Some people say I'm a very talented individual and praise accolades on me for being able to do what I do as if it's a feat of magic so far beyond normal human kind that it's almost blasphemous to even think of attempting it themselves... okay I exaggerate a little but you get the point!

Maybe I'm being humble or maybe I'm just stupid but I truly don't consider myself special or all that "talented".  My artwork is very generalized and specific to certain body features/styles... there isn't much deviation or originality from one character to the next.  Sure it's improved over the years and that's what I want to talk about our perceptions of talent, that is what true "talent" is.

It's not the ability to do something well; talent is the ability to stick at it until you improve and start to become good at what you are doing.  It takes a lot of effort to be good at anything; a lot of effort!

While growing up I was never truly amazing at art (take a look at some of my reallly old pieces on deviantart).  I always (and still do) had trouble conceptualizing what I wanted to draw and how I wanted to convey that down onto paper.  Does that mean that since I wasn't good at drawing then that i would never have the "talent" to be an artist?  No it just means you have to work harder to earn that ability,

I started out drawing everything I saw to try to improve my artistic abilities.  At first it was horrid but slowly I learned how to duplicate book jack covers, drawings, cartoons and even some real life scenes... I wasn't to shabby!  However, to me this wasn't my kind of art... i wanted to create I didn't want to just copy.  So I started to focus more on creating original artwork and pieces.. and they were HORRIBLE when I started (look at my press dog... bunny... thing for example in my journal header)!

I have been drawing steadily now for years!  I don't have much time to draw during the day but I've spent about two or three hours EVERY night for the past 5 years practicing my hobby and passion and I can see the improvement.

I've got a long way to go, I need to start branching out into different styles and more original creatures as well as drawing more human figures.  Right now I've been narrowly focused on one genre in the cartoon field and I hope to slowly change that.

I've known a couple people in my life that truly were born with innate talent.  I grew up with these people and watched them.  You could give them one idea and without drawing circles or looking up reference material they would crank out a beautiful rendition of what you asked them.  These people do exist but most people (like me) have to work constantly to improve there hobby and being able to keep up at it to me is what true talent is.

I firmly believe that nearly anyone can draw, be an engineer, rocket scientist... or whatever!  You have to have the passion and determination to keep at it, learn from you failures and to never give in when you feel like it's hopeless.  That last part is the hardest to fight.

I'm 30yrs old and compared to many artists younger then me, I'm far inferior to them.  I'd love to get a job in the animation industry one day BUT I know my skill set and more importantly age will start playing against me (sad fact of life).  I don't let that worry me to much so long as I have a job I can stand/tolerate/survive which will let me still do my art as a hobby and passion.

Who knows... maybe one day I will go far and that's what and will always drive my "talent" [end meandering]