My DeviantART Story

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Hello babies~ I thought I'd hop on the train too~ THIS IS SORTA PERSONAL I REALIZE but it's kind of nice to have it all written down. This is only the second time I've done something close to this and it feels kinda great. I don't expect anyone to read it all but I definitely admire you if you do haha.

I started deviantART in February, 2006. I had just started watching Code Lyoko with my brother at the time because it came on right after Teen Titans and when I heard the theme song music once and sort of fell in love with it. I was a real hater at first because I was trying to be superior and cool but man, I gave in hard. When I first came across deviantART itself, I was already drawing Code Lyoko with my own fan character, Chelsea. I got an account under the handle lyokolady and drew as much as I could from that show with little dabbles of Eragon, Pokemon and Fruits Basket in between. I didn't browse too much outside of my fandom and honestly, I was really content doing pencil drawings and writing fanfiction and not expanding beyond that. I was young, ignorant, Mormon and I was very very positive about my beliefs and what I wanted to do with my life. 

April that same year, however, an artist posted this and it ended up on the front page. At the time, I was absolutely captivated by the stars, by the fact that this was clearly a character from a movie I knew, but he wasn't the same. I thought it looked just like it was out of the movie itself and right then in there, I decided that I wanted to do this. I wanted to do digital art.

Three months of mowing and watering lawns later, my parents helped make up the difference and I bought Photoshop CS2 and I got to work. September 2007 came and I was signed up for an ACC art tournament for Code Lyoko, joined an art group and met my very best friend TheMaggiezine. While I was involved with a lot of great artists and friends at the time on dA, Maggie and I were joined at the creative/bestie hip and ended up creating characters and worlds and ships together and still do~ During this time, I struggled tremendously with my religious beliefs as I discovered my sexuality. It was a really painful time as my safe, ignorant little world exploded from the inside out and my family betrayed me and made my world agonizing. 

Still though, I worked on my art.

With Maggie's support, my art took its first huge shift and I could create pictures better than I ever had before. I even started dabbling in making comic strips in 2009. 2010 rolled around and I had another art shift with my style maturing more and my heart set on becoming an animator.  I pushed myself a lot and the following year when I went to college, I took a life drawing class, started painting more and I began to kick some more ass. I was away from all of my family but my sister and I felt like my improvement was coming leaps and bounds at this point and I was so excited and happier, even though I was still struggling.

After my first year of college, I moved across the state and transferred to a university to start taking animation classes for real. I was finally living all the way away from family and while my roommates were a little silly, I was so happy and I absolutely thrived. I drifted away from Code Lyoko and really started working artistically on the projects I had with Maggie, while also pushing my technical skills artwise. This is also when I joined Tumblr and became TheFlamingZebra or just FlamingZebra as I prefer. I was really low on money that year because I was struggling to find a job, and I opened commissions.  This, a happy living situation, alongside a goal to draw every day of the year (that I ended up not keeping) was very for me because I feel like this was one of my most productive years artistically

The next year was when things went to hell. Despite my short, successful runs with commissions, I still couldn't find an official job and was forced to withdraw from university and move home to live with my parents in Tennessee. During this time I started working on The Furies, a superhero comic about an all girl team in a world the incredible Maggie created. I drifted away from the old art group and I replaced Chelsea in the superhero world as her new official home and created the team at her side. Despite this, my creativity was low and I grew extremely depressed living in seclusion, tornado alley, and in the home of a stressing family who suspected my being queer and very loudly attempted to smother it. 

When things got bad enough, I was offered a way out and I took it. 2012, I went to Utah, got a job, got a room in an apartment and restarted my life. I was still pretty low so my art productivity was still pretty damn low, but I tried as hard as I could to keep going

2013 was when I finally, actually started picking up. My productivity still wasn't as great as it could be AT ALL but I was still working hard. I got a better job and I made a few friends and on the art front, there were lots of girls.

NOW WE COME TO THIS YEAR THE YEAR 2014

HELL YEA HELL YEA

I started the year rough artistically, but I had the goal in mind to draw every single day again. I became dear dear friends with Dyemelikeasunset and Beedalee-Art who, with Maggie, have been at my side, supporting me every second. While I have projects and ships and characters and stories with all three of them, this year changed in that I also started creating solo projects again for myself and introducing them to the world. It's been scary, but so exciting. I restarted my activity on deviantART, and with all these projects and more, I haven't felt an art slip in months. There is stress in my life just like any ole time but I am working hard and focusing on positive improvement and - well - it's only August, but the results have been plenty!

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Here's to continuing my adventure on deviantART moving forward! I'm so happy for all the friends I've made throughout the years and all the inspiration and improvement I've been able to get.

And like I mentioned in my last journal, I want to strengthen my community here! If you're a new watcher, please feel free to introduce yourself! Every story can use another buddy!

- Cait~
© 2014 - 2024 caiterprince
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belovedrose-x's avatar
you. are. an inspiration.