Dear animemasterX3,
Hi, this is GaarasEmoX3. I'm doing the Sweet Things thing by kisskiss-bangbang, and I'm writing to you. Why, you might ask? Who am I anyway? Who is this person, 'GaarasEmoX3'?
I'm doing this because you have had a very good influence on me. I may just be a lurker here at theOtaku, and I've never participated in a contest, but I felt I should in this, and I can only hope I make the deadline. A few years ago, when I first found this site, your art was some of the first I found.
I was just beginning to learn how to draw-and not very well. I am very much self-taught. How-to-draw books have never helped me learn to draw. I learned by finding art I liked (and didn't overwhelm me with a plethora of minute details) and trying to draw the parts I liked, experimenting with the shape of a hand, the slant of an eye here and there. I wasn't getting very far until I found your art.
I-I'm not sure how to say this, because I really am pretty much anything other than an art critic, and saying things like 'simplicity' makes me feel like an imposter of one. But it's true. The simplicity, the grace and elegance of your lines were somewhat inspiring.
I admit, first I began by trying to copy, but I now have a style of my own, and I can draw something other than stick people or just tracing.(And don't go by the pictures I have posted here-I've improved greatly since then.) And I wouldn't have had that if I hadn't found your art, especially since I was about to give up on drawing and focus on other things.
So-thank you.
Thank you for sharing what you do with all of us here on the Otaku, and all over the internet.
Thank you for helping someone you don't even know to become a better artist in her own right.
Thank you. Thank you. A thousand times, Thank You.
-GaarasEmoX3
http://www.theotaku.com/portfolio/theanimemaster