Just keep on practicing. Even if you don't thin kyou improve you actually are. I thought I wasn't improving and I looked at my older sketchbooks and was actaully surprised how much I did improve. Everyone feels like their art isn't getting better sometimes (Like me XD) but even though I think that I still draw and try hard to improve. Practice makes perfect :>

I do :) . I hope this pixeling thing will improve my confidence.

Yeah see :D You can pixel! You should be proud you can do that >W<- Many people can't :>

I know where you're standing, Taiania. Before I went on avatar sites, all I heard was critique and negative comments about my art. My parents are pretty artistic too, and they considered the manga style as something for children. They changed their mind eventually, but I'm glad I was too stubborn to give up drawing just because everyone said that xD I just liked it much more than realistic art. It bored me eventually.

Just don't give up and try to search for the people that share your interests. Because there will always be people that are negative. But that doesn't mean your art is bad. Barely anyone actually even knows what manga is! So who are they to judge? x3

I saw your pixel piece, you've got the skills for beautiful and quality art. You don't have to worry! Draw a lot and don't be scared to take a chance and ruin your piece: the next one will be better.

I can't do pixels to save my life XD

Save your life?

It just means that I can't do pixels at all even when my life depends on it

I'm sure you got something else you're great at ^^ Because trust me, you cannot make a life out of pixels. Unless you work for one of those MMORPG's like Ragnarok, but even then I wonder if it really pays that good.

Thank you all so much. I feel so much better now and I will keep going. :)

http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/...rbang001-1.jpg

This is a fanart I made about a couple of weeks ago. It's South Park Fingerbang (Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormmick). I colored it out of Bic Permanent markers and the lines are from fine line sharpie markers.

My High School doesn't consider this art, as well as my family. So I do keep it in the closet and embarassed by it.

The world of art is harsh and rude, all I can say is to stay strong and have this 'F U' attitude about it sometimes, you'll need it ._. It seems to work for me, because some people online think I'm a real biatch sometimes xD But irl, I usually sit silently in the corner by myself.

That's why I never took art class. Art should be expression in it's truest form. A baby scribbles on the wall, that's art. A mentally ill woman throws paint at a canvas to release her frustration, that's art. Art teachers and many others forget this. All art is beautiful at it's base.

or they are picky about it. Even being piseed off and throwing paint at a canvas is considered art and sell for big money just for getting pissed off at a canvas and ironically have a lot of paint

Some art teachers need to learn that things can be art even if the anatomy is incorrect. Or the shading is wrong. Or it's not drawn within the lines. Because those are the first steps everyone learns. This is critical for those who think outside the box and do not do this. It'll bring those people down while they could be the artists of the world.

This is how I think of art; It's about the message you want to give with the piece, or the message you put in it yourself. Something you want to say, or to keep secret. Every piece I make has a little story, even my sig arts. But teachers do not look at that, they look at the result and process in the art. I can understand that. But I wished some teachers were more positive and helpful than others. It took me over 19 years to meet someone that was actually criticizing my pieces yet motivating me to continue and become better.
Every other teacher - or person - I met before only looked at the final result and what they liked about it. (The people I met online not included, they really helped me!)
I do not like Picasso. But I understand it, and I know the story behind it. This made me love the artist, not his art. If he would ever ask me for critique about his pieces, I would not say I don't like it. I would say which parts I don't like and why. I would also say what I do like. But I usually ask what do you want to say with it?

I had to take art classes as a required class...so there was favorism between the teacher and the classmates. After High School my mom wanted me to take more art classes but I couldn't because there's a fee for them and I couldn't handle all of the favorism, rude remarks, and the negative critism of mostly would say "you're not good enough" and hence I'll fail it

Echo, you're even better than my 20-year old classmates at Graphic Design college. You are good enough @_@
I'm the only one that can actually draw. And one other person is great with illustrator, but very comic-like and limited. And that's it!