Akela Taka's History

Yes, everyone had to start one day. This section is dedicated to my very first artwork... from the beginning at the age of 2 years and a half! So... beware!

THE VERY BEGINNING

Let's begin our journey troughout my history with this picture. It is called "A Bear Makes a Dough", and I have drawn it at the age of two years and a half.

The following pictures are also the oldest ones. The first picture is made at the age of 3 years and a half, and the last one at the age of about 7 years.

MY FIRST DIGITAL ARTWORK

It is the year 1990, Windows 3.x is a common operating system together with DOS. I didn't have Windows at home those years, so I used to visit my father in his work office. I have been drawing my first digital pictures on a computer with Win 3.11 and with black and white monitor. The first picture drawn digitally features a senegal galago (Galago senegalensis), one of my favorite animals when I was young ;)

As the years passed, I drew more and more pictures on a computer. I have got a LOT of them, so I'm showing you here just a few. You can see even my very first The Lion King fanart here - drawn in 1995, still on the black and white monitor.

When we finally got a color monitor, I was able to start drawing colored pictures. Mainly The Lion King fanart... this movie used to be my world... and it still is ;) I shouldn't have stopped to draw it. No. Maybe I should sometimes try to draw it again ^___^

MORE OF THE LION KING FANART

As I mentioned before, I used to draw The Lion King a lot. For example, I have drawn this poster, because it was the only way how to put The Lion King characters on my wall. I hadn't got a single official TLK poster those times... Now I've got plenty of them ;)

I also tried to draw my very own The Lion King comics. I've never finished it, I ended up with I Just Can't Wait to Be King scene.

MY FIRST REAL MEDIA PAINTINGS

Having been searching for old images to put them here on my website, I have found this simple painting of a bear. I have no idea when I have painted it... but it surely is a LOOONG time ago ;)

But now, really. Here are my oldest watercolor paintings.

THE EXERCISE-BOOK SKETCHES

The weirdest section of them all... my sketches sketched in exercise-books! All of my exercise-books are FULL of weird and messy sketches. I took some of them, each from a different year, so you can see how has my style... changed ;) This is one of the cover lists, year 1998 - the pictures here are uncensored, so they are weird, ugly, messy, and ... dangerous! Be warned ;))

Sketches from 1998 to 2001. You can see my first try to draw Suicune (Pokémon) here ;)

FIRST PHOTOSHOP PICTURES

Here you can see the first pictures drawn in both MS Paint and Adobe Photoshop. Tooo many filters used ;))

	One of my first images ever drawn on computer... I played with painting programs to learn how to use the effects. It is a wolf watching the stars - the constellation of Lupus.
	On this image, I tried to draw the water effects. The constellation of Lupus is shown here too, but it is much more hidden.
	The scene from The Last Battle. It is the story that has never been written, but I have made some stories connected to it.
	Another scene from The Last Battle - the Wolf God appeared :-).
	The wolf cries because of the smog all around... heheh, simple idea :o)
	This doesn't need a comment, does it? The wolf made itself finally free...
	The first-ever drawn image of me, Akela Taka. You can see the other versions here too, the one from 2000 and the newest version from 2002. Drawn in MSPaint, modified in Adobe Photoshop.
	Simba and Zira fighting! I used to be proud of the lighting effect I made here :-D Later I have created the remake of this image, which can be found here.
	Ewww... another terribly looking image :-) I played with Adobe Photoshop once again.
	This image should have the same comment as the one above ;-).
	Muw. This image shows my mood :-)
	The wolves rule the world! ;-) Drawn in 2000 using MSPaint, modified in Adobe Photoshop.
	It is me, howling. Drawn in 2000 using MSPaint, modified in Adobe Photoshop.
	The second version (2000) of the first-ever drawn image of me. You can see the other versions here too, the one from 1999 (?) and another from 2002. Drawn in MSPaint, modified in Adobe Photoshop.
	I have drawn my wolf plush (I just added the bandana). This image is from the year 2000. Drawn in MSPaint, modified in Adobe Photoshop.
	The year 2001's Christmas card. Drawn in MSPaint, modified in Adobe Photoshop.
	And this is the first picture fully drawn in Adobe Photoshop. With this one picture here begins all of my future AP artworking... :)

ARTWORK FROM 2001-2003

I used to use the "furry method" (that I wrote a tutorial about) a long time, from 2001 to 2003. Next to it, I used to color pencil sketches in Adobe Photoshop. In fact, I use a similiar coloring method today, but with less Photoshop effects and absolutely NO Burn and Dodge Tools ;) You can see how terrible my coloring was these days, especially the shadowing. But I still had no tablet and used mouse for everything, so it explains it a bit ;)
But what is worth mentioning is a change that happened between May and July 2003. In May I drew the picture called Dragon Treasure - still with such poor shading; I got a tablet this year but still didn't quite learn how to use it - and two months later a painted the picture "Brown Hyena and Thunderbird", fully using my tablet. I myself consider this a big jump forward ;)

All of the images and graphics have been made by me (Akela Taka). Please do not copy, use or redistribute them without my permission. Copyright © 2002 - 2010 Akela Taka. All copyrighted characters belong to their respective owners.