MY ANIME ART JOURNEY & HOW I STARTED CREATING ANIME FANART

Hey peeps! I'm back with another post.

Today's post is a brief summary of my anime journey and how I started creating anime art. Note that while I tried to recall as much as I could, it's been a while. That aside this is going to be a long post so feel free to skip it, if not then let's get to it.

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When did I start creating anime art?

Before becoming an anime lover, I was already interested in art (partly from the influence of my older sister). I enjoyed coloring and drawing, and art class would always be a happy time. While I enjoyed it, it was more of a hobby where I could relax and have fun. That was until I found an app called episode in the 6th Grade. 

For those of you that aren't familiar with Episode, it is basically and interactive story app where you can write or read stories. Joining the app I had naturally started of as a reader. I got incredibly obsessed with reading as much stories as possible often neglecting my homework (not my proudest moments). It was then on a featured story that I saw a scene where an art scene was incorporated, instead of the simple animated scenes. Interested by this, I hopped onto Instagram and saw plenty of people creating art. 

I'm just going to cut this story short. I eventually became an episode artist creating things like fanart, episode edit requests, and story covers. I also branched off into story reviews, r4r and one of the things I did a lot of: making episode backgrounds. I even went on to start writing episode stories (I was not the best writer, and am still not). 

It was at this time that I learned about digital art, the type of art I would create for episode edit requests.  (A picture of one of the episode edits I made 👉)

If you want to see more of my episode art and backgrounds, you can check out my Instagram account: @koolgal.epi (You'll need to check my tagged stuff though since I archived all my posts).

As much as I enjoyed episode, my path took an unexpected turn. My laptop had broken down, and I could no longer write, create backgrounds or draw properly. My family's financial situation is not the best, so buying a new one was out of the question and I couldn't ask my sisters to use theirs knowing they needed theirs as well. Making it hard for me, I had reached a tall wall. I became burnt out. Lost, I started to disconnect. Refusing to let it slip away I kept randomly sketching here and there, while watching Netflix. It then turned into watching and sometimes sketching, until it was just watching. Bingeing Netflix was the only way I could pretend that I was losing something important to me. 

While in my room scrolling through Tiktok, my sister came in and had recommended that I watch this movie on Netflix saying "It's called an anime movie, you should give it a watch". That was when I watched "Your Name" for the first time. I was hooked. I began to watch all the anime movies that I could from "Whisper of the Heart" to "Kiki's Delivery Service".  I then learnt that there were series as well and got even more hooked. I had also come to realize that one of my favorite childhood movies "Arrietty" was indeed an anime. It felt like fate. Crazy right?

The thing was, I was going through a tough time. The loss of a family member years back had led to a string of events. I had become a shut-in who was depressed and had zero self-confidence. And Covid hitting didn't help either.

It's said that in our darkest of times, when a light appears we must grab it. So as soon as I saw this light, I clutched it tight. I started creating traditional anime art, posting it on both Instagram and Tiktok. I didn't care about the likes and followers as much as I thought I would. I then went on to try my hand at digital art for anime fanart, but as you can see I preferred the traditional route. 

Looking back I just know that I wouldn't have made it here if not for anime, and for that I am grateful. I still post on my Tiktok and Instagram from time to time, starting my own anime art channel on YouTube and I'm enjoying it. Editing footage and filming is a task, but I definitely wouldn't have it any other way ^_^.

I've watched countless of animes, even challenging myself with the series "One Piece" said to be one of the longest anime. I'm now a full-on fan. I also have a blog where I share my 2cents on the animes I've watched. 

Overall it's a fun process of creating art and bringing the characters whose stories I enjoy watching closer to life. It becomes just a tinge bit personal making me feel connected to the anime. 

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That said, here are a few questions for which I think their answers are helpful to hear.  

I'm just starting my anime art journey, do you have any tips for me?

First of all, good on you for taking that step in your life. A life of art is colorful, and for me it helped me learn about and understand myself better. 

I recommend drawing and drawing and drawing. Practice makes better. Watch animes and pick your favorite character or a character you think had the most impact on you and draw them. There's no point in drawing a character you don't like and then feeling unmotivated making you stop. 

While it's important to practice, I'd suggest not to overdo it. A sketch a week to start off is nice, and then build into a sketch each day. It's important to take breaks so you don't burn out. 

As for creating and posting content, I suggest doing so in batches. On top of that, repurpose footage as many times as possible (comment if you want a post going deeper into this). 

Also another tip, try not to post the exact same thing over all your socials, try and opt for a long video on your YT, and a short video on your Tiktok, and then re-edit the short video and post it on your YT shorts. Maybe someone will see a  Tiktok on your page and being intrigued they'll want to see the full video and head on over to your YouTube. This helps your socials bring traffic to each other.

 With video editing, like drawing you need to keep working on it to get the hang of it. While my editing skills still stink, I believe to some degree I have gotten a bit better. Don't be afraid to try different applications and test them out. So far Capcut has worked well for me, but I definitely want to branch out in the future. 

One more thing: try every medium you can. You might think "I like colored pencils" and just stick to not knowing that if you tried watercolor painting you'd love it. . The whole point of a journey is to experience and discover different things. It won't hurt to try however in the long run you could regret not trying a certain medium sooner. 

At the end of the day art is about finding yourself. It's gonna take a while. 

Have you had any regrets since starting your anime art journey?

There are times I wished that I'd learnt anatomy before going in to it, but that has never been a regret. I can still learn it after picking up anime art. Besides, anime proportions are slightly different from the general human anatomy (at least the facial features). 

Still I do have just one regret: not starting my YouTube channel quicker. I sometimes feel like if I nurtured it during my shut-in days, it wouldn't take up a lot of my time now (I'm a bit of a recluse, but I go out now and have more responsibilities).  Other than this, I'm happy with where I'm at. 

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That's basically it for this post! If you have any questions you want me to answer in future posts then leave a comment.

Thanks for making it this far. I'll see you in the next one!