So, I missed my 5 year anniversary on deviantART because I decided to post a bit of a rant instead, not realizing I'd hit the half decade mark. I wanted to take a look back at some of the first things I ever posted here and how I got to where I am. You're in for some laughs...

First and foremost, I think it's only fitting that very first piece of digital art I ever did happened to be of Halo. I did the drawing in 2003 and I did a digital paint over in 2005 by mouse. Needless to say, it's crude.


In fact, I submitted the original pencil drawing and the digital print side by side to an art show at the art college I would later attend on a substantial scholarship and... it got rejected.

I then went on to try my hand at some pretty awful black and white photography, which I won't bother you with. But in September of 2005, still tabletless, I tried my hand at some 3D and fractal program Apophysis ended up with this.


Superb, I know.

Between then and summer of 2006 when I finally got my tablet, I did manage to snap one photo I was proud of with my shitty Sony Cybershot. Look how incredibly artistic it is, green vines with a snowy background, I'm sure it's never been done before in the history of photography. Right?


Anyway, in May of 2006, I tried my hand at acrylic painting for the first time on some wood board. I did it for my English class because we were reading Frankenstein and had to choose one of three projects. Can't say I'm proud of it...


Moving on from there, I'd uploaded number of traditional drawings, but in July of 2006 I uploaded my first ever Wacom tablet created piece of art. Sadly, I don't know what I was thinking. It looks like a scary penis monster.


I went on to upload a lot more terrible paintings, a bunch of which you can find below. Yes, a lot of uninspired alien crap. They're quite scratchy and bad, but all a part of learning I guess.


But in August of 2006, I finally managed to upload the first digital painting I was actually proud of. 30 hours this thing took, which is crazy looking back at it, but hey, all part of the learning process.


Here are some more August paintings I uploaded.


Then there's another one I spent a million years on and was pretty proud of, but looking back it just makes me laugh. It's a bunch of dudes dumping bodies into some sewer-like aqueduct system or something.  


And here are some September and October of 2006 paintings I did, including a hilariously bad self portrait. `DanLuVisiArt, whenever I piss him off, he links me to this to make fun of me.


Then of course in November and December I pumped out some Halo work that I'm sure a lot of you recognize from my gallery. I only keep them there as a reminder of where I came from and because at the time I was super proud of them.


Then, in January of 2007 I started art school and began really learning a lot. Not digitally, I'm entirely self taught in that respect, but as far as learning fundamentals like drawing, traditional painting, perspective, color theory, etc., it's when things really kicked off for me.

It was then that I posted my Bob Ross speed painting on Youtube which now has just shy of a million views in roughly 4 years.


To show how far I came in under a year, here are some works I did in the first half of 2007. All of these are less than a year after first putting my hands on my tablet and opening Photoshop.


And these ones were also in 2007, done just shortly after I hit my one year anniversary of working with a tablet.


Anyway, everything else leading up until right now you can see in my gallery. But, it really goes to show you how far you can come in just a few years time, or hell, even one year of working hard. I went from a dork with a tablet and some really awful paintings to working as a professional illustrator in about 3 years.

You can really accomplish a lot if your heart is there, and any of you who really want to be a professional artist or simply strive to be good at your hobby, just give it your all and never give up. If it's what you truly want, the only person stopping you from having it is yourself.

Take care guys!