So life takes another sudden turn and I suddenly find myself with golden opportunities around every corner. Happy again, I know what I truly want to do and what steps need to be made to get there. I'm creating artwork every day now. Eventually it will become my career.
But daily art is also a daily reminder of how far I have to go to get anywhere. It's set me into a spin, which has slowed down progress on some rather important projects. Now I'm more or less totally dissatisfied with my work, trying to find (and break) the habits I've been holding onto. It's slow right now, but I get the feeling that something will click like a switch and I'll be back in full gear again.
Rather than stay all moody about my quandry, I decided to drag out my old sketchbooks for review. It was a great morale boost to see how my skills and characters have evolved over time--according to the front of the first book it's been 10 years now. It's been well worth the effort.
I've cherry-picked a few pages to share here for a spot of fun. If anyone wants to look through them and comment, please do so!

OMG It burns! >< [link]
Aha... from the very first sketchbook dated 1997-1999. Big feet, big head, and triangle eyes were the trademark of the day. My, how far we've come.

Happy dance! [link]
Some nice, clean lineart of a dancing otter from 2000. I still like the pose. ^^

Umm... Wow. [link]
A page all unto itself. Did I mention that I liked to make celtic knots in 2001?

Roscoe [link]
I used to have this grotesque foam-rubber rat in my room, a halloween decoration that I fell in love with. It inspired the creation of Roscoe here, still a favorite (though grossly underdrawn) character of mine. 2002 was the year I started drawing courses at the local community college.

Dragon Sketch [link]
Just a random drawing from 2003 or there abouts, playing around with pencils and brush pens.

Angst [link]
Nude Figure Study[link]
These are both from 2004, my last year of classes at GCC. At that point I felt that I needed another skillset to support myself and switched to massage therapy. The first one is rather dark and moody, made on a depressive day. The second one is a pair of nude figure studies. If I were old enough to have a prime time, 2004 would be it--the whole sketch book is filled with a lot of character.

Anatomical Study [link]
From the last half of 2004 through 2006 my artistic output dropped off drasticly, for better or worse. I more or less set art aside to stay focused on massage studies and other chaos that was happening in my life at the time. Not to say that I didn't make art--just not as much of it as I should have. Something got lost in the lull, but I'm not quite sure what it was.
But on the bright side, having to study human anatomy in technical detail did help improve my cartoon figures a lot. Pages like this one helped me memorize major landmarks and structure, in this case the bones of the elbow. I should have made a lot more of these.