How Old Were You When You Started Drawing?

[moeghost]

im not too sure if this is the right board for this, but since it concerns art/drawing i figure it goes here.

recently i've started to feel like im "too old" to begin my art journey, even tho im only 18... i've been drawing since i was 13, but i never really took it seriously until about a year ago. i feel like i've finally found my style, but i get too embarrassed to share my art with the world since i feel like my art is a bit childish/underdeveloped for my age or at least for how long ive been drawing.

i see a lot of younger people on the internet who were around the same age i was when i started drawing, but their skills and understanding of anatomy and color theory are much better than mine...

im of the belief that its never too late, you can never be too old for anything that makes you happy, i guess i just wish id took myself seriously a bit earlier, maybe my skills would have progressed more and id have more to show for.

if any of you are willing, id love to see or hear about how your skills and confidence in your art has developed 

[AnIzzi0t]

personally, I started drawing when I was around 10! I specifically remember sitting in my 4th grade classroom drawing a manga character(I started with how to draw manga books) and my teacher saw what I was drawing and threw it away

nevertheless, I persisted!! I made a series of comics illustrating my 11th birthday (where my dad set it on fire. ooopppssss....) and looking back, they aren't as bad as I remember them! so that rekindled my love for silly doodles and comics

when I was 11, my oc ideas also started flowing in!! that's the age where my main ocs, Trudy and kia, came into concept!

you are never too old to start drawing. in fact, in my friend group I came pretty late. but that just means you'll have to learn and understand how you want your art to turn out. you cant control when you begin, but you can control when you end

[flowerrobin]

I've been drawing since I can remember so around age 3, but I didn't start to take it seriously until recently when I went to university. I am of that Deviantart generation that posted MS Paint how-to-draw manga style art and I thought I had developed my unique 'style' and my art was the bomb, until I got to my late 20s and realised I actually knew very little about art and basically had to restart from scratch.

My advice is to not overthink it or compare yourself to others - it's probably the most common pitfall for young artists, especially nowadays where you're exposed to these cool artists with a bajillion followers on Instagram. You don't have to draw like them or even have a social media following to be successful - another thing I didn't know until going to university was that there are so many different fields out there for art, and you don't have to limit yourself to being a comic artist/animator working for Disney which tend to be the jobs most glamorised online. For years I thought I wanted to be an animator because all the artists I liked were, but I'm glad I realised that I'm not cut out for it and I wouldn't like the work anyway.

Also focus on finding your own voice rather than style - do it this way and your work will look distinctly yours, you will find yourself drawing this way naturally like it's your handwriting and not burn out. Make an effort to research all kinds of art, from different cultures and different periods of history to understand that there's a million different ways of approaching art and there is no one 'right' way to go about things, and that there is value in everything. Doing this has set me free and now I feel the most confident I've ever been with my art!

[lakes]

I don't remember actually. But I didn't start doing it regularly until I was a preteen I think. Now I don't really do it as regularly as then. But I still draw sometimes.

[ValyceNegative]

As a hobby? Since I could hold a tool! I learned how to write earlier than usual and drawing came soon after. However, I started considering art as a proper career only around 15 years old. That's when I started showing my stuff to people (my age or older) and the majority of responses were along the lines of "I wanna see more" or "you could make these as a living!«

[hikatamika]

• Literally: Since childhood for pure enjoyment.
• More focused hobbyism? — Maybe since late elementary through middle school.
• Online/social hobbyism (with my friends): Since the age of like ~12-13.
• Online/social hobbyism (with the greater internet. Curse you, likes and retweets): Probably mid/late-teens?
• Online w/ content creator mindset: I wanna say… since graduating uni.
• Burnt out on content creator stuff, trying to do art for self-actualization and personal fulfillment: Now.

My top recommendation is to ignore the (and I say this endearingly:) prodigy art fetuses online. Don't regret time spent not drawing because other people are ahead of you. The time spent not drawing due to inhibitions will pass anyway, and we don't live forever. Tons of people pick up art in their teens, and young-, mid-, and even senior-adulthood. I also find that the older a new artist is, the less likely they'll engage in the most trending art mediums and seek social approval. Random grandmas are just picking up landscape acrylic paintings cause they find them pretty, y'know? But I feel like teens→30s worry about being like… digital artists that make people go "wow" when they scroll or surf to their art.

If Pewdiepie (regardless of how I feel about him) is allowed to be an Adult Beginner Artist, and have art that looks "underdeveloped for his age", why can't you? (I mean that kindly and genuinely.) I think the idea of an Appropriate Level of Art Skill for Someone's Age is a social construct to avoid. Like, it's not real. Who said "5yos must draw like this. 10yos must draw like this. 15 yos must draw like this—"? It's all made up. At any age, one's art will look like the level at which they trained their observation-stylization-and execution skills—be that 15 or 50.

Like, if you were the only person on earth, would you feel as worried as you do now? You deserve to feel happy, confident, and pursue what you want.


To talk about my experience, as requested… Lowkey, skill-wise, I just got better at it the more I drew. The more I drew, the more I'd have a desire to do better in the next drawing in certain aspects, which gave me things to pursue improvement on. Confidence-wise, I was ironically more confident the (quote-unquote) WORSE I was at drawing. Because back then, my brain was more focused on enjoyment of the process, expressing myself, and sharing things with friends who already liked me (for non-art reasons) anyway. When the Social Web, and the User Experience/psychological design of Social Media got a grip on my art, I was already "much better" at art skills wise, but my confidence has been tremendously worse than when I was an amateur/new/developing/n00b artist.

It really makes ya think, I swear…

There's a human instinct to leave proof of your own existence. To achieve immortality by leaving your painted handprint on the cave wall. To me, that's what art is. Focus on that part! 

Edit: typos everywhere
Edit: addendum cause I just thought of it and it sounds cool:

If art and the human instinct are leaving proof of our own existence by leaving handprints on the cave wall, like, there's no point in fretting that someone else's handprint is better than yours. Your handprint is in YOUR shape. It reflects and expresses you.

[devils]

I've been drawing since I was 2, when I learned how to hold a pen properly, when I say I haven't stopped since I am speaking quite literally because I need to draw everyday otherwise I'll feel crazy.

My art's gone through ups and downs according to my mental health and whatnot. Right now I'm pretty pleased with how it looks. I quite dislike the idea that you have to start at a certain age to be good at it. I've seen complete beginners with an excellent eye for a myriad of things, from anatomy to colors, and starting as an older person allows you to draw with more intent than as a kid, making it so learning basic skills is easier. It's all a matter of perspective, really...