Hey everyone,

I am new to this whole DeviantART thing so it may take me a little getting use to.

To sum up why I joined DeviantART it was because of a motorcycle accident that i had about 2 years ago.

Since I was small I loved drawing! I loved drawing comic book characters and cartoon characters, cars, Dinosaurs you know all the usual kid stuff. I wasn't too bad at it and was always encouraged by my family, friends and teachers to draw and explore my "gift" as some people called it. But i mainly drew for fun and never took it to seriously. When I was about to finish year 5 I was offered to skip a year and start year 7 in a private arts college. I choose not to go because I didn't think that it was for me. Not sure if I made a mistake by not accepting the offer but I am happy with how things have turned out and I'm not sure I would change things if i could.

When i started high school I really enjoyed art ... well mostly. No offense to anyone but I am not a fan of abstract art, cubism, contemporary art etc. I have always been one for realistic drawings and paintings. If an artist can capture the mood, expression and realism of the subject in the artwork, I find that amazing. I guess that is why I did not enjoy art in high school much. The teachers always tried to get me to try new styles and mediums that i did not want to. I understand why they did it but I knew what I liked and what was good at. However in High school i did start experimenting and turning away from the comic book style drawings and started getting more into the realistic drawings. Drawings that required shading that werent just big black patches with lines sticking out of the patches. I still drew comic book styled stuff but I found myself drawing realistic things more often. I was always captivated by artists like Michelangelo and Da Vinci even when i was a young kid. I remember looking at their paintings and drawings and thinking how amazing they were and how i would love to draw like that one day. So i kept on practicing and practicing.

But as we all know during high school there are so many other things that keep you distracted and take you away from your art. Being (not that I am full of myself) one of the popular kids in school I found myslef hanging with freinds (and getting in trouble) more often then practicing my art, even though I was really encouraged by my parents and teachers to use my "gift". I still did art all the way through high school but i never really got that into it. The last time i was really practicing my drawing techniques was in 2002 which is when I finished high school but even then i wasnt to involved in it, I was only doing it because I had to turn in my major work for art. I pretty much drew nothing until 2004 when I did a drawing for a friends Uni assignment and that was probably the last real drawing i did before my accident ...

I just want to say that not all motorcycle riders ride aound like they think they are indestructable. I wear full gear (Helmet, jacket, gloves, boots etc) when i ride even if its 40C degrees out side. I was riding on a road that i knew very well and had riden on hundreds of times. Just goes to show you never know what can happen.

In 2006 I was riding my bike to work (I work for an enginnering firm about 40 minutes from home). I was about 10 minutes from the office when all of a sudden I saw a van cutting suddenly in to my lane. I remember hearing a loud noise and then opening my eyes and seeing that I was on the sidewalk near a fence with my motorbike on top of me. I felt a really strange sensation in my right hand almost like a burning. When I looked at my hand all i could see was my motorcycle glove covered in blood. I was a bit knocked out because of the impact my head suffered when the van hit me and my body was sore, cut and bruised. A few people stopped to help me out which i will always be greatful for including a nurse who was on her way home from the hospital after working the night shift who I have not been able to locate and thanks since. My mum says that the nurse was my gaurdian angel and i think she may be right. The nurse removed my glove to see if she could stop the bleeding. It was difficult to remove the glove but when she did i saw what would lead me to want to draw again. One of my fingers was completely split open from the nail to the knuckle, my other fingers were bent in ways that fingers should not be bent. This was a result of my hand being smashed between the brake/handlebar of my bike and the side of the van. I still feel for the driver of the van because he was so shaken and trembling because of the accident. Meanwhile i was calm and collect while waiting for the ambulance asking the driver of the van if he was ok and to relax. The ambulance arrived and i was taken to hospital. I later found out that i was about 1 meter away from hitting a light pole head on instead of the bike being stopped by the fence. The nurse that helped me at the scene of the accident told me that she would come to the hospital i was being taken to and check up on me.

After arriving at the hospital I underwent x-rays for my head, spine, shoulder and hand. While laying on the X-ray table I cannot tell you how scared i was thinking that something may be wrong with my head or spine. My head and spine were ok ... my hand wasn't. The doctors informed me that my index finger which was completely split open may have severed nerves resulting in me losing mobility and feeling in the finger. The next two fingers were fractured in multiple places and may require wires to be placed inside the bones to allow the fingers to realign properly and mobility may be lost due to that. Imagine if i wasn't wearing gloves. The doctor tried to realign the fingers without going into surgery with me awake (very painful) but they could not realign my fingers fully. They wouldn't know for sure until surgey on my hand was done. I thought i would never draw again. The only thing that was keeping my hopes up was that my family and loved ones were there with me. I went into surgery that night.

I vaguely remember (i was still drowsy from the anesthetic) the surgeon coming into my room post-op and he told me that the surgery went well. After that i fell asleep. At around 3:30am I recall hearing a voice calling my name. It was the nurse that was on her way home that helped me at the accident. She told me that surgery went well, no nerves were severed and no wires were inserted in my fingers and that i would regain full use of my hand. I thanked her for all she had done for me and that i owed her alot. I asked her her name and she said that she would leave her details with the nurse at the nurse station and that i should rest. The following day when i checked out i asked the nurses if someone left their details for me they told me that no one had been in during the night and there were no notes left for me. Till this day i do not know her name, who she is or have been able to find her. I know it sounds incredible but it is the truth as i remember it.

3 months later i had finished physio therapy and regained full use (except for a bit of pain every now and then) of my hand. After my accident i started to draw again. I think knowing that i could have lost my "gift" inspired me to draw again. I started with small drawings at first. Sketches, shading, comic book characters things like that to get back into it. Nothing to difficult. Oh yea ... and i bought a new motorbike : ). Once you ride a bike you always want to keep riding.

I found DeviantART while i was on the net looking for some inspiration and i joined a few months (september 2008) ago hoping that it would inspire me to start drawing again. It's been a while since i joined and i have not posted anything because work has kept me pretty busy. But i have started getting more into my drawing and hopefully I will keep it up. I will post my latest drawing that im working on, it is my first real attempt at a drawing that is kind of were i left off in technique back in 2002. Plus i will post some of my drawings i did before my accident and when i was younger.

I hope you all enjoy my Deviations and hopefully i will keep posting on this site.

L8r.