really awful, as you can see by my first few comis. I draw pretty much to just occupy myself at work, and people were always telling me that I should do something with them so here I am.