A Peek Into My Middle School Sketchbook

Sometimes I like rummaging through my old sketchbooks for the sake of memories so I thought I'd share some and give commentary. This is from the years 2007-2009 and for perspective, I graduated middle school in 2008. It was so long ago that I'm not really embarrassed to share them anymore, haha.

The middle image is of course the sketchbook in all its ripped and worn out glory. To me, each bend and crease is a sign of character and aged wisdom. Many nights were spent sprawled across my bed and drawing before I eventually fell asleep. Anyway, let's move on.

In the upper left-hand corner you'll see the first page of the sketchbook. The text reads "Merry Christmas" and "2007." A trend you'll notice is that I liked to draw my characters tall and stick thin with mittens for hands. The stick people anatomy didn't go on for long, but the mitten hands certainly did.

The upper middle picture is my take of a pointy dragon. I was quite proud of it at the time since I didn't use any references. I was excited to show my best friend, in which he responded by pointing out that it was too pointy. Everybody's a critic.

In the upper-right corner and lower-left corner the images are actually related. The bottom picture is supposed to be a character spread sheet for a comic I was developing named "Another Day, Another Problem." It based on an MMORPG I was playing at the time.

The middle column sans the sketchbook, each include pictures where I revisited and drew and "updated" version right next to the older one. The text " '12 " is scrawled to the side to show that I had drawn the newer version in 2012. I won't mention that in one of them I was actually making my own Sailor Moon character.

Lastly, in the bottom right-hand corner, is supposed to be a realistic portrait of Joe Jonas from the band The Jonas Brothers. I was also proud of this one at the time. Surprisingly, it wasn't the only attempt at a realistic portrait. I also drew my sister.

Well,  I hope you enjoyed taking a look into my dark past as a budding young artist. Consider showing some of your old art or works in general in the comments!

On Handling Criticism

Let’s say that you are fairly new to the online drawing community, and you decide to post a piece that you’re incredibly proud of. You’ve spent hours on it. You make sure to tag it properly to optimize the amount of people who see it.


You come back a few days later to view the feedback and awesome! You see comments of people liking your work. But among those comments, you see comments you are less than excited about.


“The shadows seem random, where is the light source?”

“Lol, I can’t draw hands either!”


“The legs on the woman seem abnormally long, you could do with shortening the bottom half of the legs.”

You are a little hurt, though the comments definitely could have been a lot worse. What’s a person to do?

I frequent art communities and it’s always a little disheartening seeing artists disparage constructive criticism, especially those who work off commissions! I understand how the comments sometimes come off as rude when they are unsolicited, but are always worth listening to.*


*Keep in mind I only mean constructive criticism given in a polite way; rude and offensive comments should be ignored.


It’s best to keep in mind not to take the criticism personally. The commenter is coming from a good place and to them, they are only trying to help.


Let’s take a look at one of my pieces for an example:

I would definitely want to come back and improve upon this piece, or recycle the idea completely. There's a lot to work on here, barring aspects I'm incapable of improving due to lack of skill.

• The hands. Proportionately, they are too small. Also, they could use some dynamic posing, instead of a boring open palm.
• Detailing the face. I could do a lot more with this. If I gave her colored lips, I could do without the thick line outlining her mouth. I could also add detail to the eyes. Thinning the lines would help with adding more detail.
• The coloring of the fishnet stockings. I colored outside the lines in some areas and instead of using black for the netting, I could use a dark grey to make it look more realistic.
• The heart? The plain heart is supposed to be symbolic, but I could probably make it look realistic, adding a darker tone overall.

Well, I hope picking apart my own drawing eases the pain of analyzing your own art once in awhile. Be open, and you don't have to agree with every criticism, but just be able to take it into consideration.