Brand spanking noob reporting in!

[ina]

Aaah why on earth is posting this so nerve wracking? Something something about trying to make friends with all the cool kids who are much better than me.

Anyways, it's lovely to meet you. My name's Ina and I currently live in Finland. By day I'm a software developer and the rest of the time I'm a beginner artist. I don't have a clue where I want to go with my art, but I do know that since I started learning a few months back I got the feeling I'm on the right track, whatever that means. I'm hoping that by hanging out here I can absorb some skills through the magic of osmosis, get feedback and force myself to finish things by participating in the challenges.

I'm still in the try everything learn everything phase so I'm quite all over the place. I don't have much to show yet so here are simply my last five... experiments.

Look forward to meeting you all!

[Heather Boyd]

@ina like @gavpartridge has said -you have some skill already. For now stick with what you like and want to draw/paint and over time you may find a pull towards one or two. And you have jumped right in with the contest I see and that's fantastic!

We are all very cool people, the more social and the whisper ones alike. Everyone has the power to be kind and it's so easy to make friends on here. I am very forum social in part because I love to write and give support/encouragement. We can be friends if you'd like.

Have a very good evening, whenever your evening begins. It's 7:53pm here in Ontario, Canada. Finland the world.

I also really like your first work.

[Jacy13]

@ina Hello Ina! Welcome to the forums. Don't worry; I was nervous to start posting too, but the fear quickly went away. Everyone is really encouraging and supportive here.

I really like your dark interpretation of The Wizard of Oz. It's a neat twist/take on the story

[TessaW]

Welcome Ina! Looks like you already have many skills under your belt. Keep up the experimenting as it looks like it's paying off! Hope to see you around.

[K.Flagg]

Welcome Ina! Love your wizard of oz covers!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@ina hello noob! Welcome to the forum!

[demotlj]

Welcome to the forum. Super artwork — I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work in the future.

[jennaivy]

Hello Ina! Welcome! I'm new to the forum too

[ina]

@gavpartridge Thank you so much! I really don't mean to do myself a disservice, there's so much to learn and so much to explore and I've barely dipped my toe in the pool. And it takes me like eight attempts to draw a circle. It's ok though, I love the initial phase of learning when everything's shiny.

[ina]

@Heather-Boyd Hopefully things will converge at some point, in the meantime it's fun exploring.

I've been lurking for a while and it really does seem like a friendly place, which is exceedingly rare on the internet. Glad I found it!

Thank you!

[lora_chaudavis]

Welcome! Really interesting character designs! Love the flowy mermaid person

[ina]

@Jacy13 Ahhhaha it's straight from the book! Just before they get taken to the witch it's an absolute massacre. Maybe I'm the only one, but the book is really rather disturbing in many ways. I will also admit I've never seen the cheery old version, but the creepy 1985 sequel which might have tainted the book too haha.

[ina]

@TessaW @K-Flagg @Nyrryl-Cadiz @demotlj @jennaivy Thank you all so much for the warm welcome!

[ina]

@lora_chaudavis Thank you! This contest really made me appreciate how difficult character design is. Which may or may not be the reason why I stuck to two.

[Jacy13]

@ina Oh wow! I didn't know that. I've never read the book myself. Only watched the movie, and even that was quite some time ago, lol. So I only remember the gist of the movie's story.

[ina]

@Jacy13 The movie also conveniently omitted Tinman's origin story involving some pretty unpleasant dismemberment.

[aprilshin]

Welcome, Ina~! These are some beautiful first images you've shared with us! Also, if you feel so inclined, you should definitely submit one of your Oz drawings to the current contest!! We're excited to see more of your work here.

[ina]

@aprilshin Thanks so much April! Honestly, after looking through all the AMAZING entries I didn't feel inclined in the slightest to submit a drawing. But I just did anyway. The point was to finish something after all, and it's not really finished until it's submitted now is it...

[eriberart]

Hi Ina! Welcome to the forum I still think of myself as a newbie here, but I just checked and I actually joined 9 months ago. I can't believe how fast time flies
You have some really lovely work! My favourite is your first Wizard of Oz cover (the one you posted in the contest). It's really visually striking and your mark making is gorgeous!

[ina]

@eriberart Haha it's terrifying how fast time flies sometimes. Thank you so much!