The drawing I forgot to hide

I wanted to introduce myself and, for the first time, share the little story behind this drawing and how it has impacted me.

Over 2 months ago I was in my graduate class doodling while the professor worked through his material. Having the attention span of a snail (which I assume is very little), I had found that doodling was ironically the one thing I could do that would allow me to stay engaged to a lecture for the space of 4 hours(graduate class is at night 2 times a week so our classes last 4 hours). For the past 1.5 years, doodling was my routine. I attribute it to helping me maintain a 4.0 in my Healthcare Administration program. Also part of my routine was to toss my doodle on the way out the door, as it had served its purpose. This was the fate of at least 60-70 other pictures I had created up to this point and time and this picture was slated for the same routine.

However, this time somebody found it before it met its demise and grabbed it from me. Worried that my image as the frivolous note taking student was soon about to change into the student who draws curves during class, I embarrassingly braced for whatever comment was about to shoot forth from my classmates mouth. "Wow, this is awesome!" she said. I looked up at her to hunt for the sarcastic look that I assumed would accompany such a comment but I never found one. "You should not throw away your art, you should keep it" she said.

Surprised at the positive attention for my random doodle, I sat on her comment for the next couple days. I wondered if she was an anomaly or if there was a possibility that there were others who also liked my art. By nature I am my own worst enemy. Up till this point I had never really thought that my doodles could even be considered art.

I took a chance and posted a picture as artwork on reddit. A large part of me was prepared for the negativity that I felt I deserved so I also had a plan to delete the post soon after too many negative comments hit my inbox. It never happened. I became astonished that people really seemed to like the post. Then the comment that changed everything. Someone requested to color it. I thought to myself, reddit should have a coloring book so people that want to color others artwork have a place to go. I created r/redditcolor for that purpose.

I posted other pieces of art to the new subreddit and slowly subs started to trickle in. A couple days after I get a message from a user who tells me that he has aspergers and that although he only liked straight line art, he really enjoys my art to the point that he prints it out and places it on display.

That was all the motivation I needed to make sure I kept filling r/redditcolor with content. It drove me to continue and improve my control and post all the pictures I make during lecture.

Not much longer I get another direct message. Somebody asked me to sell them an "original". As a father of 4 who is a professional at barely staying afloat, I said sure! I thought it was a scam but I had nothing to lose. I asked him, what is it worth to you? He told me $250. "These Nigerian prince scams have really changed" I thought. Although the money would have helped I assumed it was a scam. It had to be a scam. However, he pushed further and asked how I would like the money. I gave him my venmo account and within the hour the money appeared. I was shocked. How could this happen? These were doodles. I was excited but then sickened when another message popped up from him. "I also would like this other picture". He linked an older drawing that had met the trashcan fate. Not longer after his purchase of my art, it felt like a hurricane of commissions swept through.

In a panic I reached out to a community of pen lovers to get advice on better pens for my art. A random redditor messaged out of the public eye and offered to send me a variety of pens so that I could see which ones worked for me. He did this for nothing in return. I accepted his generosity and within a week I had over 100 different pens to test. I asked him why and he told me "because I want you to continue making your art".

To say that these last 2 months have been anything but humbling would be a mistake.To this day, I am drawing any chance I get to keep up with the commissions. The moral is that I undervalued my worth because I felt I never met a bar that actually did not exist. I justified why I was not allowed to be an artist because I had chosen to be a healthcare professional instead.

I have since accepted that I can be both. I now know that my art holds value to someone else. It means a lot to me and I cherish every compliment I get. I have chosen to improve my art and it has led me to so many new avenues. It is also how I ended up here.

Thank you to all of the people who spoke up to me and helped me see the value in my art. It has helped me realize how important it is to compliment others because you never know how it might impact them.

TLDR: My name is Tyler and I am a healthcare professional and an artist. I am happy to be here.

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