How did you start?

[oki]

I started out wearing lots of puffy hats (and any other hat I found amusing or cute) and layering roller blades under everything. XD; Plus I abused the fuck out of the only blind wig I could afford because I didn't like any of the default eyes.

I was psyched when I started getting compliments for my masquerade outfit last year: http://style-file.org/index.php?page=vi ... tyle=21643
And since then I feel like I've been slowly improving.

I am still sort of resisting the current realistic/chic HA trends though, so I am not very popular. (oh yeah, cuz that's totally the ONLY reason... XD;; ) I try to pimp out weird and underused items and I think I love hats a little too much. But I will stay strong in my beliefs. D:

[poppit]

As an artist who prefers drawing animals over people... I started out as a vanishing cream user lol. I had the same HA for like a month and it was vanishing cream + kanis ship down. Then I was like "wtf this is dumb" and started making real HAs.

[Sin]

When I joined Subeta I thought HAs were the dumbest thing ever - I actually joined for the pets. At first I refused to bother with my HA, but I hung out in the SB back then and people kept giving me wearables with which to clothe myself. I remember looking like this most of the time:



The first actual HA I made (as in, not just putting on whatever random item I'd just been given, lol), was this one:



I remember Aerialure giving me my first WADYL mention ever for it - that was also how I learned what WADYL was, which was in turn when I realized that HAs could be more fun than I'd previously given them credit.

I think the most important factor in my really becoming an HA maker was my friend Cara (now Peach, back then she was OpenCanvas XD). We originally made friends because she liked my HAs and would ask me to help her with hers and such, which made me want to keep improving myself. The community aspect of HA making (originally the forums, now Chic and SF) was really what got me started I guess; I don't mean getting compliments on them, but just discussing them with people and such.

[Naj]

As a post-neopets noob in '07, I thought avatars were the coolest thing ever. Unfortunately, it took me a loooong time (still working on it) before I got any good. I remember wearing a 'Blood Red' themed avatar and forum set and a 'Dark Matter' avatar and forum set that basically involved throwing everything with the colors in the name on my avatar. It was hideous. I thought it was AH-MAY-ZING. I'll spare you the eyesore. I slowly got better and jumped for joy each time I'd get a WADYL mention, which I stalked terribly.

I've never been a good forum person, so it was a long time before I had many friends to talk avatars with (style/colors/crits), but that's slowly changed and is definitely what keeps me working on my skills. I love the personality, creativity and expressiveness that avatars allow each of us to display.

[domo_grande]

When I first joined I loved making HAs, even though they kinda sucked looking back.
I remember them usually being scene/emo, and I used the black fishnet stockings a LOT. Too bad I didn't save any of those, I'd like a good laugh at myself.
The first avatar of mine that got a couple of WADYL mentions was this one I made for July 4th last year;

It was also the first HA I put up here, haha. Nowadays when I look at it I'm not very fond of it, but I think it got me started on improving. I've still got some sucky habits, but I think I'm getting better. There are a lot of gorgeous avatars I've seen to be inspired by, afterall.

[CHIMERA]

Oh gawd.
I remember when I first started out I had this insane obsession with the lolita dress and fishnet stockings. I wore this for months but eventually I saw some really great avatars and realizing that there was more to HAs.I remember the first HA i got WADYL mentions was this:
.
From then on I started getting better, I think

[what]

Well I had previous experience over at Gaia so

But when starting out here, I didn't gaf about avatars. I just wore things that looked similar to me irl. xD I went like that for 3 months or so until I had a sufficient amount of wardrobe stuff and thought, "Hey this layering system is really cool -compared to Gaia's- " and joined DI just because I was a free spirit (roflno it was because I was a noob to Subeta's styles and I didn't want to apply to join anything)
I'm perfectly happy with what I can do now though And my matching is okayish now (compared to Gaia where I just threw on shiny stuff )

[geeky]

The thing that attracted me to subeta was mainly the HA system.
I've always tried to match my outfits (with varying amounts of success I may add ;D), but I feel I've gotten better at it in the last few months -pictures horribly garish purple/green matched outfits from when I was a newbie- xD

[Fyreheart]

This one is just an updated version of an old HA I made a couple years ago. Loosely based on my main RP character on Valenth.

[techn0witch]

Oh dear. I started with some typical "punk" or scantily-clad HAs since it was different from what I would even dare to wear in real life. It was pretty horrible. I have pretty much every Streaked Emo Hair going because of that phase (which, of course, isn't that bad, but still.)

Then as I started collecting clothing for the wardrobe achievements, I got hooked on experimenting with different clothes and I eventually sort of got the hang of it. I wouldn't say I'm super-amazing, but at least everything generally looks good together.

Most of the HAs I make nowadays are for Daily Item so I get some decent HA practice from that (plus a bunch of cheap items for the achievements so it's a win-win.)