I practically busted the door off of it’s hinges as I made my way inside the house with my new wacom tablet. I was obviously pumped about this tablet. My smile couldn’t tell anyone otherwise. First, I darted across the living room to retrieve my laptop. It’s black case was soon in my hands and I made my way to the dining room table. In a hurry, I opened up the case and pulled out my laptop. The black device didn’t stay closed for long. A few times I fumbled with some things in an attempt to try and set everything up. My mother walked into the house with my younger sister, Mikal.

A four year old little girl that I often referred to as ‘the small child’ or ‘demon child’. Just as a joke of course, although my mother never thought of it like that. Mikal’s curly hair that was up in a bun bounced around as she ran towards me, taking interest in my open laptop. I had inserted the disc for the wacom tablet information and plugged it into my laptop. Mikal was chattering next to me and whining because I did not answer her request, “Can I play?”

I never, ever let Mikal touch my laptop, and I was most certainly not going to let her play on it. Regardless if she was with me and my supervision or not. “No, Mikal. I’m busy.” I explained with a small sigh as I used the touchpad mouse to select the personal preferences for the new device I had just purchased.

“Your money always burns a hole in your pocket.” My mother’s voice echoed. I knew that, but it was definitely worth it! Or so I thought… Things were just about to get difficult for me. As all of the information for the wacom tablet finished installing, I quickly loaded my art program, GIMP. I was extremely excited. Images of other digital artist’s speedpaints flashed into my mind. I thought that I was going to be like them. Maybe even better! “My art isn’t bad. I’ll probably be a natural!” I insisted myself within my mind.

“So, do you like it?” My mother chimed in, snapping me out of my thoughts. I quickly looked back towards her standing in the kitchen.

“I haven’t tried it yet.” I responded with another smile,

“But I’m about to start! I just have to wait for the wi-fi to kick in.” I shook my head subtly, irritated with the slow wi-fi. My mother nodded in acknowledgment and I turned back towards my laptop just as the program finished loading and started GIMP up after the according data for my wacom downloaded. “I bet I’ll be great at this! This should be easy! I’m a great artist, I can draw lots of things, well, besides humans.” I told myself and hovered the pen over the screenless tablet. The sensor registered and it let me use the tablet like a mouse, but with more ease. I stared at the blank canvas for a few moments as I thought, “I wonder what character I should draw…” I turned towards my mother as she was dealing with Mikal, who was complaining about me being mean because I wouldn’t let her play on my laptop. My mother defended my side and insisted that my sister shouldn’t touch my laptop because it’s mine and not hers, “What should I draw?” I asked to no one in particular. I was just looking for a simple suggestion from anyone, really.

“Draw a dog. You draw lots of them,” my mom smiled towards me and started back up with whatever she was doing in the kitchen.

I agreed with her idea and faced the blank computer screen yet again. I then set my pen onto the tablet and ran the pen on the tablet. I went back and forth, side to side, diagonally, you name it. As I finished, I sat back and looked at the canine that appeared to be lacking a lot. I frowned slightly and thought for a moment. “What did I do wrong? I always draw good, why is this any different?”  Then, I started to regret my decision of buying the tablet at the sight of my drawing, but I knew if I told my mother she would just tell me to keep working at it or say ‘I told you so.’ I never liked to admit defeat and let others know about it, especially to my own mother. With a huff I searched up some pictures of wolves. I hated to do this. I never liked to look up references! I wanted to be self taught and not use guidelines and help. I used to be very conceited about my drawings of animals due to the many compliments I often received, so I didn’t want to use references and tips. But it had obviously come to that. After I gathered my pictures, I loaded them up and started to compare my drawing with it.

I noticed the anatomy was incorrect in a number of ways. The eye was out of place, it’s muzzle was too long and wide, and last but not least, I made the body too long. Once I corrected my mistakes by erasing and redrawing, I was a little bit satisfied, but I knew that this was going to take time. I took on a new strategy of drawing sketches and lines of what the pose was and where the head was facing. I opened up a new canvas and drew circles of where the head and limbs were going to be, and how large the body was. After I outlined the muzzle, legs, paws, tail, and body frame, I started to add what I desired. I realized that I wasn’t the best artist, but with a bit of practice I could work my way to be a great artist. I now know that looking up references was okay. I’m glad I made the decision. It helped me develop a new art style over time and become more creative. I thought of it as a way to conquer complicated poses and master them so I could work to my next digital goal; animation- my dream career.