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About

I was born in June, 1998. In the early 2000s, the source of entertainment was limited. I spent my childhood growing up with animations from cartoon network. I have a sister who is 4 years older than me. We would doodle our silly drawings while watching cartoons. That was my first introduction to drawing.

Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network

When I was 7 years old, my parents were interested in developing creative skills for my sister and I. Parents at that time would persuade their children to take classes like music, drawing, or martial arts, in addition to formal education. My sister and I took an art class in a shopping mall near our home. The art class focused on having children draw what they like with no restrictions. IIRC, they didn't focus on fundamentals or art theory (Which I think that's what art education should be, pls don't teach a 7-year-old intense art theory)

my first self portrait
My first self portrait

They provided us with reference images of popular anime and cartoon characters. We can draw from reference or just draw anything we like. At that time, my sister already had an original character. I wanted to be like her, so I drew one too. The art teachers were amazed that we, a 7-year-old and 11-year-old, had original characters. I overheard them and smugged proudly. That art class was the beginning of my love for art.

As a person who values freedom, art is like the best hobby ever. I can create something from pencil, colored pencil and paper, with no one to tell me what I should do. Later, I began to write comics like crazy while taking inspiration (and sometimes copying) from anime like Ojamajo Doremi and Hamtaro.

Looking back at that time, it was so much fun to just draw anything I like without expecting it to be good or even decent.

main protagonists from Tewe's Prophecy
Main protagonists from Tewe's Prophecy, my first completed comic

I drew my first completed comic around 2007-2009. It was a silly comic with 6 main chapters named “Tewe’s Prophecy”. I copied the name from an RPG game called Ahriman’s Prophecy which I played with my sister. I thought the word “prophecy” sounded so cool. Tewe’s prophecy is a story about main protagonists’ fight with evil fairies.

School started getting more serious as I got into middle school. At that time, most students, including myself, would take private classes in addition to school education, either by their parents' pressure or their own will. Being forced to take private classes had permanently damaged my mental wellbeing. In addition to the 7 hours classes on 5 days every week, my precious weekend would get 3-4 hours taken away by something I despise, against my own will. I would cry and curse the tutors almost every Sunday when I have to take private classes.

Gaia Online
Gaia Online (2003 - present)

I started playing Gaia Online, an avatar-based social game in 2011. While I didn’t interact with other players much, I enjoyed dressing up my avatar with the vast outfit and accessory choice. I didn’t use IRL money to buy cash shop items, but I grinded in-game currency for the outfits instead. Then I discovered that some players offered artwork in exchange for in-game currency. Tempted by all the amazing outfits, I started doing digital art for the first time, hoping to get the items I wanted.

artwork of my Gaia avatar
My Gaia avatar as my first digital artwork

Digital art in 2011 was not widely available to everyone. Most of the time, doing digital painting was trial-and-error. Art tutorials were very limited, let alone digital art. I was so excited to draw digitally after always doing traditional art ever since I was born. I, a 13 year-old, felt like I was some professional artist because I got to draw digitally like them.

I would sketch and do line art traditionally then scan the drawing for digital coloring. I used a regular mouse to color, with the huge help of a lasso tool. A single drawing would take so many hours. Even so, I was really happy and excited to draw digitally.

In the end, I didn’t really offer commissions for in-game currency thinking my current skill wasn’t good enough for people to pay even in-game money for my artwork. However, I did draw a lot and got more familiar with digital art. That’s still a big win for me.

artwork of one of my Gaia avatar
Digital drawing of one of my Gaia avatar

One thing I'm really glad that I did was talking to my parents how bad I felt when taking the private classes and said I'd like to study extra hours by myself, which they agreed and finally, I got out of that hell when I was in the 9th grade.

Death Note (2006)
Death Note (2006)

In 2012, I watched Death Note, the first anime I've watched that is not children-oriented. I loved the artstyle and story. I really like how the characters' expressions were portrayed. I sympathized with the characters like they were real people and yes, I cried like a baby when my favorite character died. I didn't really like anime style characters in the past (think of retro anime style like Cardcaptor Sakura, Sugar Sugar Rune, and Negima), but at that time I became fascinated with anime by the influence of Death Note, followed by Rozen Maiden, and many more.

my drawing of L from Death Note
L drawing from 2012

I got into another hell during 2016-2018 after studying so hard to get into my desired dental school. Being a dentist offers stable income with admiration from society. Even when I was suffering greatly, I tried to think of the future like, suffer now by studying hard and when I finally graduate, my hard work would pay off. In reality, I don't think I'll ever graduate from dental school before going completely insane. And as you may have probably guessed, I got out of dental school in 2018.

*Disclaimer: I'm not saying that dental school is bad or drives everyone insane, almost all 90-ish people in the same year as I graduated and became a dentist

Getting out of dental school was like going back to the human world again. The joyfulness didn't last long because I had to find a new place to study. In Thailand, a decent job requires at least a bachelor's degree.

*More to be updated