Apparently May 22 marks the 5 year anniversary of my deviantArt account. _{Yet another thing to make me feel old.}

A brief history of my life on dA:

I first came across the site in early 2008 because I was looking for fanart of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I'm one of those people who like to stick with a fandom I like for a while, so usually, I google official art of a series I like, but I guess A:TLA somehow called for looking at fanart.

Thus I was a lurker on dA till I made this account (formerly Sorcaron1379) in May. _{No wait, I was still a lurker at that point.} At any rate, browsing devArt inspired me to draw more and made me fall in love with digital art. Actually I just liked that it tended to look better on the computer.

I've always considered myself as liking to draw, but it wasn't until I began frequenting devArt that I entered my current stage of 'constantly' drawing. *coughImeandrawinduringclassandwhatnotcough*

In August 2008, I submitted my first piece on devArt. I spent about 5 days straight working meticulously on it in Paint.NET and used a mouse to trace over my pencil lineart. I must say that both my equipment and artwork have improved since then.

I eventually obtained Photoshop in 2009, but remained stuck using a mouse. At least during this process, I learned how to shade/color better instead of relying on the dodge/burn/smudge tools. From `fox-orian I learned how to use Adjustment Layers for shading (first applied here).

The first tablet I ever used was my physics professor's Intuos 3, which I was able borrow for a week. In February of 2010, my parents finally agreed to let me purchase my own tablet. _{Getting to get a tablet was seriously the most excited I've been about anything. That night, after my family left, I remember that I was feeling sick to my stomach and my hands were sweating because of the excitement. I literally skipped into my future roommate's room. Now that is unheard of.}

I felt like I started becoming somewhat known on dA with the addition of very very meticulously drawn Percy Jackson fanarts to my gallery (and to numerous PJO groups) in late 2010/early 2011. _{Yay for reading PJO over the summer/fall of 2010, and re-reading the Artemis Fowl series (along with the newly released The Atlantis Complex) earlier that year. I guess fanart was inspired.}

The summer of 2011 came with a desire to make more use of my time for drawing than I had the previous summer. I guess it worked. Summer 2011 was also when I was introduced to Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series. For some odd reason, I managed to participate in both Dalek Week 2011 and 2012.

At this point I must thank ~timebourne, ~NightmareSiren, and ~ThePrinceOfParties, with whom I've had the greatest, longest, most somehow-strayed-so-far-from-our-original-topic conversations. Thanks also to ~mmh1516 for being a fellow Taiwanesian and Super Junior lover and ~TheSeventhOfSeven for loving math~ You guys have made my experience on DeviantArt just that much better.


(Jan 2012) gets special mention because that was the first time in a long time that I had done anything extensive with pencil. Most lines are done in pen and then edited/colored in Photoshop with a tablet. (July 2012) was also pure pencil because I didn't bring my tablet with me to Washington D.C.! The pain!!

I haven't been able to upload much this year; sorry about that. College takes a lot out of ya. @w@ And yay! Grad school can only get worse!

Recently, I've uploaded a few drabbles for ~Dear Beans~. I really really really appreciate those of you who have taken the the time to read (and comment). It means a lot that people also like my writing. :> I will theoretically be making a character guide and uploading more of these drabbles in the near future.

_{If you made it all the way through that (or just happened to see this), you may now attempt to get a request! The first 5 people to complete the task get a [pencil] sketch. Please name my favorite pairing and my favorite character (or one of them, I suppose) from any of the following: Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Artemis Fowl, Leviathan, Fullmetal Alchemist, Pride and Prejudice, Nodame Cantabile, Detective Conan, Legend of Korra, 5 Centimeters per Second, (or any other thing that I happen to like but forgot to list). No repeats!}


tl;dr DeviantArt has inspired me to draw more and to take up digital art. Tablets are amazing but only if they have pen pressure. Fanart is a great way to gain popularity make friends. School is hard and never ends. Thanks for all your support!! o/


<sub>//because the extra stuff doesn't show up at the bottom:
I am listening to Sir Edward Elgar's Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82, watching Nodame Cantabile, reading W.A.R.P. by Eoin Colfer, and playing the violin (and viola).

You must listen to Elgar's Violin Sonata!! And Brahm's Symphony No. 1!!! So epic!
Or if you prefer, the Nodame Cantabile versions. [link]</sub> | _{[link] [link]}