well, this is my first journal here, but there is a reason, I only write important things.
I always tried to draw better and worked my ass off on it during my teenage years and some time later in my first twenty-years. So much unsuccessfullness, I was tired of trying and not getting better. Even some of my friends were saying, "you wont get better if you have not by the time you have spent now"... you now, all that is BULLSHITE, dont EVER put any attention in the words of people who cant draw, and who blame others who try.

5 years later, some days ago, I was tired of studying physics, maths and game programming. I said hey! why not try to draw some game character. It is ridiculous the coincidence that myself(that is; my mind) did not consider bad looking at a visual help when it was for a game, but if it was for a cover or art it was not art, it was cheating. THANKS TO THE HEAVENS I did try... and now I know the cause of all my pain and all my days of disappointment.

In the past I was severily hit when I knew the human brain could not draw everything from your head (yes its ridiculous I know)... so hit I gave up drawing for some months (again). Not until recently I discovered that this is not exactly copying... It's like styling reality, and having a base on the real aspect of things to make your own. What makes me more happy is the fact that gathering all the visual information you can, you can create very real drawings that would be IMPOSSIBLE by your head only. So things are easy now on my side to make more real drawings. Now I accept using visual references, still there are some ramifications of my prior resistence to look at refs, but slowly but surely... Im getting there. Never, ever, start a drawing again without looking at references, be it anatomy, animals, perspective or whatever, the world will be better.

Note: The humorous touch is that, reading at some famous artist blog he said, some times he regrets when not using refs, because his work then does not look as good!